Around the time the women-in-peril gimmick was in vogue, just after disease-of-the-week chic but long before the special-effects-fantasy-epic era, producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron saw the future of TV movies and decided it was... Cher. The year was 1992, and Zadan and Meron, two transplants from the New York theater scene, figured the best way to break into television was to offer something fresh: musical numbers, often sung by big-name talent, in prime time. ''We were convinced musicals would be special on TV,'' says Meron. ''But the networks were scared.''
One eventually took a chance: In 1993, CBS broadcast Zadan and Meron's version of Gypsy, starring Bette Midler -- and 26.2 million Great White Way fans tuned in. That victory propelled the duo to produce not only a pair of ratings hits for ABC, Cinderella and Annie, but also an upcoming revival of Mame for ABC, starring -- you guessed it -- Cher (the producers are currently finalizing a deal with the chanteuse).
Now, besides having a successful dramatic telefilm business (their recent ABC pic Me and My Shadows: The Judy Garland Story stands as the most-watched miniseries of the season), Zadan and Meron are busy putting more show-tuners in the works for ABC, including The Music Man with Matthew Broderick, The Wiz, and Fiddler on the Roof. ''In the past, once a movie musical was made, it was believed that you were left with that version, good or bad, for posterity,'' says Zadan. ''This allows a fresh approach.'' Adds Victor Garber, who played Daddy Warbucks in Annie and the king in Cinderella, ''Viewers want to be entertained, and [Zadan and Meron] do it way better than a lot of people.''
They're certainly the only current success story in the telepic business, which is in such disarray that NBC and CBS are considering abandoning their movie nights, while Fox is resorting to projects like The Colony, a thriller about a town besieged by angry rats. Zadan and Meron's ability to get high-wattage celebs to star gives them an advantage (Whitney Houston, who played Cinderella's fairy godmother, contacted Zadan and Meron after seeing Gypsy). Says ABC exec VP for movies Susan Lyne, ''They are talent magnets, which makes working with them a whole lot easier.''
But bringing Broadway to the small screen is by no means risk-free. Annie and Cinderella each racked up bills of $12.5 million -- a good $8 million more than most dramas -- and not all musicals hit a ratings high note: In 1995, viewers flew the coop for Robert Halmi Sr.'s Bye Bye Birdie, starring Jason Alexander, and Drew Carey's stint in Geppetto didn't pull the right strings with fans last May. The pair say pickiness helps them avoid the Nielsen pitfalls: ''We choose the material very carefully,'' says Zadan. ''We zero in on family as a theme because it makes the movies emotionally available to a universal audience.''
Their cardinal rule for success? Don't attempt to outshine the classics. ''We'd never do The Sound of Music because the movie was perfect,'' says Zadan. ''But if the original movies didn't turn out well, like Gypsy or Annie, you can get a shot at improving upon them.'' Right now, though, the two have an even greater ambition in mind: persuading Barbra Streisand (who's producing Mame with them) to headline their next musical. Says Meron, ''That would be the Holy Grail.'' Three words: Yentl
