(The number of TV critics' blog items Saturday was probably lower than usual because the critics were handing out their annual awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. The envelopes please---)

"Desperate Housewives" Not So Desperate Anymore
(Press release from the Television Critics Association)

JULY 23, 2005, LOS ANGELES -- The nation's TV critics bestowed their praise on ABC, awarding the network four awards including the top three awards Program of the Year, Outstanding New Program of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Drama.

In a ceremony introduced by Craig Ferguson, host of CBS’s “The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson” at The Beverly Hilton, ABC was the top trophy earner with four, while Fox came away with two. BBC America, Comedy Central, PBS and The N received one award each.

ABC’s newcomers “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives” came away victorious with “Lost” winning two awards (Outstanding New Program and Outstanding Achievement in Drama) and “Desperate Housewives” awarded Program of The Year. The Fox comedy “Arrested Development” came away with a repeat win for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy. In the individual achievement categories, Hugh Laurie (“House”) won for drama and Jon Stewart (“The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”) won for comedy. This is the second time Stewart has been honored in this category, with a previous win in 2003.

“Frontline” received its seventh honor in the category of Outstanding Achievement in News & Information.

ABC’s “Nightline” received the Heritage Award, which recognizes a long-standing program that has had a lasting cultural or social impact. Bob Newhart received TCA’s 2005 award for Career Achievement.

Other winners included “The Office Special” (Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Mini-series and Specials,) and “Degrassi: The Next Generation” (Outstanding Achievement in Children’s Programming).

Among those on hand to accept were Will Arnett (“Arrested Development”), Lucy Davis (“The Office”), Tony Hale (“Arrested Development”), Felicity Huffman (“Desperate Housewives”), Yunjin Kim (“Lost”), Hugh Laurie (“House”), Dominic Monaghan (“Lost”), Bob Newhart and Doug Savant (“Desperate Housewives”).

2005 TCA Award recipients are as follows:

PROGRAM OF THE YEAR: “Desperate Housewives” (ABC)

OUTSTANDING NEW PROGRAM: “Lost” (ABC)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA: “Lost” (ABC)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY: “Arrested Development” (Fox)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN NEWS & INFORMATION: “Frontline” (PBS)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN CHILDREN'S PROGRAMMING: “Degrassi: The Next Generation” (The N)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN MOVIES, MINI-SERIES & SPECIALS: “The Office Special” (BBC America)

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY: Jon Stewart, “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” (Comedy Central)

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA: Hugh Laurie, “House” (Fox)

HERITAGE AWARD: “Nightline” (ABC)

CAREER ACHIEVEMENT: Bob Newhart
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(The 21st annual TCA Awards were held at The Beverly Hilton. Founded in 1978, the Television Critics Association is composed of more than 200 reporters and columnists in print media from the United States and Canada.)

TELEVISION REVIEW
A confusing, promising war drama

The show attempts to cover too much ground, and its violence might be a deterrent to many viewers

By Hal Boedeker Orlando Sentinel Television Critic July 24, 2005

To enlist or not to enlist. That is the question with FX's Over There, an ambitious but flawed drama about the Iraq war.

How flawed? The first hour is nearly unwatchable. It introduces too many characters and tosses them into chaos, confounding the viewer. Don't be surprised if you flee its Wednesday premiere.

In the long term, the show's graphic violence represents another hurdle. Chilling scenes of death, injury and explosions mark this drama as a radical departure from medical and cop shows. Over There, which follows an Army unit, echoes television news with unsettling intensity.

In the series' favor, the next two episodes are stronger, the characters come into sharper focus, and the plots turn more involving.

The involvement of Steven Bochco, who co-created the series with Chris Gerolmo, is another reason for hope. Bochco set the standard for contemporary TV drama with Hill Street Blues. At cable channel FX, he enjoys more creative freedom to make an unflinching, adult program than he did at ABC with NYPD Blue.

Yet I'm more ambivalent about Over There than impressed. The show lacks a strong central figure, such as Andy Sipowicz on NYPD Blue, to anchor the action. Even as it rebounds from a disastrous start, Over There still covers too much ground, from the battlefield, to the home front, to a military hospital.

The premiere takes a you-are-there approach and quickly plunges the audience into battle. The show, which films in Southern California, does a superb job of approximating Iraq's hot, dusty look. The chaotic battle scenes are staged with harrowing vividness and edited with frenetic punch.

But it's quite unnerving to watch those scenes as the Iraq war unfolds. Steven Spielberg took a similarly graphic approach to the D-Day opening of Saving Private Ryan, but he waited long after World War II to make his landmark film.

FX is trumpeting Over There as the first scripted TV series set during an ongoing U.S. war. That daring might mean more if the drama was as compelling as the show's look.

Bochco has said the show isn't about politics, yet an inescapable sadness hangs over it as you suffer along with these young soldiers. The roles might lack definition, but the actors are adept at playing confusion, fury and fear.

Erik Palladino, who appeared on ER, shouts effectively as tough "Sgt. Scream." Josh Henderson brings a boyish sweetness to Bo Rider, who longs to return to college to play football. Luke Macfarlane exudes touching confusion as Frank "Dim" Dumphy, whose unhappy marriage causes him anguish.

For FX, Over There isn't another winner the way The Shield and Rescue Me were at their debuts. With time, perhaps this war drama will grow into a success.

With Bochco doing the recruiting, you never want to ignore a show

OBITUARY

Richard Eastham, 89
Starred on Broadway, Acted in TV, Movies from 1950s to 1983

By Valerie J. Nelson Los AngelesTimes Staff Writer

Richard Eastham, a singer-actor who went from starring on Broadway opposite Mary Martin in "South Pacific" to co-starring in the 1950s TV western "Tombstone Territory," has died. He was 89.

Eastham died July 10 of Alzheimer's disease at an assisted-living facility in Pacific Palisades, said his friend Marilyn Rudley.

The character actor also appeared in about 10 films, including Disney's "That Darn Cat!" (1965) and "Toby Tyler" (1960), and was regularly featured on television through 1983.

He was proudest of taking over the male lead in "South Pacific" from the highly regarded Italian opera singer Ezio Pinza, who originated the role on Broadway.

"He was a magnificent singer, and he covered for Pinza in 'South Pacific' when he was 29 years old," said actress Marjorie Lord, a longtime friend who met the actor when the pair performed in "Anniversary Waltz" in San Francisco in 1955.

From 1957 to 1959, Eastham introduced and narrated "Tombstone Territory" on ABC and portrayed Harris Claibourne, editor of the Epitaph in Tombstone, Ariz., "the town too tough to die."

He considered the adventure series a "sagebrush opera" and said he was always called on for singing roles in the East, but "here, it's always the dramatic."

Dickinson Swift Eastham was born June 22, 1916, in Opelousas, La. While a student at Washington University, he sang with the St. Louis Grand Opera. During World War II, he spent four years in the Army and for part of that time was stationed in Paris. After his return, he studied acting at the American Theatre Wing in New York City.

Ethel Merman became a close friend after Eastham appeared on Broadway with her in "Call Me Madam" in the early 1950s and in his first film, "There's No Business Like Show Business" (1954), Lord said.

He made his television debut on CBS in "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1949 and was featured as Gen. Phil Blankenship in "Wonder Woman", which aired on ABC and CBS from 1976 to 1979. In his last TV role, he appeared as Dr. Howell in 1982 and 1983 on CBS' "Falcon Crest."

After moving to Los Angeles in 1958, he and his wife, Betty Jean, bought a home off Doheny Drive, which they lived in until her death in 2002. They had been married 60 years.

At his wife's urging, he gave up singing to concentrate on acting.

"His voice could break your heart," Lord said. "If I had been married to him, he would have never dropped it."

OBITUARY
Myron Floren, accordion player on 'The Lawrence Welk Show,' dies

ROLLING HILLS ESTATES, Calif., (Associated Press)—Myron Floren, a maestro accordion player who entertained generations of TV viewers on "The Lawrence Welk Show," died Saturday at the age of 85.

Floren died of cancer at his Rolling Hills Estates home in Los Angeles County, his daughter Randee Floren said.

A consummate musician versed in everything from polka to Bach, he joined Lawrence Welk's band in 1950 and stayed on until the television show ended in 1982.

The orchestra, which also included saxophonist Dick Dale and singer Jim Roberts, was famous for bouncing, effervescent dance music that Welk began playing as a young man in his native North Dakota.

More recently, Floren performed at music festivals around the country and frequently appeared at the Lawrence Welk Resort and Champagne Theater in Branson, Mo.

Parody singer "Weird Al" Yankovic, who also plays the accordion, has called Floren an inspiration in his youth.

Singer Bill Lennon, whose older sisters were regulars and who occasionally performed on Welk's show, described Floren as a gentlemen and a dedicated musician.

"A lot of folks in the orchestra said he conducted better with his elbows than many conductors do with the baton," Lennon said, referring to Floren's ability to play the accordion and keep the band on tempo.

Randee Floren recalled going out in public with her father as a young girl.

"People would recognize him and go crazy. It was like going out with a rock star in those days," she said.

Born on a farm outside Roslyn, S.D., in 1919, Floren took up the instrument after hearing an accordionist at a fair as a child. He married his former student Berdyne Koerner in 1945 and first played with Welk when the couple saw the band leader play at a ballroom in St. Louis.

The two musicians had met previously, and this time Welk invited Floren to perform a number with his band.

Myron chose "Lady of Spain" and the crowd was so enthusiastic Welk asked him to play the rest of the evening and quickly hired him, according to Margaret Heron, syndication manager for the show.

He and his wife Berdyne had five daughters, none of whom were musically talented, Randee Floren said.

She remembered one Father's Day when band members taught her and two of her sisters to sing a three-part harmony.

"We were terrible, but he was proud even though we stunk," she said.

Floren is survived by his wife, five daughters and seven grandchildren.

A memorial service was pending. In lieu of flowers, the family requested that donations be made to the USO.

Looks Like Barbie but Talks Like Ken
Diane Farr of “Rescue Me”

By JON CARAMANICA The New York Times July 24, 2005

In last week's episode of "Rescue Me," the firehouse drama on FX, the men of 62 Truck turn to their lone female crewmate, Laura, played by Diane Farr, with a query only she could answer. Laura had recently filed a grievance with her supervisors against one of the crew who, after a blunder at a fire scene, had dismissed her with a gender-specific epithet.

What word, the rest of the team wondered, could they use in her presence, if that one was unavailable to them?

Rather than wait for an answer, the men volley around a range of suggestions while Laura wears what has become something of a signature look on the show: a mix of bemusement, resentment, even a bit of detachment. The conversation - it lasts a full two minutes, an endless stretch in television time - is punishing and exhausting. "It's a bunch of guys without an 'edit' feature," Ms. Farr said, in an interview from the "Rescue Me" set. "I could find places to laugh at them as Laura, but thankfully, I feel a little more accepted as Diane."

Laura first appeared midseason last year, much to the open consternation of the firehouse crew. Ms. Farr eloquently portrays the struggles of being the lone woman in a highly masculine work environment, while also capturing the subtle power particular to that position. Invariably referred to as Missy or the girl, she steadily exudes a low hum of discomfort and wariness. In one-on-one interactions, though, she reveals a tongue as sharp as anyone's in the house. "She doesn't take" any abuse "from the guys, but she's not inaccessible either," said Denis Leary, a creator of the series who also plays its protagonist, Tommy Gavin, a recovering alcoholic. "She's extremely sexy and beautiful, blah blah blah, but she's got a real working-class strength to her."

Before breaking into acting, Ms. Farr honed a thick skin and a wry sense of humor as a back-talking host on the MTV sex advice show "Loveline." From there, she worked on a series of testosterone-thick sets, including "The Drew Carey Show," where she was the center of a romantic scrum, and on Mr. Leary's previous show, "The Job."

"I look a little bit like Barbie and talk a little bit like Ken," said Ms. Farr, who turned down an opportunity to audition for the "Desperate Housewives" role that eventually went to Eva Longoria. "It's easier for me to sit in the middle of the boys' club than to be surrounded by people concerned about getting their hair and nails done."

Still, sexuality has become a more dominant note in Laura's character this season. After a night of drinking, she initiates an affair with Franco, a fellow firefighter, that quickly develops into something more serious. (She also baby-sits his daughter, complicating the relationship.) In an excellent monologue, delivered before the affair begins, Laura explains to Franco why sleeping together would be a bad idea. The relationship will get serious, she warns him, and because she's the woman, she'll want a more serious commitment than he's prepared to make. After that, heartbreak.

"I had such a hard time saying that line straight," Ms. Farr said. "So when I did it, I played it up a bit. I'm making fun of the line, of the idea, and I'm making fun of myself, too.

Ms. Farr said she told Peter Tolan, the writer, that Laura was "not just going to sit there and take it.

"She's got to be able to shove back."

Critics heap love on ‘Housewives’ and ‘Lost’

By Diane Holloway Austin Statesman TV writer

LOS ANGELES -- Crabby critics often shy away from the most popular shows, but this year’s Television Critics Association Awards heaped praise on ABC megahits “Desperate Housewives” and “Lost.”

Cleaned up (briefly) for the occasion, critics gathered Saturday night in a glittery ballroom at the Beverly Hilton Hotel to honor television’s best.

“Desperate Housewives” won the program of the year award, and “Lost” won for best new show and best drama.

Not wanting to stray too far from our favorite less-popular shows, we gave the comedy award, for the second year in a row, to Fox’s sublimely wacky “Arrested Development” and, for the seventh time, to PBS’ hard-hitting “Frontline” for news.

Bob Newhart was on hand to receive the career achievement award. Past career winners include Walter Cronkite, Lucille Ball, Bob Hope, Fred Rogers and Bill Cosby.

Other TCA award recipients were “Degrassi: The Next Generation” for children’s programming, “The Office Special” (BBC version) for movies and specials, Jon Stewart (“The Daily Show”) for individual achievement in comedy and Hugh Laurie (“House”) for individual achievement in drama.

“The last time I won an award,” said Laurie, who plays the cranky doctor on “House,” “my parents were in the audience.”

The heritage award, given to a program that has had a significant impact on television, went to “Nightline.”

The ceremony got off to a good start with wisecracking Craig Ferguson, host of CBS’ “The Late Late Show.”

“I smell power,” Ferguson said to the assembled critics. “And sex and clashing after-shave. That, my friends, is Hollywood.”

Star sightings included Will Arnett (Gob) and Tony Hale (Buster) of “Arrested Development,” Felicity Huffman (Lynette) and Doug Savant (Lynette’s husband, Tom) of “Desperate Housewives,” Dominic Monaghan (Charlie) and Yunjin Kim (Sun Kwon) of “Lost.”

Biggest star? Brenda Strong, who plays dead Mary Alice on “Desperate Housewives.”

“Yes, I’ll be back next season,” she said. “It’s not like they can kill me off.”

OBITUARY
Fast-draw shooter taught TV stars

By Dennis McLellan Los Angeles Times

Arvo Ojala, a legendary Hollywood quick-draw expert who appeared as the bad guy who loses the gun duel with James Arness' Marshal Matt Dillon in the opening of the long-running TV series "Gunsmoke," has died. He was 85.

Mr. Ojala died July 1 at his home in Gresham, Ore., his family said. The cause of death was not disclosed.

Born in Seattle to Finnish parents, Mr. Ojala grew up on an apple ranch in the Yakima Valley. He later recalled that he taught himself marksmanship by "shooting the heads off rattlesnakes."

With an ability to **** his pistol, fire and reportedly hit his target in one-sixth of a second, Mr. Ojala was the go-to guy to learn the art of the fast-draw during the heyday of TV Westerns in the 1950s and '60s.

Mr. Ojala, a stuntman and bit player who turned his skill with a six-gun into a lucrative business, manufactured patented, metal-lined fast-draw holsters that were used by countless sagebrush heroes, as well as quick-draw competitors.

Among those who benefited from Mr. Ojala's quick-draw tutelage were Hugh O'Brian ("The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp"), James Garner ("Maverick"), Ty Hardin ("Bronco"), Dale Robertson ("Tales of Wells Fargo") and Wayde Preston ("Colt .45").

Mr. Ojala also served as the gun coach on films such as "The War Wagon," "Silverado," "Three Amigos" and "Back to the Future Part III." Among his students were Kevin Kline, Michael J. Fox, Kevin Costner, Paul Newman and Robert Redford.

But it was because of his quick-draw duel with Arness on a Dodge City street — a fleeting appearance for which Mr. Ojala initially received $100 but earned him thousands of dollars more in residuals — that he achieved a degree of small-screen immortality.

Mr. Ojala earned high praise from the star of "Gunsmoke."

"There's no one faster with a gun," Arness said in a 1959 Los Angeles Times story.

"He was the top gun, you might say," Hardin, who played Western adventurer Bronco Layne for four seasons, told the Los Angeles Times last week. "He certainly had the knowledge and the background."

Mr. Ojala spent a great deal of time with Hardin on the set, showing him techniques such as where to position the holster so he could draw his revolver in one motion without reaching for it, and how to rapidly fire three rounds that sounded like one. They later worked on a ranch shooting live ammunition.

"I was a little leery of it," Hardin recalled. "I heard a story where someone shot the (gun) off before it left the holster."

Hardin said Mr. Ojala "was a wonderful guy and a very patient person. He was just a real gentleman — and deadly with a gun."

For Hardin, working with Mr. Ojala paid off.

"I became the fastest gun at Warner Bros.," Hardin said, then laughed. "Of course, other people will claim that, too. There was a lot of us out there."

In 1959, Mr. Ojala ranked Preston, Garner and Arness as the best of those he taught to fast draw, although "not necessarily in that order."

"Gunfighters are made, not born. It's just as true on the movie sets today as it was in the days of the early West," Mr. Ojala said. "Most of our present TV and film cowboys had little more than a nodding acquaintance with a revolver before they landed roles as Western heroes."

Mr. Ojala's wife, Doris, an actress, model and professional figure skater, died in 1978. The couple had been married for 26 years.

He is survived by his sons, Jon and Erikk; daughters Valerie, Kym and Inga; five grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

Network goes to war with series set in Iraq
FX's "Over There" will be the first TV show to explore the everyday lives of young recruits during an ongoing U.S. military conflict

BY GLENN GARVIN Miami Herald

CHATSWORTH, Calif. - On a dusty, sun-broiled hill, the young soldiers crouch amid wrecked vehicles and blasted rubble, nervously eyeing the Arabic graffiti scrawled on the walls of the treacherous town ahead.

The seconds are ticking down until they launch their mission: the capture, not of an Iraqi town, but of Nielsen ratings.

Over There, which debuts Wednesday on the cheeky FX cable network, is not only unprecedented but almost unimaginable: a TV series about the war in Iraq -- a war in which the death toll and political controversy mount each day. Taut, frightening and grisly, Over There is a head-first plunge for an entertainment medium that has always waited 12 to 15 years before gingerly dipping a toe into the muddy water of U.S. wars.

Over There's soldiers get blown to pieces. They torture prisoners and shoot civilians. They fret, correctly, that their spouses back home are cheating on them. They curse their stupid officers and the blundering Army bureaucracy.

Whether they will draw viewers -- whether Americans are prepared to view as weekly entertainment a war in which their siblings, children and parents are dying every day -- is anybody's guess. Even the show's executive producer -- the legendary Steven Bochco, who also created NYPD Blue and Hill Street Blues -- says he won't blame anyone who refuses to watch.

''I'm very respectful of the distressing imagery that a show like this, or even NYPD Blue, is capable of evoking in people,'' Bochco says.

But he categorically rejects the idea that the concept of the show is callous or exploitative.

''Every day, there are thousands of crimes all over America -- assaults, rapes, molestations, kidnappings, murders -- creating legions of victims and families of victims,'' Bochco argues. ''But nobody would ever say you shouldn't do a show on the ongoing urban war on crime.''

Adds Over There's co-creator Chris Gerolmo, who wrote the screenplay for the film Mississippi Burning: ''War is a natural subject for television. It has all the drama of Law & Order and all the action of 24 and all the blood -- for better or for worse -- of CSI.''

TV WAR SERIES

There is indeed a long tradition of successful war series on television. But they've never appeared so quickly. Combat and The Gallant Men, the first major shows about World War II, didn't appear until 1962. Korea didn't come to the small screen until the debut of M*A*S*H* in 1972. Vietnam had to wait for Tour Of Duty in 1987 and China Beach in 1988. By then, wounds had healed and controversies dulled.

But TV already has nibbled at the war in Iraq. NBC aired a movie, Saving Jessica Lynch, barely seven months after the war began. Around the same time, the PBS drama series American Family followed a character to the front lines.

Now, in addition to Over There, the Discovery Times cable channel is about to air a documentary series, Off To War, following an Arkansas National Guard unit to Iraq. And later this year, Showtime will unveil a weekly series called Sleeper Cell about al Qaeda terrorists plotting an attack in the United States.

Television executives say it's no coincidence that all three shows will air on cable, where just a few million viewers can make them hits. ''A major network wants to reach 20-30 million people every week,'' says Cyrus Voris, executive producer of Sleeper Cell. ''Showtime, they don't have to do that. . . . They can take those risks.''

No television network takes more risks than FX, where shows like The Shield and Nip/Tuck are regularly excoriated by clean-up-TV groups for their violence and wild sexuality. It was FX President John Landgraf who suggested the Iraqi war concept to Bochco.

''The best television can do is really take on ambitious subjects and, hopefully, have great writing that tries to bring an emotional context to what's going on,'' Landgraf says.

Landgraf, Bochco and everybody else connected to Over There insist that it has no political ax to grind. Bochco refuses to answer questions about how he feels about the war, and the cast follows suit. ''We talk a lot about not talking about politics on the set,'' says Lizette Carrion, who plays a soldier who left a child behind when she was shipped out.

[B]EVERYDAY LIFE

Rather than the politics of the war, Over There concentrates on the everyday life of a squad of young recruits: the hours of acute boredom; eating dry instant coffee to stay awake on a stakeout; the excruciating terror when the shooting starts.

They're shown struggling with the war's sometimes nutty rules of engagement -- in one episode, they're forbidden to return fire at a group of Iraqi insurgents because officers fear they'll kill a reporter from the Arab TV network Al Jazeera. Another shows in harrowing detail the split-second decisions soldiers must make when cars -- full of civilians, or suicide bombers? -- approach their roadblock.

Bochco believes that if a show like Over There had aired during the Vietnam War, the public would have had more sympathy for the men fighting it.

''What it might have done is what I hope this show does -- humanize individuals in uniform, instead of demonizing the military in general,'' he says.

Veterans and support groups of soldiers' parents have mixed feelings about the wisdom of turning the war into a television show.

''When my son was in Iraq, that movie about Jessica Lynch was on, and though I tried and tried, I just could not watch it,'' says Patti Patton-Bader, founder of Soldiers' Angels, a group that ships personal supplies to troops in the war zone. ''It was so raw, and so fresh. . . . But it brought awareness that we still have troops out there. Hopefully, if this show is done with some class and some talent -- if it's the real deal -- it will create some public consciousness about what our kids face.''

Whether sticking to the grunt's-eye-view of the war will be enough to keep Over There from being sucked into the political maelstrom still swirling around the U.S. invasion remains to be seen. Many industry observers are dubious.

''The show is going to be a national Rorschach test on the war, with everybody reading their own feelings into the inkblot,'' predicts Robert Thompson, who teaches television and popular culture at Syracuse University. ''You watch -- some people are going to say it's anti-war and others that it's pro-war, and they'll cite the same things as evidence for both positions.''

The fear that the show might be a controversial career-killer does not seem have occurred to the cast of relatively unknown actors who play the soldiers.

''I've never wanted a role so much in my life,'' says Omid Abtahi, an Iranian-American actor who plays an Iraqi-American soldier. He says it was a relief to be offered an acting job where he wasn't playing an Arab terrorist.

''I know a lot of Arab-American actors, and this is the most coveted role in years,'' Abtahi says. ''We all want to be good gu[ys. We're all Americans.''

Saturday’s network prime-time ratings have been posted at the top of Latest News the first item in this thread.

TV Critics Tour Blog
By Melanie McFarland The Seattle Post-Intelligencer Television Critic
The 21st Annual TCA Awards

"How kick ass is it that we have an awards show where you have to wear a bracelet? Where are the kegs?"--Damon Lindelof, co-creator and executive producer of TCA award winner "Lost."

That's the nature of the Television Critics Association awards ceremony in a nutshell -- we show our love to the industry's best programs and performers by getting all of them, and ourselves, tanked. It's as laid back as a house party.

Last night's 21st Annual TCA Awards was the same as it ever was -- the best mixer of this soul-draining marathon we call press tour. Even better, it was hosted by "Late Late Show" host Craig Ferguson -- who actually stuck around! (Most hosts say their piece at the top of the show, then duck out while everyone else is speechifying. That makes Ferguson an especially good egg.)

And it is also famous for being an awards ceremony in which the stars and producers attending know they're going to win ahead of time. To show their appreciation for the lack of pretense, wonderful people from the cast of "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" creator Marc Cherry merrily hung out with grumps like us until we became too obnoxious to endure. Then they slipped out unnoticed.

The evening's finest moment was delivered by Bob Newhart, the nicest guy in Hollywood, who came with his daughter to accept an award for Career Achievement.

"I love television," he said during his acceptance speech. "As you people know, more than anyone, it is the most powerful medium ever. It has great power to elevate, and it has great power to debase. And you are its keepers."

TV Critics Tour Blog
By Ellen Gray Philadelphia Daily News Television Columnist
IT'S NOT SUCH A GOOD THING

We got Cybill but we won't be getting Martha.

Citing "logistical difficulty" and the "awkwardness of satellite interviews," NBC entertainment president Kevin Reilly defended the network's decision not to provide some sort of interview opportunity during press tour with Martha Stewart, who'll be starring in her own version of "The Apprentice" this fall.

True, Martha can't travel very far with that ankle bracelet of hers, but surely the 48 hours a week she's allowed to work might include a half-hour or so satellitel press conference with reporters, right?

Apparently not.

So a reporter here was reduced to asking Reilly, not Stewart herself, whether she'd be mentioning her stay in "the big house" on "The Apprentice."

(I prefer the phrase "unfortunate incarceration" myself, but we all word our questions differently.)

Though we're assured we'll be able to question Stewart in a few weeks during a teleconference at local affiliates or on a Television Critics Association conference call before the show airs, not having Martha at press tour is like, well, setting the table with your less-than-best china.

We may only be grubby reporters, but we notice these things.

THE METAMUCIL METAPHOR

You know it's going to be a long day when a network entertainment president starts off by describing last season as a "colonic."

(They're big on colonics in this town, but who needs to hear this stuff at 9 a.m.? Not me.)

NBC's Kevin Reilly is up there by himself, having to explain the network's fourth-place finish in 2004-05, while his boss, Jeff Zucker, who's presided over the Peacock's decline -- and was always happy to preen for the critics when things were going well -- seems for once to be shunning the spotlight.

Reilly, though, is stuck with Zucker's TelePrompTer legacy, reading his prepared remarks, pre-Q&A, off a giant screen in the back of the room that NBC employees were earlier attempting to shoo reporters away from, lest we inadvertently block Reilly's view and leave him speechless.

NBC Packs 'Em in for Premiere Week

(zap2it.com)--Yes, the peacock network is currently in fourth place. Yes, they realize that this is problem. They also know that they aren't going to fix everything overnight, but they are hoping that the six new series they have on deck for this fall will at least slow the bleeding.

To this end, in a fit of organization that Martha Stewart would surely approve of, NBC will cram all but two of its premieres into the week of Sept. 19. Reality show "The Biggest Loser" will weigh in with a 90-minute premiere on Tuesday, Sept. 13, and a special hourlong "Joey" premiere will push "Will & Grace's" eighth and final season premiere to Thursday, Sept. 29.

On Friday nights, NBC also decided to move its newsmagazine "Dateline" back to its original home at 8 p.m. ET, with Amy Grant's feel-good "Three Wishes" moving to 9 p.m. in order to provide a more "viable, compatible lead-in" to the new drama "Inconceivable."

Already looking ahead to Novemember sweeps, four specials have also already been inked onto the schedule: "Saturday Night Live: The '80s" (Sunday, Nov. 13), "The Poseidon Adventure (Sunday, Nov. 20), a Faith Hill music special (Wednesday, Nov. 23) and the two-night disaster event "10.5: Apocalypse" (Sunday, Nov. 27 and Monday, Nov. 28).

The full premiere schedule for NBC is as follows (all times Eastern, new shows in bold):

Tuesday, Sept. 13

8 p.m. "The Biggest Loser"

Monday, Sept. 19

8 PM ET/PT "Surface"
9 PM ET/PT "Las Vegas"
10 PM ET/PT "Medium"

Tuesday, Sept. 20

9 PM ET/PT "My Name Is Earl"
9:30 PM ET/PT "The Office"
10 PM ET/PT "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit"

Wednesday, Sept. 21

8 PM ET/PT "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart"
9 PM ET/PT "E-Ring"
10 PM ET/PT "Law & Order"

Thursday, Sept. 22

8 PM ET/PT "Joey" (special one-hour premiere)
9 PM ET/PT "The Apprentice"
10 PM ET/PT "ER"

Friday, Sept. 23

8 PM ET/PT "Dateline NBC"
9 PM ET/PT "Three Wishes"
10 PM ET/PT "Inconceivable"

Saturday, Sept. 24

8 PM ET/PT Saturday Night Movie

Sunday, Sept. 25

7 PM ET/PT "Dateline NBC"
8 PM ET/PT "The West Wing'
9 PM ET/PT "Law & Order: Criminal Intent"
10 PM ET/PT "Crossing Jordan"

Thursday, Sept. 29

8:30 PM ET/PT "Will & Grace" (live episode)

The NBC network 2005-2006 prime-time schedule has been updated with show starting dates. You can find it near the bottom of Latest News the first item in this thread.

UPN's plight: Critics love Chris Rock pilot

By Joanne Ostrow Denver Post TV Critic

Beverly Hills, Calif. - Every network wishes it had this problem: how to rein in the advance raves, put a sock in the positive word of mouth and calm adoring critics so that an upcoming show isn't oversold to viewers?

UPN finds itself in the unfamiliar position of needing to turn down the buzz.

"Everybody Hates Chris," the comedy narrated by Chris Rock about his impoverished Brooklyn childhood, is the most talked-about and eagerly anticipated on any network's fall schedule. During the semi-annual TV critics' press tour here, where the networks' object is to inflate, hype and glorify even the worst examples of half- hearted programming, UPN spent its day downplaying the quality and importance of Rock's show.

"We're getting so much attention it's hard to sneak up on people," Rock said. "We're trying to lower expectations."

But critics are keenly aware that Rock's clever family sitcom, reminiscent of "The Wonder Years" in execution, could boost UPN to a new level of public recognition and possibly reignite television's lagging comedy form. It's that good.

Mark the calendar: "Everybody Hates Chris" debuts Sept. 22 at 7 p.m. on KTVD-Channel 20.

The title is a typically mischievous nod to "Everybody Loves Raymond." The premise is simple: It's about a loving, tight-knit but impoverished family living in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in the 1980s (Rock was 13 in 1982), with the kids bused to a white school. As Rock looks back on his younger self, played by Tyler James Williams ("Sesame Street"), he talks of being the family's "emergency adult." The key is the grit and lack of typical sitcom phoniness.

"It's (about) broke people. We're not gonna make a speech about it," said producer Ali LeRoi. It's about people with not much money, living in a ghetto, trying to pay the bills and, at the same time, keep the kids away from crime. LeRoi and co-creator Rock aim to avoid the artifice of the too-familiar half-hours now playing in what LeRoi calls "sitcomland."

Fox declined to make the series, fearing that Rock would lend his name to the project and then disappear.

"My name's Rock, not Chappelle," he told critics here. "What have I walked out on?"

One of Rock's ambitions with the series was to give television a strong African-American father figure. "With the exception of Cosby, every black father you see on TV is not masculine. They're, like, 'theater.' They're not gay, not straight, just 'theater."' He hopes to recapture the nobility of the father played by John Amos on "Good Times."

In a way, "Everybody Hates Chris" is the new millennium's update on "Good Times," with tougher talk.

Tough talk includes the use of the "N"-word in the pilot, which probably would not have flown on sister-network CBS. "We felt we dealt with it in a very responsible way," said UPN president Dawn Ostroff.

Dissertations will be written on the propriety of using the epithet on television. The producers say they will need a strong reason to use it in future episodes.

Speaking of UPN's corporate sibling, CBS and UPN have figured out how to maximize the audience for "Veronica Mars," the best series on UPN last year and one of the best on any network, while also giving CBS viewers what will feel like new, first- run programming for summer. Starting July 29, they'll put "Veronica Mars" on CBS for four episodes. CBS will air back-to-back episodes, with two more on Aug. 5 and 12.

Strategically, it makes sense for episodes of the ratings-challenged "Veronica Mars" to get double exposure on both UPN and CBS, but Ostroff said the network's affiliates would object, preferring to keep the property unique to UPN.

Putting "Veronica" on CBS during the summer is smart. Making crossover appearances from "America's Next Top Model" to "Veronica Mars" this fall is a tacky idea. UPN will try it, however, mingling the Wednesday night casts in an attempt to build ratings. A better idea is to leave the tone of "Veronica" alone, while launching this season's new mystery.

Prime time kept combat at arm's length

By David Zurawik Baltimore Sun July 24, 2005

“Over There” represents a major change from the television fare seen by Americans during the height of the Vietnam War in the late 1960s. Prime time - the hours between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m., with the greatest number of viewers - then offered strictly escapist fare.

Though known as "the living room war" because newscasts brought it into American homes each evening, the Vietnam War rarely was mentioned on contemporary sitcoms or dramas. The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, for example, was canceled by CBS in large part because Tom and Dick Smothers occasionally tried to mention the conflict during their variety show.

In 1968, the year of some of the fiercest fighting in Southeast Asia, TV's highest-rated sitcom was Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. Set on a Marine base, the CBS spinoff of the idyllic Andy Griffith Show starred Jim Nabors as a bumbling recruit during peacetime. The worst thing that Gomer ever endured was a verbal dressing down by his sergeant.

Another hit, the NBC sitcom Julia, starred Diahann Carroll as a nurse and single mom whose husband was killed in Vietnam. After her husband's death was explained by a fleeting reference in the pilot, the war never came up again during the series' three seasons (1968-1971).

The following list of prime-time series set in times of war, from the Syracuse University Center for the Study of Popular Television, suggests that as far as the networks were concerned, the only programmable war was an old war

Combat Sergeant (ABC) 1956: This brief series set in North Africa during World War II included footage of actual war scenes.

Combat! (ABC) 1962-67: Starring Vic Morrow as Sgt. Chip Saunders, it followed a U.S. Army platoon battling in Europe in WWII following D-Day.

McHale's Navy (ABC) 1962-66: Ernest Borgnine starred as Lt. Cmdr. Quinton McHale, commander of a Navy PT boat full of con men and characters in the South Pacific (and later Italy) during WWII.

Hogan's Heroes (CBS) 1965-71: Comedy set in a German POW camp starred Bob Crane as the wily Colonel Hogan and Werner Klemperer and John Banner as bumbling Nazis.

The Rat Patrol (ABC) 1966-68: A team of four renegade commandos in the North Africa desert early in WWII took on Rommel's Afrika Corps.

M*A*S*H (CBS) 1972-83: Popular sitcom based on the hit movie was set in Korea, but its antiwar sentiment was aimed at Vietnam. Alan Alda led an ever-changing ensemble cast.

Tour of Duty (CBS) 1987-91: Gritty drama featured members of Company B fighting in Vietnam and learning the harsh realities of an unpopular war.

China Beach (ABC) 1988-91: A prime-time soap opera with an antiwar sentiment, this show was set at a combination hospital/USO center on a beach near Da Nang in Vietnam.

TV Critics Tour Blog
By Diane Holloway Austin Statesman TV Writer
A clean start for NBC?

It’s not the way you want to start your Sunday morning, listening to a network executive discuss success in terms of bodily functions, but, well, there it was.

“OK, we’re in fourth place (in the ratings),” NBC entertainment president Kevin Reilly told the assembled crowd of the Television Critics Association. “Last season was tough, but it was sort of like a colonic. It’s not fun to go there, but it’s going to be healthy for us in the long run.”

Alrighty then …

After dominating prime time through most of the past 20 years, NBC took a precipitous Nielsen dive last season, and Reilly insists that the drubbing has awakened the network to the need for better shows. After losing long-running hits such as “Friends” and “Frasier” with nothing of similar quality to replace them, the network, Reilly, said, is finally ready to ditch its “sense of entitlement.” Good thing, because nobody has found much to praise about NBC in quite a while.

Reilly pointed to three new NBC shows that he hopes will generate buzz and ratings: “My Name Is Earl,” a comedy about a petty crook who wins the lottery (the pilot actually was funny); “E-Ring,” an overly earnest drama about life at the Pentagon (which was tedious but did have Benjamin Bratt going for it); and “Surface,” a sci-fi drama about aliens springing from the ocean (which was really pretty darn silly).

The new version of “The Apprentice,” with Martha Stewart interviewing potential domestic divas got a promotional push, too, with Reilly promising that the lady would be “tough but vulnerable.” Asked repeatedly why Stewart wasn’t participating in the press tour, Reilly reminded us that, well, she’s still under “house arrest” in Connecticut. Logistical difficulties, don’t you know.

In news of old shows, which, really, we care more about:

“The West Wing” will not resolve the election right away. Look for a winner to be declared during the November or maybe even the February sweeps. And Jimmy Smits is NOT a shoo-in.

“Scrubs” will not return until midseason. Bummer.

“ER,” Reilly feels, is still a fabulous show. Guess he really does need that colonic.

The Winter Olympics, which NBC will have live from Turino, Italy, could pull the fourth place network out of the dumper. That’s the hope and the Peacock’s prayer.

More to come from the low-rated but increasingly media-loving NBC network.

TV Critics Tour Blog
By Mark McGuire The Albany NY Times-Union Television Critic
Gala for the Internet Age

The Television Critics Association Awards were presented last night. Here are the differences between the TCAs and the Emmys:
1. The winners know beforehand. I tried to coach Hugh Laurie, best drama actor winner for ``House,'' on how to act surprised when his name was called, but it didn't stick.
2. We (usually) get it right. The critics tend to award some shows that the Emmys snub, often because we, I don't know, watch TV.
3. Not televised. We don't have to go through the endless stream of thank yous for publicists and hair stylists and neighbors who walked their dog when they were out of town.
And the best thing about the awards show:
4. One hour beginning to end, and we were back at the bar.

Repeat After Me: “NBC Is Awful”

NBC entertainment boss Kevin Reilly began the NBC portion of the tour this morning by telling critics what they already knew at the flailing Peacock. Here is the short, short version:
1. NBC is awful.
2. NBC will continue to be awful.
3. Television is cyclical, so since NBC was once on top it had to crash.
4. NBC is awful.

TV Critics Tour Blog
By Ellen Gray Philadelphia Daily News Television Columnist
TAP-DANCING WITH THE STARS

The panel for Jerry Bruckheimer's military drama "E-Ring" on NBC is coming in for questions about everything from why Benjamin Bratt's character, an officer at the Pentagon, won't be married and a new father, the way he was in the pilot, to whether or not he'll still be riding his bike to work.

We also wonder how he feels about being a sex symbol. (Not so good.)

This is the kind of dance we tend to do when the actors are more interesting to us than the project, and it leads to a series of questions of Bratt's co-star, Dennis Hopper, that basically boil down to:

Did you ever expect to look this good at this age?

Or be alive, for that matter?

The once-harder living Hopper's bio doesn't give his age, but does mention a 2-year-old daughter, and IMDB.com says he's 69 (which means that he looks even better than I'd thought, though it wasn't my question in the first place).

Anyway, even if we're not very interested in "E-Ring," Hopper wants us to know he is, and that what's more, he had choices.

"I'm probably dropping a million and a half dollars a year taking this job," he says.

On the other hand. he knows where he'll be working for the next little while, at least.

In the movie business, "You never know what scripts you're getting and you never know what country you're going to to make them," he says.

Desperate for drama
Fall comedies will be better, but don't expect strong new series like `Lost' and `House.'

By Hal Boedeker Orlando Sentinel Television Critic

NBC's best new series this fall: My Name Is Earl, a sitcom.

CBS' best new series this fall: How I Met Your Mother, a sitcom.

UPN's best new series this fall: Everybody Hates Chris, a sitcom.

The coming television season will be quite different from the last one. The upside: The comedies are better. The down: The dramas aren't, and so the broadcast networks probably won't be as successful.

A year ago, two dramas re-energized broadcasting. ABC's Desperate Housewives and Lost wowed viewers, critics and advertisers. As the season unfolded, more dramas dazzled viewers: House on Fox, Medium on NBC and Grey's Anatomy on ABC.

This fall's new series don't have the same oomph, according to industry analysts and TV critics who have screened them.

"There isn't the type of show that comes around once in a decade, the way Desperate Housewives did," says John Rash, who analyzes television as a senior vice president at Campbell Mithun advertising agency in Minneapolis. "It's not a breakthrough season. Last season was."

Jonathan Storm, television critic at The Philadelphia Inquirer, says last fall's new series were probably the best in his 16 years on the job. Consequently, this fall will suffer by comparison.

"I'm not as excited as last year," Storm says. "For me, a good drama is worth about five good comedies. But these comedies are intriguing. After five sitcoms, I had a pleasant feeling. In previous years, maybe one or two comedies you wanted to watch."

Television critics will preview the fall lineup starting Tuesday in Beverly Hills, Calif. Their reports will highlight the promising entries and prevailing trends. Disappointment will be a recurring theme.

"I haven't found anything that promises to be a big, bold, breakout hit for this season," says Joanne Ostrow, television critic at The Denver Post. "Nothing jumps out the way 24, Lost, Desperate Housewives, Rescue Me, The Shield or Deadwood did in recent years. Some innovative tries on the comedy side -- My Name Is Earl -- but too many Lost clones on the drama side."

Melanie McFarland, TV critic at The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, says the new series don't pop the way Lost or House or UPN's Veronica Mars did a year ago.

"I think the comedies are more adventurous than the dramas," she says. "They're trying to be more clever and dynamic, but they haven't figured out how to get the comedy in there."

If ABC commanded the most attention last fall, HBO seems ready to upstage the networks this fall. The premium cable channel will roll out Rome, a lavish drama about Julius Caesar and his enemies, on Aug. 28. The series is more adult, complex and gripping than any of the broadcast dramas that will debut in the fall.

In drama, broadcasters have taken more predictable routes. They have turned to the extraterrestrials-are-here theme in three series: CBS' Threshold, NBC's Surface and ABC's Invasion, which is set in hurricane-battered Florida. The CBS show is the scariest and boasts a strong cast, led by Carla Gugino and Charles S. Dutton.

The standout WB series carries the generic title Supernatural but delivers eerie thrills as two brothers investigate strange phenomena. Fox's best hope for fall seems to be Reunion, a mystery/serial that follows six friends over 20 years.

The success of Desperate Housewives has prompted programmers to build more series around women. ABC's Commander-in-Chief focuses on the first woman (Geena Davis) to become U.S. president. Jennifer Love Hewitt not only sees dead people but also talks to them and helps them feel better in CBS' inspirational Ghost Whisperer.

The networks continue to fixate on crime, but CBS' Close to Home gives the formula a more personal touch by concentrating on a prosecutor (Jennifer Finnigan) who's a new mother.

And yet, the best hours aren't as distinctive as the best comedies. The new sitcoms represent a marked improvement from last fall, when CBS' Center of the Universe, NBC's Father of the Pride and NBC's Joey joined the lineup.

UPN's Everybody Hates Chris has generated the most buzz of any new series. With sass and heart, it depicts the childhood of comedian Chris Rock, who also narrates.

"Everybody will love Everybody Hates Chris," analyst Rash says. "It's a good example for the industry of having a star truly involved as opposed to merely a name associated with a project. Because it's his life, the likelihood is it will be more reflective of the Chris Rock brand of comedy."

Critic McFarland picks Everybody Hates Chris as her favorite new show. "I like the comparison of it to The Wonder Years," she says. "It has a universal theme. It is very funny and fast-paced. The thing that could keep it back: UPN still has a stigma."

Other comedies give critics some hope. NBC's My Name Is Earl tells the oddball adventures of a lottery winner (Jason Lee) determined to right past wrongs. CBS' How I Met Your Mother thrives on good jokes and charming performances as it recounts the romantic difficulties of a fumbling bachelor (Josh Radnor).

Last fall, ABC's resurgence was the big story. The Disney-owned network will roll out its best comedies at midseason. Emily's Reasons Why Not casts Heather Graham as a woman struggling for romantic fulfillment. Sons & Daughters looks at a large family in hilarious and identifiable ways.

"Whether the viewers embrace these shows, they demonstrate that comedy isn't dead anymore," critic Storm says. "The comedies are better than the dramas, no question about it."

Yet their quirky style also could limit their appeal. Fox's Arrested Development has struggled for viewers despite winning the Emmy as best comedy last year. The availability of more channels means there's less consensus about what's funny. Finding the next Friends or Seinfeld has become increasingly difficult.

"It may be unobtainable because humor is much more individualized while drama is universal," analyst Rash says. "The Cosby Show may never happen again."

Still, the networks will offer more legitimate reasons to laugh this fall. Programmers may not be chuckling, however, when the ratings come in.

TV Critics Tour Blog
By Diane Holloway Austin Statesman TV Writer
NBC’s “Earl” gets real, “The Office” boss gets jerky, etc.

LOS ANGELES — Long after Lance Armstrong had doffed his sweaty yellow jersey on Sunday, NBC stars and producers were touting the sagging network’s hoped-for new hits.

Jason Lee, who looks remarkably like Nicolas Cage, said he was inspired by Cage’s character in “Raising Arizona” when he was developing his lead wacko in the new sitcom “My Name Is Earl.”

“Earl is ignorant and naive, but he’s not evil,” Lee said of the guy who decides to try to make amends for all his crooked deeds after winning the lottery. “I’m walking a fine line between real and caricature.”

Lake Bell, who left David E. Kelley’s “Boston Legal” to star in NBC’s new sci-fi drama “Surface,” made little to no sense trying to explain why she left the ABC drama. After using the word “actually” seven times in one sentence, she ACTUALLY gave up trying. Producers of “Surface,” which changed its title from “Fathom,” describe the show about invading alien sea critters as “emotional realism with magical elements,” not sci-fi. Got that?

Dennis Hopper, best known for rebel roles such as “Easy Rider” and infamous for a lifetime of hard living, was asked how he planned to change his image to play a hard-line Pentagon officer in “E-Ring.” He donned dark glasses, squinted at the questioner and said, “I’ll stand a little straighter and get a haircut.”

Sexy Benjamin Bratt confessed to being less than thrilled with the whole sex-symbol image, but he’d better get used to it. In the pilot of “E-Ring,” his character was a family man, married with baby. But at the request of NBC, the pilot is being “reconfigured” so that Bratt will be a bachelor.

“I’m not approaching it with that (sex symbol) in mind,” Bratt said, squirming a bit. “It’s maybe more compelling to have him be a lone wolf. I’ll get the opportunity to play opposite some tremendous actresses, but I’m not really comfortable with that image. It’s pretty one-dimensional.” Too bad, Ben.

NBC’s version of the BBC hit comedy “The Office” didn’t exactly catch fire with viewers in its brief spring run, but it did get picked up for a full 22-episode season this fall. Executive producer Greg Daniels said viewers should think of the show as “an American sitcom now. … We’re not using any BBC scripts.”

Considering that the BBC version had only 12 episodes plus a Christmas special, that’s no surprise.

Steve Carell, who took over the role of “Office” boss Michael after Brit Ricky Gervais made it famous, is all over the place these days. He’s to have carved a niche for himself playing oddballs and, specifically, jerks in movies such as “Anchorman,” “Bewitched” and the upcoming “40-Year-Old Virgin.” He’s never been more dead-pan jerky than he is in “The Office,” where he improvises much of his character’s insensitivity.

“So far, I have accepted every acting job I’ve ever been offered,” Carell said. “Basically, I am a jerk. But I do hope someday to play a part that is less of a jerk. Hopefully, as this character evolves, I will make you cry.”

The first season of “The Office” will be out on DVD on Aug. 16 with a full hour of improv hilarity that didn’t make it into the broadcast version.

And by the way … During one Q&A session today, a producer let it slip that 30-minute sitcoms on network TV now run 21 minutes. That means hour-long shows, with more promos in the middle, are probably a skinny 40 minutes or less. No wonder it’s so much quicker to zap ads and watch them on TiVo.

(Again, please, I ask for your restraint. This article is posted as news about TV (OK, not HD) but is not meant as a jumping off point for a series of pro or anti posts about Al Gore’s politics.)
For Gore, a Reincarnation on the Other Side of the Camera

By JACQUES STEINBERG The New York Times July 25, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO, July 23 - The day after President Bush announced his first Supreme Court nominee, his opponent in the hotly disputed 2000 election was a continent away from the White House, sitting in a darkened conference room in a converted coffee warehouse here.

Surrounded by more than a dozen people in their 20's and 30's, Al Gore was screening prospective videos for a cable and satellite channel that he, along with several investors, is scheduled to introduce next Monday. It is called Current, and he is not only its co-founder and its chairman, he is also one of the people who has an occasional say in whether something gets "greenlighted" for broadcast.

And like a budding Hollywood executive, he is not shy about giving his opinions.

"I love it!" he said across a conference room table to a colleague, after watching a rapid-fire three-minute rant about the perils of American life that had been submitted by a New York University film student. "That's an example of what we can do with the spoken word. As you said, it gives you chills."

Current aspires to be a channel unlike any other. Aimed squarely at people between the ages of 18 and 34, an elusive demographic that advertisers covet, the channel will rely for much of its content on submissions, both raw and edited, from viewers. And in an angle that borrows equally from politics and "American Idol," viewers will be given an opportunity to choose whether certain videos win a showing on Current by voting through its Web site.

For all his channel's innovations, though, Mr. Gore's effort to reinvent himself as a media entrepreneur - "I think of myself as a recovering politician, and I'm on about Step 9," he said in an interview last week - may prove his hardest challenge since running for the presidency.

Not only must he help enlist advertisers, he and his colleagues must persuade cable systems to carry Current, which will then have to compete for viewers who may already have more than 500 cable and satellite channels to choose from.

Having emerged from his presidential near-miss in 2000 to begin life as a part-time professor at Columbia, Fisk and Middle Tennessee State University, Mr. Gore, 57, says he has since "dialed back" on teaching to focus on his various business efforts.

In addition to Current, on which, he says, he spends 75 percent of his time, Mr. Gore has also started Generation Investment Management, which is based in London and works on "sustainable investment in long-term global equities." He is also a member of the board of Apple and an unpaid consultant to senior executives of Google.

Asked how he might respond these days if buttonholed at a cocktail party and queried about what he does for a living, Mr. Gore said he would say: "I am chairman of Current TV, and I'm having a blast."

Indeed, the former vice president, who used to co-opt the bits of David Letterman and Jay Leno by lampooning his own stiffness, has helped conceive a channel that is astonishingly loose in its presentation.

Instead of packaging its programming in 30- and 60-minute blocks, Current plans to show segments 3 to 10 minutes in length - the better to hold the attention of channel-surfing multitaskers - that are to be shuffled throughout the day like songs on a radio station. Some will be minidocumentaries, produced in-house or by outsiders; others will be feature-oriented, on subjects like spirituality and relationships.

Virtually the only structure is to be provided by three-minute "Google Current" segments at the top and bottom of each hour, in which the most popular Google searches of the day are to be mined for evidence of what is on people's minds.

Though Mr. Gore, who will not disclose his stake in Current, is determined to make the enterprise profitable - "This is business, not therapy," he said - he added that he had already been energized by its broader mission: to give young viewers, in an era of media consolidation, enormous control of what they see.

In making his pitch to prospective investors, advertisers and cable operators, Mr. Gore has said he is seeking to democratize television "with a lower-case 'd.' " He insists that Current will not have a single political point of view and is not intended as a liberal foil to the Fox News Channel.

And yet, Current's roster of investors looks a lot like the campaign finance rolls of Mr. Gore's 2000 campaign. The co-founder and chief executive of Current is Joel Hyatt, the founder of Hyatt Legal Services, who served as national finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee during Mr. Gore's failed run.

The two principal institutions that have invested in Current, which is privately held, are associated with big Democratic Party contributors. They are Blum Capital Partners of San Francisco (led by Richard Blum, husband of Senator Dianne Feinstein of California) and Yucaipa Companies of Los Angeles (led by Ron Burkle, a heavyweight Democratic fund-raiser). Bradley Whitford, who plays a White House adviser on "The West Wing," is an individual investor.

For political balance, as well as a rich résumé in TV, Mr. Gore can point to David Neuman, 44, president of programming for Current. He is a former executive of CNN and Disney who served as a fellow in the Reagan White House. "I've never been a registered Democrat," he said.

When Current arrives, it will be available (though not necessarily easy to find) in about 20 million homes - most of them subscribers to the DirecTV satellite service or Time Warner Cable's digital package. In Manhattan, it will be channel 103 on cable; in Los Angeles, 116.

Those slots, known in the industry as carriage, were already owned by the network (then called Newsworld International, and featuring programming supplied by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) when Mr. Gore and his partners bought it from Vivendi Universal for about $70 million in 2004. Since then, DirecTV has extended its carriage contract for 10 years, but no additional cable system or satellite operator has yet picked up the channel.

Generally, the threshold of success for aspiring cable or satellite channels is about 50 million homes, said Tom Wolzien, a media analyst who owns a consulting firm. Should Current's carriage remain far below that number, it could be a concern to advertisers, Mr. Wolzien said.

But the channel has other potential lures, including the demographic it is seeking and a Web site (www.current.tv) that has proved so powerful at spreading the word about Current that the network has already received 3,000 videotape submissions from filmmakers, amateurs and professionals alike.

"It's an audience that not only understands technology but uses technology," said Michael A. Fasulo, chief marketing officer of Sony Electronics, which has committed to sponsor Current's programming, and perhaps use ads for Sony products devised by viewers.

He added that while "we're not doing this because of Al Gore," he and his team's "vision and abilities clearly give us confidence."

In Current's sleek offices last Wednesday, Mr. Gore, wearing a short-sleeve shirt and appearing heavier than his campaign weight - he pointedly waved off a plate of chunky chocolate-chip cookies passed around at one meeting - was easily accessible to his staff.

That there is a generation gap between Mr. Gore and his young charges became evident after the screening, when he suggested that someone call Norman Lear for some advice. The blank stares he got back suggested that no one in the room had ever heard of the producer of "All in the Family."

The staff of Current has also taught "Al" - as he is universally addressed - a few things, too. They have updated his vocabulary, which was arguably as stiff as his famous bearing, so that he can now distinguish between a D.J. who is "spinning" and one who is "scratching." In meetings, he is forever talking about his channel's "street cred."

"He's really funny," said Laura Ling, 28, a producer and reporter for Current who formerly worked for Channel One, the network seen in schools. "When I go home at night, I tell my husband, 'Isn't it weird I work with Al Gore?' "

The person who seems least surprised is Mr. Gore himself. Asked if he had ruled out running for office in the future, he said: "I don't expect to ever be a candidate again."

He added, "I've not reached the point in my life where I would say there's a zero percent chance. But I truly don't expect it."

Asked to comment on Mr. Bush's Supreme Court nominee, Mr. Gore smiled before suggesting that a reporter write that he "demurred."

Gotham Chopra, 30, another Channel One veteran now working at Current, says he has grown so comfortable with Mr. Gore that he has even ribbed him a bit over his 2000 loss. "We tell him, 'Now you're not a politician, so you can really make a difference,' " said Mr. Chopra.

TV Critics Tour Blog
By Paul Brownfield The Los Angeles Times

Four words: My Name Is Earl

Greetings from the (former) House of Merv. In a show of solidarity with the other TV press, I'm wearing my nametag today. It's Day One, NBC. It's also Sunday morning at 9. So this better be good, whatever they woke up the whole hotel for.

Entertainment chief Kevin Reilly tells the TV press that he feels "a thirst for creativity" at NBC. That's because they're in fourth place. What's he gonna say? There's a thirst to be even less creative? In terms of what's next, he has four words for us: "My Name Is Earl."

It tested better than "Friends!!!" "Earl" stars Jason Lee as Earl, a lovable loser/petty criminal who wins the lottery and then, through a series of events, decides to seek out all the people he's wronged over the years and correct his karma.

The pilot has a hangdog, "Raising Arizona" charm; my one caveat would be that it at times feels dangerously close to looking and feeling like "Ed," that NBC show a few seasons back about a guy named Ed who worked cute as a bowling alley lawyer. That whole show was so cute it was like how your teeth hurt after eating too much Cap'n Crunch.

And then I see, ominously, in my NBC notebook that one of the executive producers in fact has "Ed" on his resume.

On the "Earl" panel at 11, the "Earl" cast looks like a blue-collared-up "Friends," although no one's denying the power of Jason Lee with a thick mustache (cross Tom Selleck with a Fu Manchu) and Jaime Pressly's blondeness. Series creator Greg Garcia is told that buzz among the press is that it's the best pilot they've seen this year. "How important is that, to have the critics behind you?" Garcia is asked.

He gestures toward the idea of important critical acclaim, but what sticks out is this: "It's a lot more important that I have the audience behind me."

I want to ask a follow-up ("To clarify, Mr. Garcia, does that mean you're saying none of us have to be here, exactly? Because I missed my power sculpt class this morning...") but now someone's asking Pressly (white blouse and black choker, jeans, heels, for those scoring at home) what it was like to model at 14.

The cast of "Earl," we're told, will be at the NBC stars party Monday night at the Century Club. This evening there’s a thing by the pool here at the Beverly Hilton with the cast of NBC's "Vegas," apparently, but I don't know: I'm picturing a crowd of middle-aged men around Jimmy Caan, Caan regaling them with "Godfather" stories, sockless in Italian loafers, the press brushing aside the periodic ash from his cigar as he gesticulates.

NBC's list of first names
The network throws its hopes behind Martha, Earl and Joey, looking to pull back out of fourth
By Maria Elena Fernandez Los Angeles Times Staff Writer July 25, 2005

The NBC Self-Deprecation Tour made a pit stop at the Beverly Hilton on Sunday, where Kevin Reilly, the network's president of entertainment, faced television critics alone — top honcho Jeff Zucker sat in the back of the room — and compared NBC's last season fourth-place finish to undergoing a colonic.

"It wasn't a lot of fun to go through at the time, but it's going to be healthy in the long run," Reilly joked. "I do feel a thirst for creativity and a focus for getting NBC back on the leading edge. This is what is ultimately going to fuel our comeback."

The network's hopes are largely centered on two people: one known widely as Martha, the other just goes by Earl.

Martha is Martha Stewart, who is headlining the new version of "The Apprentice," in which contestants vie for a job at her very large company. Critics were not pleased that Stewart was a no-show at the press tour, but, explained Reilly, there were legitimate concerns, like that pesky ankle bracelet she's been wearing as an accessory lately.

"It came down to logistical difficulty," Reilly said. "With her limited time with her house arrest, trying to run a corporation, prepping two television shows and the awkwardness of satellite interviews, it just felt like logistically it was not going to put the whole thing in the best light."

In addition to the new installment of "The Apprentice," Stewart is working with NBC Universal and reality producer Mark Burnett on a syndicated talk show called "Martha," of all things. On "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart," Stewart will show a more vulnerable side, and she will have her own catchphrase, Reilly promised.

"My Name Is Earl," the other show Reilly seems most excited about, is a single-camera comedy about a crook who has an epiphany after he wins a small fortune in the lottery and gets hit by a car. Created by Greg Garcia, the comedy, which will be paired with "The Office" on Tuesday nights, is NBC's highest-testing comedy pilot in 15 years and one that NBC is banking on. Earl is played by Jason Lee, who described his hapless character as "not the sharpest spoon in the drawer" and said he cannot worry about the pressure for the show to perform well for NBC.

"Honestly, I'm just doing my job, really," Lee said. "I can't show up on the set every day with that in my mind. It would be just too distracting."

And then there's that other guy America knows as Joey. "Joey" didn't perform exceptionally in its first season, but Reilly thinks the future looks brighter not only for Joey (Matt LeBlanc) but for the network on Thursdays, even though there's new competition on the horizon from Chris Rock on UPN. This year, Joey is finally going to make it big in Hollywood, his nephew is moving out, and his sister is getting a job with his agent.

"As painful as last season was, it's healthy," Reilly said. "I feel a desire to say, you know what, we're in the advertising business, we need to sell ads, we need to comply with the FCC, but you know what, let's reach for the creativity. Let's try to find that explosive higher ground ... and if it means we're struggling a little bit in the short run with some advertising concerns, so be it. We got to get back, and we got to get popping."

For Fox, fall's death is greatly exaggerated

By Verne Gay Newsday (LI, NY) Staff Writer

Things change in TV Land. You get a huge hit ("American Idol"), then a couple of moderately big ones ("24" and "House") and before long, all that revolutionary talk about "rolling waves of schedules" goes right out the window.

Or, into the circular file.

Case in point: Fox, which recently announced that most of its schedule will roll out this September.

This may all sound particularly retro and un-Foxian to those readers with decent memories who recall that it was only a year ago when the network declared that fall is dead. Instead, Fox planned to roll out "waves" of shows, reasoning that viewers didn't necessarily wait for seasons to watch television ("The O.C.," a summer hit, was Exhibit A but watched TV throughout the year.

But the only waves Fox execs talk about these days are the ones rolling in at Venice Beach. So what gives? Preston Beckman, Fox scheduling mastermind, aka executive vice president of program planning, explains: "The difference between this year and the past few years is that we have more returning product and [we're] not relying on reality shows, which we felt - and we were wrong - could get going after baseball." In the recent past, Fox had promoted some high-profile scripted shows (for instance, "Skin") during the World Series, only to see them bomb in November - in part because baseball viewers weren't likely to watch them anyway.

Says Beckman, "It's clear to some of us that baseball is not really a launchpad for scripted or unscripted shows but an environment for baseball fans who go off and watch other things - and not necessarily network TV - after baseball."

Meanwhile, Fox has reliable hits ("House" bows Sept. 13) that can draw viewers.

And so, it's back to the future.

Who's doctoring reality shows?

By Verne Gay Newsday (LI, NY) Staff Writer

The word is "frankenbiting," and it's one of those delicious terms of art in the reality TV trade that means exactly what it implies: A producer on a show decides he or she doesn't like the way a particular taped interview went with a contestant, so "improvements" are made. A snip here, a snip there, a little highly selective editing, and -- presto! -- the "frankenbite" (as in "sound bite"), in which the contestant is made to say something that he didn't actually say.

This is sneaky, sure, but is frankenbiting a form of writing? Until recently, the question was mostly academic, in large part because most civilians didn't even know such a practice was commonplace on many reality shows. But two weeks ago, the Writers Guild of America/West filed a class action against four TV networks and four producers on behalf of a dozen aggrieved reality TV show "writers." The WGA claimed they were stiffed on overtime and benefits by big-time producers like Mike Fleiss, the man behind "The Bachelor" and gems like "Are You Hot?" Now, frankenbiting and other tricks of the trade are about to come under the microscope.

Why this isn't just another little hoo-ha in a land (Hollywood) where open warfare over the almighty buck is a form of blood sport should be readily apparent to anyone. If "writers" are doctoring reality shows, does that mean that they're (gulp) fake?

Certainly, no one should be shocked, shocked, to learn that there's some monkey business going on here. Moreover, no one should confuse "The Real Gilligan's Island" with, say, "Frontline." But reality fans might be surprised to learn just how much is, in fact, phony. And if this lawsuit goes to trial -- which is what the WGA/West wants -- they just might.

After a burst of initial press interviews, WGA boss Daniel Petrie Jr. (the "Beverly Hills Cop" franchise scribe), has fallen silent, but one of the plaintiffs in the suit -- Harmon "Todd" Sharp, who most recently was a "Bachelor" producer -- has not. He's held a number of interviews and, in a recent one with Newsday, said his first job on a reality show was "to write host narration, which is the only time they'll call you a 'writer' in reality TV. Other than that, they" -- show runners and the networks -- "will do anything other than call you a 'writer'... for the reason that they don't want anyone to think it's scripted."

In fact, Sharp says shows like "The Bachelor" are indeed "scripted," and about the only thing that isn't piped is the dialogue -- although, he adds, "if you want a conversation to happen, and it's not happening, we might stop the camera and say, ', we need you to talk about something ... '"

Sharp, who is one of an estimated 1,000 reality TV "writers," says a typical 42-minute episode has to be culled from hundreds of hours of tapes, so it is up the to the "writer" to structure a story out of this mishmash. "One of the arguments I've heard is that they say we don't actually write down dialogue, but my response to that is that if a writer were hired to adapt a book to a screenplay and didn't write any dialogue, then he'd still be called a 'writer.' That's what I do -- set the structure and story arc ... "

Sure, they can get a little carried away. (You know how these creative types are!) Sharp recalls an incident during a show he worked on called "The Dating Experiment," in which a female contestant despised a male contestant, whom she was supposed to like for purposes of the story. On camera, she was asked, "Who do you love?" and the answer was Adam Sandler. In the frankenbite, Sandler's name was dropped, and the hated contestant's name spliced in.

Michael Davies, one of TV's most successful game show producers ("Who Wants to Be a Millionaire") says his "suspicion" is that the WGA is "passionate about this because reality TV makes up a larger proportion of prime-time television than ever before and [as a result], there are less comedy writers working today than 10 years ago. So [the Guild] wants to get into reality."

But Davies also insists that the union hasn't opened a can of worms either: "The audience likes it when the content is pushed or manipulated. I don't particularly like it.

In case you missed my earlier posting. (And assuming you want to feel really old….)
Accordion Player Featured on Welk Show Dies

By Dennis McLellan Los Angeles Times Staff Writer July 24, 2005

Myron Floren, the accordion virtuoso who came to fame in the mid-1950s as a regular on "The Lawrence Welk Show," the long-running weekly musical program that brought "champagne music" into millions of American homes, has died. He was 85.

Floren, who continued performing until the last few months, died of cancer Saturday at his home in Rolling Hills Estates, according to Margaret Heron, syndication manager for the Welk show.

Dubbed "The Happy Norwegian" for his perpetual grin, Floren joined Welk's orchestra on the road in 1950. A year later, the orchestra made its first appearance on KTLA-TV Channel 5, broadcast from the Aragon Ballroom in Santa Monica.

Highly popular locally, the Welk program began its 27-year national run on Saturday nights in 1955, first on ABC-TV for 16 years and then, after the network deemed the show's audience "too old" and canceled it, in syndication on more than 250 stations around the country — more than had aired the show on ABC.

The wavy-haired, quiet-mannered Floren, the band's assistant conductor, was one of the most popular members of Welk's large musical "family," which included regulars such as singer-pianist Larry Hooper, singer Joe Feeney, violinist Aladdin, honky-tonk pianist Jo Ann Castle, dancers Bobby Burgess and Barbara Boyland, the Lennon Sisters and Champagne Lady Norma Zimmer.

The show, whose early years coincided with the rise of rock 'n' roll, was ridiculed by some at the time for being corny and square. And the strait-laced Welk's German accent, "wunnerful, wonnerful" catchphrase and bubble machine became comic fodder.

But the headline on a 1957 Look magazine cover story on the former North Dakota farm boy proclaimed, "Nobody Loves Him Except the Public." In fact, about 50 million Americans were tuning in to "The Lawrence Welk Show" each week at the time.

"Lawrence knew what his audience wanted," Floren told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1997. "He said, 'Our show has to be so that mothers all over the country will invite us into their homes.' "

The key to the show's remarkable staying power, Floren said, was that it offered continual music played by highly skilled musicians.

"Lawrence had the sense to hire fine musicians in every chair," he said. "It wasn't the corny band that people sometimes think."

At least not to polka lovers.

"I guess we did one practically every week," Floren once recalled. "I even remember an instance where we were saluting Duke Ellington and Lawrence added a polka just in case."

"The Lawrence Welk Show" ended in 1982; Welk died 10 years later at age 89. But the old programs were repackaged and premiered on public television in 1987. "The Lawrence Welk Show" continues to be seen on 280 public television stations a week.

After the show ceased production, Floren continued to travel 150,000 miles a year, playing special engagements and making appearances with other Welk show performers.

The son of a grain farmer and the eldest of seven children, Floren was born Nov. 5, 1919, in Webster, S.D. He fell in love with music at age 6.

"All the neighboring families would get together on Saturday nights, roll back the rugs and do a little dancing," he recalled in a 1997 interview with the Los Angeles Times. "The thing that intrigued me was this one neighbor who played a little button-box accordion. He played Scandinavian and German waltzes and polkas, and I just sat there watching him … completely fascinated."

His father bought him his first accordion a year later for $19.95. By age 8, the self-taught Floren was entertaining at the Bay County Fair in Webster.

After high school, he moved to Sioux Falls to attend Augustana College. Although he wanted to major in music, he couldn't afford the $25-a-semester piano rental, so he settled for an English major and music minor. To help pay for room and board, he taught music part time and played accordion on the local radio station.

Turned down for military service during World War II because of childhood bouts with rheumatic fever that damaged his heart, Floren joined the USO in 1944 and entertained American troops in Europe.

Back home in 1945, he married his wife, Berdyne, a former accordion pupil. They moved to St. Louis, where Floren joined a country group called the Buckeye Four, which performed on the Mutual Radio Network and on local TV.

Floren was still with the group in 1950 when he and his wife celebrated her birthday by going to a St. Louis ballroom where the Welk orchestra was playing. Floren had met the accordion-playing bandleader in South Dakota, and Welk invited him on stage to play.

He played a few numbers, including "Twelfth Street Rag" and "Lady of Spain," and the crowd response was so enthusiastic that Welk offered him a job at intermission.

As Floren frequently recalled, Welk's manager at the time told the bandleader, "Lawrence, this is a bad idea to hire an accordion player, especially one that plays better than you."

"And Lawrence, God bless him, says, 'Sam, that's the only kind of people I hire — the ones that play better than I do,' " Floren recalled.

In the 1997 Times interview, Floren remembered the time the Lawrence Welk Orchestra played for a crowd of 21,000 people at Madison Square Garden in the '70s.

"You could feel the electricity in the air," he recalled. "Lawrence and I were looking out at this crowd from the stage, and he leans over to me and says, 'Isn't it wonderful what can happen in this country to a couple of farmers from the Dakotas?' "

Floren never tired of playing the accordion for an audience.

"I'm going to keep squeezing this thing," he once said, "until nobody calls anymore."

Floren is survived by his wife, five daughters and seven grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

Peacock feathers ruffled
Reilly plans web's ratings comeback
By JOSEF ADALIAN, MICHAEL SCHNEIDER Variety.com

As the Peacock sets out on the path to ratings recovery, NBC Entertainment prexy Kevin Reilly said Sunday the network had finally conquered the first step: denial.

Speaking to reporters at the TV Critics Assn. summer press tour, Reilly admitted that last season NBC had convinced itself things weren't as bad as they seemed -- until the net ended the year in fourth place among adults 18-49.

"There was denial," he said, dumping the former NBC party line of "parity" among the Big Four. "That's human nature. We all believed that we could do something. We had enormous, history-making hits going away. We needed to reseed them. It didn't happen, and now we are where we are. (But) it's like a weird monkey off our back, in a way."

At the same time Reilly was admitting to the Peacock's poor health, he also unveiled an ambitious slate of new midseason and fall 2006 projects designed to speed up the recovery process.

Among the highlights: a non- "Law & Order"-branded skein from Dick Wolf that's been put on the fast track to production and a two-series deal for Frank Darabont. Reilly also has given cast-contingent pilot orders to four comedy projects as the net quickly looks to beef up its dwindling laugh reserve -- even if it means reviving projects from other nets.

With NBC Universal TV topper Jeff Zucker ceding the stage for the first time, a solo Reilly put a brave face on the collapse, arguing that it led to a "kick in the ass that is going to get us back in the game."

"Last season, for us, was kind of a colonic," he said. "It wasn't a lot of fun to go through at the time, but it's going to be healthy in the long run. It literally took any residual sense of entitlement or complacency at our company and blew it out, so to speak."

Reilly said he now felt "a thirst for creativity and a focus for getting NBC back on the leading edge. But the fact is we have some significant underlying challenges. ... These are going to take time to fix."

Asked about NBC's big declines at the upfront advertiser marketplace, Reilly said he was encouraged by GE's decision not to dramatically react to NBC's drops. The exec said NBC planned no layoffs, although some positions may wind up empty through attrition, and the net may instill some hiring freezes.

"I've been very heartened by the fact that there has not been a knee-jerk reaction to our problems right now," he said. "We've been on top for a long time. We've thrown off a lot of revenue for them over the last decade, and there's an acknowledgement that this is a down cycle and we're looking to tighten the bottom line."

The exec also called recent rumors of his potential demise at the net a "character builder."

"That stuff goes on," Reilly said. "You expect it. ... When you take these jobs, you feel under the gun. I can't imagine more support than what I've been given by GE and NBC. I do feel we can get on it now. These are the facts. Let's fix it."

Zucker, who spoke to reporters later, flatly dismissed the idea that he'd be making any changes at the top of NBC Entertainment, adding Reilly has job security.

"He hasn't asked for any reassurance and he doesn't need any reassurance," Zucker said. "Those are just the games people play in this town."

Reilly and Zucker said the upfront drop -- which they contend was lower than the widely reported $1 billion figure -- were cushioned by the success of other NBC Universal TV divisions.

"The importance and beauty of the merger is borne out here," Zucker said. "Bob Wright foresaw the importance of that. We need more resources than ever."

That includes the marketing realm, as NBC plans to take a page out of the Alphabet marketing playbook. Peacock has bumped its fall promo budget by 30% and will focus the bulk of its efforts on three new shows: "The E-Ring," "My Name Is Earl" and "Surface."

NBC also has given Reilly more money to develop more projects now, rather than just for next season.

On the programming front, Reilly said he and Wolf met earlier this month to discuss the final fate of "Law & Order: Trial by Jury." There had been some talk of continuing the series on cable, but Reilly said he and Wolf "both agreed" it was best to move forward.

Out of those discussions, Reilly and Wolf began to focus on the idea of constructing a series revolving around assistant district attorneys. "It's an arena where the rose-colored glasses of the law come off quickly," Reilly explained. Wolf had a writer in mind, and suggested using the elaborate "Trial by Jury" courtroom sets for the new project, rather than tearing them down as planned.

Reilly expects a script in six weeks and said it's likely the project will quickly move to casting and production. Current plan is to not make the series part of the "L&O" brand.

Also on the drama front, Peacock's deal with Darabont calls on him to create and write one drama himself, while supervising production on another hour.

NBC also formally announced its Irish mob pilot from scribe Paul Haggis ("Million Dollar Baby," "Crash"), which now has the title "The Black Donnellys" (Daily Variety, June 28).

On the comedy side, Reilly said four half-hour projects have been given cast-contingent pilot orders and are in various stages of development, while two other already produced pilots remain hot:

"Father of the McBrides," from David Israel and Jim O'Doherty, revolves around a blue-collar family man with a rebellious teen daughter and a not-so-bright brother. NBC U Television Studios is producing.

Reilly has picked up a former ABC project by longtime comedy scribe Mike Markowitz ("Becker," "Duckman") that's being produced in conjunction with Brillstein-Grey.

Tentatively titled "Bearaboo 2010," from scribe Cheryl Holliday ("King of the Hill"), is set in a small town that has aspirations of hosting an upcoming Winter Olympics.

A second script for "I Love Faron Hitchman," ordered to pilot last season, is in the works.

Matt Tarses-penned "Filmore Middle," starring Justin Bartha, remains close to a series pickup, while Reilly remains high on the untitled David Guarascio-Moses Port comedy (formerly "Lies and the Wives We Tell Them To").

Reilly said the summer orders are meant to send a signal to scribes that the Peacock is always looking for new material, no matter where it comes from. Indeed, immediately after the May upfronts, he told his development team to begin looking around town at projects that had been abandoned by other nets and studios with an eye on finding a diamond in the rough.

"We're trying to chum the waters," he said, adding he's not too proud to pick up what others have passed on.

He also said he wants more writers to consider submitting spec scripts, knowing NBC will give such ideas equal weight with those projects developed inhouse. As for the heavy comedy development, Reilly said he's hungry to return Thursday to a four-comedy lineup.

Elsewhere Sunday, Reilly announced fall reality skein "Three Wishes" will air Fridays at 9 p.m., swapping slots with "Dateline," which will air at 8 p.m.

Peacock is sticking to a conventional premiere-week lineup, with all of its new fare and most of its returning skeins bowing the week of Sept. 19. The exceptions: "Biggest Loser" will return Sept. 13 with a 90-minute seg, while the 30-minute live "Will & Grace" event airs Sept. 29.

Looking ahead to November sweeps, "SNL: The '80s" airs Nov. 13; a new take on "The Poseidon Adventure" is slated for Nov. 20; and "10.5: Apocalypse" will air Nov. 27 and 28 (9-11 p.m. both nights).

Hoping to mix things up on returning shows, Reilly said "Joey" will get a makeover, as Matt LeBlanc's character finally lands a movie role and hits the bigtime; also, "The West Wing" may extend its election storyline deep into the season. As for midseason, Reilly said at least one show could bow by November, with another in January and the bulk launched on the back of the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics.

The Games should boost NBC's season perf, but Zucker conceded that recovery could take several years.

"Whether that means things get worse before they get better, we don't know," he said.

The WB, NBC must aim young
CBS remains oldest-skewing b'caster during 2004-05 season

By RICK KISSELL variety.com

NBC and the WB, both coming off tough seasons, will look to rebound in the fall by adding younger viewers.

These nets have seen their median ages rise in the past couple of years as they've been unable to replace aging hits with new successes. Sure, they're losing viewers of all ages, but they're shedding advertiser-friendly younger viewers at a faster clip.

Overall, according to a report by Magna Global based on data from Nielsen, top-rated CBS remained the oldest-skewing broadcaster during the 2004-05 season, with a median age of 51.8 (down from 52.9 a year ago) but NBC is gaining on them at a record-high 48.0 (up from 45.9).

ABC is stable at 45.3, followed by Fox (38.2), the WB (35, an all-time high) and UPN (32.9), which is the youngest broadcaster for the first time.

NBC's older skew is due to the loss of "Friends," its youngest show, but also because of sizable ratings declines for hits like "Will & Grace," "The Apprentice" and "Fear Factor."

Net's decision to not go forward with the fourth "Law & Order" series ("Trial by Jury" was canceled after half a season) was at least partly motivated by a desire to get younger. At 53.8, "TBJ" was the net's oldest scripted series.

It's also worth noting that the new shows that struggled for NBC last season were among its youngest-skewing ("Father of the Pride" and "The Contender") suggesting that it could be an uphill fight for the net to reach new, young viewers.

CBS can afford to remain slightly above 50 as long as it's so dominant in total viewers -- winning last season by the largest margin for any net in 16 years. Half of the Eye viewership may be 52 years or older, but the younger half of its audience is now so big that CBS is the net to beat in the prized 18-49 demo.

The WB's gradual aging is the result of losing one-third of its teen aud over the past three years. Net still possesses key series with median ages under 35 ("Smallville," "Gilmore Girls" and "One Tree Hill") but it also has some relative oldsters like "7th Heaven" (39.5) and "Everwood" (42.4).

Some other tidbits gleaned from the Magna Global data:

• A key indicator of a show that's on the downswing is if its median age has grown for three consecutive years. This means that while its core aud aged, the program was unable to recruit new viewers. Such shows heading into the 2005-06 season are "Fear Factor" (40), "Law & Order" (52.3) and "West Wing" (53) on NBC; "7th Heaven" and "Reba" (40) on the WB; and "Survivor" (44.7) on CBS.

• CBS comedies like "Everybody Loves Raymond" (50.4) and "King of Queens" (47.2) look spry in syndication, where they're surrounded by younger shows. Syndie "Raymond" comes in at 44, syndie "King" at about 39.

• Fox, like NBC and the WB, is at its oldest median age ever -- but this is not a liability. The Murdoch net continues to easily stand as the top-rated net in viewers 12-34, so a slightly older skew is actually advantageous. Contributing to the aging is "American Idol" (38.6), which remains powerful among young adults but is adding more 50-plus viewers with each season. Also, one of the shows to emerge a hit behind the music phenomenon, "House," is now the net's oldest show (44.6).

• The WB's two most successful comedies of the past few years have vastly different audience profiles, with "Reba" at a median age of 40.0 and "What I Like About You" at 31.2. This has made it tough to find a hit show that fits between the two, something "Twins" will try to accomplish this fall.

'Guy roles for women' on CBS this fall

By Doug Elfman Chicago Sun-Times Television Critic

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- This fall, several new shows that put women at the core of action, drama and comedy are on CBS -- a network with a female president of entertainment. These characters aren't just half of a couple, or another meowing neighbor on the block. They're leaders in charge of large responsibilities and their own complex lives.

In "Threshold," the main character is a contingency analyst who is asked to stop space invaders from killing our species. A soldier-type guy tells her, "You just became the most important person on the planet."

On "Close to Home," the lead is a prosecutor who puts away creeps while storing her breast milk in a work fridge.

And on "The Ghost Whisperer," Jennifer Love Hewitt passes messages from ghosts to humans, while also running a small business and a new marriage.

"They're guy roles for women," Hewitt says of this bumper crop of acting parts.

Even on two new sitcoms with ensemble casts, the women have dominant roles, at least in the pilots. On "Out of Practice," Stockard Channing rules whatever room she is in and emotionally towers over her ex-husband, played by Henry Winkler. On "How I Met Your Mother," Alyson Hannigan plays a sexual assertive, and Cobie Smulders is the one who tries to get her date drunk.

CBS isn't marketing these shows for having girl power. Maybe the "year-of-the-woman" campaign has been used so many times before, it can't bear being repeated when it's applicable now? Or has women's equality actually arrived on TV, and we can stop taking count of gender leads?

I asked several of the actresses for their thoughts:

Jennifer Finnigan, "Close to Home"

Q. There are so many lead female roles going on right now.

A. It's a new wave. I don't want to say it's the next pseudo form of feminism, but frankly, it's refreshing. It's nice to see. I think our show in particular is very relatable and very timely, because it deals with this working mother, this woman who really wants to believe [that] she can be just as good of a prosecutor as before, even now that she's a mom.

It's so amazing to me that this hasn't been portrayed that often on television, and it's what so many women are going through. And it's so possible to do both equally as well. To me, it's inspiring. I can't tell you how many women have come up and grabbed my hand and said, "I started crying in the first five to 10 minutes of the show. It's really my life."

Q. Here's another thing, though. You and Jennifer Love Hewitt and some other women in these roles are crying in the pilots. You don't see men cry a lot in pilots.

A. That's true. Usually, you work up to it. For my character -- I can't speak for Jennifer -- but when women first have babies and they're still breastfeeding, their hormones are way out of control, and that's addressed a couple of times in the pilot. Her hormones are all over the place.

There's no part of my character that's a caricature. She's not the vamp, or the good girl, or the housewife. She is truly every woman.

Jennifer Love Hewitt, "The Ghost Whisperer"

Q. There are a lot of female leads right now.

A. Because women. Kick. Butt!

Q. You're part of that.

A. Now I just have to be the one that doesn't fail, and then I'll be fine.

Q. You're crying a lot in the show. Do you take that emotion with you when you go home?

A. You actually get rid of it. ... This show is great for me in that way, it's very cathartic. I get a lot out through [the character] every day, which is lovely. So I actually get to go home and do the opposite -- I get to go home and just breathe and be happy.

Q. Will such a heavy part affect your acting?

A. I do think that I have an immense opportunity to become a better actor on this show, because to play her I have to be an incredible listener, which is hard to do as an actress, sometimes. You hear the lines 17,000 times in a day, you know? But you have to be a great listener every time. That's what [the character] does for these people.

Aisha Tyler, "The Ghost Whisperer"

Q. A lot of shows have strong women this year. What's your reaction?,

A. Yeah, absolutely. I think maybe in the past, television networks didn't think that men would watch strong women. But I think you have a lot of shows on television now that have women in the leads. And they're doing really well.

Q. The women that are in these shows are, like, women saving the world. They're not hookers with a heart of gold.

A. No, it's a far cry from "Pretty Woman," or even strong women in movies from 10 years ago or five years ago who were being saved by men. I think there's a trend now that it's the women who are saving the world. You have movies like "Kill Bill," and you have movies like "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider." ... They're not screaming and shrieking while the guy comes and lifts up the car and chases away the bad guy.

Essentially, in three of the last four roles I played, I was a multi-degreed scientist. And some woman [asked], "Are you upset about being typecast as a scientist?" I was, like, "Is a black woman upset because she keeps getting cast as someone with a Ph.D? I don't think so."

Carla Gugino, "Threshold"

Q. Are there more strong women on TV now?

A. I do think in the last five years or so, television has gotten some really strong characters. ... They have popped up in television in different areas, more so than in film, unfortunately.

Q. Some years, it's a wife character, which isn't bad. But ...

A. But it's not the person who's driving the action. And I think it's important too that lead female characters -- certainly with [her character] Molly -- is that she's a very strong character and very effective, but also very much a woman. I feel like, often in film and television as in life, when women want to be strong or powerful, they take on some of the worst characteristics of men, instead of actually realizing they can be sexy, they can have all the female qualities and also be very strong. That is an interesting thing that seems to be emerging right now on television more than it has been.

Q. You don't cry in your pilot, whereas other women do.

A. There'll be some breakdowns because the situation would be massive for anyone. I think she is more of an emotionally connected character. But Karen Sisco [the federal marshal Gugino played in a short-lived ABC series] -- she was like Robert Mitchum. She very rarely cried. There were a lot of conversations about "Can she cry more? She's not crying enough." And it was really important to me [to say] no. That woman got Scotch in her apartment alone and thought it through. She didn't cry. That was the way she got through stuff. Molly is a different character and has different circumstances.

Kimberly Elise, "Close to Home"

Q. You described your character as a dream character, so I was hoping you could describe what makes (her) that kind of character ... and what it is about the stereotypes of other characters you've played or seen that you don't like.

A. It's no secret that people of color are very absent on television, and certainly when we are on television, they're very one-dimensional, and sort of an outside view of who we are. And I was given an opportunity to work with some amazing writers who saw me and [offered the] opportunity to put out there the type of person I know, who is a human being and full of all kinds of emotions.

Television is such a powerful medium. We have the opportunity to show that to the world every week, something that is contrary to what is out there already. It's something I can't pass up. I feel it's sort of a responsibility of my own as a young actress [with] the weight that comes with being an actress of color. I know that in one evening, there's more people that are going to see me playing a positive, strong, intelligent, black woman.

TV Critics Tour Blog
By Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury-News Television Columnist

The new TV season: NBC fall lineup aims to stop the network slide -- sort of

You've got to give NBC entertainment boss Kevin Reilly some credit. Meeting with reporters today on The Tour, Reilly could have bobbed and weaved and spun tall tales about how things really aren't THAT bad at the network.

Instead, Reilly played damage control by admitting the damage. "We're in fourth place. So what are we going to do about it,'' he said right off the top.

"Well, first, let me tell you this about last season. While it was very tough sledding, the truth is that the kick in the ass is going to get us back on our game. Really, last season was kind of a colonic. It wasn't a lot of fun to go through at the time, but it's going to healthy in the long run.

"It literally took any residual sense of entitlement or complacency at our company and blew it out, so to speak.''

Well, OK, the colonic reference was a bit much just after breakfast. But Reilly was trying to make it clear NBC knew it slid last season and had to do something about it. He even went on to add (in a case of lowering expectations) that it would probably take more than a year to get things straightened out.

Which explains why the NBC lineup for the fall kept a number of returning series (notably the underachieving "Joey'') that might have been dumped in a fit of panic. Reilly wants time to develop more and better shows and is buying that time by keeping his lineup reasonably stable.

A season on the brink for NBC

By Gary Levin USA TODAY

LOS ANGELES — Even NBC admits there are no quick fixes for its ratings woes. Executives told TV critics here Sunday that it could be two or more seasons before the once-leading network can climb out of the ratings cellar.


But the situation will force a needed jolt of creativity: "Last season was like a colonic," NBC Entertainment chief Kevin Reilly says. "It wasn't a lot of fun to go through, but it's going to be healthy in the long run. The kick in the (pants) is going to get us back on our game."

Reilly acknowledged the obvious: that NBC didn't prepare for the end of Friends and the decline of ER, The West Wing and Law & Order. "We had enormous, history-making hits that were going away, we needed to reseed them and we didn't."

As a result, young-adult ratings fell 16%, and NBC dropped to fourth among that target audience last season after finishing eight of the previous nine on top.

The network that once ruled with Seinfeld has a new template for "cutting-edge comedies."

It's represented by the low-rated remake of British comedy The Office and the upcoming My Name Is Earl, described as a "subversive but sweet" comedy. It stars Jason Lee as a ne'er-do-well lottery winner who rights his past wrongs, and it will get NBC's biggest push this fall.

"Win, lose or draw, they are clear markers of where we want to go with the network in the future," Reilly says.

But the road to recovery may be long, thanks to aging hits, poorly received fall dramas and rivals' momentum.

There are more risks planned for midseason: The Book of Daniel, starring Aidan Quinn as a pill-popping priest; and The Black Donnellys, about Irish mobsters, from Paul Haggis.

NBC also is putting its faith in Martha Stewart with a syndicated daytime show and a version of The Apprentice (due Sept. 21), which Reilly says will show Stewart's "human" side.

Viewers "may know her company, they may buy her paint, but I don't think they know how her wheels turn." And "if they're expecting some sort of raging diva, they're going to be sorely disappointed."

TCA Summer Press Tour Notes
By Gary Levin and Robert Bianco USA TODAY

'Trial by Jury' sets get sudden reprieve

Dick Wolf wasn't happy when NBC canceled Law & Order: Trial by Jury, the fourth installment of his hit franchise, after just 12 episodes. But those Trial courtrooms may come in handy for a proposed new series about assistant district attorneys in New York. NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly says Wolf is behind the drama, being eyed for midseason, and in a departure for the prolific producer, will focus on its characters instead of sticking to ripped-from-the-headlines cases. The new show, yet untitled, would use Trial by Jury sets in Law's New York studio.

Bratt's sexy 'Ring':

NBC is relying on Benjamin Bratt to help bring audiences to its new Pentagon drama E-Ring. NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly referred to him as "a true leading man" and Bratt has certainly led his share of "sexiest man" celebrity lists.

So does Bratt like being painted as a sex symbol? "Not very. It's a pretty one-dimensional way to be looked at. I see myself as an artist, as an actor."

As for his E-Ring co-star Dennis Hopper, he sees himself "as a 13-year-old." "I feel terrific. I'm having a great time, and I'm going to create until they cart me away."

The latest TV drama from the Jerry Bruckheimer factory, E-Ring is billed as an inside look at the Pentagon.

Hair today ...

Success is in the details. At least according to My Name Is Earl star Jason Lee. To nail his first TV role as a slacker who seeks redemption, his facial hair had to be just right.

"We tried a Fu Manchu, but they thought I looked a little too shady," Lee says. "So we shaved the Fu Man and left Tom Selleck."

'Joey' makeover:

Joey Tribbiani finds success in an effort to generate some for NBC's Joey, the Friends spinoff that has proved a creative and ratings disappointment. In a one-hour second-season opener Sept. 22, the struggling actor gets a big-time movie role and a scheming buddy (yet to be cast) who eggs him on while riding his acting coattails. Sister Gina (Drea De Matteo) goes to work for Joey's agent Bobbie (Jennifer Coolidge), while his nephew Michael (Paulo Costanzo) moves out.

As for his E-Ring co-star Dennis Hopper, he sees himself "as a 13-year-old." "I feel terrific. I'm having a great time, and I'm going to create until they cart me away."

Hopper has been one of favorites since Easy Rider, I think I have enjoyed almost everything he has done.

It will be interesting to see him play a very establishment character!

Stung by Last Season, NBC Sees More Tough Times Ahead

By BILL CARTER The New York Times July 25, 2005

LOS ANGELES, July 24 - In an effort to lower expectations for the coming television season, Kevin Reilly, the president of entertainment for NBC, told reporters at a news conference here Sunday that the network might not achieve any ratings improvements soon, and said that NBC was altering the outlook for its financial prospects.

"This season may not see a turnaround for us," Mr. Reilly said.

NBC was the leading network in ratings and profits over many of the last 20 years, but its position tumbled from first place to fourth among broadcasters for the season that ended in May. As a result, its take of the so-called upfront market, where advertisers pay in advance for fall prime-time shows, plummeted by close to $1 billion.

Mr. Reilly said, "We had a tough upfront," adding that the fall-off, while considerable, did not reach $1 billion.

NBC will undergo some belt-tightening, he said, though "no layoffs are planned right now." Some positions will be lost through attrition, he said, and there will be some hiring freezes. But he said that NBC's management, as well as that of its parent, General Electric, had increased the budget for show development in an effort to find the hits NBC needs.

"I'm very heartened by the fact that there has not been this pouncing, coming in with a dull knife to start hacking away," Mr. Reilly said, noting that G.E. was accustomed to business cycles. "We have thrown a lot of revenue to them over the last decade and there's an acknowledgment that this is a down cycle."

NBC is already preparing many new series, Mr. Reilly said, in an effort to replace hits like "Friends," and "Frasier" that it lost in recent years.

Mr. Reilly also promised a change in attitude at the network. He said that NBC had been humbled by the previous year. "That sense of entitlement, of who we think we are, is gone. After being on top so long, he said, maybe you lose your competitive edge; maybe you're a little blind to some of your weaknesses," he said.

Now, Mr. Reilly said, there is recognition that "the facts are the facts" and NBC has to face them and not try to talk or brag its way out of difficult situations. "We are not going to continue pounding our chest," he said.

Licking and Salting War's Open Wounds

By ALLISON HOPE WEINER The New York Times

LOS ANGELES, July 24 - This show doesn't have a lawyer plunging to her death down an elevator shaft. It doesn't have a foul-mouthed cop making broadcasting history by mooning more than 20 million viewers. What it does have - and what makes it unmistakably a Steven Bochco production - is plenty of button-pushing. It's called "Over There," and it's a television drama that takes direct aim at the single most polarizing subject in the United States right now: the war in Iraq.

Mr. Bochco's show, making its debut on Wednesday night at 10 on the FX cable channel, tracks a squad of eight young American soldiers (played mostly by unknowns like Josh Henderson, Luke MacFarlane and Lizette Carrion) as they battle insurgents in the blazing deserts outside Baghdad (actually, it the show is shot outside Los Angeles, near Lancaster, Calif.) while their families wrestle with their own challenges at home. Mr. Bochco pointedly avoids plotlines about the politics of this war; most center on more intimate human dramas, like one black soldier's distrust of authority and his white superiors. The show is bound to shock and awe viewers just the same.

"You're going to get controversy no matter what," said Mr. Bochco, who has courted it throughout his career with shows like "Hill Street Blues," "L.A. Law" and "NYPD Blue." "We'd get less controversy if we made an overt political statement about the war because half the people will agree with us and the other half will dismiss us. The controversy really comes when you present something like the Iraq war in such a nuanced way that it presses everybody's buttons a little bit. Now you've got a game."

Other television shows, like "M*A*S*H" and "China Beach," have ventured onto battlefields, but never while a conflict was still happening in real time, while real American men and women were targets. The concept was so provocative and dangerous that not even Mr. Bochco was convinced at first that it was such a hot idea.

"Steven was reticent to get involved in something that might devolve into a political football," said John Landgraf, president and general manager of FX, who pitched the series to Mr. Bochco. "But 'Hill Street Blues' was the trailblazing series that brought that complex character orientation and frankness to a drama for the first time. It was the progenitor of everything that we're doing at FX."

FX has blazed a few trails of its own, even before working with Mr. Bochco, with series like "Nip/Tuck," "The Shield" and "Rescue Me." And that reputation ultimately proved irresistible to Mr. Bochco, who has produced some shows that changed television forever, and a few, like "Cop Rock" and "Blind Justice," that did not.

The success stories have left a lasting imprint on the medium. "L.A. Law," in which the conniving lawyer Rosalind Shays (Diana Muldaur) took her fatal elevator-shaft plunge, was the first show to tackle previously taboo topics like lesbian relationships, workplace discrimination and living with mental retardation. It was also one of the first dramatic series to feature an unapologetically amoral main character like the divorce attorney Arnie Becker (Corbin Bernsen). "NYPD Blue" was an early dramatic series to use brutal language and gritty cinematic visuals to heighten the realism of the storytelling. There have been less innovative shows along the way, but at this point in his career, Mr. Bochco does not really have anything left to prove. Nevertheless, he remains fearless in a field where fearlessness is seldom considered a good career move.

"Given the givens, Iraq is not a subject area that network television would be comfortable exploring because of the potential for conflict and controversy," Mr. Bochco said, sitting back on the sofa in his spacious office on the 20th Century Fox lot. "Controversy doesn't sell soap. But even if a broadcast network made the show, I still couldn't use the language that I use at FX. I wouldn't be able to show the reality of the kind of violence that exists in that form of combat. So what you'd wind up with would be a much, much paler version of 'Over There.' "

Even on FX, the show treads carefully. "Steven and I were definitely concerned about what to do about the politics," says Chris Gerolmo, co-creator, executive producer and director. "We decided to tell these stories about these young people and how they're trying to live through the day. It's not a show about policy makers or policy questions."

Not that politics is ignored. On the contrary, all points of view are represented, with each of the show's characters spouting off on subjects from the Abu Ghraib prison to the 9/11 attacks. "The difference in 'Over There' is that the characters tend to have different beliefs, much like the country," said Erik Palladino, who plays Chris Silas, known as Sergeant Scream. "The politics are ambiguous. The show doesn't come out one way or another."

Still, it's hard to imagine the show not stirring up water-cooler debates about the war. "This is the first time on television that we're seeing a female character in combat," said Ms. Carrion, who plays Esmerelda Del Rio, one of the squad's soldiers. nicknamed Doublewide. "Women in combat is a hot issue. I play this woman who is not afraid to get down and dirty and knows she can handle whatever comes down the pike."

The challenge for Mr. Bochco is that in Iraq nobody really knows what is about to come down the pike. As the real war unfolds for viewers on CNN and other 24-hour news outlets, how will he keep up? For that matter, how can he possibly compete with the drama of reality?

"I understand that this is an incendiary subject and that there will be families of people in the military who don't want to watch this," he said. "I get that. But the fundamental drama of this war is no greater or no less than the daily ongoing urban war that's occurring in our own backyards. Nobody told me not to make 'NYPD Blue' because it was about an ongoing urban war."

Actually, somebody did. Even before "NYPD Blue" had its premiere on ABC in 1993, protests erupted over its graphic content, raunchy language and nudity. Several big advertisers bolted, and more than one ABC affiliate initially refused to broadcast the show. But protests about the content of "Over There" will probably only encourage FX to keep it on the air.

"They're actually trying to put shows on their network that are viscerally engaging and that will generate a disproportionate response relative to the size of their audience," Mr. Bochco said. "That's how you brand yourself and get out there. People today are looking at FX and saying that it's starting to feel like HBO did in the beginning."

This show may make people regard Mr. Bochco the way they did when he started pushing buttons on television nearly 25 years ago. It certainly seems to be having a rejuvenating effect on the producer. "Years ago," he said, "Norman Lear said to me: 'Don't think that because an audience is angry at you that they hate what you're doing. Don't be afraid of that, and don't feel like you have to make nice with everybody. If the audience is angry, it's because you've engaged them in some fundamental way.' "

"I'm not afraid of anything when it comes to this show," Mr. Bochco said with a confident smile. "It's only television."

TV Critics Tour Blog
By Melanie McFarland The Seattle Post-Intelligencer Television Critic

Salting the peacock's tail

We have a week to go, and we're pretty much finished being polite. Around here that means talking smack about a series or a network within earshot of executives, producers, even the sensitive talent, and not caring how they feel about it.

In other words, NBC arrived just in the nick of time.

NBC had a rough year. The network lost close to a billion dollars at the upfronts in May; canceled every new show it premiered in 2004-2005 except for "Medium" and "Joey," the second of which should be dead; and finished the season in fourth place.

Such news made the evil jackals within us begin salivating. Every press tour, you see, NBC Universal executives Jeff Zucker and Kevin Reilly make a grand entrance, strutting around the stage while talking about the old rules no longer applying and lying through their teeth about how tremendous their schedule is.

This wild arrogance even continued through last year, when the network was stinking worse than Kevin Federline's feet. That, my friends, is plain delusional behavior. If Tom Cruise were a network, he would be NBC.

Thus it was something of a shock to see Reilly, NBC's president of entertainment, humbly walk onstage alone on Sunday morning. Then he admitted to his network's failures.

To continue the TomKat metaphor, he appeared to be where I imagine Katie Holmes will be, emotionally speaking, in about five years. That is, repentant and full of regret at having force-fed her lapse of reason to the public.

"Really, last season for us was kind of a colonic. It wasn't a lot of fun to go through at the time, but it's going to be healthy in the long run," Reilly said. "It really took any residual sense of entitlement or complacency at our company and blew it out, so to speak."

Having planted that delightful image in our heads minutes after many of us had consumed bran muffins and coffee, he tiptoed through the Peacock's plans.

NBC's season officially starts Sept. 19. The final season of "Will & Grace" kicks off Sept. 29 with a live episode directed by James Burrows, guest starring Alec Baldwin and Eric Stoltz. Two versions will be shot, one for each coast, with different jokes for each broadcast.

The network also has projects in development with Paul Haggis ("Million Dollar Baby," "Crash") and Frank Darabont ("The Shawshank Redemption"). Reilly then announced NBC's pick-up of two more dramas: "Windfall," about a group of friends who win a $386 million lottery jackpot, and "Book of Daniel," starring Aidan Quinn. A reality series called "Treasure Hunter" also is in the works.

Finally, Reilly exhibited cautious optimism regarding "My Name is Earl," which debuts at 9 p.m. Sept. 20, and will be paired in the hour with another season of "The Office."

Apparently "Earl" was the highest-testing comedy in 15 years -- meaning, a group of strangers who watched it in a dark room somewhere liked it more than lots of other junk, including "Friends."

Again, Reilly didn't admit that until someone asked him about it, and he refused to see too much into "Earl's" test score. "Medical Investigation" probably tested well, too. Look at where that got him.

He didn't mention other comedies NBC is holding back for midseason, including "Four Kings" and "Thick and Thin," neither of which is worth getting excited about.

In fact, Reilly didn't give us many direct answers to our questions. The only "scoop" we found out about "The West Wing," for instance, is that it has a 22-episode commitment, and that it will run straight through except for a few interruptions. No news about when the Bartlet administration might make its exit or anything along those lines. He didn't even have Martha Stewart's "Apprentice" catchphrase to share.

This bored us. Boredom leads to surliness. And a surly critic is a rude critic.

"Why is it so hard right now for NBC to make a good comedy?" somebody asked. "... Are we really to believe that 'Thick and Thin' is one of the three best comedies you had this year? And if so, what's the problem?"

Reilly did a softshoe around the question before fielding the next one.

"Kevin, I don't think I've ever seen NBC seem as 'I'm humbled' as you were when you came out to talk to us. I think in January you were still kind of in denial," another obviously emboldened soul asked. "When did this set in, this realization? And seriously, how tough is it to concede these points and say, 'Hey, we may not have hit bottom yet and we're in trouble?'"

Ouch!

"Well, it's human nature. There was denial. There was denial. That's human nature," Reilly said with a nervous smile. "... At this point in time, just the fact is the fact ... we had enormous, history-making hits going away. We needed to re-seed them. It didn't happen, and now we are where we are. I can tell you, it's like a weird monkey off my back, in a way."

There was more. "Do you personally feel under the gun?" "Thursday night, aren't you just wasting a season here? You've got all shows down-trending."

I almost felt sorry for the man.

But then, what does Reilly expect? Zucker was in Reilly's position from 2000 until last year -- he was named president of NBC Universal's Television Group upon Reilly's arrival -- and did not bring a single bona fide hit to the network during his tenure. Zucker set NBC up for the downhill slide Reilly has inherited. We shouldn't be surprised the new entertainment president hasn't yet found a way to stop its skid.

The surest thing NBC has in the works is -- what else? -- another Dick Wolf project. It won't be under the "Law & Order" umbrella, especially since "Trial By Jury" didn't perform as expected. Wolf was quite ticked off at the fourth "Law & Order's" cancellation, Reilly added. So to ease his annoyance, NBC is putting the producer's new show on the development fast track.

"We have a tremendous amount of business we're going to do with Dick," the executive said.

Look at that statement in another way, and it pretty much sums up the state of things at NBC, too.

Was this so hard for CBS suits to anticipate?
Why would a CBS affiliate want to air four hours of a competing network's programming?
It is obvious what Viacom gets out of the deal, but what is in it for the affiliates?
Anyhow, the first rumblings come from Florida:

Surprise, CBS! Some Stations Don’t Want To Air UPN’s “Veronica Mars”
The mystery is afoot over 'Veronica' airing
By Hal Boedeker Orlando Sentinel Television Critic July 25, 2005

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- Critics say the nicest things about Veronica Mars, but viewers haven't flocked to the series. UPN is moving to make the girl gumshoe better known -- and angering some competitors.

In an unusual move, sibling network CBS will present four hours of Veronica Mars: two from 8 to 10 p.m. Friday and two more at 8 p.m. Aug. 5 and 12. Media conglomerate Viacom oversees both CBS and UPN.

"We really feel like the more people we can get to see it, the better our chances of making it against Lost," series creator Rob Thomas says.

But Henry Maldonado, general manager at CBS affiliate WKMG-Channel 6, isn't sure he'll air the episodes. He says the CBS affiliate board is discussing the issue with its network.

"It is something anathema to us to promote any station that competes with us," Maldonado says. "We think it's a dangerous precedent. The network has another agenda. We are trying to get them to see it could hurt us."

Veronica Mars airs at 9 p.m. Wednesdays on WRBW-Channel 65. The series starts its second season Sept. 21. UPN will use tie-ins to hook fans of America's Next Top Model, which precedes the drama.

The first-season DVD, out in October, will recount how Veronica (Kristen Bell) solved her best friend's murder. The second-season mystery will be darker, and the cliffhanger about who appeared at Veronica's door will be quickly resolved, Thomas says.

"Veronica is going to be a senior this year," says Dawn Ostroff, UPN president. "She's going to start off wanting to be just a normal kid, not working in her dad's investigative firm. But clearly, that probably won't last very long."

In other developments, Veronica's dad, Keith (Enrico Colantoni), will be encouraged to run for sheriff again. Veronica's pal Wallace (Percy Daggs III) will have a girlfriend.

Thomas and Ostroff play down fans' concerns that UPN is interfering with the show's production. "The network isn't pushing us into anything we're not comfortable with," Thomas says.

Ostroff says she's thrilled with the script that opens the second season. "We've had a fantastic working relationship," she says.

Peacock looks to smooth feathers

By Kay McFadden Seattle Times TV critic

BEVERLY HILLS, CA — Sometimes, being a pooper can make you the life of the party.

NBC entertainment president Kevin Reilly duly impressed TV critics gathered here yesterday when he compared his network's performance last season to a "colonic."

"It wasn't a lot of fun at the time," he said, "But it's gonna get us healthy in the long run."

NBC finished fourth in ratings, a breathtaking descent for the former home of "Frasier," "Seinfeld" and "Friends" and the current address of "Joey," "The Apprentice" and "Will & Grace."

Reilly won appreciation from critics for telling us we were right (funny how that works) and for a confession about seeing our dire prophecies fulfilled. "I can tell you it's like a weird monkey off my back, in a way."

If the whole world handled the media like this, the world would be a happier place. We'd see to it. We'd be just like Earl, the payback-obsessed anti-hero of NBC's promising new comedy, "My Name is Earl."

Earl (Jason Lee) is a habitual layabout whose slatternly life is altered by a bizarre succession of influences: a lottery ticket, a reckless driver and a casual comment from talk-show host Carson Daly in regard to karma, which Earl thinks Daly has invented.

"My Name is Earl" has a corkscrew appeal that explains why critics are giving it good word. Still, it's about as far removed from NBC's traditional urban identity as an episode of "The Beverly Hillbillies," indicating a network in flux.

That might be to newcomer Reilly's advantage. NBC's decline gives him more freedom than if he had inherited a No. 1 network. He can play a little wet macaroni with new shows — throw them against the wall and see what sticks.

Audiences will benefit, too. Even if NBC's freshman crop appears mediocre, it contains variety. Besides the Fox-ish "Earl," there's the CBS-ish "E-Ring," the ABC-ish "Three Wishes" and even the NBC-ish "Surface."

The Peacock's newfound humility has other fortunate consequences. For instance, no more super-sizing.

That means shows actually will be on at 8 or 9 p.m. instead of 8:58 or 9:17, a gimmick that has enraged viewers and made grown TV-book editors cry.

Better yet, most returning series will be in familiar time slots. One exception is "The West Wing," moving to 8 p.m. Sundays when NBC rolls out its fall lineup beginning Sept. 19.

"Scrubs," another critic-pleaser, will be held until mid-season — which didn't please critics at all.

Nor did the absence of Martha Stewart, unavailable to do a satellite interview. (Perhaps the thingy on her ankle interferes with reception.)

So we'll have to wait to learn how her "Apprentice" will differ from The Donald's and why on earth America needs both.

Reilly didn't say if NBC would resist the usual tactic of tricking up its regular series with continuity-destroying special guest stars during sweeps.

He did preview November highlights: the miniseries "The '80s;" a remake of "The Poseidon Adventure;" and a disaster-flick sequel called "10.5: Apocalypse." (Perhaps the earthquake will topple something really big this time, like the monorail budget.)

Here's the rest on NBC's fall prime-time:

"E-Ring" — A military drama set at the Pentagon and starring Benjamin Bratt as a U.S. Army Major in the Green Berets overseeing a clandestine special-operations unit, with Dennis Hopper as his boss. Could satisfy that missing hole for "JAG" fans; the pilot's being re-shot after a decision to make Bratt a single man instead of father and husband.

"Surface" — Originally called "Fathom," but the new title is more apt, given NBC chief Jeff Zucker's reference last spring to "that historic NBC quality veneer." It's NBC's "Lost" effort at sci-fi, involving an abandoned submarine and Something Down There. Ensemble cast with Lake Bell, Jay R. Ferguson, Rade Serbedzija and Carter Jenkins.

"Inconceivable" — It's the whimsical, touching and contrived drama of doctors at a fertility clinic. Shamefully, I got sucked into this weird hybrid of "Nip/Tuck" meets "Grey's Anatomy." With Ming-Na, Jonathan Cake, Angie Harmon, Alfre Woodard and a cast of dozens, all of whom will have sex with each other in years to come if the show lasts.

"Three Wishes" — A reality series hosted by Amy Grant, who goes from town to town with an NBC crew making wishes come true for three deserving residents. Isn't her name perfect for this show? What if there are four deserving residents?

Howard Stern Spurns Spike, Serious About VOD TV

Host in Talks With Comcast for Trailblazing Video Version of Radio Show
By James Hibberd TVWeek.com

Howard Stern, the controversial self-proclaimed King of All Media, is in talks to move the television version of his popular radio show to Comcast Cable and other multiple system operators, to be aired on a subscription video-on-demand basis, according to sources familiar with the situation.

Such a move would be a watershed moment in the history of VOD. Mr. Stern could attract around 1 million VOD subscribers across the country, sources estimated.

"Having Howard Stern on subscription VOD is a killer application for the platform," said Cathy Rasenberger, a cable distribution consultant. "It would draw a lot of viewership. It would be as big a coup for Comcast as it was for Sirius."

In January Mr. Stern will move his free, over-the-air weekday radio show to the subscription Sirius satellite radio service.

Oddsmakers previously counted on Mr. Stern moving his TV show-which ended its long run on Comcast-owned E! Entertainment TV last month -to Viacom's male-targeted Spike TV, which has made a bid for the program. But Mr. Stern has "left that table, at least for now" and is instead negotiating with Comcast and other MSOs, sources said last week.

Until now, VOD has been used mainly for movies, back episodes of popular series and promotional material and as a last-ditch home for the occasional start-up network that can't otherwise get wide cable carriage.

For Mr. Stern, VOD not only would represent an analogous distribution model to his Sirius show but also would be a potential solution for two problems that have plagued his basic-cable program: content and advertising.

Even as a spinoff of his regular public-airwaves radio program, E!'s "The Howard Stern Show" was awash with censoring pixels and bleeped words. As a premium offering, his new Sirius show promises to be even raunchier. Because VOD is a premium service that requires some kind of additional payment (individual or subscription), Mr. Stern would presumably have free rein. Even in conservative communities, VOD has emerged as a way for cable operators to offer soft-core porn and other controversial material.

Mr. Stern already offers uncensored broadband video versions of his E! series for $4.95 per episode on his Web site, howardstern.com.

The other problem Mr. Stern faced at E! was a lack of big-name advertisers, despite having the top-rated show on the network. For an entertainer who has legions of hardcore fans but few advertisers willing to be associated with his program, a subscription VOD model could make financial sense. It could potentially be very lucrative for Mr. Stern and his associates.

"He's cutting out the middle man," said one source close to the negotiations. "It makes the most sense for him financially. He knows his audience supports him and the VOD scenario will maximize that."

Ms. Rasenberger said there is no boilerplate VOD financial arrangement. But suffice to say Comcast would have to pay Mr. Stern a significant sum to carry the show. That could include a shared-revenue arrangement.

"It's very new territory; they don't have a standard model," Ms. Rasenberger said. "Comcast is acquiring content and making it up as they go along."

Comcast is the nation's largest VOD provider, with on-demand service available to about 8 million subscribers. Mr. Stern probably would be allowed to shop the show to operators in non-Comcast markets, essentially breaking ground as a new kind of one-man network.

Representatives of Spike TV and Mr. Stern had no comment. A Comcast spokesperson said, "We are not going to comment on programming rumors and speculation."

Sunday’s network prime-time ratings have been posted at the top of Latest News the first item in this thread.

(From Marc Berman’s Programming Insider column of Monday, July 25, 2005 at Mediaweek.com)

LIVE FROM THE TCA SUMMER PRESS TOUR IN LOS ANGELES

The WBOpening Executive Comments

As always, the WB kicked-off the day with a series of zingers from PR maven/comedian extraordinaire Keith Marder (who should be in front of the camera, not behind it). According to Marder:

“I always knew Tom Cruise would end up with someone from Dawson’s Creek. I just thought it would be James Van Der Beek.”

“Katie Holmes – she looks in love, to me. If she was this good an actress on Dawson’s Creek she would have won an Emmy.”

“Now I know what is on the bottom of the hatch on Lost. Shannen Doherty’s career.”

“After watching I Want to Be a Hilton, this hotel wants to be a Marriott.”

As for the serious business of the day, let’s get into the executive session with Garth Ancier, Chariman, the WB; and David Janollari, President, Entertainment, the WB. Unlike CBS and UPN, the WB’s executive meeting was spaced after panels for Just Legal and Twins. After another season of no new breakout hits, its back to the drawing board for the WB, which remains committed to broadening its demographic profile. According to David Janollari:

“The prime demographic that we have held and sell has always been people 12-34 and even, more specifically, adults and women 18-34. Since so many of our successful shows have been set in high school, I think that has contributed to the perception that we were really just a teenage service. The strategy is to make sure that we are a destination for the 25-34 demographic as well. For every Don Johnson, there’s a Jay Baruchel. For every Melanie Griffith, there’s Sara Gilbert and Molly Stanton.”

Added Garth Ancier:

“One of the things we kept getting back in research over the last couple of years was that the audience does not yet perceive the WB as ‘for me.’ We have always done well in the 12-24 range, but not as well among viewers 25-34. And we are trying to change that perception.”

As bold as that sounds, what the WB unfortunately learned this season is that changing your image is no easy feat, particularly when you are known primarily for one brand of programming -- angst driven teenage dramas. Although competitor CBS, once the home to older viewers only, now competes for dominance among adults 18-49, it took years to broaden its image. While nothing is impossible, patience – and plenty of it -- had better be a virtue at the WB.

In other news at the network:

-A rumored Angel movie is not in the planning stages at the moment.
-The rift between Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and Rory (Alexis Bledel) on Gilmore Girls will play out as the series progresses next season.
-26 episodes (as opposed to the typical 22) have been ordered for One Tree Hill.
-Only 13 new episodes to-date have been ordered for Blue Collar TV.
-The symbol of the frog that helped launch the WB no longer exists.

Joked Garth Ancier:

“The frog was on life support for a long time and then we got permission from a federal court to remove the feeding tube.”


On the WB Panel Front:

JUST LEGAL
Monday 9 p.m.

The Premise:
Busy producer Jerry Bruckheimer shifts gears in this light legal drama with Don Johnson as a down-in-his-luck ambulance chaser who tries to mentor a young and brilliant legal prodigy (Million Dollar Baby’s Jay Baruchel).

Lead-in: 7th Heaven
Competition: Monday Night Football (ABC), Two and a Half Men/Out of Practice (CBS), Las Vegas (NBC), Prison Break (Fox), Girlfriends/Half & Half (UPN)

In case you are wondering what it is like to be associated to the red-hot Jerry Bruckheimer, according to Jonathan Shapiro:

“The involvement of Jonathan Littman and Kim Metcalf and all the people at Bruckheimer, including the man who claims to be Jerry Bruckheimer, has been wonderful. The show looks and feels like a movie. It is very exciting to be able to have your material enhanced by the genius of that company. It’s been great.”

Considering how hard it was for the WB to find a compatible show out of 7th Heaven (remember dramas Safe Harbor, Hyperion Bay, Glory Days, Roswell, Rescue 77, and Three?), aging Don Johnson in search of his third regularly scheduled hit series may have to keep looking. While you certainly can’t blame the WB for getting into business with Jerry Bruckheimer (who also has a sitcom in development with the network in midseason), considering this is his ninth current show, how involved will he actually be?

Chance of Survival for Just Legal (Based on a scale of 1-1 to 10-1): 7-1

Did You Know?:
Don Johnson got an early start on the small screen in an episode of Eight is Enough as Mary’s (Lani O’Grady) boyfriend.

TWINS
Friday 8:30 p.m.

The Premise:
In the battle of brains versus beauty, Sara Gilbert (Roseanne) and blond Molly Stanton play two twin sisters who look and act completely different. Considering the parents are played by Melanie Griffith and former Perfect Strangers star Mark-Linn Baker, it’s all in the genes!

Lead-in: What I Like About You

Competition: Supernanny (ABC), Ghost Whisperer (CBS), Three Wishes (NBC), The Bernie Mac/Malcolm in the Middle (Fox), WWE Smackdown! (UPN),

Who Was On the Panel:
Melanie Griffith, Mark-Linn Baker, Sara Gilbert, Molly Stanton and executive producers Dave Kohan and Max Mutchnick.

The Scoop:
When asked if she would prefer being a tall blonde sometimes, here is what monotone Sara Gilbert had to say: “Well, you know, I guess I wouldn’t choose to be a short brunette if I was developing my plan in life. But, you know, when you look at what happens in your life on a bigger picture, it ends up making sense. Like, for my career, it’s kind of perfect the way I am. Things that you think are liabilities end up working in your favor.”

The Reality:
Although I can’t say I am a fan of either Melanie Griffith or Sara Gilbert, the pilot is a hoot and both normally grating actresses are…well…funny. With minimal expectations airing out of the low-rated What I Like About You, all Twins has to do to survive is hold the lead-in, which is by no means difficult to do. While two-time ex Don Johnson is likely to come and quickly go on Just Legal, Griffith would be wise to unpack her bags.

Chance of Survival for Twins (Based on a scale of 1-1 to 10-1): 3-1

Did You Know?:
Melanie Griffith’s first attempt at a regularly scheduled sitcom was ABC’s Carter Country in 1978-79.

RELATED
Wednesday 9 p.m.

The Premise:
The live and loves of four very different sisters (Jennifer Esposito, Lizzy Caplan, Kiehle Sanchez and Laura Breckenridge) is the focus of this ensemble drama.

Lead-in: One Tree Hill
-Competition: Lost (ABC), Criminal Minds (CBS), E-Ring (NBC), Head Cases (Fox), Veronica Mars (UPN)

Who Was On the Panel:
Jennifer Esposito, Laura Breckenridge, Lizzy Caplan, Kiehle Sanchez, Callum Blue and executive producer Marta Kaufmann (via satellite).

The Scoop:
Since the comparison to NBC’s Sisters was inevitable, here is what Marta Kaufmann had to say:

“Sisters was a melodrama, and this is a comedy with certain dramatic overtones. It doesn’t have the sappier sentiment that Sisters did, and they’re younger. I’m not sure that the sisters on Sisters saw each other naked. I think the Sorelli girls on Related have.”

The Reality:
Despite the compatibility to its lead-in, the relocated One Tree Hill is, unfortunately, not capable of anchoring an evening. Minus ample lead-in support and opposite five competing dramas in fourth quarter (including ABC blockbuster Lost), Related will probably be divorced by the WB by the end of the season. Once American Idol moves back in the Wednesday 9 p.m. half-hour in midseason, Related will really feel the heat.

Chance of Survival for Related (Based on a scale of 1-1 to 10-1): 7-1

Did You Know?:
Prior to her recent recurring role on Judging Amy, Jennifer Esposito had a two-season gig on Michael J. Fox sitcom Spin City.

SUPERNATURAL
Tuesday 9 p.m.

The Premise:
Jared Padalecki (Gilmore Girls) and Jensen Ackles (Smallville) play two young brothers who carry on their missing father’s quest to seek out justice and silence the supernatural forces responsible for their mother’s murder 20 years earlier.

Lead-in: Gilmore Girls
-Competition: Commander-in-Chief (ABC), The Amazing Race (CBS), My Name is Earl/The Office (NBC), House (Fox), Sex, Lies & Secrets (WB)

Who Was On the Panel:
Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, and executive producers McG, Eric Kripke, and Bob Singer.

The Scoop:
As for how Supernatural will be different from the glut of other science fiction shows this fall, according to McG: “This is a show that is designed to make it difficult to go to sleep the night after you watch it. Like, if you’re watching it by yourself, you’re in trouble because you’re going to be looking behind the door, your mind is going to be playing tricks on you a little bit. So when Eric first started talking about that idea, I said, ‘Hey, that’s not on the air. Let’s get that done. Let’s make it feel like cinematic television.’”

The Reality:
While you can’t blame the WB for trying to capitalize on the science fiction craze, do two brothers battling supernatural forces really sound like an appropriate fit out of those chatty Gilmore Girls? A better move might be to flip Supernatural with Everwood (which is moving to Thursday at 9 p.m.), with the compatible Smallville as its lead-in. As difficult as it would still be for Supernatural to find an audience opposite CBS’ CSI and NBC’s The Apprentice, the audience flow makes more sense. Even so, if the quality of the series is anything near the “A” level pilot, keep an eye on Supernatural.

Chance of Survival for Supernatural (Based on a scale of 1-1 to 10-1): 5-1

Press Tour Tidbits: Notes of Interest

Felicity: An American Girl Adventure on the WB, the WB’s second made-for movie based on the popular American Girl characters, will debut on Tuesday, Nov. 29 at 8 p.m. ET.

[ Beauty and the Geek – Season Two: [/COLOR][/B]
A national casting tour for season two of reality series Beauty and the Geek will kick-off in Nashville on Saturday, July 30. Next is Chicago on Sunday, July 31 followed by Atlanta (Aug. 3), Dallas (Aug. 6), Kansas City (Aug. 7), Charlotte (Aug. 11), Houston (Aug. 13), Miami (Aug. 14), Boston (Aug. 18), New York (Aug. 27), and Los Angeles (Aug. 31).

WB Casting News:
Veteran Charmed, which returns this fall for season eight, will add two new faces to the mix – Kaley Cuoco (8 Simple Rules) as a young witch, and former Sex and the City co-star Jason Lewis in a six-episode story arc. Extra co-host Mark McGrath will not be joining the cast as originally reported. In addition…

Jamie Lee Kirchner will join the cast of new drama Just Legal as Dulcinea “Dee” Cruz, a tough and beautiful ex-criminal who works for the law firm as a receptionist.

Tom Wopat will reunite with former Dukes of Hazzard co-star John Schneider in an episode of Smallville next season

Haley Duff will guest star in 13 episodes of the underrated 7th Heaven as a young pregnant woman.

Speaking of 7th Heaven:
After nine successful years, the little drama that could is finally getting the respect it deserves from the WB. At a panel featuring stars Stephen Collins, Catherine Hicks, David Gallagher, Beverley Mitchell, Mackenzie Rosman, George Stults, Tyler Hoechlin and executive producer Brenda Hampton, it looks like the clan called Camden could be around for several more years. “I think we can do it as long as all these people want to do it,” said Brenda Hampton.

Despite the success of 7th Heaven, family oriented dramas, unfortunately, remain obsolete.

“I would think the networks would want to buy another family show from me,” said Hampton. “I’ve had 10 years of success with this one. But I can tell you that every year, I go in and pitch family shows, and networks just go ‘Uh.’ I don’t know if there’s a market for them.”

Although former co-star Barry Watson (who is heading to ABC in a new drama in midseason) may be coming back for an episode or two, there is no hope of Jessica Biel reprising her role as Mary.

“I think this season we have no hope of getting Jessica back,” notes Hampton. “We would love to have her back, but she’s a very busy lady.”

NBC: Day One
Opening Executive Comments

Considering NBC has slipped from No. 1 to No. 4 among adults 18-49 in a few short years, the once overly confident Peacock net took a kindler, gentler approach with the critics this year. According to NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly (who flew solo, and should not be blamed for all the wreckage):

“While it was very tough sledding, the truth is that the kick in the ass is going to get us back in our game. I do feel a thirst for creativity and a focus for getting NBC back on the leading edge. Yes, the four-way race is tight and anything can happen. But because we have some specific underlying challenges, these are going to take time to fix. Our management is clear on this, and they have committed the resources and support for me and the entire NBC team to help turn this around.”

Continued Reilly:

“This season may not be a turnaround for us, but we are looking to upgrade some time periods. We’re looking to improve the audience flow. And we’re looking to light the spark on NBC cutting-edge television.”

Although NBC is positive on Joey (“I wish I heard storylines this good last year,” noted Reilly), and Will & Grace will open with a live episode, let’s be honest -- both sitcoms are dead. And too many aging former hits, too much Law & Order, a declining The Apprentice, and the inability to utilize the once plum Thursday 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. half-hours has diluted NBC’s overall presence. While it’s fair point out that this is a cyclical business where dominance -- and deterioration -- is only temporary, NBC’s fall from grace only proves you can never rest on your laurels. As good as shows as ER and The West Wing once were (and I stress were), they are not enough to mask the embarrassment the network is facing at this Press Tour.

Since rebuilding a schedule can be time consuming, NBC had better be patient because ABC’s rise and CBS’ consistency will likely thwart the network’s attempt to stop the bleeding in 2005-06.

In other news at NBC:

-Although no individual series premiere dates have been set, the network has confirmed that most new and returning series will launch the week of Sept. 19.
-Dateline and upcoming reality hour Three Wishes will flip time periods. Dateline will open Friday at 8 p.m., followed by Three Wishes at 9 p.m.
-22 new episodes of Scrubs have been ordered despite not airing until midseason.
-My Name is Earl is the network’s highest testing comedy in 15 years.
-No company layoffs are planned despite the monumental loss of ad revenue at the recently concluded network upfront.

As for The Apprentice: Martha, which remains clouded in mystery, according to Reilly:

“The mechanics of the show are pretty much the exact same. But the tone of the show, the cast of the show, and the look and feel of it are quite different. And I will say that Martha is not hamming it up. She is really playing as though she is interviewing somebody for a job, and the candidates are very impressed with her. And you’re seeing a vulnerable side to Martha. She does show and reveal certain things that I think are on a very personal level.”

On a word of advice to NBC, even if Martha sparks interest the first time around (and I personally believe she will), keep this a one season series. Like the Donald who would never admit to defeat, the novelty on this latest edition of The Apprentice will likely wear off quickly.


On the NBC Panel Front:

MY NAME IS EARL
Tuesday 9 p.m.

The Premise:
After winning the lottery, a bully and low-rent crook (Jason Lee) decides to right the wrongs he has committed in his life.

Lead-in: The Biggest Loser
Competition: Commander-in-Chief (ABC), The Amazing Race (CBS), House (Fox), Sex, Love and Secrets (UPN), Supernatural (WB)

Who Was On the Panel:
Jason Lee, Jason Pressly, Eddie Steeples, Ethan Suplee, Nadine Velazquez; creator/executive producer Greg Garcia; and executive producer Marc Buckland.

The Scoop:
In the event you are wondering what the pitch process is like, according to Greg Garcia:
“I actually pitched this show to Fox in the fall of 2003 and they passed. I still felt it was a series, so I woke up every morning at 4:30 a.m. before I went to my other job and I wrote. And two weeks later I finished the script and gave it back to Fox. And a couple of them then thought it was a series, but as it went on up the ladder there, they passed again. And then that development season, it didn’t get picked up anywhere. And I thought it was over and then had lunch with some people at NBC who complimented me on the script and I said, ‘Well, let’s do it.’ And to their credit, they agreed.”

The Reality:
Since I have criticized NBC for years for sticking to a familiar format in sitcoms, I commend the network this time for trying something original. Blue-collar populated My Name is Earl is not only funny, it does not look anything like a typical NBC sitcom. Given the current state of NBC, however, finding an audience for Earl will take plenty of patience (and a ton of promotion). What might work in its favor is being the only network comedy in the time period, and respectable lead-in support from The Biggest Loser. What won’t is facing The Amazing Race and House.

Chance of Survival for My Name Is Earl (Based on a scale of 1-1 to 10-1): 5-1

How’s This for a Blast from the Past?:
Although NBC historically is known for upscale skewing comedies, one that dared to be different in the fall of 1973 was Lotsa Luck, with Dom DeLuise as a bachelor who made his living as the custodian of the New York City bus company. Are there any other fans of Lotsa Luck out there?

SURFACE
Monday 8 p.m.

The Premise:
A variety of individuals including a family in San Diego, naval officers in the South Antarctic Sea, scientists from the Oceanographic Institute and fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico encounter seemingly innocent creatures living under the sea.

Competition: Wife Swap (ABC), The King of Queens/How I Met Your Mother (CBS), Arrested Development/Kitchen Confidential (Fox), One On One/All of Us (UPN), 7th Heaven (WB)

Who Was On the Panel:
Lake Bell, Jay R. Ferguson, Carter Jenkins and creator/executive producers Jonas Pate and Josh Pate.

The Scoop:
While I personally would have scheduled Surface in a later time period, according to Josh Pate:

“I think our show is a big family adventure. We’re going after a really different tone. It’s about awe and wonder and people always want to know if the specifies is good or bad. It’s not like a ‘Body Snatcher’ situation.”

As to why the producers chose Surface as the new name (which was changed due to legal complications):

“We really liked Surface because beneath the surface there is the kind of mystery that doesn’t tell you whether the species is a good or bad thing,” said Pate. “So we just went in that direction.”

The Reality:
Although current occupant Fear Factor is down, it is by no means out, and is likely to return to the hour by November if the awkwardly scheduled Surface fails to generate interest. While the plan is for Fear Factor to take over for The Biggest Loser once the reality series concludes on Tuesday, if I were NBC I would get started on a third season of the weight loss competition now. Viewers will doubtfully want to kick off the workweek with a science fiction drama at 8 p.m.

Chance of Survival for Fathom (Based on a scale of 1-1 to 10-1): 9-1

Did You Know?:
The last time NBC opened the season with something of a science fiction nature in the Monday 8 p.m. time period was in 1975 with The Invisible Man.


E-RING
Wednesday 9 p.m.

The Premise:
Benjamin Bratt (Law & Order) and Dennis Hopper (Easy Rider) join forces in this new political drama from CSI creator Jerry Bruckheimer about the inner workings of the Pentagon.

Lead-in: The Apprentice: Martha Stewart
-Competition: Lost (ABC), Criminal Minds (CBS), Head Cases (Fox), Veronica Mars (UPN), Related (WB)

Who Was On the Panel:
Benjamin Bratt, Dennis Hopper, Aunjanue Ellis, Kelly Rutherford; executive producers Ken Biller and Jonathan Littman, and co-creator and executive producers David McKenna and Ken Robinson.

The Scoop:
The financial life of a TV actor -- here is what Dennis Hopper had to say about accepting a role on a regularly scheduled television series:

“Well, you know, I took a tremendous pay cut. I’m probably dropping about one million-and-a-half dollars a year taking this job. So it’s not the smartest move in the world economically for me, but I chose to do this. This is what I’m doing.”

The Reality:
While it is understandable that: a) NBC is looking for its next hit political drama, and b) was willing to move deteriorating The West Wing to make room for it, finding an audience (opposite five other competing dramas, including ABC’s Lost) will be a challenge. Factor in Fox’s American Idol returning in midseason and Dennis Hopper might be looking for an Easy Rider revival sooner than he might think.

Chance of Survival for E-Ring (Based on a scale of 1-1 to 10-1): 7-1

THE BIGGEST LOSER (returning)
Tuesday 8 p.m.

[COLOR=limegreen Competition: [/COLOR] According to Jim/Rodney (ABC), NCIS (CBS), Bones (Fox), America’s Next Top Model (UPN), Gilmore Girls (WB)

Who Was On the Panel:
Trainers Bob Harper and Jilliam Michaels; season one contestants Ryan C. Benson and Kelly Miner; and executive producers David Broome, JD Roth and Ben Silverman.

The Scoop:
Although The Biggest Loser at first glance looked like nothing more than another sleazy reality series, according to JD Roth: “I think the message of the show is to be healthy. And if you’re overweight, it’s a lot more difficult to be healthy. We are not looking for people who are overweight and happy. We’re looking for people overweight and unhappy. That’s the idea of the show -- people who want to make a change. That’s why we had over 150,000 people apply to be on The Biggest Loser 2. “

The Reality:
Instead of rushing season two of The Biggest Loser on the air after the first edition clicked last winter, NBC was wise to wait until the fall to introduce season two. In the world of small screen television, absence can often make the heart grow fonder, particularly for a reality series that has successfully snuck in under the radar. If NBC plays its cards right, The Biggest Loser can last for years.


THE OFFICE (returning)
Tuesday 9:30 p.m.

Lead-in: My Name is Earl
-Competition: Commander-in-Chief (ABC), The Amazing Race (CBS), House (Fox), Sex, Lies & Secrets (UPN), Supernatureal (WB)

Who Was On the Panel:
Steve Carell, Jenna Fischer, John Krasinski, BJ Noval, Rainn Wilson and executive producers Greg Daniels and Ben Silverman

The Scoop:
Since The Office has been compared to sitcom Cheers, which also started out slowly, NBC should keep in mind that Cheers did not find a mass sized audience until its third season in 1984-85.

The Reality:
Although I respect NBC for bringing back anything but typical The Office, like Scrubs before it (which sunk so low in the ratings it is currently on hiatus), something this original, this fresh and this clever is unlikely to click because it does not resemble a “typical” network sitcom. Considering NBC has struggled for four seasons trying to get viewers to find Scrubs -- and they haven’t -- the last thing it needed was another critically acclaimed, minimally sampled sitcom.

But Henry Maldonado, general manager at CBS affiliate WKMG-Channel 6, isn't sure he'll air the episodes. He says the CBS affiliate board is discussing the issue with its network.

"It is something anathema to us to promote any station that competes with us," Maldonado says. "We think it's a dangerous precedent. The network has another agenda. We are trying to get them to see it could hurt us."

Yada, Yada ... This is a perfect reason to 'stop worrying and love the TiVo.' I wonder what my local CBS/UPN affiliate will do, (since they already compete against themselves.) :)

FX’s Over There to Bow on DirecTV

By Mike Reynolds multichannel.com

DirecTV Inc. subscribers are going to get Over There first.

The direct-broadcast satellite leader will premiere the highly anticipated, Stephen Bochco-produced Iraqi War drama series Monday and Tuesday, two days before it bows on FX, its linear network home.

The sneak preview is now available to the 2 million “DirecTV DVR with TiVo” customers, according to distributor officials. FX and DirecTV are part of News Corp.’s Fox Entertainment Group.

Additionally, in the first promotional gambit of its kind, all of DirecTV’s 14.5 million customers will get a chance to preview the best and brightest from networks’ upcoming fall slates beginning next week.

Starting with Fox and running from Aug. 1-7, DirecTV subscribers also will get free, 30-minute samplers from CBS, NBC, ABC, UPN and The WB Television Network, as well as Showtime (Aug. 8-14) and Home Box Office (Sept. 5-11). Subscribers will be able to screen the highlights for one week through Sept. 29 (UPN is up last) on channel 101.

The sneak previews will also be pushed to DirecTV DVR with TiVo subscribers as part of an on-demand showcase. The programming will be stored on customers’ hard drives for one week.

NBC: Think of it as a year to rebuild
Chastened: New boss Kevin Reilly sees flat year

medialifemagazine.com---Jeff Zucker baked the humble pie. Now NBC entertainment president Kevin Reilly is eating it.

Yesterday, Reilly admitted to reporters at the summer Television Critics Association press tour that NBC is indeed in rebuilding mode a year after Zucker insisted NBC could still compete for No. 1 among adults 18-49. It finished No. 4.

Reilly, in his first TCA appearance without Zucker since his promotion in May 2004, compared last season to a colonic and said the network had been in denial about just how bad things had gotten.

He insisted that now NBC is not expecting a quick turnaround and that the 2005-’06 season will be another rebuilding one. He even addressed rumors that Zucker plans to replace him if the season doesn’t start well, calling them a character-building experience.

“I don't know if you're going to see a ratings difference this year,” Reilly insisted.

But while Reilly said all the right things, as Zucker looked on from the back of the audience, it seems NBC really does have some ambitions for this season.

The Winter Olympics will give the network a boost in February, and Reilly said he will launch up to four new sitcoms soon after. Playing up the humility theme again, Reilly noted that one of its midseason orders, “Windfall,” was passed over by Fox and another, an untitled show from Mike Markowitz, was developed by ABC.

Other new sitcoms include “The Black Donnellys,” from “Million Dollar Baby” writer Paul Haggis, “Father of the McBrides,” about a blue-collar family,” and “Bearaboo 2010,” about a small town that wants to host the Olympics.

The network also ordered a new non-“Law & Order” drama from Dick Wolf focused on assistant district attorneys.

“Three Wishes,” the Friday reality series getting good buzz, will air an hour later, at 9 p.m., swapping places with “Dateline.” Most of NBC’s shows will return the week beginning Sept. 19, though “Biggest Loser” will premiere Sept. 13 and “Will & Grace” returns with a live episode Sept. 29.

NBC has scheduled three specials for November sweeps: “SNL: The ‘80s,” for Nov. 13, “The Poseidon Adventure,” Nov. 20, and “10.5: Apocalypse,” Nov. 27 and 28.

Reilly also promised some tweaks to second-year “Friends” spinoff “Joey,” which struggled in its first year to the point that many questioned Reilly’s decision to keep it on Thursday nights.

Joey will finally hit it big as an actor, and his nephew will move out of his apartment. Joey’s sister, played by Drea de Matteo, will take a job with his agent, Jennifer Coolidge.

Also, “The West Wing’s” election plotline probably won’t be resolved by November. And Reilly said he’d like to return to NBC’s traditional four-sitcom format on Thursdays, pushing the original “Apprentice” to another night, though he did not set a timetable.

Reilly said the network is focusing most of its preseason promotions on its three most promising shows, “E-Ring,” “Surface” and “My Name is Earl,” following the successful route ABC took with “Desperate Housewives” and “Lost” last year.

NBC Chief Zucker Backs Reilly

By Ben Grossman Broadcasting & Cable

NBC Universal Television Group President Jeff Zucker gave NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly a vote of confidence Sunday, while saying he did not expect ratings for the fourth-place network to turn around this season.

Speaking after Reilly's session with television critics in Los Angeles,
Zucker dismissed rumors of Reilly's job being in any jeopardy.

"He hasn't asked for any reassurance and he doesn't need any reassurance," said Zucker. "There are no issues, whatsoever. Those are the games played in this town."

During his session with the media, Reilly was questioned about those rumors. "It's weird," he said. "That stuff goes on. It just goes on as part of the business. It's kind of strangely a character builder. You expect it."

Both Reilly and Zucker, who did not hold a formal session with the media,
spent Sunday morning pushing the new company line of humility first and
trying to lower expectations for any sort of a turnaround this season.

"I don't know what the ratings will be, but there is no question that we
understand we're in a downturn right now and that doesn't turn around
overnight," Zucker said.

"There is an understanding that these things take time. We are fortunate that the rest of the company is performing as well as it is, that makes that a little easier to swallow."

Peacock Got Prime Time Colonic

Reilly opened his presentation Sunday by telling the media, "Really, last
season for us was kind of a colonic. It wasn't a lot of fun to go through at the time, but it's going to be healthy in the long run. It literally took any residual sense of entitlement or complacency at our company and blew it out, so to speak."

During the session, Reilly also noted that no layoffs were planned as a
result of the network's sluggish upfront sales this year, which were
reportedly down nearly $1 billion.

But he said there would be "some natural attrition" and "probably some freezing in areas where we would maybe have added heads." He added that the network has "beefed up" the development budget and is making more pilots than last year

Reilly also said that after ABC had success last season by focusing its
pre-premiere marketing push on Desperate Housewives and Lost, NBC will
follow a similar strategy this year by highlighting Earl, Surface and
E-Ring.

TV Critics Tour Blog
By Mark McGuire The Albany NY Times-Union Television Critic
LOOK HERE! READ THIS! NO, HERE! PLEASE!

The cast from NBC's ''Las Vegas'' was present for a small poolside party Sunday night at the Beverly Hilton. It was low-key -- really, what is there to ask the cast of ''Las Vegas''? -- and relatively quiet.

Except for the shouting.

On the balcony above the pool, the stars entered through a phalanx of photographers, every one of whom felt compelled to shout ''LOOK HERE!'' ''OVER HERE, NIKKI!'' and ''JOSH, JOSH, JOSH!!!! ...''

Um, people: The actors weren't going anywhere. They want you to take the photo. It's not like the shooters had to capture the actors going into a supermarket with their kids.

It was a bizarre display of the paparazzi at work.

Personlly, I'd rather work the late shift at Burger King than do that for a living.

***

Every TCA Press Tour gets branded for a theme. The Year of Reality Shows. The Year of the Crime Drama. The Year Every New Show was Wretched.

That won a couple of times.

This is The Year of the Blog.

Many reporters and columnists have added a daily Internet component on top of their newspaper work. Most of the stuff you read in spaces like this are nuggets and items that wouldn't make it into a paper anyway.

Some is just unabashed naval-gazing. Personally, after a week of eating fried appetizers, I do NOT want to look at my midsection.

There is no consensus among writers on the new responsibilities. Some don't mind the extra work (put me here). Some hate it.

Some want to get paid extra.

Some think it's part of the future, and you better deal with it. And some think it will be the death of newspapers.

There is one national critic whom I can propel into spasms of rage just by saying the word ''blog.'' Don't worry, Robert, I won't mention names.

TV Critics Tour Blog

By Ellen Gray Philadelphia Daily News Television Columnist

VIVA LA 'L&O'

NBC only has so many hours in a week, but Dick Wolf's "Law & Order" franchise is spreading overseas, with a deal to create a localized version of "L&O: Criminal Intent" for the French network TF1.

"I think if it bears fruit in France, it's a pump-primer for the rest of the world," Wolf says.

In other words, we're talking world domination here, folks. Maybe even bringing a crime show-ridden galaxy to its knees.

Oh, sure, NBC canceled "Law & Order: Trial by Jury," but Wolf would have us believe that's just a blip on the Wolfian radar.

Yeah, he's bummed -- I thnk he used words like "incredibly disappointed" -- but he and NBC have an understanding about these things.

"This is much more like a long-term marriage with no possibility of divorce," he says. "We're stuck together."

But it's not the lack of sizzle in his business marriage that's behind that chip on Wolf's broad shoulders.

Asked to explain why a guy whose shows generally get well-reviewed so often seems to be annoyed with TV critics, he suggests that "what makes me angry is the lack of sophisticated business reportage."

In other words, as we rave about the "Desperate Housewives"-fueled comeback of ABC, we're apparently failing to mention, at least often enough to suit Wolf, that his NBC "shows generated $1 billion in revenue last year."

Other than that, "I'm not pissed off. I'm a very happy guy who has three shows on the air."

Well, that's a relief.

BABY TALK

"Twenty-five to 30 years ago, our characters borrowed a cup of sugar, and now they can borrow an egg. Or a uterus," declares Oliver Goldstick, co-creator of NBC's new fertility-clinic drama, "Inconceivable."

Goldstick, who, along with his partner, is expecting a second child through a surrogate mother, says his experiences with surrogacy, along with those of co-creator Marco Pennette, who shares the parenting of a daughter with his partner, inspired the series.

Under questioning, Pennette reveals that the neurotic gay guy in the pilot who harasses a surrogate mother, even going through her garbage to see what she's been up to, was loosely based on himself.

"I didn't go through the garbage," he said.

Star Ming-Na ("ER"), meanwhile, gets up to show us her stomach (she's expecting in October), but offers up no details about how the baby got here, bless her heart.

A show about conceiving babies, though, inevitably leads to working with babies, and it's not always easy, says Goldstick, noting that they use 3-week-olds and that the law limits their work to 10 minutes at a time, which is why they usually hire sets of twins and triplets.

"We knew this was a big trial, production-wise, but we've been doing very well," Goldstick says. "The babies have been very cooperative."

'LOST' AND FOUND MONEY

Yet another sign that ABC's "Lost," not "Desperate Housewives," is the most influential show of last season: NBC's just picked up "Windfall," a drama about 20 people who win a huge lottery.

Like "Lost," it features a large ensemble cast that could grow larger from time to time as the writers explore different lottery winners. It's serialized, and it's about people whose lives all change quite suddenly and at the same time.

That said, based on the five actors NBC brought here today to talk to reporters, these are, as one critic pointed out, the prettiest -- and youngest -- set of lottery winners you've ever seen.

Creator Laurie McCarthy says she was less influenced by "Lost' than she was by stories of large groups of "lunch ladies" sharing a winning lottery ticket, but clearly MCarthy doesn't know many lunch ladies.

One reporter notes that the ensemble includes two veterans of NBC's late, lamented "Boomtown," Jason Gedrick and Lana Parrilla, but there doesn't seem to be much of a message here, other than than in any cast this large, one or two are bound to have worked on "Boomtown," I suppose.

(From Marc Berman’s "Mister Television" column of Monday July 25 2005 at Mediaweek.com)
Meet The Press

By Marc Berman

While attending the Summer Television Critics Association Press Tour in Los Angeles is certainly nothing new (this is my sixth visit), bringing the family along makes it a brand-new experience. To calm my nerves, I thought of I Love Lucy, when Ricky went to Hollywood to film Don Juan and Lucy

and the Mertzes, Mrs. MacGillicuddy and Little Ricky tagged along.

"Don't fawn over the celebrities," I warned my family. "And don't order room service. We can't afford the Beverly Hilton Hotel."

My wife is no Lucy (she would never try to steal a cement slab from Grauman's Chinese Theatre), and I am no Ricky Ricardo (an aging Gomer Pyle, maybe, but the king of Babaloo—nah), but I knew this would be an interesting trip for all.

Two days into the tour, I was proven right. My three kids found themselves in the hotel pool with Angus T. Jones, the actor who plays the kid on Two and a Half Men. Heeding my warning, they played it cool, romping with a child actor. But they were thrilled. As for me, when I was introduced to Michele Lee, Joan Van Ark and Donna Mills, who are together again for the Knots Landing reunion show, I should have listened to my own advice.

Each network kicks off the tour—an extensive meet-and-greet of about 200 journalists and stars and behind-the-scenes people from new and returning shows—with an executive session, and each caps off with a party featuring the stars and, often, inedible food. Although Desperate Housewives, Lost, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Dancing With the Stars give ABC the most momentum, sure to create the biggest controversy is the network's cowardly decision to yank new reality series Welcome to the Neighborhood. UPN, meanwhile, is likely to have the liveliest session, courtesy of comedian Chris Rock's participation in sitcom Everybody Hates Chris.

Because only CBS had presented by deadline, I'll save further comments on ABC and the other networks for the next Mr. Television column.

But, what's up with CBS? While you can't deny the strength of the network (in addition to outdelivering second-place ABC by a hefty 2.7 million viewers in the traditional season, it trailed No. 1 Fox by only one-tenth of a rating point among adults 18-49), the network has OD'd on crime-solving dramas. CSI, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, Without a Trace, Cold Case, NCIS, Numb3rs, the upcoming Criminal Minds and Close to Home, plus the two-hour Crimetime Saturday rotation make up one-half of CBS' lineup. That's 11 hours of crime dramas.

As well as these shows are doing (Criminal Minds is one drama to keep an eye on, despite having to face ABC's Lost), once the audience loses interest, CBS could be up a creek without a paddle. Too much of a good thing can lead to overkill. ABC's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire fiasco is a good example of that.

A solo appearance by CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler was a gutsy move on Viacom's part. (The company did it again later in the week when UPN's Dawn Ostroff opened her session). Although Viacom honcho Les Moonves makes the biggest clinker sound like an Emmy favorite, Viacom is putting its entertainment heads front and center, letting those networks stand on their own. I was, however, frustrated by Tassler's often generic responses. For example:

"Are you at all concerned that the schedule has reached a saturation point with crime dramas?" asked one member of the press.

"Our viewers haven't told us that," responded Tassler, who should have openly admitted that CSI: NY and Numb3rs have lost steam. No network is perfect, and it's time they all stopped trying to be.

"Are you worried that the declining Friday night is following the same pattern as Saturday?" asked another.

"We're excited about the challenge of Friday night," countered Tassler, who would have come across as more sincere if she admitted that Friday night is becoming more difficult to program each year.

Sadly, the session that created the biggest stir was the Knots Landing reunion with the aforementioned Lee, Van Ark and Mills. As happy as I am to see the gang from Knots Landing back together, lack of enthusiasm for some of the other panels, including comedies How I Met Your Mother and Out of Practice, could be a matter of concern.

If CBS wants to stay on top, it needs to diversify its schedule. Creativity goes a long way; imitation doesn't.

(If the looming must-carry battle interests you, here is a look at many of its ramifications.
In my mind, that battle could well have a great bearing one what we will be able to see in the relatively near future via cable or satellite. But if you aren’t interested, move on) :)

Cable Networks' 2009 Wire Worry

By Anthony Crupi mediaweek.com

In the increasingly divisive battle between broadcasters and cable operators over digital must-carry (a conflict that has raged on a bit longer than World War II), no one has fired more shots in defense of the dog in the fight with the most to lose—small cable networks—than Burt Braverman.

As a senior litigator and partner in the Washington, D.C.-based law firm Cole, Raywid & Braverman, for the past seven years Braverman has filed a mountain of documents with the Federal Communications Commission arguing that forcing operators to go along with must-carry/dual carriage would spell certain doom for dozens of cable services.

As if the prospect of launching a new network in a 500-channel environment weren't daunting enough (one startup exec likened it to "starting up a restaurant…on Pluto"), the rapidly narrowing bandwidth pipe, constricted by the introduction of advanced digital services such as video-on-demand, high-definition TV and Voice Over Internet Protocol, is in dire need of a visit from Roto-Rooter.

That's where Braverman comes into the picture. In one of his first exchanges with the FCC on digital must-carry, back in October 1998, the attorney argued that the emerging E.W. Scripps networks Home & Garden Television and Television Food Network (now simply known as the Food Network) faced certain extinction should a digital must-carry requirement be adopted by the Commission. "Such a regime would [see] new cable networks…displaced by redundant digital signals of broadcast networks," Braverman wrote, adding that such an eventuality ran counter to the FCC's mandate that "cable communications provide…the widest possible diversity of information sources and services to the public."

Startup nets in 2005 may want to take a page out of the HGTV/Food Network playbook. While it was tough sledding seven years ago, the networks are now responsible for much of the recent revenue growth at their parent company. Reached on holiday in Dublin, Ireland, Braverman points out that much of this success has and will come about as a result of differentiating oneself and taking calculated risks.

"These networks are doing everything they can to prove their merit based on the quality and originality of their programming," he explains. "That's what distinguishes them from the homogeneity of the broadcast nets." True to form, just three years into its run, Food Net had already committed to running a programming slate comprised of 95 percent original fare, or 2,000 hours, and in so doing introduced the country to the likes of Emeril Lagasse and Britain's Two Fat Ladies.

Of course, all the excitable celebrity chefs on the East Coast aren't enough to level the playing field when operators are saddled with the redundancies of must-carry. "If you give broadcasters that double advantage, none of what you do on the programming side will be enough to overcome that advantage," Braverman says.

OLN senior vp of affiliate sales Becky Ruthven agrees. "We're all competing for finite space. Broadcasters have unfavorable positioning, and that's unfair to our industry," she says. As someone who sells a network with 90 percent analog carriage, Ruthven understands that there's little use in dragging one's heels on lining up for digital reassignment, especially when Washington is invoking the specter of 9/11. In late June, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said the completion of the analog hand-over is "the most critical communications issue facing the 109th Congress," as the freed-up spectrum is being earmarked in part for the use of emergency response and law enforcement. By way of introduction to his newly introduced Save Lives Act of 2005, McCain said, "Our nation can't wait any longer. I wish it could be sooner, but this presents the most reasonable deadline."

While the shift is inevitable, the interim between now and Jan. 1, 2009, when the analog spectrum gets handed over to the federal government, promises to be as orderly as the evacuation of a burning clown car. Many established analog nets are loath to budge, fearing that they'll only stand to lose a major chunk of their subscriber base. "With 63 million subs, we are not an emerging network," says Ruthven. "Because of this finite space, everyone is concerned that the existing nets will be pushed over to lower-penetration digital tiers." As a defensive measure, Ruthven says, OLN is "doing everything in our power to make sure that we have contract provisions that ensure the largest carriage possible." Of course, as a Comcast-owned net, OLN has a lot of muscle in its corner.

The same can't be said for Casino & Gaming TV, a startup that has had to make its first carriage agreements in Canada, says president and CEO Nick Rhodes, as the net "never expected to win analog carriage in the U.S." Like the early incarnations of Food Net and HGTV before it, CGTV hopes to serve as a destination for a largely underserved niche. And while launching as a digital net may be seen by some as a form of marginalization, Rhodes sees the platform as a nifty way to stand out from the glut of celebrity poker tournaments found elsewhere on the dial.

"In offering a menu of VOD programming, as well as [interactive TV] or Web-based adjunct programming, we can put together an overall package that warrants our inclusion as a linear network," Rhodes says. "Without the complete package, it's impossible to walk in to see these guys [cable operators] with a straight face. You have to show your unique value proposition, or you don't stand a chance."

Another startup that's coming out of the gates as a digital player is World Championship Sports Network, which aims to launch before the end of the year. While president/CEO Claude Ruibal is likewise focused on conveying WCSN's singularity (the net will serve as a home for international sporting events), the bandwidth issue has him mulling alternate carriage. "The Bells seem to have a healthy appetite for content, and they certainly have the headroom," says Ruibal, referring to the video-over-fiber initiatives planned by telcos like Verizon and BellSouth. "We could make a nice addition once they get their product up and running." (Ruibal says that certain cable operators see WCSN as "a pretty good fit on their digital sports tiers.")

While Verizon's video platform may eventually offer untold stretches of untapped bandwidth, the telco would face the same regulatory constraints as cable. Moreover, as a startup entity itself, it would face an uphill climb in drawing a critical mass of eyeballs. Indeed, by the time Verizon might begin reaching as few as 20 million video customers, the digital deadline is likely to have come and gone.

Having been under siege from all sides by rival carriers (satellite companies DirecTV and EchoStar's DISH Network) as well as by political rivals the National Association of Broadcasters, cable has grown accustomed to having its backup. Today the industry finds its primary line of defense in its engineering corps. Speaking at the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers' Cable-Tec Expo in San Antonio last month, Mike Hayashi, senior vp of advanced engineering and subscriber technology for Time Warner Cable, said that the bandwidth crunch should lead cable to close ranks.

"We can't just do this anymore," Hayashi said. "If we continue to deploy linear channels the way we have in the past, we'll run out of bandwidth." As a solution, Hayashi said Time Warner would begin introducing switched broadcast technology in select markets later this year. In the interest of clarity, switched broadcast is an application that allows operators to deliver targeted video streams, but only when specifically requested by the viewer, thereby freeing up huge chunks of bandwidth. Think of it as something like a jukebox, where the songs are selected by the individual listener, versus the entire FM radio spectrum, which spills out music unbidden.

As the startup nets try to jockey for position in the pipe and operators work to make more room, Braverman continues to make the case for his network clients. In his most recent FCC communiqué, on May 26 of this year, Braverman moved to discredit yet another NAB petition asking the Commission to reconsider earlier rulings that existing statutes do not impose a dual carriage requirement. On behalf of Comcast networks like E! Entertainment Television, OLN and The Golf Channel (and, in a separate filing, The Weather Channel), Braverman argued that the NAB and other broadcast petitioners failed to "present new facts or circumstances warranting reconsideration."

Although FCC chairman Kevin Martin is not likely to dust off his "either/or" carriage proposal in time for the commission's public meeting next week (the plan would have allowed TV stations to choose mandatory carriage of either analog or digital signals), his ascension to the top spot may well keep Braverman busy until 2009.

"Let's just say the recent activity we've seen is a not-too-subtle attempt by broadcasters to try and take advantage of the shifting politics at the commission," says Braverman. "But we will keep plugging away until the final stake is driven into the heart of dual carriage and must-carry. Every time somebody waves that flag we're going to be out there, and we will speak to the commission and speak to the Hill so that everyone understands what's at stake here."

Awaiting a decision, Braverman says that he is "reasonably confident" that the broadcasters will be denied dual carriage/must-carry.

If he's confident, the guys on the other side are even more so. "In Washington, there are no final victories and no final defeats," warned NAB president Edward Fritts earlier this year. "We look forward to the fight, because consumers deserve more."

(Based in New York, senior reporter Anthony Crupi covers the cable industry.)

N O T E: If you don't want to know some details about the upcoming seasons of "Lost" and Desperate Housewives" do not read this post!!!!

'Lost,' 'Housewives' release season details


By Hal Boedeker Orlando Sentinel Television Critic July 25, 2005

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- Viewer alert: Major revelations are coming soon. Television's two most-talked-about series, ABC's Lost and Desperate Housewives, quickly plan to answer questions raised by their cliffhangers last season.

On Desperate Housewives, the first episode will open by showing what happens when plumber Mike (James Denton) goes into the house where agitated teen Zach (Cody Kasch) is holding Susan (Teri Hatcher) hostage, series creator Marc Cherry says.

Lost will plunge into the mysterious hatch in its first episode, series co-creator Damon Lindelof says.

"You will see everything that's in there. What is in there will change everything about how they live on the island," Lindelof says. "We are erring on the side of giving away too much as opposed to being too vague."

The producers are meeting the nation's TV critics to collect awards. The Television Critics Association honors Desperate Housewives as program of the year. Lost earns prizes as best new program and top drama. Both series are likely to start their second seasons in mid-September.

The hatch looms as the main topic on Lost, and producers plan a bold revelation.

"I can guarantee you there will be people [viewers] who do not like what they find in the hatch," Lindelof says. "We found this door in the 10th episode of the show, and 13 episodes later they finally open it up. So what's inside has to be something big."

Although the contents can be construed as science fiction, Lindelof rules out a few possibilities.

"There aren't aliens in there," he says. "There isn't a time-travel portal. They aren't going to find a ship they blast off into space." The ill-fated voyage of the raft forms another major plot. A band of vicious strangers set the craft afire and seized the boy Walt (Malcolm David Kelley). Three other castaways -- Michael (Harold Perrineau), Sawyer (Josh Holloway) and Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) -- were left struggling for survival in the ocean.

"If they will reconvene with the main group becomes the story fodder of the first seven or eight episodes," Lindelof says.

The show will continue to examine characters' lives through flashbacks before the plane crash put them on a remote island. Those plots will include more on the marriage of Jack (Matthew Fox); the injury that put Locke (Terry O'Quinn) in a wheelchair; the rock-star existence of Charlie (Dominic Monaghan); the fugitive past of Kate (Evangeline Lilly); and the lottery lifestyle of Hurley (Jorge Garcia).

Michelle Rodriguez joins the cast as a passenger who was in the tail section and who survived elsewhere on the island. The recurring numbers -- on the flight, hatch and lottery ticket -- will become "the driving and fundamental plot point of the second season," Lindelof says. Viewers will know how the plane crashed by season two's end, he promises.

But Lindelof stresses the people are the main element. "The island just serves as a conduit to tell character stories," he says. "No one is really watching the show for the answers to those mysteries. They're watching to see: Will Kate and Jack hook up?"

Desperate Housewives creator Cherry clears up a lingering mystery: Rex (Steven Culp), husband of Bree (Marcia Cross), is definitely dead.

"There was a scene in the finale which made it really, really clear," he says. "Because we were long, I cut it. I thought the phone call [from the doctor to Bree] did it. I did not mean to confuse the fans in any way."

Alfre Woodard, who's a new regular, plays a housewife with a dark secret. "Her character was a concert pianist," Cherry says. "She's going to be involved in something pretty gothic on the show -- pretty dark and spooky."

Cherry previews what's ahead for the other wives:
• Susan finds out the truth about Mike's relationship to Zach.
• Lynette (Felicity Huffman) joins the work force in a surprising way. Joely Fisher will play one of her bosses.
• Pregnant Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) has to convince Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira) that the baby is his, and finds a way to do it.
• Bree has a battle royale with her mother-in-law (Shirley Knight) over Rex's funeral.
• Edie (Nicollette Sheridan) will begin a romantic relationship in the second episode that frustrates Susan greatly.

Cherry dismissed speculation, fueled by a Vanity Fair article, that the actresses are not getting along. He notes that Huffman attends the critics' party, although she wasn't a nominee for comedy achievement. Hatcher and Cross, who were nominees, do not show up. They lose to Jon Stewart of The Daily Show.

"Everyone's really lovely," Cherry says. "We're people going, 'Glad we have a job.' With the exception of Eva, most of us kind of had passed our prime a little bit, in terms of how the industry can look at you. So I think we're all grateful we caught the second wave. If you're a comedy writer or an actress, when you hit 40, you start to get nervous. We have a lot in common, those two professions."

UPN may love hating Rock
By Dusty Saunders Rocky Mountain News

HOLLYWOOD - I'm not big on bumper stickers.

But the UPN network is distributing one that has caught my attention. It reads: "Honk if you hate Chris."

The Chris in question is Chris Rock, one of the funniest talents on today's crowded comedy stage and the creator and executive producer of the new fall series, Everybody Hates Chris.

Yes, the bumper sticker offers a clever bit of reverse promotion.

Based on the pilot episode and Rock's loose and limber comedy style, there shouldn't be a lot of honking response to add to the noise pollution.

Everybody Hates Chris is based on Rock's exaggerated memories of his teenage years growing up in Brooklyn in the '80s. And Rock will narrate the memories.

The result: an urban version of The Wonder Years, spiked by Rock's raucous imagination.

So how did Rock come up with the actors to play his family members?

"First of all, we tried to get the funniest people we could get," Rock told TV critics. "I didn't care if they looked liked . . . you know, if an Asian woman was the funniest person, she'd be playing my mother."

The key performer is 12-year-old Tyler James Williams, who's been part of the TV scene since appearing on Sesame Street at age 4.

Keeping a straight face, Rock recalled how he met Tyler.

"I was at Michael Jackson's house. I'm in the driveway and this kid runs out . . . 'Save me!'

"Seriously, Tyler was the funniest kid we could find. He's the funniest kid in the country . . . really, trust me. There are a lot of unfunny kids out there who need to work on their comedy."

Throughout the press interview, Tyler indicated he might be a Chris Rock in the making, providing succinct one-liners while displaying a flare for comedy.

When asked if he had ever visited Michael Jackson's house, he replied, "No, and I don't plan to."

Tyler was tossed a softball question about what he thought about Rock's comedic talent.

After predictably extolling Rock's virtues, Tyler provided a straight-ahead deadpan look, while holding his hand out.

Rock reached into his pocket, pulled out his wallet and handed Tyler a $20 bill.

Part of the intrigue surrounding Everybody Hates Chris is that it's on UPN rather than big brother CBS. (Both networks are part of the Viacom empire.)

In fact, UPN president Dawn Ostroff bristled when asked about reports that if Everybody Hates Chris is a hit, it will move to CBS.

"UPN is not a farm system for CBS," she said. "We got it, we're producing it and we're broadcasting it."

Rock, who worked out a profitable financial deal with UPN, said, "I try to be funny no matter where I'm at.

"When I was doing a show on HBO, it wasn't like 'Man I wish I was on a network.'

"I do what I do."

While Rock's humor will dominate his narrative, the series will stay on course about his years growing up with two siblings, beginning when he was 13.

"I grew up in a very loving, two-parent household in the middle of one of the worst ghettos in New York City - Bedford-Stuyvesant.

"I was bused to school . . . And, yeah, there were a few playground fights. I wasn't a very big kid.

"But I had a lot of love in my household.

"Actually, I lived in the ghetto until I was 19, until I came to L.A. to meet Eddie Murphy and stay in good hotels . . . all that stuff.

"When I got back to Brooklyn and saw what my growing-up neighborhood looked like, I started getting scared."

Rock sees no irony in the fact that as a comedian with a reputation for adult humor he's producing one of the few new family-friendly TV series on the networks' fall schedule.

"Hey, people that curse have families, too.

"I'm married. I got kids. I grew up in a family. I don't see the problem."

Regarding the title, Rock said: "I don't even know how we arrived at it. But it really doesn't have anything to do with Everybody Loves Raymond.

"We were talking and it just popped into my head. It seemed like the funniest joke of the day.

"Actually, we did consider Mad About Chris and Rockfeld."

Back to that bumper sticker.

If media experts and critics are right, UPN would be advised to create one that reads: "Honk if you like Chris." The street noise could be deafening.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TODAY'S NOSTALGIA: On July 25, 1969, Sen. Ted Kennedy obtained air time on ABC, CBS and NBC to explain the Chappaquiddick incident.

Good article, thanks, the below quote is classic... :D



Cable Networks' 2009 Wire Worry

"While the shift is inevitable, the interim between now and Jan. 1, 2009, when the analog spectrum gets handed over to the federal government, promises to be as orderly as the evacuation of a burning clown car."

FALL TV TOUR: 4 reasons to laugh this fall
Rookie sitcoms have networks crossing fingers


BY Mike Duffy Detroit Free-PressTV Writer

BEVERLY HILLS -- If funny is money, network television's Sitcom Bank & Chucklehead Trust is flat broke.

Over the past two years, such dependable, long-running mirth machines as "Friends," "Frasier" and "Everybody Loves Raymond" signed off. And even before the Emmy-honored trio departed, millions of disenchanted viewers and numerous industry experts had pretty much decided the sitcom was dead. Again.

"There's no freshness. There's no originality," says Joe Keenan, who as one of the creators of "Frasier" certainly knows funny. "It's all characters you've seen before, situations you've seen before, jokes you've heard before."

From "Hope & Faith" to "Yes, Dear" to the woeful "Friends" spin-off "Joey," the once grandly successful and often genuinely amusing sitcom format has devolved into cliched, laugh track cacophony.

But hold on. What's this?

My goodness, there are encouraging signs from the upcoming fall season that network television may have rediscovered its funny bone. We might have a reason to laugh again.

The happy buzz has been building for "Everybody Hates Chris" (UPN, 8 p.m. Thu.), which features comic Chris Rock narrating a sly, irreverent and, yes, funny, autobiographical chronicle of his own hectic teenage years.

The other amusing rookies in the fall sitcom boomlet:

• "My Name Is Earl" (NBC, 9 p.m. Tue.), a smart, rowdily imaginative buffoon lampoon that traces the cockeyed karmic journey of a shiftless loser and petty thief (Jason Lee, "Almost Famous") as he tries to right all his past wrongs.

• "How I Met Your Mother" (CBS, 8:30 p.m. Mon.), a playful, offbeat romantic comedy with a loopily appealing ensemble cast that includes Alyson Hannigan ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer") and Neil Patrick Harris ("Doogie Howser, M.D."). It's also blessed with a refreshing infusion of youthful creative wit from two former writers on "Late Show with David Letterman."

• "Out of Practice" (CBS, 9:30 p.m. Mon.). The most traditional sitcom of the funny foursome, featuring a cast of familiar faces that most prominently includes Stockard Channing and Henry Winkler, revolves around the screwball kinship tales of a family of physicians often at odds with each other. The old pros in charge of the old pros are writer Keenan and his fellow "Frasier" producing partner Christopher Lloyd.

But let's not get too giddy just yet.

The fact that there are four promising new fall comedies -- and a few more planned for mid-season -- doesn't mean the sitcom renaissance has begun. Not yet. Not until we get a breakout sitcom version of what ABC did last year while kicking new life into prime time with the dramas "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost."

"One hit can get the audience's faith back that a comedy can be good," observes Keenan. "They've been exposed to so many dire, bad half-hour shows that the expectation is that any half-hour comedy is going to be the same stale stuff we've seen. So there's a disinclination to sample them."

That shouldn't be a problem for "How I Met Your Mother" and "Out of Practice," both of which are being plugged into the successful CBS Monday night lineup following the popular "King of Queens" and "Two and a Half Men," respectively. So at least the CBS rookies are sure to be sampled by viewers.

"Comedy was really our first priority heading into development season, and we wanted to reinforce Monday," says Nina Tassler, president of CBS Entertainment. "And with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Jenna Elfman, we have two big star vehicles for mid-season."

"Seinfeld" alum Louis-Dreyfus will enliven "Old Christine," portraying a newly divorced working mother coping with children, career and the emotional jolt of her ex-hubby's new girlfriend, also named Christine. Meanwhile, "Dharma & Greg" star Elfman anchors the mid-season romantic comedy "Everything I Know About Men," which costars Dabney Coleman as her father.

Neither of those early 2006 comedies has been seen yet by critics, though Louis-Dreyfus and Elfman possess proven comic appeal. Now the challenge is to avoid that show killer that Keenan describes as "lazy, lazy writing, or just bad writing."

Two very promising mid-season sitcoms that have been screened by critics include "Sons & Daughters" (ABC), a fast-paced, neuroses-laced tale of familial relationships from "Saturday Night Live" producer Lorne Michaels, and "The Loop" (Fox), a stylishly wigged-out farce about a young corporate executive (Bret Harrison, "Grounded for Life") and his slacker friends.

Both shows -- like "Everybody Hates Chris" and "My Name Is Earl" -- are given the modern comic edge of being filmed like little movies, minus the pesky traditional laugh track.

Not that there's anything automatically wrong with the old-school way.

Many of the funniest comedies of all time -- "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "All in the Family," "Taxi," "Cheers," "Seinfeld" -- featured the accompanying laughter of a studio audience. That's how CBS has usually preferred it. And it doesn't bother Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, the youthful "Letterman" alums who created "How I Met Your Mother."

"We sort of look at our years at 'Letterman' as comedy grad school," says Bays. "I don't mind seeing jokes and hearing the laugh track because that was our bread and butter for a long time, just making an audience laugh ... There's no better feeling than having a crowd there and hearing a laugh."

Because, after all, funny is money.

But no one's going to strike it rich with a big, fresh sitcom hit if the networks don't also wise up and settle down, suggests Keenan.

"The networks are increasingly impatient. A show has to be a hit out of the gate or they're not going to stick with it," says the Emmy-winning sitcom producer. "If the prevailing mood now pertained back in the '80s, there would have been no 'Frasier' because there would have been no 'Cheers.' Because 'Cheers' would have been off the air by the middle of its first season."

What's needed today, he adds, is the kind of patience that NBC had with "Cheers" and "the kind of faith Fox is demonstrating in 'Arrested Development.' That if you put it on and leave it there, if it's a good show, sooner or later people will come to it.

"But I do think the glut of really bad ... has soured the public on the form," says Keenan. "So it's going to take a couple of hits for people to say, 'Yeah, I think these shows still can be funny.'"

OK, clever new comedy kids on the prime-time block, go out there and tickle America's funny bone.

Just remember the daunting, humorless reality. Even after two years of Fox's nurturing patience and an Emmy Award as TV's best comedy, the exceptionally witty "Arrested Development" hasn't yet evolved into a hit show.

And that's no laughing matter.

Bloodied peacock

Matt Zoller Seitz Newark NJ Star-Ledger July 25, 2005

LOS ANGELES -- Sometimes you can't spin bad news, and to his credit, NBC president Kevin Reilly didn't try.

Last spring, Reilly took over for his predecessor, Jeff Zucker , who inexplicably got promoted to president of NBC Universal Entertainment Group after running the network into the ground. Reilly now must try to maneuver the network out of fourth place, and make it seem attractive to advertisers after a disastrous performance at this spring's upfront presentations in New York, where NBC revenues declined by $900 million compared to 2004.

Speaking to newspaper reporters at a press conference yesterday morning, Reilly said NBC's parent company, General Electric, understood that the network wouldn't climb out of this pit overnight, and had agreed not to lay off employees or tighten spending on programming (at least not right now).

At GE, Reilly said, "There is an acknowledgment that we're in a down cycle.... Being part of NBC Universal is insulating us in the short run."

Reilly likened NBC's disastrous 2004-05 season to "a colonic" that "took any residual complacency out of our company and blew it out ... This is what's ultimately going to fuel our comeback." Not the world's prettiest metaphor, but considering the excremental nature of NBC's recent performance, it seemed apt.

Thanks to an overdose of cruddy reality TV, an over-reliance on established hits (like the now departed "Friends," and its weak spin-off, "Joey" and an inability to develop new shows people wanted to watch ("Father of the Pride," "The Contender,") the once-robust network had grown flaky and flabby, and was ripe for a stomping.

CBS did the most damage, starting years ago with its risky but successful decision to program "Survivor" on Thursdays, a night NBC owned for 15 years. Then CBS, Fox and ABC got stronger and stronger, with hits like "Without a Trace," "Cold Case," "American Idol," "24," "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost." In follow-up remarks to reporters at a lunch yesterday afternoon, Reilly described the above hits as "rocket fuel that can boost a whole network along."

Reilly started his programming career at NBC, but spent the last few years at bad-boy pay cable channel FX. The glacial pace of network development being what it is, Reilly's cable-ready sensibility hasn't had much chance to show itself. Minor exceptions include the creepy, opaque horror series "Surface," which seems more Sci-Fi Channel than NBC, and "My Name is Earl," a "Raising Arizona" style kook-fest about a petty criminal, Jason Lee, who wins the lottery and uses his winnings to rectify past sins.

The network isn't dead yet. It still has "ER," "The West Wing," the newly minted hit "Medium" and three hours of "Law & Order." (A fourth hour, last year's freshman series "Trial by Jury," endured the death of star Jerry Orbach and lackluster ratings before getting canceled. Reilly said the franchise's creator, Dick Wolf, was cherry-picking elements of "Jury" for a forthcoming, non-"Law & Order" drama about assistant district attorneys.)

But for now, the new NBC president says he's devoting much of his energy to beefing up veteran shows (like "The West Wing," which might play out its election storyline over several months) and slotting unusual new shows in time slots where they won't get crushed right away.

To that end, the critically acclaimed but ratings-challenged "The Office" and "My Name is Earl" will run from 9-10 p.m on Tuesdays, between the hit reality series "The Biggest Loser" and "Law & Order: SVU." "The West Wing," NBC's longtime anchor on Wednesdays, will move to Sundays at 8 p.m., sandwiched between "Dateline" and "Law & Order: Criminal Intent." (That's a brave move. Time slot competitors include CBS' "Cold Case ," "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and Fox's packaging of "The Simpsons" with the new Michael Rapaport sitcom "The War at Home." )

Reilly said he's avoiding procedural dramas because TV already has too many of them, and won't try to clone "Desperate Housewives." (NBC's primetime soap "Windfall," about a group of lottery winners, isn't trying to be "Housewives" -- but when it debuts at midseason, isn't there a chance that viewers will think it feels too much like "My Name is Earl" without the slapstick?)

"Joey" will remain on Thursdays at 8, but with a twist: The main character actually has success as an actor. "The Apprentice" will return in the same time slot, with homemaking guru turned ex-jailbird Martha Stewart replacing Donald Trump.

And Reilly is banking on the midseason series "The Book of Daniel" -- starring Aidan Quinn as an Episcopalian minister, Ellen Burstyn as his bishop boss and "Deadwood" chameleon Garet Dillahunt as the manifestation of Jesus -- to spark conversation, and maybe even give the network the rocket fuel it needs.

"As painful as last season was, it was healthy," Reilly said. "Let's reach for the creativity."

DEATH MARCH WITH COCKTAILS
Going forward fearlessly into UPN, the WB
By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle Monday, July 25, 2005

Beverly Hills -- Every year there's some persistent, horrible cliche that pops up and festers as television executives, actors, writers, directors and producers talk about their craft and this business. It's like they got debriefed prior to meeting TV critics, arrived, then spewed.

Whether it's "organic" or "at the end of the day" or something equally heinous and vague, it gets said. This year, like a plague, it's "going forward."

Both UPN and the WB -- this country's fifth and sixth broadcast networks (they can fight it out among themselves as to the order, because frankly the spin is just intolerable) -- came through here, talking about "going forward."

Now we've got a problem.

Both of these networks have been alive for 10 years and in that time have been eclipsed, like a dime falling into a black hole, by cable channels such as HBO and, most recently, FX. That's not exactly forward momentum.

Still, they've been trying. You may remember that the WB was, ever so briefly, the "it" network when it made a ton of money broadcasting to teens, yet drew adult viewers to shows like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Dawson's Creek," "Felicity" and "Gilmore Girls" because the quality was so high.

The network, unable to launch comedies of any merit and stuck with a slew of copycat dramas that missed the creative marks of their predecessors mainly because they invested in image, not content, has been on a slow fade ever since. UPN was just flat-out lousy for years before finally getting a reality hit, "America's Next Top Model," and developing one of television's unsung dramas, "Veronica Mars."

Now the networks stand before us, "going forward." With big dreams. And big changes. First, UPN -- which had one of last year's biggest preseason buzz shows in "Kevin Hill" -- promises to get the formula right (after the pilot, "Kevin Hill" sank creatively and was ultimately canceled). Once again - - given history, we are reaching near miracle status -- UPN has another contender for biggest buzz show in the hilarious and endearing "Everybody Hates Chris." The network promises to reward your devotion to that series with consistent quality. In turn, you must learn where to find it on your TV lineup, no small feat.

The WB, too, wants you back (it may have shifted on your dial since the glory days of "Buffy"). In turn, it promises to grow up. No, really. In an effort to mature, the network is even killing its mascot, Michigan J. Frog.

"In my opinion, the frog is dead and buried," said Garth Ancier, chairman of the WB. Added David Janollari, the network's entertainment president: "That was a symbol that was -- especially in extensive testing that we did -- that perpetuated the young teen feel of the network, and that is not the image we want to put out to our audience."

Why? Because the network is "moving forward." Of course, it all comes down to the shows. If they don't work, both UPN and the WB will be moving backward, with some of their executives "moving on." Plus, that frog will have died in vain. Here then, the state-of- the-network update for each:

Overview: For UPN, everything revolves around "Everybody Hates Chris." If it works, it will bring new viewers to the network. Simple as that. The WB is reeling and needs to diversify (literally and figuratively). It's the only network this fall that didn't develop a good sitcom. It needs a broader menu, more mass-appeal shows, without alienating its core.

Network leadership and tendencies: This is Janollari's first development season. He'll be judged on it. So far, he's been aggressively pursuing top- notch producers, which is a start. Ancier is one of the most knowledgeable people in all of television. At UPN, Entertainment President Dawn Ostroff is trying to repackage years of failure. She rescued "Everybody Hates Chris" when Fox passed. If it works, she's golden.

What works for fall: At UPN, "Everybody Hates Chris" is more than just funny, it's sweet. The next "Cosby"? On the WB, a Jerry Bruckheimer legal series starring Don Johnson and Jay Baruchel ("Undeclared," "Million Dollar Baby") is surprisingly engaging. In a season that will see a lot of paranormal- type series, WB's "Supernatural" is one of the better in the genre.

What doesn't: UPN's drama "Sex, Love & Secrets" is terrible and the network is reshooting a comedy, "Love, Inc.," that wasn't half bad, but who knows how that'll end up. The WB's sitcom "Twins" is trite and laughless. A dramedy about sisters, "Related" is being reshot and wasn't available for review.

What it means to you: If the potential of "Everybody Hates Chris" is realized, UPN becomes a destination network. While you're there, check out "Veronica Mars," an excellent series. "Just Legal" and "Supernatural" need to retain the quality of their pilots but may not ultimately be enough to bring buzz back to the -- former -- frog network.

TV Critics Tour Blog
By Diane Holloway Austin Statesman TV Writer

‘Las Vegas’ and Lara Flynn Boyle party down

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — What better way to unwind after a nine-hour stretch of screenings, news conferences and interviews than attending a “Las Vegas” pool party, where publicists make it clear you should “casually chat” — on the record, of course — with more stars, producers and network executives?

I’m not really complaining. This is Beverly Hills, after all; the temperature is a scorching 80 degrees and there are worse things than hobnobbing with the glitterati.

So, in anticipation of the third season of NBC’s cheesy drama “Las Vegas,” the gang arrives trumpeted by a horde of screaming paparazzi, to wow the media.

“Over here! Jimmy! Over here!” photographers shout as star James Caan arrives.

Now, I’ve loved Caan since his “Godfather” days, but “Vegas” isn’t exactly art. Rather than embarrass myself by asking why he would stoop so low, I commend him on his blinding white sports coat and stare drop-jawed at his multicolored hair. It’s orange, brown and white. Like a tabby cat.

The big news (OK, it’s a stretch to call it news) is Lara Flynn Boyle, who will join the cast in the fall as the new casino owner Monica Mancuso. If you watch “Las Vegas” at all, you know that they blew up the old casino in the season finale. For no apparent reason, other than they wanted to build a bigger, fancier new set. And Boyle, previously seen as steely assistant district attorney Helen Gamble on “The Practice,” is the new boss.

“I’ve never been so in love with Las Vegas,” Boyle bubbled of the extraordinary new set that cost millions of dollars to build. “It’s the real deal, it’s Bugsy Siegel.”

Boyle has been in the spotlight lately less for her acting than for her weight. Startling photos have been seen of her in a bikini, looking like a skeleton with bones protruding at every angle. I’m here to report that Boyle, though still about 10 inches wide from behind, has no visible bones and was eating a large plate of risotto and drinking a big frothy brown thing that looked like one of those million-calorie coffee drinks from Starbucks.

Want more superficial, up-close details? Boyle’s forehead actually moves when she talks, unlike most Hollywood women, so it’s evident she hasn’t resorted to Botox. Her puffed up lips, on the other hand, are uneven and a little scary, which is likely evidence of bad collagen.

She said her role on “Las Vegas” is the opposite of the uptight, conservatively dressed Helen Gamble. The casino boss Monica will be hard-edged but glamorous.

“I get to have a lot of padding and lots of cleavage,” Boyle said.

Caan has a reputation for being difficult on the set, but Boyle isn’t worried. When your ex-boyfriend is Jack Nicholson, how much trouble could Caan be?

Boyle, a Chicago native, grew up loving old movies and watching “The Love Boat.” But asked by a teen magazine reporter who her star role model is, she said Diane Sawyer. Yes, the ABC newsie.

“She’s as sexy as they come,” Boyle said. “She has to wear her real skin. We get to go into someone else’s skin. I just think she’s incredibly sexy.”

One last thing about last night’s soiree … Fergie, the lovely lady from the Black-Eyed Peas, was there, and it took a while to figure out why she was attending a cocktail party for the cast of “Las Vegas.” Seems she’s engaged to hunky “Vegas” star Josh Duhamel. They arrived separately, but when they were seen together, the photo flashes were blinding.

TV Critics Tour
By ROGER CATLIN Hartford Courant TV Critic July 25 2005

Stockard Channing Ready For Change

LOS ANGELES -- Stockard Channing's move to comedy from "The West Wing," where she has played the first lady for four years, was a bit of a change for her.

But she told reporters at the TV Critics Summer Tour that she would be in three more episodes of the political drama before she was free to devote herself to the new CBS sitcom "Out of Practice."

"The West Wing" season will begin with the Bartlet administration's replacement by the winner of the election.

"To be honest with you, it was quite fortuitous," Channing says. "I was obviously aware that we were winding down the administration, and then I got a call.

"I wasn't looking to do a sitcom. I did one late in the last century and thought I was really cured of it completely." But, she says, "it was the script that sold me."

Father-Son Act

The end of the Bartlet administration also means Martin Sheen is available this season to appear on his son's hit comedy, "Two and a Half Men."

"He's a huge fan of the show, and he would love to come and play with us and be a part of it," Charlie Sheen told reporters. Scheduling had been a problem.

"It's sad that he's coming because he has a little more free time this season," Sheen says. "But we're thrilled to have him, and I think it's going to be something really special."

Bo's Hair Redux

Bo Derek, who hosts a special for WE: Women's Entertainment called "I Can't Believe I Wore That," had her own fashion moment: when she shook her cornrows and beaded hair as part of her breakthrough role in "10."

Derek made the style new again for a wider audience, and it still can be seen.

"No, they still wear it," Derek marveled to TV writers. "Horses wear it. Monkeys wear it. It's hilarious. It's so difficult and so time-consuming, I can't believe it took off the way it has, and it's coming back, too, again. Who would have thought?"

She remembered when she first got it done.

"It was in the early '80s, so everything was blond fluffy hair, the Farrah Fawcett look, which my hair would not do even if I tried, and it was common.

"I lived in an area where there were a lot of African American girls, and I was just always so amazed. And I admired that hair so much, that I thought it would be fun for the part."

She tried on the cornrows recently, she said, for the film "Master of Disguise."

"I realized," she said, "it's a young girl's hairstyle."

"I Can't Believe I Wore That" is scheduled to run on WE: Women's Entertainment in December.

Bravo needs an encore
Cabler looks for makeover as 'Queer Eye' sags

By DENISE MARTIN Variety.com

With "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," Bravo demonstrated how one hit could make a network. Now, as that franchise fades, the NBC Universal cabler needs its own makeover.

Nearly two years after former net topper Jeff Gaspin made the style show an overnight cultural phenom the cabler faces lagging ratings and a reality explosion across competing cablers.

Gaspin is now NBC U prexy of cable and may be moving on up the corporate ladder, so Bravo's challenges have landed in the lap of chief Lauren Zalaznick.

She's the media junkie and scrappy programmer who turned digital netlet Trio into a critical darling by injecting a dose of attitude into everything the cabler did. Critical darling but ratings mystery, since the cabler only reached 14 million homes.

A year after taking the helm at Bravo, Zalaznick insists she's cooking up goods that will once again blow the roof off. Her recipe: more upscale, hopefully hipper, reality concepts than her competitors.

Not that such concepts always work.

Earlier this year, the network premiered its latest on-air look, tagline and spin-off "Queer Eye for the Straight Girl," but demos did not budge from the previous year.

In the first three weeks of July -- a peak launch time for cable -- the channel is down 8% in overall viewers year to year. That's after 2004 summer declines of 17%.

Parent NBC U is expecting aturnaround.

With flagship NBC having taken some hits and hemorrhaging $900 million at the recent upfront advertising market, the cable group has been a bright spot, registering gains to offset the broadcast losses. Corporate sibs USA and Sci Fi Channel are in fine form, and USA will be in even better shape once ratings juggernaut WWE hits the sked this fall.

But the belt-tightening in effect across the board at the Peacock isn't reflected at the nets' development or programming departments, NBC U execs insist. Substantial loss of coin, however, is bound to affect the TV group in other ways -- like downsizing -- sooner rather than later.

Despite the money shortfall , Bravo's got 30 series in the works and will spend $130 million on programming this year, up from $114 million in 2004, according to Kagan World estimates.

"I was just in a development meeting that ran 45 minutes over and we didn't even get to all the things on the agenda," Zalaznick says. "We have that much stuff percolating."

Among the slew of reality series she's herding, are a trio of Tinseltown-focussed projects: "Situation Comedy," a reality competish in search of the next big sitcom scribe; "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List," about the less-than-glam dealings of the comedian; and "Hidden Howie," a semi-scripted project in which Howie Mandel stars as a version of himself.

This comes after Bravo's "Project Greenlight" earned an Emmy nom but averaged a mere 287,000 viewers. And it also comes as every other cabler in town readies its inside Hollywood project.

"My challenge is to stay creatively focused and continue to bring a new forum of arts to TV and make sure it's entertaining," Zalaznick says. "And we're going to take as many swings at bat as we can because that's the pace pop culture is moving and we want to reflect that."

Total at-bats for the key period July through September? Nine.

Tom Weeks, a director at Starcom Entertainment, credits the network for its tentpoles -- "Celebrity Poker Showdown," "Queer Eye," "Blow Out" and "Inside the Actors Studio" -- and deemed "Project Runway" a surprise breakthrough. Bravo's problem is more about refining a distinctive voice amongst a dozen other reality-based nets.

"They're in rediscovery mode like A&E was a year and a half ago," Weeks says. "They did sort of oversaturate the network with 'Queer Eye,' but they're making money for NBC and have a nice affluent core. So it's just a matter of (fleshing out) their voice and shoring up what they want to do in the reality space."

Zalaznick says Bravo's voice has come through on a number of projects.

"Being Bobby Brown," starring the former pop star and his more famous wife, Whitney Houston, has consistently won its 10 p.m. timeslot in adults 18-49 on Thursdays. Renewed fashion competish "Project Runway" started small but built to a finale aud of more than 2 million viewers, besting the buzz of CBS' version, "The Cut." And the just-concluded second season of "Blow Out" delivered more than 1 million viewers.

But many of Bravo's rivals are now plowing the same ground -- and one cable exec describes the landscape as "more competitive than ever. Everyone's brand lines are blurred."

"You've got competing SWAT shows at Court TV and A&E, competing tattoo parlor shows at A&E and TLC and competing real-estate agent shows at TLC and Bravo," exec says. "It's hard to stand out in a crowd when that kind of thing is happening."

And unlike general entertainment cablers TNT and USA, Bravo is not in the acquisitions and theatricals game -- expensive propositions that virtually guarantee big ratings.

With so much in development, including non-showbiz projects "Top Chef," "Real Housewives" and "Tabloid Wars" set for next year, Zalaznick says the more competition, the merrier.

"My view on that is the more channels like ours that are doing well, the better for me. It means what I'm doing has a chance to be popular," she says. "As for our shows, it will be come very clear that they are for very upscale, educated people who don't want the whitebread pabulum of other networks."

As for "Queer Eye," Zalaznick is resolute: The show will stay in its Tuesday night timeslot "for a long, long time."

A formal renewal hasn't been announced, but exec says the show's up 30% from the cabler's primetime average.

"These are huge numbers. Sixty-five episodes and two years in, this is not a show that's had a precipitous crash."

Diddy Fronts MTV Awards
By Anne Becker Broadcasting & Cable

The apparently now mono-monikered “Diddy” (formerly known as P. Diddy) has signed on to host MTV’s 22nd annual VMAs, the network said today.

This year, water will be the theme of the music net’s video awards show, annually one of cable’s highest-rated programs, with liquid effects courtesy of the company who created the fountain at Vegas’ Bellagio Hotel.

Performers at this year’s event will include Kanye West, Kelly Clarkson and Green Day. MTV will also score the event.

Continuing to stress the MTV Networks’ commitment to new technology, MTV will air expanded coverage of the live show on its broadband channel, MTV Overdrive, in addition to news and interactive content on the network’s website MTV.com.

The 2005 VMAs will be broadcast live from Miami Aug. 28 at 8 p.m.

Nominees are selected by a group of 500 viewers, journalists and music industry insiders. Green Day led this year’s list of nominees, with eight nods. Gwen Stefani and Missy Elliott each received six.

Now, a break from those grim TCA Tour postings
Press Tour: Marder Entertains the Troops
From bcbeat.com

Keith Marder, director of network communications for The WB is a stand-up guy.

But don't take my word for it, please. Below is his warm-up for Entertainment President David Janollari at The WB's portion of the critics press tour in L.A.

ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Keith
Marder.

(Applause.)

KEITH MARDER: Good morning, and welcome to The WB's portion of the summer TCA. We have an exciting day in store for you with a lot of surprises; that is, of course, unless Karl Rove leaked them.

(Laughter.)

(Repeating with emphasis) Karl Rove leaked them.

(Laughter.)

I hope everyone is enjoying this hotel as much as I am. One problem, though: Last night my room was visited by the ghost of Merv Griffin, and he was wearing a Speedo.

(Laughter.)

Don't tell me he's still alive. I always knew Tom Cruise would end up with someone from "Dawson's Creek." I just thought it would be James Van Der Beek.

(Laughter.)

You must have heard by now that Tom claims to know the entire history of psychiatry.

(Laughter.)

I don't think so. He obviously skipped the chapter that said if you go on a talk show and jump on a couch, you
need Ritalin.

(Laughter.)

Katie Holmes, though, she looks in love, to me. If she was this good an actress on "Dawson's Creek," she would have won an Emmy.

(Laughter.)

That's a slow build. Speaking of Emmys, our very own David Janollari scored 11 nominations last week. Judging by the voting history, the Emmy committee obviously hasn't heard he's working at The WB.

(Laughter.)

The runaway bride was one of the biggest stories recently, and as you would expect, she's trying to parlay
her notoriety into a career in front of the camera. Think of her options: She could be the spokesperson for
the "Don't pollute" campaign.

(Laughter.)

If all else fails, she can play the title role in "The Marty Feldman Story."

(Laughter.)

Remember, there's no "I" in team, but there are two giant ones in Jennifer Wilbanks.

( (Laughter.)

Neither "Jack & Bobby" nor "The Mountain" made it back for a second season. Shows how much they listen to me, because I suggested we bring back both series because, as we all know, a double negative equals a positive.

(Laughter.)

Here it is: You ready? The Shannen Doherty update.

(Laughter.)

(Applause.)

It's gotten to the point that Shannen's no longer good enough to even keep a job on UPN.

(Laughter.)

On top of that, I heard she was a victim of identity theft, and they returned it.

(Laughter.)

Now I know what's on the bottom of the hatch in "Lost": Shannen Doherty's career.

("Ooh.")

(Laughter.)

That was a little mean. I heard that Martha Stewart's version of "The Apprentice" is coming along rather
well. She's already selected her first challenge: Whoever removes their ankle bracelet first gets to leave the house.

Sandra Day O'Connor announced she's stepping down from her seat on the Supreme Court. That was some career she had. She's not even out of office, and already they put her photo on the dollar bill.

(Laughter.)

I hear that Pat O'Brien and Bill O'Reilly are teaming up to cohost "The Reverse Call-In Show."

(Laughter.)

Instead of taking calls, they'll call people and sexually harass them.

(Laughter.)

Seems like the theme of this year's development was scary stuff. We have "Supernatural." ABC has "Night Stalker." NBC had its Upfront.

(Laughter.)

By some accounts, NBC was down as much as a billion dollars compared to its 2004 take. I guess Jeff Zucker
is a shoe-in for the second season of "The Biggest Loser."

("Ooh.")

(Laughter.)

To make up for some of the loss this season, all three "Law & Order" shows will use the same script.

(Laughter.)

After watching "I Want To Be a Hilton," this hotel wants to be a Marriott.

(Laughter.)

(Applause.)

I think the best part of Kirstie Alley's show "Fat Actress" was its title. You knew exactly what you were
getting. You were getting a fat actress. In retrospect we should have named "The Starlet" "Bad Actress." Or we could have named it after Faye Dunaway, "Desperate Actress."

("Ooh.")

You never met her.

(Laughter.)

Or name it in honor of how many people watched it, "24."

(Laughter.)

One of the biggest mistakes made in television is keeping a show on the air too long. I mean, Frankie Muniz is so old, Fox should change the name of his show to "Malcolm in Middle Age."

(Laughter.)

And now before I say more and get fired, it's my pleasure to introduce to you the president of entertainment for The WB Network, David Janollari.

(Applause.)

(Just a reminder.....)

Media Re-Set For Shuttle Coverage
By Allison Romano Broadcasting & Cable

TV news crews are back in position in Cape Canaveral, Fla., waiting to see if the space shuttle Discovery will take off as scheduled Tuesday at 10:29 a.m. ET.

Note: HDNet will broadcast the liftoff live and in HD.

The shuttle was originally slated to launch July 13 -- the first U.S. space flight since the Columbia shuttle disaster in 2002 -- but NASA scrubbed the mission only two hours before lift-off.

The news media was out in full force to cover the original launch, with more than 2,000 credentialed journalists. U.S. TV news organizations sent hundreds of personnel to the event.

For the rescheduled lift-off, the broadcast networks plan to interrupt regular programming for short special reports. The cable news networks will likely devote considerable time to the event.

While some networks say they've maintained the same number of staffers as they sent for the first launch, others report scaling back.

The big-name anchors will sign on to lead coverage.

CBS' Bob Scheiffer will anchor Tuesday in New York, as will Brian Williams for NBC News. MSNBC will simulcast NBC News' coverage when Williams is anchoring. ABC News' Charlie Gibson will lead the networks coverage in New York, with correspondent Bob Woodruff in Florida. CBS has correspondent Mark Strassmann and space consultant Bill Harwood in Florida, while NBC/MSNBC has dispatched MSNBC anchor Chris Jansing, NBC News correspondent Tom Costello and NBC News veteran Jay Barbree.

CNN will have its space correspondent (and American Morning anchor) Miles O'Brien on hand. In the evening, Lou Dobbs will host a special themed edition of Lou Dobbs Tonight focusing on the business and politics of space.

AP Television has a crew of several producers, reporters and photographers on hand, as well as anchor Jon Belmont.

TV Critics Tour Blog
By Ellen Gray Philadelphia Daily News Television Columnist

IT'S NOT EASY BEING BLOND

Yesterday, we sat through a session for NBC's "The Biggest Loser," which was lots of talk about diet and exercise, followed immediately by a snack break.

Yes, there's more than one reason that press tour sometimes feels like a cruise to nowhere.

Now we're listening to the cast and crew of NBC's "Thick and Thin," a sitcom about a formerly fat girl (played by Jessica Capshaw, whom none of us can even imagine fat) whose still-heavy mother (Sharon Gless) and sister (Amy Halloran) are having nearly as much trouble adjusting as she is.

This leads to one of those endless discussions of weight and Hollywood that never seem to come up when we're actually confronted with the bonier specimens paraded before us day in and day out, and Gless, who looks as if she's actually lost a fair amount of weight since her early days on "Queer as Folk," tells about the "horrible" reaction in Hollywood to her weight gain after "Cagney & Lacey" left the air.

When she pointed out to her husband, producer Barney Rosenzweig, that she was no bigger than her former co-star, Tyne Daly, but was getting much more grief, she says he replied, "Honey, they can't forgive the blonde."

TV Critics Tour Blog
By Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury-News Television Columnist
The new TV season:
Notes from NBC including "The West Wing,'' "Joey,'' "Inconceivable'' and "Las Vegas''

Time for some more tid bits from The Tour, which is still spending time with the good folks at NBC:

Contrary to what had planned, it looks like viewers may have to wait a while for that election show down between Democratic Rep. Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits) and Republican Sen. Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda), both shown at right with Bradley Whitford as Josh Lyman. Originally, the election was scheduled to take place in November with the new president taking office in January.

But NBC Entertainment boss Kevin Reilly says the writers are "really getting into the spirit of this election'' -- plus Alda, who had signed a handful of episodes, now is willing to do more. (An Emmy nomination for his role might have influenced him.)

As a result, the election may not take place until later in the season.

Reilly also says that changes are taking place on "Joey,'' the spinoff of "Friends'' with Matt LeBlanc that was the network's biggest ratings and creative disappointment last season. For one thing, Joey finally finds success in his acting career and gets a "posse'' to go along with his new-found fame.

Now if only the writers and producers can actually make "Joey'' funny ...

I'm just going to report this and let you make your own judgments: The promotional clips for the new "Inconceivable,'' a drama set in a fertility clinic, use 3 Dog Night's "Momma Told Me Not to Come'' as a theme song.

NBC is already scrambling to line up some fresh voices for new shows at mid-season and for fall 2006. The latest to sign on: Two notable film writer-directors -- Paul Haggis ("Million Dollar Baby,'' "Crash'') and Frank Darabont ("Shawshank Redemption,'' "The Green Mile.'')

Haggis, who has a background in TV with "thirtysomething,'' already has a series set for mid-season with "The Black Donnellys,'' a drama about the Irish mob.

And finally, from the party circuit: NBC tossed a nice little cocktail bash for the cast of "Las Vegas'' poolside at the Beverly Hilton. The biggest stir: the arrival of star Josh Duhamel (Danny McCoy) with his main squeeze, Fergie (real name: Stacy Ferguson) from the Black-Eyed Peas. The couple is engaged, almost engaged or just hooking up, depending on which gossip outlet you favor.

TV Guide to drop local listings
lostremote.com

The 52 year old magazine will soon focus on celebrity news, reports Ad Age. A black-and-white stand alone version of TV Guide's local listings will continue for those who specifically request it. Contributing factors: a big drop in readership, competing online and on-screen program guides and too many channels to list in a magazine format.

TV Critics Tour Blog
By Paul Brownfield The Los Angeles Times

You try to be a good egg ...
July 25, 2005

NBC, Day 2. You will like something today. You will enter this ballroom with an open mind. You will not be yet another messenger of network TV's current mediocrity and future doom. Instead you will be ever so delighted by a new idea for scripted television. Hey, here it is, a show set in a fertility clinic, called "Inconceivable" (tee-hee!), with comedic and dramatic elements. NBC isn't exactly stringing up lights around it, putting it on Friday nights at 10, but ... remember, stay positive.

"Women can now bank their eggs," says co-creator Oliver Goldstick. "That was not possible when we sold this show to NBC." Hmm, food for thought. But who's in it? Well, how about Angie Harmon and Ming-Na and, for the ladies out there, Jonathan Cake as a Don Juan fertility doctor? He has a British accent.

OK, you're saying, but is it really about a fertility clinic and all the complexities therein?

Yes, and yes. In the pilot alone, a white couple threatens legal action against the clinic when their surrogate gives birth to an African-American child, while another surrogate is being stalked by the paranoid half of a gay couple.

Goldstick and co-creator Marco Pennette have been through the surrogate process in their own lives, bringing to "Inconceivable" the weight of personal experience. Pennette recalls making a call to his surrogate after "we read an article (saying) that air embolisms during sex can cause miscarriages.

"That was a hard call to make," he says.

Wolf, NBC Plan New Drama
By Jim Benson Broadcasting & Cable

There’s nothing like a production commitment for a new show to let bygones be bygones.

Dick Wolf, the executive producer of the immensely profitable Law & Order show brand, admitted that he was “incredibly upset” by NBC’s decision to cancel Law & Order: Trial by Jury in May.

But, echoing the words of NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly a day earlier, he told a Television Critics Association panel Monday in Beverly Hills that “this is more than just a standard business relationship” between his company, Wolf Films, and NBC Universal

Wolf now says the brand “is the most important piece of business” to himself and the company. While calling it a “long-term marriage with no possibility of divorce,” Wolf acknowledged that “in every long-term marriage, there may be hills and valleys.”

While there had been talk of taking Trial by Jury to cable, Wolf and NBC chose instead to pursue a show outside the Law & Order brand about young district attorneys in Manhattan.

Wolf says the Trial by Jury sets—the largest he has ever been associated with—will remain standing for at least another year to use for the new show.

“I can assure you that neither of us would make seven-figure bets that we don’t plan on collecting on,” he says.

As for the show itself, Wolf expects production to get under way in the next two and a half months. He says it will be “much more of a character-driven show with closed episodes than a straight procedural.”

This could provide some really pretty pictures. (OLN HD is scheduled to debut during the fourth quarter of this year) – all those races in HD…nice.

OLN to Televise 32nd America's Cup

By Jon Lafayette TVWeek.com

OLN has acquired the rights to televise the 32nd America's Cup, the network said Sunday.

The America's Cup, often called the oldest trophy in sport, will be contested in 2007. As part of the agreement, OLN will expand its sailing programming to include the Louis Vuitton Cup and various qualifying regattas leading up to the America's Cup.

The previous America's Cup, in 2003, was televised by ESPN.

TV Critics Tour Blog
By Ellen Gray Philadelphia Daily News Television Columnist

IF I HAD A HAMMER...

ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" showed networks that it was possible to do well by doing good, and now NBC's getting into the philanthropy biz with "Three Wishes," in which singer Amy Grant will travel from town to town, granting wishes.

Grant and her upbeat persona should be enough, but just in case the ABC show's really working because of hottie host Ty Pennington -- a former "Trading Spaces" carpenter -- "Three Wishes" has signed up its own "Trading Spaces" carpenter, Carter Oosterhouse, as well as "Trading Spaces: Boys vs. Girls" host Diane Mizota, as contributors.

We're told that home improvement will play only a small part in "Three Wishes," so what's up with all the "Trading Spaces" vets?

Executive producer Andrew Glassman -- the former WCAU (Channel 10) reporter and "Average Joe" producer -- would like us to think it's all a coincidence (though he says he loves the ABC show).

He claims it's now impossible to get a carpenter to come to your house in Los Angeles because "anyone who has a hammer and nails probably already has their own show."

Afterward, I ask Glassman -- who warns me that if I write anything mean about him his grandmother in Philadelphia will be upset -- whether "Three Wishes" was atonement for "Average Joe."

"I loved 'Average Joe,'" he said, noting that the guys who participated in that "reality" show had a great time doing it.

"That being said, I think I've exceeded my quota of hot-tub scenes for one career."

His grandmother will no doubt be very happy to hear it.

TV Critics Tour Blog
By Melanie McFarland The Seattle Post-Intelligencer Television Critic

As exciting as a day at "The Office"

Expressing doubt that NBC is shooting blanks this fall? Obviously you were not here yesterday, which may go down in the books as the most desperate leg of Press Tour.

Yeah, sure, the difference between boredom and excitement is what you bring to the party. But cut us some slack, because NBC sure isn't breaking anything close to news.

I suppose there's reason to celebrate NBC entertainment president Kevin Reilly's announcement that shows would start on time and end on time. Trust me when I say that's merely a case of Reilly knowing his network's limitations. Other than "Earl," I don't think there's a single fall show on NBC that's worth its time allotment, let alone any extensions.

And if I sound grumpy, just remember that we're the suckers being forced to endure shows like "Surface," about a newly discovered underwater species and all the lives it affects.

We're the ones who had to listen to twin show creators Jonas and Josh Pate express themselves in voices so dippy they belong on "South Park." "It's about awe? and wonder? and, like, people always want to know, is the species good or bad?" Josh Pate said. "And my answer is always, 'Is a tiger good or bad?'"

We're the ones who were too polite to tell Dennis Hopper and Benjamin Bratt, here to promote "E-Ring, how much we aren't anticipating this show. The producers rid Bratt's character of a wife, putting Sarah Clarke out of work, and hired Kelly Rutherford. Hopper didn't do anything insane, and Bratt insisted we treat him like an actor and not a hunk of prime rib.

Understand, these people are simply being as honest as possible. But that is not why we come to Hollywood. We come to be seduced into continuing to like network television, and NBC was failing to hold up its end of the deal. If the shows are a snore, at least ensure the people representing them get a hit of laughing gas before they take to the stage. You know, give us something.

That is why I looked forward to the final panel of the day: "The Office." Steve Carell plus Rainn Wilson equals: reason to stay awake.

Wait...not quite. Wilson tried his best; when the going got tough, he'd pipe in with nuggets like, "Dwight is revealed to be a woman. Should I have not...?" Oh, and Carell did a great imitation of Paul Lynde that we cannot possibly re-create here. Maybe I was too far gone to draw vitality from their attempts to be witty, but I couldn't help wishing for a "Scrubs" panel.

And why not? "Scrubs" is up for two Emmys, one for star Zach Braff and the other for best comedy series. Intelligent birdie that is it, NBC did not put "Scrubs" on the fall schedule. It has a full 22 episode order, and will be back on the air sometime in midseason --"sooner rather than later," Reilly told us. Which we take to mean as soon one of the new shows tanks, opening up a spot for it on the schedule.

So we should expect its return, what, at some point in October? Here's hoping we can stay conscious for that long.

FALL TV TOUR: New comedy's solid, like Rock
BY Mike Duffy Detroit Free Press TV Writer July 25, 2005

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- Chris Rock wants to make one thing perfectly clear. Quit is not a word in his comedy vocabulary.

But that was the Hollywood industry word after Fox passed on a chance to make a comedy inspired by Rock's childhood experiences growing up in Brooklyn. The buzz? Fox thought Rock would quickly roll away after the pilot, losing interest in the project and any further involvement in the show.

Not fair, says Rock, whose hot new sitcom, "Everybody Hates Chris," with each episode narrated by the funny man himself, has now landed at UPN. The series is already giving the small network a big boost of recognition as it heads toward a Sept. 22 premiere at 8 Thursday nights.

"I've been working a while," says Rock. "I don't think I've ever done anything and walked out. My name's Rock, not Chappelle. Are you confusing me with another skinny black man?"

Wham, bam, big laugh!

That was the funny scene in Beverly Hills the other day at a UPN press conference as Rock, his fellow producers and the cast of "Everybody Hates Chris" met with reporters to discuss the fall season's most anticipated new comedy series.

"I know there's a lot of buzz surrounding the show, so we're trying to be realistic about our expectations," says Dawn Ostroff, president of UPN Entertainment.

"We're getting so much attention; it's hard to sneak up on people," says Rock, who admits that the early, extremely positive industry and critical reaction to the series has been beyond anything he imagined.

That title? No, it's not a sly wink at "Everybody Loves Raymond," the CBS comedy hit that ended a nine-year run last spring.

"We were talking. It just popped in my head," says Rock. "It seemed like the funniest joke that day."

And then the comic did a quick facetious riff on the other show titles considered: "Let's Shoot Chris in the Head," "Mad About Chris Rock" and "Rockfeld."

But "Everybody Hates Chris" really fits.

Rock grew up surrounded by love, tough circumstances and two strict, hard-working parents. But as a young teenager living in the poverty-ravaged Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, he was uprooted and bused to a mostly white middle school two hours away.

Where he really didn't fit in. He became the easy target for mean wisecracks and bullying.

"Mostly Italians and the Irish, they would beat me and the Jews up," notes Rock with his characteristic edge of honest, sarcasm-edged humor.

Though Rock in real life grew up in a large family of seven children, the Chris (Tyler James Williams) in "Everybody Hates Chris" has only two siblings. But with Rock's clever, sardonic narration of his own adolescent tales, it's true to the spirit of Rock's real life growing up.

Rock and his fellow producers, Howard Gewirtz and longtime friend and collaborator Ali LeRoi, were most interested in bringing an honest, realistic edge to their humorous stories of black family life.

"I grew up in a very loving, two-parent household in the middle of one of the worst ghettoes in New York City," recalls Rock. "I was bused to school, but I had so much love in my household. It's really weird. I didn't even know I lived in the ghetto until I was 19 or 20."

Gewirtz, a veteran of such sitcoms as "Taxi," "Bosom Buddies" and "Wings," thinks "Everybody Hates Chris" will strike a chord with viewers who have become disenchanted with cookie-cutter sitcoms.

"The landscape of the show feels real," says the producer. "I think that what the country has been responding to negatively in terms of sitcoms is they exist in 'Sitcom Land,' and I think 'Sitcom Land' has become a little bit tired."

Says LeRoi: "We're just taking real situations as much as we can and trying to find the comedy in them as opposed to trying to manufacture comedy out of artifice."

Rock was especially interested in getting the family dynamic right without ever forgetting the need for funny business. He's full of praise for the 12-year-old Williams as his young sitcom self.

"Tyler was the funniest kid we could find," says Rock. "He's the funniest kid in the country, really, trust me. There's a lot of unfunny kids out there that need to work on their comedy."

But every bit as important as finding the right person to play the young Chris was the need to bring emotional substance to Chris's father and mother, Julius (Terry Crews, "The Longest Yard") and Rochelle. "One of my favorite characters of sitcoms ever is James Evans on 'Good Times,' " says Rock. "So I kind of wanted to give him that James Evans nobility. With the exception of 'Cosby,' every black father I see on TV, they're not really masculine. They're like these theater-type guys -- not gay, not straight, just theater."

That's not a problem with Crews, a Flint native, family man and former NFL defensive end who met Rock while they were filming "The Longest Yard." Crews brings a rugged, loving, no-nonsense parental strength to his amusing, yet never buffoonish sitcom father.

"It's a return of parenting," notes Crews, citing TV's typical sitcom portrayal of fathers as ineffectual dolts. "I mean there hasn't been parents on TV in a long time." Says Arnold: "I think television needs this show right now because I think the show is refreshing. It's heartfelt."

But the only way "Everybody Hates Chris" will really connect with viewers is by also being funny. And with Chris Rock on board as narrator and producer, chances are we'll be laughing.

So, Chris, how is it you finally realized at age 19 or so that you grew up in a ghetto?

"I came to L.A. with Eddie Murphy and stayed at hotels and all this stuff," says Rock. "When I got back and saw what my neighborhood looked like, I started getting scared. I just thought everybody lived around abandoned buildings and had crackheads."
FALL TV TOUR: New comedy's solid, like Rock
BY Mike Duffy Detroit Free Press TV Writer July 25, 2005

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- Chris Rock wants to make one thing perfectly clear. Quit is not a word in his comedy vocabulary.

But that was the Hollywood industry word after Fox passed on a chance to make a comedy inspired by Rock's childhood experiences growing up in Brooklyn. The buzz? Fox thought Rock would quickly roll away after the pilot, losing interest in the project and any further involvement in the show.

Not fair, says Rock, whose hot new sitcom, "Everybody Hates Chris," with each episode narrated by the funny man himself, has now landed at UPN. The series is already giving the small network a big boost of recognition as it heads toward a Sept. 22 premiere at 8 Thursday nights.

"I've been working a while," says Rock. "I don't think I've ever done anything and walked out. My name's Rock, not Chappelle. Are you confusing me with another skinny black man?"

Wham, bam, big laugh!

That was the funny scene in Beverly Hills the other day at a UPN press conference as Rock, his fellow producers and the cast of "Everybody Hates Chris" met with reporters to discuss the fall season's most anticipated new comedy series.

"I know there's a lot of buzz surrounding the show, so we're trying to be realistic about our expectations," says Dawn Ostroff, president of UPN Entertainment.

"We're getting so much attention; it's hard to sneak up on people," says Rock, who admits that the early, extremely positive industry and critical reaction to the series has been beyond anything he imagined.

That title? No, it's not a sly wink at "Everybody Loves Raymond," the CBS comedy hit that ended a nine-year run last spring.

"We were talking. It just popped in my head," says Rock. "It seemed like the funniest joke that day."

And then the comic did a quick facetious riff on the other show titles considered: "Let's Shoot Chris in the Head," "Mad About Chris Rock" and "Rockfeld."

But "Everybody Hates Chris" really fits.

Rock grew up surrounded by love, tough circumstances and two strict, hard-working parents. But as a young teenager living in the poverty-ravaged Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, he was uprooted and bused to a mostly white middle school two hours away.

Where he really didn't fit in. He became the easy target for mean wisecracks and bullying.

"Mostly Italians and the Irish, they would beat me and the Jews up," notes Rock with his characteristic edge of honest, sarcasm-edged humor.

Though Rock in real life grew up in a large family of seven children, the Chris (Tyler James Williams) in "Everybody Hates Chris" has only two siblings. But with Rock's clever, sardonic narration of his own adolescent tales, it's true to the spirit of Rock's real life growing up.

Rock and his fellow producers, Howard Gewirtz and longtime friend and collaborator Ali LeRoi, were most interested in bringing an honest, realistic edge to their humorous stories of black family life.

"I grew up in a very loving, two-parent household in the middle of one of the worst ghettoes in New York City," recalls Rock. "I was bused to school, but I had so much love in my household. It's really weird. I didn't even know I lived in the ghetto until I was 19 or 20."

Gewirtz, a veteran of such sitcoms as "Taxi," "Bosom Buddies" and "Wings," thinks "Everybody Hates Chris" will strike a chord with viewers who have become disenchanted with cookie-cutter sitcoms.

"The landscape of the show feels real," says the producer. "I think that what the country has been responding to negatively in terms of sitcoms is they exist in 'Sitcom Land,' and I think 'Sitcom Land' has become a little bit tired."

Says LeRoi: "We're just taking real situations as much as we can and trying to find the comedy in them as opposed to trying to manufacture comedy out of artifice."

Rock was especially interested in getting the family dynamic right without ever forgetting the need for funny business. He's full of praise for the 12-year-old Williams as his young sitcom self.

"Tyler was the funniest kid we could find," says Rock. "He's the funniest kid in the country, really, trust me. There's a lot of unfunny kids out there that need to work on their comedy."

But every bit as important as finding the right person to play the young Chris was the need to bring emotional substance to Chris's father and mother, Julius (Terry Crews, "The Longest Yard") and Rochelle. "One of my favorite characters of sitcoms ever is James Evans on 'Good Times,' " says Rock. "So I kind of wanted to give him that James Evans nobility. With the exception of 'Cosby,' every black father I see on TV, they're not really masculine. They're like these theater-type guys -- not gay, not straight, just theater."

That's not a problem with Crews, a Flint native, family man and former NFL defensive end who met Rock while they were filming "The Longest Yard." Crews brings a rugged, loving, no-nonsense parental strength to his amusing, yet never buffoonish sitcom father.

"It's a return of parenting," notes Crews, citing TV's typical sitcom portrayal of fathers as ineffectual dolts. "I mean there hasn't been parents on TV in a long time." Says Arnold: "I think television needs this show right now because I think the show is refreshing. It's heartfelt."

But the only way "Everybody Hates Chris" will really connect with viewers is by also being funny. And with Chris Rock on board as narrator and producer, chances are we'll be laughing.

So, Chris, how is it you finally realized at age 19 or so that you grew up in a ghetto?

"I came to L.A. with Eddie Murphy and stayed at hotels and all this stuff," says Rock. "When I got back and saw what my neighborhood looked like, I started getting scared. I just thought everybody lived around abandoned buildings and had crackheads."

FX marks the spot
The network's edgy shows are pushing limits - and winning over viewers

By Suzanne C. Ryan Bpston Globe Staff

Early episodes of FX's Iraq war drama ''Over There" contain scenes almost too graphic for television. A captured American soldier's feet appear to melt when acid is splashed on them by the enemy. An Iraqi man's legs continue to walk a few steps after his torso is completely blown off. Birds pick at the remains of two Iraqis shot at an American roadblock.

Coproduced by Steven Bochco, the show will become one of the darkest programs on television when it debuts Wednesday night, and one of the most talked about.

It's a perfect fit, in other words, for a basic cable network on the rise.

Once known for its ''M*A*S*H" reruns, FX, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., has made a name for itself with edgy dramatic series. This month ''The Shield," about tough LA detectives who play by their own rules, earned two Emmy nominations. Other shows with loyal followings include the often outrageous ''Nip/Tuck," about two doctors running a Miami plastic surgery practice, and ''Rescue Me," which follows a company of New York City firemen post-9/11.

''There's a nice buzz about FX these days," says Bochco, cocreator of ''Hill Street Blues" and ''NYPD Blue."

''They really are doing interesting work. And they've become known for granting creative freedom."

John Landgraf, FX Networks' president and general manager, says the network is attempting to reflect ''contemporary reality, from America's narcissism on 'Nip/Tuck' to civil liberties, race, and poverty on 'The Shield' to 9/11 on 'Rescue Me.'

''There are probably people offended by all of our shows," he adds. ''But we're not trying to appeal to the broadest swath of people. We're a little network that's very far up the dial. We are trying to inspire passion by telling truthful stories."

Since arriving at the network 17 months ago from Jersey Television, the production company that created Comedy Central's offbeat ''Reno 911!," Landgraf has pushed FX to become more aggressive in developing original programming. FX's schedule is still largely dominated by syndicated reruns of shows such as ''King of the Hill" and ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

Last month, FX launched ''30 Days," a documentary series from Morgan Spurlock (director of the Oscar-nominated ''Super Size Me") about what happens when one person steps into another's drastically different lifestyle for a month. ''Thief," a drama that stars Andre Braugher and focuses on the lives of a group of New Orleans crooks, will premiere in early 2006. The upcoming ''Over There" is the first fictional television show to ever dramatize a war while it's still raging.

Meanwhile, on Aug. 4, the network will launch its first original comedies. ''Starved" centers on four New Yorkers with eating disorders. ''It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" is the story of four friends managing a bar.

The moves by Landgraf -- who was promoted in May from entertainment president to network president -- haven't gone unnoticed in the creative community.

Spurlock, the 34-year-old creator and executive producer of ''30 Days," turned to Landgraf after the broadcast networks rejected the filmmaker's pitch to examine serious social issues via a documentary series. Spurlock's proposal included the idea of filming himself as he struggled to live on minimum wage in Ohio for a month.

''One broadcast-network executive said to me, 'Hold on. So who wins?' " recalls Spurlock. ''I said, 'You do. The viewer. Every week.' He said, 'Well, it was nice meeting you.' "

Brainstorming with Landgraf was a different experience, Spurlock adds. ''From the minute the words starting coming out of my mouth, he said, 'Yes. That's exactly what we're looking for.' "

During its first season, which ended last week, ''30 Days" had a homophobic man live with a gay man and a Christian move in with a Muslim family. The mother of a college student became a binge drinker. And a former athlete started taking steroids.

The program, which has not yet been renewed, averaged 1.5 million viewers per episode. For a new show on an up-and-coming cable network, those numbers aren't bad. FX's top show, ''Nip/Tuck," averages 3.8 million viewers.

FX approached Shawn Ryan to produce ''The Shield" three years ago, after Ryan's proposal for the series was sent to the network by its corporate sibling Fox Television Studios.

''I got a call from the people at Fox TV telling me that FX wanted to make a pilot," recalls Ryan. ''I said, 'You mean that cable network that shows 'M*A*S*H' repeats?"

Ryan was even more surprised after meeting with FX executives, who insisted he produce the show.

''Every instinct in my body said 'Say no.' But my mouth said, 'OK,' " says Ryan, who was a 35-year-old writer for CBS's ''Nash Bridges" at the time. ''I was a working writer, but a low-level one. It's not like the networks were banging on my door to work with me."

Since ''The Shield" debuted in March, 2002, FX's improved stature has allowed it to draw top talent, Ryan adds, referring to last season when -- in a coup for FX -- Glenn Close agreed to star in ''The Shield" as Captain Monica Rawling.

''It was a leap of faith for her," says Ryan. ''In television, unlike movies, you don't see all the scripts in advance. You don't know all the directors you'll be working with. She had to trust us."

This month, Close was nominated for an Emmy Award for outstanding lead actress in a drama series. Her castmate CCH Pounder was nominated in the supporting actress category.

Despite its reputation, however, FX has only won one Emmy Award. In 2002, ''The Shield's" Michael Chiklis won for outstanding lead actor in a drama series.

Next season on ''The Shield," Close will not appear, FX said, because the actress wants to remain near her family in New York. The show, which is FX's second most popular with an average of 3.2 million viewers, is filmed in Los Angeles.

To be sure, not everyone is pleased with FX's makeover. Some people argue that the basic cable network goes too far.

''I call FX irresponsible," says Randy Sharp, director of special projects at the Mississippi-based American Family Association, a conservative organization that monitors American culture. ''In today's society, how many kids go to bed at 10? Mine do. But many kids don't and many of them have televisions in their bedrooms.

''It's very discouraging that consumers are required to pay for content on basic cable that they may not want," he says.

FX has had some failures in its effort to establish an identity. Howard Stern's ''Son of the Beach," (a ''Baywatch" parody that debuted in 2000), ''The X-Show" (a comedic talk show for men that premiered in 1999) and ''Toughman" (a 1999 amateur boxing show) have all been canceled, as has ''Lucky," a 2003 comedy about compulsive gamblers in Las Vegas starring John Corbett of ''Sex and the City."

FX, which continues to air NASCAR races, is no longer as focused on the male demographic. ''We don't want to be Spike TV," says Landgraf, who notes that ''Nip/Tuck" has a 60 percent female audience and ''Rescue Me" has a 45 percent female audience.

It's unclear whether ''Over There," which focuses on male and female soldiers as well as their families back home, will appeal to both genders. But Bochco says he has already been criticized for dramatizing a war in progress.

''Some people might be disturbed by it -- I understand that," he says. ''But we have some very legitimate stories to tell. We screened this for some veterans of Iraq. I met five guys who lost their limbs. . . . They said people ought to be seeing this stuff so they can understand what we're going through."

Despite any looming controversy, Landgraf is pushing forward with his mission to redefine the network. ''We'll produce 100 episodes of original TV this year," he says. ''We can't find a way to satisfy everyone's opinion. When you do that, you start to sand off the edges of your work.

''And like a fine handcrafted table, those edges are what make quality."

TV Critics Tour Blog
By Diane Werts Newsday (LI, NY)
Fix is in for networks

It’s only gotten worse. Now there’s a giant NBC peacock sitting atop the fountain in the valet circle at the entrance of the press tour hotel.

That, and an armada of black Cadillac Escalade limos ringing the
driveway, waiting to transport the stars in and out for critics’
amusement and bemusement. Press tour goes seven days a week for its
three weeks, which fittingly matches Hollywood’s unending penchant for hype.

We’ve seen the fall pilots. Now we get to hear a half-dozen times a day
how the networks are “fixing” the shows they’ve chosen for your
consumption. NBC’s session for the Pentagon drama “E-Ring” revealed
they’ve axed pilot wife Sarah Clarke (Nina on “24”) so Benjamin Bratt’s
officer can be a single “lone wolf and get out in the field.” Oh, that’s
fresh. “E-Ring” is chock-a-block with acronyms, gadgets, Top Secret
envelope seals and an onscreen clock to keep us apprised how much time
is left before Bratt and loose-cannon commander Dennis Hopper save the
day and the world.

The show is adding “Threat Matrix” survivor Kelly
Rutherford as a Pentagon lawyer. A lawyer. Who’s a blonde babe. That’s
fresh, too. NBC had to drop Alfre Woodard from Friday night’s 10 p.m.
fertility drama and sacrificial lamb “Inconceivable” when she got a
better gig on ABC’s hit “Desperate Housewives.” So they’ve added the
familiar Angie Harmon from NBC’s “Law & Order.” So much for the notion
that TV makes its own stars. When your network’s in fourth place, you go
straight for the famous face who might draw faster viewer tune-in.

When other networks were entertaining and enervating us with their fall
plans in the days before NBC’s Sunday arrival, we learned about The WB’s
commitment to diversity, which you may have noticed is, um, lacking in
their casting. They presented the post-pilot addition of Jaime Lee
Kirchner to “Just Legal,” the Monday 9 p.m. drama in which Don Johnson’s
burn-out lawyer and Jay Baruchel’s teen prodigy attorney seek justice
for the underdog.

Filling that role would be Kirchner’s character – a
black convict who goes to work for them wearing an ankle bracelet as
part of her parole. Diversity in action. WB execs also touted “Cuban”
actress Kiele Sanchez, who’s actually half Puerto Rican. She’s being
shoehorned into their sister drama “Related,” in a recast is so key that
the pilot wasn’t shown at all. Sanchez was previously seen as a
whitebread Kansan on ABC’s “Married to the Kellys” and she and her
sibling characters on the new show are white Italians. ¿Que?

By the way, it’s not too late for YOU to be on The WB. The surprise
summer success “Beauty and the Geek” starts a new casting tour Saturday,
July 30, which hits New York Aug. 27. They’re looking for “seven
beautiful, sexy, social-savvy women and seven intellectually endowed but
socially stunted men” for a second go-round this coming season. Be
warned, the first time around, the “reality” cast was white as a
bleached-out starlet’s smile.

Over at UPN, which programs black-cast comedies on both Monday and
Thursday nights this fall, there’s a bit more variety. Holly Robinson
Peete and Reagan Gomez-Preston survived when Shannen Doherty “wasn’t the
right fit” for the role she was written out of on the new dating service
sitcom “Love, Inc.”

At their morning press conference, producers claimed
they hadn’t signed a replacement, though Peete said she’d “be of the
Caucasian persuasion.” Ten hours later at that night’s UPN “star party,”
designed to give critics one-on-one time with cast and crew members,
they announced Busy Phillips, late of “Freaks and Geeks,” who then got
to meet her new costars in public. At least she avoided having to
explain herself from the stage that morning to the fast-scribbling press
tour hoards. Nice dodge.

Even titles get tweaked. UPN’s “Sex, Lies & Secrets” becomes “Sex, Love
& Secrets.” The fall serial hour about trendy L.A. twentysomethings
“does involve lies, love and secrets,” said executive producer Daniel
Cerone. But it also “involves relationships, and we just didn’t want to
make it sound smarmy when really it’s a show with heart.”

“Melrose Place” started out with heart, too. But smarm and the late
addition of Heather Locklear were what proved to be the hit ticket.

TV Critics Tour Blog
By Paul Brownfield The Los Angeles Times July 25, 2005

Wolf, unfettered

You knew this couldn't last, this sense of optimism, both about the fall season and the whole TV shebang here. Because you were going to lunch in the grand ballroom, where "Access Hollywood" was celebrating its 10th anniversary on the air. Co-anchor Billy Bush got asked whether he thought Tom Cruise was stupid or crazy, because, you know, Bush had interviewed him for a whole hour and gotten a good look into his eyes. And it was during that interview that Cruise talked about Scientology and went after Brooke Shields. That was pre-Matt Lauer, remember?

"Tom is very passionate," Bush began, and you thought, wow, Bush, why don't you just tell us you can't comment due to the fact that there's an ongoing investigation. He said, "With Tom, there is the pros and the cons." Bush then sashayed over to the phrase "tunnel vision," I guess to describe Cruise's focus.

Chiming in, co-anchor Nancy O'Dell said she'd probably interviewed Cruise 40 times now, on all those carpets, and once he even remembered to ask after her sister.

You went back to your salmon.

Can you see now how hard it is to maintain a sense of hopefulness at this thing? Currently I'm in the press room, where they have transcripts from all the sessions. Randomly I flip to a page and record this quote from Jason Gedrick, star of the midseason NBC drama "Windfall," about the post-windfall lives of 20 lottery winners, to give you a flavor of what it means to attend a panel: "I was going to say I think something else that's really interesting about the possibilities of this show is the fact that, you know, initially if you win something and you want to suddenly reap the benefits in some sort of material way, characters can go through a sort of genesis as to, you know, OK, initially I was just greedy and I wanted to fill myself up with, you know, a car and a new house or whatever and then come to terms with that and say, 'You know what, I don't need this. What can I do? And you know, Jackie's character -- she's a nurse. She may want to open up a clinic and donate some money. I mean everyone has a great opportunity here to go through stages of being, you know, more self-involved and then perhaps a little more ethical and moral, and I think that the possibilities are endless."

Now imagine this quote but multiplied by 20 different people talking about 20 different shows.

There was a good panel today, on the heels of Variety reporting that the French are getting "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," the one with Vincent D'Onofrio. They'll adapt it with French actors, reports Daily Variety. At a panel called, rather starkly, "Law & Order: Brand," franchise boss Dick Wolf said: "Let's go right at it. I was incredibly upset, disappointed, dismayed, any other adjectives that you care to add about 'Trial by Jury,'" a reference to the cancelled "Law & Order" spin-off.

But, Wolf went on to say, the marriage between "Law & Order" and NBC Universal is so rock solid it's like a "long-term marriage with no possibility of divorce." They're developing a new show about assistant district attorneys, and meanwhile Chris Noth has joined "Criminal Intent," to split time with D'Onofrio.

In a blazer and tie and exuding a kind of old-school paterfamilias, Wolf was joined onstage by "Law & Order" cast member Annie Parisse, Mariska Hargitay of "Special Victims Unit" and D'Onofrio.

Apparently, the TV press is used to Wolf being angry at them, even though, as a reporter noted, "You're sitting there with three very well-reviewed actors. Your shows get regularly good reviews. You're the only series of shows on television where cast changes are reported generally with gusto, but you always seem to be angry with us."

Wolf talked about how the "Law & Order" franchise, which he said generated $1 billion in ad revenue last year, gets short shrift because the shows aren't considered hot by the popular press.

Wolf: "Very few reviews have made me angry over the years. Very few analysis -- analyses of the show have made me angry. What makes me angry is the lack of sophisticated business reportage, and I understand that there is the business section and there is the television section, but come on, guys, you know, there are no 'good-news' newspapers. How many -- I'll send you the clips. If you saw the volume of, of articles in the fall that, you know, how badly the shows have been hurt by 'CSI: New York' and 'Desperate Housewives,' it wasn't good news reporting ... This is still the most profitable brand in the history of the medium."

He was acing the session like Rumsfield.

Already, he had teed off about how the popular press had jumped on the "Alias" bandwagon, but "Criminal Intent" has been more boffo in syndication. He began throwing around numbers.

Wolf: "'Alias' sold three weeks ago for $175,000 an episode. 'Criminal Intent' sold for 1100 percent more. OK, do the math. This show is on -- the three shows have got 600 combined episodes. They have turned TNT into the No. 1 network on cable and USA, the No. 2 network on cable. There is no bad news here."

More Wolf: "You guys don't report the financial aspects of how successful the brand is. The only reason the brand is that successful, it's show business. No show, no business. You've got an actress sitting up here who has received two consecutive Emmy nominations for a show that everybody would describe as mature. I didn't see that much fuss made about it."

TV Critics Tour Blog
By Melanie McFarland The Seattle Post-Intelligencer Television Critic

...and more of those NBC blues ettered

You know your Tour day is going badly when:

-- You just picked up a midseason series called "Windfall," an ensemble drama about 20 lottery winners. And, although critics actually seem interested in it, the actors involved do not.

To wit: This morning, we were expecting series star Luke Perry to show up, but had to settle for his co-worker Jacklyn Desantis, who appeared to be nodding off in her chair. Which was onstage.

Her co-star Lana Parrilla had a look on her face that made a person wonder if she had stepped in something a Great Dane had left behind. Meanwhile, "Windfall's" Alice Greczyn got caught in this unfortunate exchange with a reporter:

"I'd like to know how analogous this is to getting your big break in Hollywood, winning the lottery."

"I'm sorry," she said, "what was that word?"

"Analagous. It means, 'like.'"

-- You know your Tour day is going badly when Ming-Na, who made her career on "E.R." and co-helms "Inconceivable" with Jonathan Cake, has her lips pursed defensively as her show's executive producer yammers on and on because nobody is asking them, or late cast addition Angie Harmon, any questions.

And when the questions finally get rolling, they concern Cake's role in the ABC miniseries "Empire, " which wasn't great TV, but was a lot more fun to look at than "Inconceivable." You know she knows this doesn't bode well.

-- You know your Tour day is going badly when you have Jessica Capshaw playing a former fat woman on the midseason series "Thick and Thin," and know she'll never get fat. What's the point, beyond ensuring that the people who would relate to her pseudo-struggles most, i.e. actual fat people, won't watch? That would be something you come to realize too late in the game.

And Lorne Michaels, executive producer and legendary "Saturday Night Live" head honcho, is on the panel, yet nobody has anything to ask of him. Not. A. Thing.

And the show's creator and executive producer, Paula Pell, feels she needs to address the male journalists in the room as "cutie" to keep our attention. The last time these guys were called "cutie," they were in diapers. Sadly, the tactic worked.

-- Finally, you know your Tour day is going badly when you hope that the mid-afternoon snack has a "Book of Daniel" theme, offering an assortment of mind-erasing pills. But it's smoothies and frozen bananas, which makes you wish you had bought "Arrested Development" two seasons ago instead of going with "Whoopi."

If you can relate to any of these situations, then your name must be Jeff Zucker. And you have every right to thank heaven that NBC's turn at Press Tour is nearly finished. Believe you me, the rest of us are.

TV Critics Tour Blog
By Bill Goodykroontz The Arizona Republic

All Wolf, no sheep

It just wouldn't be NBC without a scold from Law & Order creator Dick Wolf.

There are, as you probably know, three Law & Orders; time and space, though supposedly infinite on the Internet, prohibit naming and describing them in detail.

So instead of being about one show, this session was devoted to the Law & Order "brand."

Nice.

Usually dealing from a position of strength -- his shows make up a sizable chunk of the NBC schedule, and are near-ubiquitous as cable reruns -- Wolf actually had a wound to lick this time: Law & Order: Trial By Jury, which debuted this spring, wasn't picked up by the network for fall. Rather than allow us to get the upper hand, Wolf simply began the session by talking about how upset, disappointed, "any other adjective you could care to add" he was.

How about "humbled?"

Maybe not.

"You guys don't report how successful the financial aspects of the brand are," he correctly pointed out.

Me, and most other people in the room: TV critics. Description: Once read books, now watch enormous amounts of TV. Severe deficiency in math masked by failed attemtps at humor about that portion of the SAT.

"What makes me angry is the lack of sophisticated business reportage," Wolf continued.

Well duh. What makes me angry is the lack of affordable daycare, but I don't make a big thing out of it in front of everybody.

Despite the nature of his tone, Wolf assured that he was happy as a clam.

"I'm not pissed off," he said. "I'm a very happy guy. I have three shows on the air."

Four for a minute there, but who's counting?

TV Critics Tour Blog
By Diane Holloway Austin Statesman TV Writer

NBC hopes for pregnant possibilities

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Thematically, NBC’s new shows are either sweetly hopeful or downright desperate, depending on your point of view.

The fourth-place network has two new series about winning the lottery (the fall sitcom “My Name Is Earl” and the midseason replacement drama “Windfall”) and a reality series that will grant three wishes in one small town each week (appropriately slugged “Three Wishes”). Oh, and a midseason drama about an Episcopal priest with a dysfunctional family who talks to a visible Jesus (“The Book of Daniel”). Could the development execs be hoping for a miracle?

Another new show NBC feels is, um, pregnant with possibility is “Inconceivable,” a comedy-drama set in a fertility clinic.

One of the stars is Ming-Na, who left “ER” at the end of last season and just happens to be pregnant. Her second child is due in October. She told critics this morning that she loved the pilot script but almost turned it down “because there were lab coats involved.” She also liked the mostly upbeat storylines.

“Instead of killing people each week, which is something ‘ER’ did — not every week but often — this is about creating life,” she said.

Also in the cast of “Inconceivable” is Dallas’ own Angie Harmon, who left “Law & Order” several years ago to concentrate on having a life. She has since had two children with hubby Jason Sehorn of the New York Jets, the most recent addition arriving just last month.

“I had no intention of coming back to series, but I was 8 1/2 months pregnant when I read this script and just loved it — maybe because of raging hormones,” said Harmon, sporting a set of diamond rings so huge and blinding that some of us worried she would set fire to her dress under the spotlights. “Every time I get pregnant, my career gets better. I hope I’ll have twins next time.”

Harmon and Sehorn are raising their daughters in Dallas and commute to L.A. and New York for their respective careers.

Dick Wolf howls

The always cantankerous Dick Wolf met with critics to chew us out about not writing enough about the successful NBC “Law & Order” series — the “brand” responsible for most of NBC’s ratings lately. Wolf, who produces the original and two spinoffs (“Special Victims Unit” and “Criminal Intent”), not-so-gently pointed out that his three series have a combined episode tally of 600 and crowed that the trio generated $1 billion in ad revenue from telecasts on NBC and TNT.

“We’re not looking to be the hot show,” Wolf grumbled. “It’s about longevity and profitability.” And, presumably, quality.

NBC still has the richest

NBC may be fourth in total households and all the swell age demos (18-34 and 18-49), but it’s still No. 1 in one audience category: income.

The network has the most upscale audience, with $100,000-plus incomes in abundance, along with college degrees. Advertisers like smart, wealthy viewers, which means NBC isn’t in as bad a shape as ABC was when it was in fourth place — and attracted the blue-collar crowd.

Jeff Zucker, NBC’s president, told a small group at breakfast this morning that “The West Wing” is the top attraction for the rich, followed by “The Apprentice” (guess rich folks wanna be like The Donald, too) and “ER.” Rich-appeal comedies include “Scrubs” and “Will & Grace.”

So what’s the least upscale show on NBC? Acccording to Zucker, it’s (ta-da!) “Fear Factor.”

Seeking A New, Good Sitcom

By Roger Catlin Hartford Courant July 26 2005

Network comedy is in as bad shape today as it's ever been. And some of the reasons may be glimpsed in a new reality show in which new voices are sought for scripted TV humor.

Sean Hayes and producing partner Todd Milliner pick five good scripts from 10,000 submitted and begin the elimination familiar to reality shows. Eventually, two remaining writing teams on "Situation: Comedy" (Bravo, 8 p.m.) will produce pilots for their proposed shows and the audience will choose which one is best. The winner will be pitched to mother network NBC (though it doesn't seem to be on its fall schedule).

"We don't think the sitcom is dead," says Hayes, whose own "Will & Grace" enters its eighth and final season this fall. "We just think good sitcoms are hard to find."

It's eye-opening to see how much any original vision by the writers is stomped on and changed by rooms of executives before they get to the network president who shoots them down based on a one-line pitch.

"That was almost like a strange firing squad," NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly says of the scene where he eliminates all but the final two. "It was somewhat artificial."

But of the reality show, Milliner says, "our goal was twofold - one was to make a great new show. And the second one was to make a show that could get picked up on NBC. Because in the end our goal is to get these sitcoms seen."

"The show is kind of an experiment," says Hayes. "We're not saying we have the answer to save the sitcom, so to speak. If we did, we couldn't create a show about it; we would have just made a hit sitcom."

Instead, they've made "Situation: Comedy."

L&O's Wolf Holds Reporters in Contempt

By Jim Benson Broadcasting & Cable

Law & Order brand creator Dick Wolf Monday lashed out at the press, complaining that it has characterized his shows as “too old” and “battered” while ignoring the fact that they are the “most profitable brand in the history of the medium.”

The three shows, mother ship Law & Order, along with Criminal Intent and Special Victims Unit, last year generated $1 billion in advertising revenue, according to Wolf.

While critics continue to give his shows good reviews, he said it turns into a “self-fulfilling prophecy when you guys write about the demise of a show. … That’s what I react to."

“There is no bad news here,” he said.

Wolf pointed to the "unheard of" business partnership between Wolf Films and NBC Universal for the past 16 years and summer rerun ratings last week showing that Law & Order and CSI shows accounted for seven of the top-20 shows.

“I’m not saying television should be filled with just procedurals, but look at the numbers guys.”

Saying he wanted to “get this off my chest,” Wolf criticized the press for basically ignoring Criminal Intent star and panelist Vincent D’Onofrio in his first season with the show while lavishing all its praise on ABC’s Alias.

“If you guys had been paying any attention, I firmly believe he would have gotten an Emmy nomination and a Golden Globe nomination the first season,” Wolf said.

Now, five years later, Wolf said Alias reruns sold three weeks ago for $175,000 per episode, while Criminal Intent “sold for 1,100 percent more.” (A representative from Buena Vista TV claimed the $175,000 figure was too low, but would not provide an exact figure.)

The three shows in the Law & Order franchise have a combined 605 episodes, and have turned TNT into the No. 1 and USA into the No. 2 basic cable networks, according to Wolf.

Wolf has been bombarded over the last year with stories about how supposedly bad his shows have been hurt by the likes of Desperate Housewives and, early in the season, CSI: New York.

Wolf insists that Criminal Intent is the “only show that could have possibly held up against Desperate Housewives” on Sunday nights.

“Sure it was down, but it was not out.”

Citing a "lack of sophisticated business reportage" in the consumer media, Wolf spent a good deal of time during his 30-minute TCA press tour appearance Monday sparring with reporters.

"We’re not looking to be the hot show," he says. "That’s not what the brand is about. It’s about longevity, repeatability and about staying on the air and being a profit center for NBC for years to come."

Wolf went on the attack when asked whether his procedural dramas which, along with the CSI franchise, now proliferate primetime television run counter to network executives’ desire to "think outside the envelope" to develop future hits.

TV Review
'Situation: Comedy' puts wannabes to test

This reality TV contest to find the next great sitcom is unlikely to spark a comedy revolution
By Robert Lloyd Los Angeles Times Staff Writer July 26, 2005

To use the sort of shorthand description so beloved of TV development executives, "Situation: Comedy," which premieres tonight on Bravo, is for sitcoms what "Project Greenlight" is for movies.

The brainchild of actor Sean Hayes (Jack on "Will & Grace") and business partner Todd Milliner, it is a reality show (subgenus: fantasy-camp competition) whose end will be the production of two 15-minute mini-pilots, the best to be determined by the vote of the viewing public. The winner(s) get a small pot of money — $25,000, a tenth of what seems to be the standard broadcast network reality-show giveaway — and a year's representation by a big-name Hollywood agency (choice of William Morris or CAA). And there's a chance, we are encouraged to feel, that Bravo parent NBC, which stars here as "the network," may want to make the winner into a series — the "next hit sitcom." But we are also told that this is a business of slim chances.

"Situation: Comedy" is involving in the way these things usually are — show me a contest and I'll show you a lot of people who'll stick around to see who wins — though (early on, at least) the conflict seems more concocted than reported, phony even by the low standards of the genre. There is an almost comic use of underscoring to convert simple observations (that a "lead character seems a little vanilla," for example) into pronouncements of doom, and too many reaction shots have clearly been moved to where they will do the most dramatic good. (Contest rules indemnify the producers against, among other things, "the entrant's claim that he or she has somehow been defamed or portrayed in a false light" — which is to say, they can do whatever they want.) But this is in any case irrelevant to the central question of whether the sitcoms that this series will produce are any worse or better than what the networks come up with on their own. ("Remember that humor is important," read the contest rules.)

The series is represented as "an attempt to save the sitcom" (says Hayes), but this is, of course, promotional overstatement. Though the death of situation comedy is a subject of regular mild debate, the idea that it needs to be rescued — from whom is the great unasked question here — is just the same dramatic frippery most "Next Great" series employ. The system has broken down, we are to believe, and it's only by going outside the box, to the untapped, untainted real people of America, that the next great fashion designer, boxing champ, assistant tycoon, etc., will be found. At the same time, the show wants to make the point that the people in power — the people who are funding and appearing in this series — know what they're doing. But even the most senior network executives are wrong most of the time, or else the world would be full of hit shows. (They only need to be right more often than other people who might conceivably inhabit their job.)

That "Situation: Comedy" will affect in any way the future of situation comedy may be nonsense, but it's certainly true that there are gifted people in the world who have no talent for making connections, just as there are people in the world whose only real gift is to make them.

The competition was skewed toward amateurs — "professional writers" (as defined by the Writers Guild of America) were excluded — not merely to even that playing field, but because that's where the story is: Like Bravo's "Project Greenlight," it's a tale of outsiders who suddenly become insiders — it's interesting to see how fast they begin to see themselves as professionals — and have to learn to play well with others, and possibly to sacrifice their vision to what they are assured is necessary for success.

More than 10,000 entries begged for this privilege. Even accounting for multiple submissions by single writers, that's an astonishing image — a nation awash in sitcom scripts. (What's in your bottom drawer?) Writing the Great American TV Series may have replaced writing the Great American Novel as the Great American Dream — and it's probably true that the perks are better. Yet even given that mountain of material, one of the two finalists — the story of a proper single mother, her teenage daughter and the reprobate sperm donor who stumbles into their lives — shares exactly the premise of "Misconceptions," a midseason WB series scheduled for 2006.

I'm not sure what that means, but it's fair to say the comedy revolution does not begin here.

'Situation: Comedy'

Where: Bravo

When: 8-10 PM ET/PT Tuesday

Sean Hayes...self

Todd Milliner...self

'Alias' star's baby won't be covert
By Gary Levin and Robert Bianco USA TODAY

LOS ANGELES — Jennifer Garner won't have to hide her pregnancy when Alias returns for its fifth (and probably final) season this fall.

That's because Garner's Sydney Bristow also is expecting with Vaughn (co-star Michael Vartan).

Though Ben Affleck's newlywed bride is due in December, Alias creator J.J. Abrams expects she won't miss work on the series, scheduled to resume production Friday. Producers plan to shoot earlier some scenes that would have been filmed during her short maternity leave: "She'll be in every episode," he says.

The decision to write her pregnancy into the plot also means the show can now air largely uninterrupted in its new home, Thursdays at 8 ET/PT, ABC says. An early plan called for the series to air eight episodes, take a long breather and return in the spring.

'L&O' means $$:

NBC may want to take creative risks, but for Law & Order producer Dick Wolf, it's all about business. He'd prefer that the press focus on the fact that the Law franchise generated $1 billion in ad revenue last season and not on the ratings declines posted by two of the shows and the cancellation of a third (Trial by Jury).

"We're not looking to be the hot show," he says of the series and its spawn. "We're about longevity, we're about repeatability, staying on the air and being a profit center for years to come."

Law & Order: Criminal Intent, which again faces Desperate Housewives this fall, is splitting its season in two with alternating episodes led by Vincent D'Onofrio and Chris Noth, returning as Detective Mike Logan. It's aimed at reducing the actors' schedules. And in a first, a foreign version of CI is in production for French network TF1. It's due next year.

Fame windfall:

Lottery winners aren't the only people who can go a little crazy.

Jason Gedrick (Boomtown) is returning to NBC in Windfall, a midseason soap about instant millionaires who get carried away by riches. But money, he says, isn't the only thing that can throw a person off. So can sudden fame. "When you come in, there are so many things that are promised to you. ... You can fall into the trap of 'Oh, maybe I deserve this.' "

What pulled Gedrick out of the trap? "I had friends in Chicago who said, 'You're just seconds away from being slapped.' "

Birth daze:

Babies are booming at NBC's Inconceivable.

Angie Harmon just had a daughter, and her co-star, Ming-Na, is pregnant. Co-creators Marco Penette and Oliver Goldstick each have used surrogates, and Goldstick and his partner are expecting their second baby in August.

Which explains why Goldstick thinks this NBC drama about a fertility clinic is timely. In the old days on TV, he says, women used to borrow a cup of sugar from a neighbor. "Now they can borrow an egg or a uterus."

Harmon, who joined the show after the pilot was shot, says she also felt a timely pull: She read the script when she was pregnant and fell in love with it. But she says it wasn't the hormones.

"I watched it after I had my baby, and I still liked it."

Novelist Reichs bares her 'Bones' for television

By Carol Memmott USA TODAY

New on TV this fall is Bones, a Fox series about forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan who, in her spare time, writes novels about a forensic anthropologist named Kathy Reichs.

In real life, it is forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs who writes the best sellers starring Temperance Brennan.

The real Reichs, who works for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for the state of North Carolina and for the Laboratoire des Sciences Judiciaires et de Médecine Légale for the province of Quebec, says the idea for the series is "brilliant."

"We hope my readers will get a kick out of that and realize that it's another manifestation of Tempe, and they are in on this inside joke," says Reichs, also a professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte.

Bones, Reichs makes clear, is not based on any of her novels. But like their plots, the story lines for Bones are grounded in her expertise in a field that specializes in identifying remains so badly decomposed, burned or destroyed that standard identification methods are useless.

"Each of those stories will be original," says Reichs, who is working with the show's writers. "It's a good outlet for ideas I don't use in the books."

Reichs' on-the-job experience should prove an inexhaustible resource for story ideas for both Bones and future novels. In addition to her work in North Carolina and Quebec, she has taught body-recovery workshops at the FBI Academy at Quantico, Va., testified at the United Nations' tribunal on genocide after the Rwandan atrocities of the mid-1990s, identified victims in mass graves in Guatemala and helped at Ground Zero in New York after the 9/11 attacks.

The Tempe in Reichs' novels works mostly in Quebec and North Carolina. TV's Tempe is based in Washington, D.C., at a scientific institute called the Jeffersonian, which Reichs describes as "the equivalent of the Smithsonian." Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz star.

Reichs' first novel, Déjà Dead, published in 1997, was an instant hit. Her eighth Tempe novel, Cross Bones (Scribner, $25.95), is a best seller now.

Intensive research for Cross Bones took Reichs to Israel, and the same kind of meticulous work is going into the creation of Bones. Reichs recently spent time with the series' writers "working on plotlines, trying to put the science into them and keeping the science honest."

The show's characters will use cutting-edge technology, she says, but it's not pushed beyond "what realistically does exist and could be done."

How will the authenticity stack up to TV series such as CSI that also deploy forensic experts who boast gadgetry?

The TV show will be realistic, Reichs says. "You can't get DNA results in 53 minutes."

Dick Wolf Bares His Fangs
By Lisa de Moraes The Washington Post Tuesday, July 26, 2005; C01

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., July 25--"Law & Order" franchise creator Dick Wolf is angry, angry, angry that critics devoted more attention to "Alias" than to "L&O: Criminal Intent" when the shows debuted back in 2001. It cost "CI" star Vincent D'Onofrio some acting trophies, he claimed.

"The first season all the heat was on 'Alias,' and we had to fight to get anything in the press, and [D'Onofrio] was doing a job that, if you'd been paying attention, I firmly [believe] would have gotten him an Emmy and a Golden Globe," Wolf told critics Monday during NBC's second day onstage at Summer TV Press Tour 2005.

Besides which, "Criminal Intent" has proved to be more lucrative in syndication, he said.

" 'Alias' sold [in syndication] for $175,000 an episode; 'Criminal Intent' sold for 1,100 percent more. Do the math," snapped a steamed Wolf, who apparently did not get the NBC memo to staff re: colonic (everyone gets one; everyone loses sense of entitlement) that NBC Entertainment chief Kevin Reilly had spoken of so glowingly the day before.

(FYI: According to trade reports, cable network TNT bought weekday syndication rights to "Alias" for about $200,000 per episode, and distributor Buena Vista sold weekend syndication rights to broadcast stations in a barter-only deal, which means BV gets to sell ads in the show on those stations. The trades reported that cable nets USA and Bravo anted up an estimated $2 million per episode to split syndication rights to "Criminal Intent." And here's probably a good place to say that NBC, TNT, USA and Bravo are all owned by NBC Universal, which also houses Wolf's production company, Wolf Films.)

"The three ['Law & Order'] shows have turned TNT into the number one network on cable and USA the number two network on cable," Wolf fumed.

What really had his knickers in a knot were articles written last fall about how "Law & Order" series were dinged in the ratings opposite launches of "Desperate Housewives" and "CSI: NY."

"There is no bad news here," he said. " 'Criminal Intent' is the only show that could possibly have held up against 'Desperate Housewives.' Sure it was down, but it was not out, and all you have to do is look at the repeat numbers this summer.

"You guys don't report the financial aspects of how successful the brand is," he lectured critics, one of whom noted afterward that "Alias" was probably more lucrative than, say, "Macbeth." ("News flash: Dick Wolf hates us," another critic cracked in the press room.)

"This brand exists, at the moment, alone in the cosmology of long-term profitability," Wolf proclaimed during his morning Q&A session.

But wait, there's more.

Critics don't "fuss" enough about "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," even though it's generally described as a "mature" show, Wolf complained.

"You read about who's hot, who's not -- these shows are never mentioned," he said, turning right around to say, "We're not looking to be the hot show; that's not what the 'Law & Order' brand is about. It's about longevity and about repeatability and about staying on the air and being a profit center for NBC for years to come."

One critic noted that Wolf was onstage "with three very well-reviewed actors" from his shows, that "your shows regularly get good reviews," and that he has the only series on TV "where cast changes are reported generally with gusto, but you always seem to be angry at us and . . . I'm seriously wondering, what would you consider fair treatment?"

"What makes me angry is the lack of sophisticated business reportage," Wolf shot back. "I understand there are business sections and television sections, but, come on, guys, there are no good-news newspapers."

The success of "Desperate Housewives" at "Law & Order's" expense is "a legitimate story, but . . . there is no recognition . . . that, yeah, we may get knocked around a little bit, but this is still the most profitable brand in the history of the medium . . . these shows generated $1 billion in advertising revenue last year."

(Variety reported on Monday that the "Law & Order" franchise runs an average of 45 times a week on NBC, TNT and USA, and the trade paper quoted an NBC Universal rep saying the brand generated more than $1 billion in ad revenue across those platforms last year.)

Wolf acknowledged that he had seen such references about the shows in "business articles" but not in "the popular press."

Wolf had opened his Q&A session with a little speech assuring critics he was "incredibly upset, disappointed, dismayed and any other adjectives that you could care to add" about NBC yanking "Law & Order: Trial by Jury" off the air last season. But, he noted, his relationship with NBC Universal is more like "a long-term marriage with no possibility of divorce" than a standard business relationship, and promised critics that the brand "is the most important piece of business to both of us."

Easing the pain somewhat, Wolf is now at work on a new series about New York assistant district attorneys that will use the "Trial by Jury" set -- did you know that the average age of an assistant DA in Manhattan is 28 years? Wolf says so.

And Wolf wanted critics to know he "couldn't be more thrilled" that his dream of selling the "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" format to an international network has come to fruition.

In one of those strange coincidences that make you think that maybe there is a higher power and maybe Jennifer Love Hewitt really can talk to dead people, on the very same morning that Wolf took the stage to reprimand critics, Variety broke the news that Wolf had struck a deal with French TV network TF1 to format "CI" for French audiences. Wolf told the trade paper that it was "an enormous accomplishment" and "by creating a localized French version, the potential to grow that audience becomes limitless."

At some point during his rant, Wolf insisted, "I'm not [ticked] off. I'm a very happy guy."

Mr. Wolf: I have served with happy guys. I knew happy guys. Happy guys are friends of mine. Mr. Wolf, you're no happy guy.

No 'raging diva' on Martha's show, NBC exec vows

By Gail Shister Philadelphia Inquirer Columnist

Look for a kinder, gentler Martha Stewart on NBC's Apprentice spin-off.

"Viewers expecting some sort of raging diva will be sorely disappointed," NBC Entertainment chief Kevin Reilly said in an interview yesterday at the TV critics' summer meeting here. "She's tough, but I don't find her to be irrational."

Fresh off home confinement for insider trading, the domestic dominatrix will display "warmth and compassion" to contestants on The Apprentice: Martha Stewart, Reilly promises.

As more proof of her "vulnerable side," Stewart will even share her character-building feelings about prison, Reilly says. "It's not a shrink session, but she doesn't push it under the carpet, either."

Stewart's 8 p.m. Wednesday show will be followed the next night by Donald Trump's original Apprentice. He'll appear in several episodes "in terms of a reward" for contestants, according to Craig Plestis, head of alternative programming.

Stewart will have a catchphrase, like Trump's "You're fired!" (Our choice: "Stuff my peacock!")

Reilly acknowledges he was in denial about NBC's fall from grace last season, as it plummeted from first to fourth among the 18-to-49-year-old viewers coveted by advertisers. Before that, NBC had finished first in eight of the last nine seasons. Moreover, it was down almost $1 billion in the "upfront" advertising sold back in May for the '05-06 seasons.

"We had an enormous history of making hits that were going away. We needed to reseed them. It didn't happen. And now we are where we are. We were a little beat up and stunned after last season... . It's like a weird monkey off our back, in a way."

With its newfound humility, NBC will ratchet down its marketing and promotion, Reilly says. "The sense of entitlement of who we think we are is gone. We're not going to continue to pound our chests." Also gone will be such gimmicks as "supersizing" episodes and starting shows at odd times.

"We're a lot like the New York Yankees," NBC Universal TV kingpin Jeff Zucker said in an interview. "They're expected to be in the World Series every year, and anything shy of that is considered a disaster. It's an unfair expectation."

Still, like the Yanks, NBC "has the tradition, the class and the ability to always surprise."

Dick Wolf was mighty surprised by the cancellation of his third Law & Order spin-off, Trial by Jury, but he's already in development on a new show, Reilly says. Here's a shock: It won't have L&O in the title. It will be a character-driven drama about the world of assistant district attorneys.

In another stunner, Wolf, 58, will produce but not create the new series. "I think he's looking to mature his whole company," Reilly says. "He has a new generation of writers coming up, and it's time for him to shepherd and help produce with them. I'm not equating him with Aaron Spelling, but he's going to nurture some up-and-comers."

Garth and Gore. WB chairman Garth Ancier and former Vice President Al Gore shared ideas recently about Current, Gore's news-and-information digital network that launches Aug. 1.

Ancier says he met Gore through Barry Diller on the podium at the '92 Democratic National Convention. They reconnected at a dinner party thrown by Current programming boss David Neuman for Gore and his partner, Joel Hyatt.

Aimed at 18-to-34-year-old viewers, Current shares the same demo as the WB. It encourages viewers to produce their own stories via the Internet.

"It's a cool concept if you can make it work," Ancier said in an interview. "It's very vox populi in terms of its approach. At least you can say it's different from anything else on TV."

Also, offering payment for pieces (from $250 to $1,000) "is a great way to motivate somebody under 35," he says. (Works for geezers, too, Garth. Party on.)

The original Current model - an all-news network - would have tanked because its target audience is "less politically motivated" than older age groups," says Ancier.

'Law & Order': Getting even
Dick Wolf may be down one of his four shows, but it appears to trouble him little. He's going global

By CHASE SQUIRES, St. Petersburg Times[/B] TV columnist July 26, 2005

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Sacre bleu! NBC's durable hit Law & Order makes the French connection.

Dick Wolf, the producer who delivered the Law & Order franchise announced Monday he is selling the Criminal Intent version to a French production company. The show has been dubbed into French and broadcast there for years, but the new version will be set in Paris with all French actors and reference the Napoleonic Code of laws.

Wolf - who also promised yet another show in the franchise for American audiences next spring - made the bottom line abundantly clear to critics at the Television Critics Association summer gathering.

He berated critics - who've generally liked his shows - for not recognizing the franchise's commercial success. Last year, he said, the shows generated more than $1-billion in first-run and rerun advertising revenue.

"There is no recognition on a business sense that, yes, we may get knocked around a bit, but it is still the most profitable brand in the history of the medium," Wolf said. "We're not looking to be the hot show. It's about longevity and profitability - I'm not saying television should be filled with just (police) procedurals, but look at the numbers, guys."

Wolf seemed touchy about his franchise's one slip, the quick cancellation of fourth installment Trial By Jury, this spring. He blamed NBC for failing to tell him the show was in danger, and denied speculation that the cancellation indicates viewers are getting tired of police procedural shows.

He is forging ahead in foreign deals, looking forward to his shows being produced around the globe, and is about to start production on another new show for American audiences, possibly ready this spring.

The new show - filmed on the New York set of Trial By Jury - likely won't carry the Law & Order tag, he said. Instead, it will focus on young assistant district attorneys and their personal lives. He said it would be more character driven, which is often a Hollywood code word for soap opera.

"We'd like to get five or six of the best looking, most talented actors under 30," he said.

In other developments Monday, NBC rolled out Friday night drama’Inconceivable”, a story about a fertility clinic, its customers and the surrogate mothers who bear children for childless couples.

Oliver Goldstick and Marco Pennette, the creators and executive producers, have children borne by surrogate mothers. Goldstick has a 2-1/2-year-old son, and Pennette has an 18-month-old daughter.

"This comes right out of our lives," Goldstick said.

The producers required stars Ming-Na (ER), Jonathan Cake (Empire) and Angie Harmon (Law & Order) to meet with about 20 surrogate moms and parents who are raising children borne by surrogates to get a sense of their experiences.

Goldstick said working with a big cast of extremely young babies, about 3 weeks old, was a challenge. At times, six infants were on stage, with twins or triplet siblings in the wings, because rules allow children so young to be filmed only 10 minutes at a time.

"We have real nurses holding the babies," Pennette assured reporters.

Press Tour: Going within
New NBC shows pluck from real life

By MANUEL MENDOZA The Dallas Morning News

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – The co-creators of Inconceivable, a new NBC drama set in a fertility clinic, drew their inspiration from personal experience. Both Oliver Goldstick and Marco Pennette used surrogate mothers to start their families."We realized in the 21st century, it might take a village to conceive a child, not just raise a child, and we were fascinated by this world," Mr. Goldstick said in an interview session with TV critics Monday. "Twenty-five, 35 years ago, television characters borrowed a cup of sugar, and now they can borrow an egg or a uterus. It's outrageous and science fiction to a lot of people, but it's a reality."

The series, set to air on Fridays this fall, stars Ming-Na (ER), Jonathan Cake (Empire) and Dallas native Angie Harmon (Law & Order) as the operators of a clinic where the latest techniques are used to help couples realize their dream of having children. But it's not a show with a simple, whatever-it-takes point of view.

"Just because we can doesn't mean we should," Ming-Na's character, Rachel Lu, says in the pilot episode.

Rachel, who's not a doctor, is the moral center of Inconceivable opposite Mr. Cake's less ethically concerned M.D., Malcolm Bowers. In the pilot, they argue over whether the sister of a soldier's dead wife should carry their child.

"Drama is a debate," Mr. Cake said on the second day of NBC's portion of the TV "press tour," a semi-annual gathering of the nation's television critics to preview new programming.

Ms. Harmon, who was added to the cast after the pilot was shot, plays Nora Campbell, a medical-school classmate of Dr. Bowers specializing in the latest technology. The actress, married to former football star Jason Sehorn, said she had no intention of returning to TV until she read the Inconceivable script as she was about to give birth to their second child. She was moved.

"I had my plan. I had my family. We would travel the world and shoot movies and be fabulous," Ms. Harmon said.

She'll keep splitting her time between Los Angeles and Dallas, where she wants to raise her kids away from the limelight. She has shot two films scheduled for release this year: a remake of Fun With Dick and Jane opposite Jim Carrey and End Game with Cuba Gooding Jr. and James Woods.

Inconceivable is one of two new topical series on the NBC schedule. The other one, Thick & Thin, has a completely different tone. Starring Jessica Capshaw and scheduled as a midseason replacement, it's a comedy about trying to lose weight. The network also is bringing back the similarly themed reality show The Biggest Loser .

"People are talking about it more. It's everyone's obsession," said creator Paula Pell, who has lost more than 70 pounds three times in her life.

Like other networks, NBC is also trying a number of serialized ensemble dramas in light of the success of Lost and to a lesser degree Desperate Housewives, ABC's breakout hits last season.

Among them is Surface, a sprawling narrative built around sea monsters, and Windfall, about a group of 20 friends who hit the lottery. NBC also has a new comedy series, My Name Is Earl, with a lottery theme.

"Shows that were about character, really about people, found success," said Windfall executive producer Laurie McCarthy.

Like Inconceivable, Windfall's characters deal with moral dilemmas – in this case, the problems that can plague the suddenly rich. Ms. McCarthy said in her research she found that a disproportionate number of lottery winners later go bankrupt.

"There is a cost to freedom, to untethering yourself from daily life."

These soldiers say 'Over There' is 'bogus'

By M.L. LYKE SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER Tuesday, July 26, 2005

A truck tire hits a flagged wire, a roadside bomb explodes, a handsome private with shredded leg screams in agony. In the bloody chaos of the moment, his soldier buddies panic. One pukes.

Stop the cameras! Sir!

"People don't act like that when an i.e.d. (improvised explosive device) goes off. They make us look like idiots. We're not idiots!" said a first lieutenant previewing "Over There," the new TV series from Steven Bochco ("NYPD Blue," "Hill Street Blues") that debuts tomorrow night on FX cable network. It's set in Iraq, hyped as "true to life" by producers and hailed by critics as "unflinching" and "gut-wrenching."

"Bogus" was the preferred adjective among the eight soldiers -- most of them Iraq vets -- viewing the series pilot last week at Camp Murray, headquarters of the Washington State National Guard in Tacoma.

"Thank God that's over," said a master sergeant as the credits rolled.

The uniformed skeptics dissected the series pilot scene by scene, beginning with the roadside bombing and panicked soldiers. Who, they asked, was pulling security? And what kind of idiot pulls off his helmet after a bombing attack? "In real life, training takes over. Not in Hollywood," said Sgt. Dan Purcell.

The flags on the trip wires got an "F": roadside bombs in Iraq are typically hidden in watermelons, hay stacks, animal carcasses -- not marked for easy viewing. "A flag to mark an i.e.d.? What is that -- like don't land here?"

Truck drivers also got eight thumbs down. "You do not, under any circumstances, pull off on the side of the road. You stop in the middle."

The TV series, filmed in California, follows an Army infantry squad, flashing between soldiers' experiences in-country and the impact of their deployment back home in the States. It's billled as the first war drama built around a U.S. military conflict still in progress, a war with death tolls mounting daily.

Bochco, who co-created the series with Chris Gerolmo ("Mississippi Burning"), has stated in interviews that the show is apolitical. "Ultimately, a young man being shot at in a firefight has absolutely no interest in politics," he told Reuters news service.

But some camo-clad critics at Camp Murray were left wondering just what the message was in "Over There." One said a young soldier who brags about slitting the throat of a child sentry "makes us look like murderers."

Master Sgt. Jeff Clayton complained that cameras deliberately dragged out the death scenes of Iraqi insurgents after a firefight, lingering unnecessarily on the carnage. "It made me sick."

And where, soldiers asked, were the scenes of soldiers building schools, Iraqi kids waving American flags?

The fast-paced premiere is packed with sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll; cool explosions and close-up gore; cussing and wrought emotion. It opens with the soldiers' goodbyes to family and a nervous flight to Iraq. In an instant -- "Yeah, right" -- the new dudes are belly-down in sand in front of a mosque full of insurgents, with two women accidentally trapped in the trenches, one with a big attitude and little common sense.

"I can do it myself!" she yells at a soldier who tries to help her dig a trench. "You deaf soldier?" It's night, she's totally exposed to enemy fire and, when it starts, it's boy-soldier who has to push her head down to save her.

No wonder the men keep asking, "What do we do about the women?"

"I did not like the way the show presents men's opinion of women -- they act like the women were some other species," said Lt. Connie Woodyard, who returned from Iraq earlier this year. "We're not cowards. Women in Iraq are doing amazing things."

The Camp Murray soldiers dismissed the military firefights as "bull---- " ("Where is the air support? Where is the armor support?"), the dialogue as contrived ("It sucked") and plot drivers as pure Hollywood.

• In the script, characters are thrown together for the first time. They constantly ask each other to explain nicknames. In real life, soldiers are sent to Iraq in units. "They don't have to ask each other's nicknames. They all know each other."

• After one week in-country, the soldier-actors mull life and death and war in eloquent speeches home to loved ones, talking about how war unmasks the monster within. "Nobody is that reflective after one week in-country. It's more like, "Ohmigod, we're in Iraq. Hi. What the hell am I doing here?"

A few scenes passed muster. Heads nodded when a soldier opened up a packet of Taster's Choice freeze-dried and downed the whole thing. Nice detail. Ditto the scene of the earnest soldier describing the horrors of war via computer video e-mail as his adulterous wife is writhing in ecstasy with lover-boy back home.

"But after only a week?" commented one soldier.

"It usually takes at least two," added another.

One scene hit home for the tough audience: an intimate close-up of two African American soldiers talking band-of-brother bonds. Says one: "If you're looking for another fool to risk getting shot to cover your fool behind, I'm right here beside you."

Correct! Sir!

Only one of the camo-clad critics, Sgt. John Figueroa, who is awaiting call-up orders to Afghanistan, said he'd watch it.

"Hey, I'm into Hollywood," he said, shrugging.

Strange But True From the TV Critic’s press tour.
Waiting for Secretariat

Matt Zoller Seitz Newark Star-Ledger July 26, 2005

LOS ANGELES -- And now, dear readers, I'll detour from regular press tour coverage to talk about how Hollywood works.

You may remember Don Johnson from "Miami Vice," "Nash Bridges" and two marriages to Melanie Griffith . The 55-year-old actor is back on TV this fall on the WB series "Just Legal," playing a hard-drinking veteran lawyer who mentors a wunderkind 18-year-old attorney ( Jay Baruchel of "Undeclared").

The pilot episode is mildly charming but too cute and safe, and since it's on the WB, there's almost no way it can become a popular phenomenon. The network is in sixth place, and in some time slots is outdrawn by cable channels.

Yet during a WB publicity event Friday night at Hollywood's hip Cabana Club -- a faux beach club with chlorinated-lagoon -- Johnson was in full-on diva mode, imbibing and chain-smoking in a corner booth with colleagues and hangers-on in plain view of reporters who were separated from the actor by a wooden railing. "It's like we're waiting for the chance to feed sugar cubes to Secretariat ," one reporter observed.

Lest you think I'm complaining about not being able to bug a man who's just trying to have a drink with his pals, remember that this was a working event contrived to bring WB talent in contact with the media, and that by avoiding the press, Johnson was shirking his professional responsibility to promote his own series. That's shabby behavior that much bigger stars -- Tom Hanks , for example, who's been approachable and quotable at every press tour event he's attended -- would never think of indulging in.

The network's executive vice president of publicity, Brad Turell , listened to reporters' requests, but was stymied by Johnson's personal publicity agent, Elliot Mintz , a tiny man in an impeccable cream-colored suit who has represented Johnson forever, most notoriously during a late-'90s stint on "Nash Bridges," when Johnson was sued for sexual harassment by two female staffers. (The case was settled out of court in 1998.)

For the benefit of youngsters, Mintz is the former publicity man for Bob Dylan and John Lennon . He pioneered a new school of publicity whose goal was to help clients avoid contact with reporters while having their pictures taken as often as possible. After a half-hour of WB cajoling, Mintz finally left Johnson's side and engaged reporters in one of the most surreal dialogues I've ever seen.

Peering down at the ink-stained wretches on the other side of the railing like Napoleon surveying fresh conscripts, he zeroed in on the name badge of Hal Boedeker, TV critic for the Orlando Sentinel.

"Tell me," Mintz asked Boedeker. "Would you say the weather today was all right, or more than you could bear?"

"More than I can bear," Boedeker replied.

Mintz pursed his lips, then mused, "That was the right answer. And you're the only person here who would have given that answer."

It was like a real life version of the scene in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" where the knights must earn the right to cross a bridge by answering nonsense questions like, "What is the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow?"

Dallas Morning News reporter Ed Bark then proceeded to butter up Mintz by recalling his association with Dylan and Lennon. Pleased, Mintz convinced Johnson to spend seven minutes at the railing. He took just five questions, answering them with bromides and gibberish that I won't reprint at length because they might induce narcolepsy.

The one telling moment came when Johnson said he was glad he wasn't an athlete, "because their careers are over at 35 or 40." As an actor, he said, "you can keep doing your job until they're propping you up. As long as you can open your mouth and seem reasonably like you're breathing, you can do your thing."

Insert joke here.

At the evening's end, reporters filed out of the Cabana Club to board a bus headed back to the hotel, and another minor revelatory moment occurred.

The press corps was sandwiched on the sidewalk between actors posing for red carpet pictures and a gaggle of civilian autograph-seekers restrained by a velvet rope and security guards. As actors exited the restaurant, the autograph seekers yelled their names. Some of the reporters mocked the autograph seekers by yelling the names of reporters as they exited the Cabana Club.

Two facts became clear to me. On nights like that, the main differences between celebrity-obsessed civilians and the press are a name badge, a tape recorder and a paycheck. And the fact that you're reading this column means there really is no such thing as bad publicity.

Casting calls?

Whatever its merits as TV drama, you can put "Just Legal" on the list of new shows with white leads that waited to add significant African-American characters until the series' production was well under way.

One of the participants in last Friday's "Legal" panel was Jaime Lee Kirchner , who plays a legal secretary and ex-con. But the African-American actress wasn't asked any questions by reporters because she doesn't appear until the as-yet-unscreened second episode.

WB entertainment president David Janollari announced Kirchner's casting in his opening remarks, along with an announcement that the network's extremely Caucasian drama "One Tree Hill," would add an African-American mother and daughter this season. "One Tree Hill" added two Latino characters midway through last season -- ladies man Felix, played by Michael Capon , and his shy sister Anna, played by Daniella Alonso .

To be fair, the WB did start out as one of TV's few hospitable environments for African-American sitcom stars, and its history of afterthought diversity is no worse than anyone else's.

ABC's "Desperate Housewives" got around to adding significant black characters (a mother and son, played by Alfre Woodard and Mehcad Brooks ) at the very end of last season (although it had a Latino couple, played by Eva Longoria and Ricardo Antonio Chavira , in the principal cast from the start). And NBC's "The West Wing," a beacon of liberal sentiment, only hired African-American actor-dancer Dule Hill is a lead after critics and media watchdog groups complained the series wasn't diverse enough.

CBS tries out "Mars"?

UPN's "Veronica Mars" is arguably the best network drama that almost nobody watches. While its ratings grew during its freshman season, it rarely climbed out of the bottom fourth of the more than 200 programs rated by Nielsen media research. UPN's corporate big sister, CBS, is trying to rectify the situation by airing summer repeats on upcoming Fridays. Two episodes (note: the pilot episode is the first and all will be broadcast in HD) will air back-to-back from 8-10 p.m. this Friday on Channel 2; single episodes will air Aug. 5 and 12 at 8 p.m.

I suppose there's reason to celebrate NBC entertainment president Kevin Reilly's announcement that shows would start on time and end on time. Trust me when I say that's merely a case of Reilly knowing his network's limitations. Other than "Earl," I don't think there's a single fall show on NBC that's worth its time allotment, let alone any extensions.Saints preserve us! Hallelujah!

Now if all the networks would sync with C.U.T. (http://www.time.gov/).

Xesdeeni

Further details on the story you read here yesterday:
“TV Guide” But Minus Most Of The “Guide”
TV Guide to Relaunch As Full-Size Magazine
July 26, 2005
Associated Press—NEW YORK -- TV Guide is slashing the circulation it guarantees advertisers by about two-thirds and relaunching itself as a large-format magazine with far fewer television listings and more emphasis on lifestyle and entertainment, the magazine announced Tuesday.

The radical changes to TV Guide come as the publication, owned by Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc., struggles to remain relevant in an age where many TV viewers get their listings from on-screen guides provided by their cable companies or on the Internet.

TV Guide also said it would cut jobs as part of the revamp, but it declined say how many.

The new TV Guide, which will launch with the Oct. 17 issue, will contain just 25% listings and 75% stories, versus the 75% listings and 25% stories it has now, the company said early Tuesday.

Gemstar's research found that TV Guide readers would be more interested in reading a magazine with fewer listings and more stories about TV shows and their stars, said Rich Battista, Gemstar's chief executive. Mr. Battista acknowledged that the digest-size magazine was losing money, but he declined to say how much. The company, which also licenses technology for interactive-programming guides, doesn't break out profit figures for TV Guide magazine.

"We didn't believe in its old form that the digest-size magazine was sustainable," Mr. Battista said. "Any brand has to evolve in a dynamic marketplace where consumer tastes are changing rapidly."

The magazine currently guarantees nine million readers to advertisers, according to its most recent filing with the Audit Bureau of Circulations. But the new guarantee will be set at just 3.2 million, which partly reflects the elimination of three million in "sponsored" sales or circulation paid for by third parties.

John Loughlin, the president of TV Guide's publishing group, said the higher costs of producing the larger-format magazine would make it uneconomical to distribute in some of the ways it had in the past, including through subsidized distribution in hotels, which count as "sponsored" sales.

The company will also streamline how it produces the magazine, eliminating its 140 localized editions in favor of a national edition, with either an Eastern or Pacific time zone designation.

As part of the changes, TV Guide said it expected to incur losses of up to $110 million over its 2005 and 2006 fiscal years, which exclude losses from its recently launched title Inside TV, a celebrity magazine for younger viewers which the company said isn't performing as well as expected due to delays in building up distribution.

Mr. Loughlin said the magazine would also lower its cover price to $1.99 from $2.49 as part of an effort to build up newsstand sales, which are more profitable than subscription sales. The magazine will also triple its lowest introductory price of 25 cents an issue for subscribers.

The company said it expects the relaunched TV Guide magazine to become profitable in about three years

DEATH MARCH WITH COCKTAILS:
NBC takes a chance with fall lineup to boost last season's lowly ratings

By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle July 26, 2005

Beverly Hills -- Down here in the land of failure, where the gaudy new number being bandied about is that 87 percent of new series end up dead after their first season, we have seen some spectacular and embarrassing mea culpas through the years. Some people tackle "sorry" and "we blew it" like a martyr strapping on a cross. Others crawl unwillingly out of their holes of denial and, in the course of pouring out their confessions of inadequacy, lameness, unrealized profits, poor ratings and failed visions, find comfort in the telling and end up immolating themselves.

On the Death March With Cocktails, you don't waste good booze by throwing it on a man who's just lit himself on fire.

But what Kevin Reilly, president of NBC Entertainment, did on Sunday was a fascinating combination of honesty, bar-lowering and code talking -- with a scatological twist.

"OK, we're in fourth place. Have you heard that?" he said. "So what are we going to do about it? Well, first let me tell you this about last season. While it was very tough sledding, the truth is that the kick in the ass is going to get us back on our game. Really, last season for us was kind of a colonic. It wasn't a lot of fun to go through at the time, but it's going to be healthy in the long run. It literally took any residual sense of entitlement or complacency at our company and blew it out, so to speak."

Well, all right, then.

At least the honesty was refreshing, since NBC has been one of the more odious lie-weavers in the business, particularly under the regime of Reilly's predecessor -- and now boss -- Jeff Zucker. And that thing about "entitlement" and "complacency"? Yep, that's the NBC culture stretching well past Zucker to entertainment presidents in decades past. Cockiness and stubbornness are part of the NBC brand.

Reilly, a well-respected programmer who previously worked some magic at FX, didn't sugarcoat NBC's woes. "You know, the four-way race is tight, and anything can happen. But the fact is we have some significant underlying challenges. These are going to take time to fix."

In a kind of chronicle of reassessed dreams, Reilly touched on these items:

-- Compared with last season, NBC lost nearly a billion -- yes, with a "b" -- dollars at the "up-fronts," where advertisers buy time based on how healthy the network is and how good the new fall shows look.

-- "Joey" wasn't that funny last year. It will need to improve in a hurry.

-- NBC's audience is getting older.

-- The NBC-fueled idea of "super-sizing" shows an extra 15 or 20 minutes, or starting them early, or ending them three minutes late -- is finished. "It's impossible for people to find stuff. So we're going to play by that rule book now."

-- The network needs to take more programming chances to reclaim its past glory.

Now this may all seem a little inside-baseball boring, but it directly affects what you'll be seeing on TV. Any network humbled as badly as NBC has been usually reacts by trying something different -- and there's a good chance that NBC may land a few hipper and grittier hits next season (the Jason Lee comedy "My Name Is Earl" has probably the most buzz of any new show). But NBC is no ordinary network, and apologizing for clear and present failure took a couple of years.

"There was denial," Reilly said. "It's human nature. ... Ultimately, our momentum was down. We were out of business at 8 o'clock in some time periods. We just couldn't launch these programs. ... You know, you guys have been digging at this for a while. We had enormous history-making hits going away. We needed to reseed them. It didn't happen, and now we are where we are."

OK, enough self-flagellation. Here's NBC's state-of-the-network update:

Overview: Well, you've pretty much heard it. Fourth place and desperate.

Network leadership and tendencies: Here's where it gets tricky. Much of NBC's slide happened on Zucker's watch. Now he's Reilly's boss, and the suspicion is that Zucker is still meddling. Reilly is possibly the first entertainment president in this town ever to say this: "It will never be 'my' schedule, not even next year, not when we get on top. I'm not going to ever say it's mine. It's NBC's schedule."

Either that's the most selfless statement ever made in this town, or this comment made earlier about the task at NBC has serious portent: "I hopefully set a certain direction and try to cultivate a certain tone inside the company. The turning radius on these companies -- you know, there's a very wide turning radius. I'd like to believe that I could come in and just sort of flip a switch and here we go -- it's a whole new thing. (But) there tends to be a natural cycle to it."

What works for fall: "My Name Is Earl" is brilliant. "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart" is likely to get a huge tune-in audience, at least initially. And "E-Ring," a drama about life in the Pentagon, with Benjamin Bratt and Dennis Hopper, has potential, despite a mediocre pilot.

What doesn't: "Surface," yet another paranormal drama hoping to be the next "Lost," is simply not; "Inconceivable," about a fertility clinic, is flat; and "Three Wishes," starring Amy Grant, wasn't available for critics -- but it has Amy Grant in it.

What it means for you: "My Name Is Earl" is the first "must-see" programming in some time for NBC. Whether anything else fuels the network's comeback remains to be seen.

Extras: Reilly said that despite first Emmy nominations for "Scrubs" and star Zach Braff, he's actually protecting the series by holding it until midseason. The Winter Olympics in February should help sell that midseason launch, where NBC has some decent offerings. Martha Stewart has not announced her "Apprentice" phase. It won't be "You're fired!" Let's hope it's not "Why am I on this network?"

(From Marc Berman’s Programming Insider column of Tuesday July 26, 2005 at Mediaweek.com)
LIVE FROM THE TCA SUMMER PRESS TOUR
NBC-Day Two

On the NBC Panel Front:

WINDFALL
Midseason

The Premise: The unexpected problems of a group of 20 major lottery winners, including a close-knit foursome who have known each other since college, is the focus of this scripted drama. Jason Gedrick (Boomtown), Luke Perry (Beverly Hills, 90210) and Sarah Wynter (24) star.

Lead-in: TBD
Competition: TBD

Who Was On the Panel: Jaclyn Desantis, Jon Foster, Jason Gedrick, Alice Greczyn, Lana Parrilla and executive producer Laurie McCarthy.

The Scoop: Since the stereotype of a typical lottery winner seems to be an elderly, toothless lost soul, I couldn’t help but chuckle when the following question was asked:

“This is the most attractive group of lottery winners I have ever seen. Was there any thought of having some more ordinary looking lottery winners? Do you think you could use someone who looks a little less like a Hollywood star?”

According to Laurie McCarthy: “Well, there are 20 winners. I think we’ll have different people from all walks of life. Certainly I think some great character actors will be joining the cast at some point.”

The Reality: While you can’t blame a network for trying to capitalize on the success of relationship driven ensemble dramas, Windfall might benefit if it pared down the number of characters on the show, and gave us a chance to know the core characters better. This isn’t Lost, after all, where the glut of characters are all in one place.

Chance of Survival for Windfall (Based on a scale of 1-1 to 10-1): Cannot be determined without a specific time period.

Did You Know?: Lottery, a dramatic anthology about different lottery winners, briefly aired on ABC in the 1983-84 season.

INCONCEIVABLE
Friday 10 p.m.

The Premise: Set inside the Family Options Fertility Clinic, a group of passionate employees help desperate couples looking to conceive a child. The ensemble cast includes Angie Harmon (Law & Order), Jonathan Cake (Fallen), Ming-Na (ER), Joelle Carter (American Pie 2), and Mary Catherine Gibson (How to Deal).

Lead-in: Three Wishes
Competition: 20/20 (ABC), Numb3rs (CBS)

Who Was On the Panel: Angie Harmon, Jonathan Cake, Joelle Carter, Ming-Na, David Norona, creator/executive producers Marco Penette and Oliver Goldstick; and executive producer Mile Tollin.

The Scoop: In the event you were thinking that Inconceivable is just another medical drama, here is how Mike Tollin describes it:

“Well, it is science fiction, but it’s also reality. It was reality for me. I also had an experience with fertility and adoption that resulted in happy endings. But we consider controversy an opportunity. We consider a dialogue that a show can spark the life blood of a series. We’re thrilled that people are raising all kinds of ethical, moral and religious issues. And these are people who have to play God, but they have to go home to their own families and their own struggles in trying to make families. We are ripping fast and furiously from the headlines. We don’t consider Inconceivable to be a soap opera. It is a serialized drama, and there are a lot of juicy subjects.”

The Reality:
Despite the comparisons to Desperate Housewives (which, personally, I do not get), the two obstacles Inconceivable faces are: a) finding enough storylines, and b) finding an audience in a time period where NBC is known for airing crime related dramas. Are there really, after all, that many compelling stories to go around about couples (or individuals) looking to have a baby? Once the ratings come in, NBC might be sorry it was so quick to cancel recent occupant Law & Order: Trial By Jury.

Chance of Survival for Inconceivable (Based on a scale of 1-1 to 10-1): 7-1

Did You Know?:
Although Ming-Na is, of course, most known for her long-term role on ER, she was also briefly featured in abominable NBC sitcom The Single Guy from 1995-97. I wonder if that’s on her resume?

THICK & THIN
Midseason

The Premise: Saturday Night creator Lorne Michaels moves up to behind-the-scenes primetime in this comedy about a formerly fat woman (Jessica Capshaw) who embarks on a new journey as a fit and newly single woman.

Lead-in: TBD
Competition: TBD

Who Was On the Panel: Jessica Capshaw, Sharon Gless, Amy Halloran, Loni Love, Martin Mull, Chris Parnell, Mel Rodriguez; executive producers Lorne Michaels, JoAnn Alfano and Paula Pell; and creator/executive producer Paula Pell.

The Scoop: Instead of traditional sitcom jokes poking fun at someone’s weight, here is what you can expect from Thick & Thin according to Joanne Alfano:
“Thick & Thin is about a woman starting over. I think that’s the universality of it -- of not just the weight, but as a woman who is in her twenties, who’s recently divorced, and finds herself without the grounding and foundation that she’s known. She’s starting over in her life in a number of different ways. She’s never been thin, so she’s at a place where she’s starting from not really knowing how to go forward. Those stories will take you into places that aren’t just about weight, but are about relationships, about her family, and about her friends. We see the show as a family show more than anything else.”

The Reality:
Although there is certain to be criticism for tackling this weighty issue, Thick & Thin is a definite step in the right direction for NBC as it attempts to find the next generation of hit sitcoms. The pilot is a hoot, the cast was a natural at the panel, and the riotous Loni Love could -- and should -- be primetime’s next breakout sitcom character. If Joey does not pick up steam, NBC would be wise if it rolled the dice on Thick & Thin Thursday at 8 p.m. in midseason.

Chance of Survival for Thick & Thin (Based on a scale of 1-1 to 10-1):
Cannot be determined without a specific time period.

Did You Know?:
Yes -- we all remember Sharon Gless from her two-time Emmy winning performance on Cagney & Lacey. But did know that Thick & Thin is Gless’ third regularly scheduled sitcom. Three years after a brief stint on NBC’s Turnabout in 1979, she replaced Lynn Redgrave on House Calls. Factor in stints on Faraday and Company, Marcus Welby, M.D., Switch, and The Trials of Rosie O’Neill, and Thick & Thin in Gless’ eighth series.

THREE WISHES
Friday 9 p.m.

The Premise: Five-time Grammy Award winning artist Amy Grant travels the country making the hopes and wishes of needy individuals come true.

Lead-in: Dateline
Competition: Hope & Faith/Hot Properties (ABC), Threshold (CBS), Killer Instinct (Fox), WWE Smackdown! (UPN), Reba/Living With Fran (WB)

Who Was On the Panel: Amy Grant, Carter Oosterhouse, Eric Stromer, and executive producers Andrew Glassman and Jason Raff.

The Scoop:
If you’re old enough to remember Queen for a Day (and, let’s be honest, most of us are), here is what Andrew Glassman had to say when Three Wishes was compared to it:

“I would say that this show runs much deeper than Queen for a Day. The people in Three Wishes are the most deserving people, and they are truly, many of them, in the midst of the greatest challenge of their lives. And we, as producers, when we come to the town and we meet the people, are looking to find the best candidates, and how we can make a real lasting, positive change in their lives. It’s just not as superficial as Queen for a Day was.

The Reality:
Although my research instincts warn me how quickly NBC Universal’s similar appeal Home Delivery came and went in daytime syndication last fall (not to mention Tribune Entertainment’s Richard Simmons’ DreamMaker in 1999 – remember that classic flop?), watching people’s wishes come true at the end of the work week is mindless enough to potentially work. With nothing of breakout potential in the time period, Three Wishes could generate some interest.

Chance of Survival for Three Wishes (Based on a scale of 1-1 to 10-1): 5-1

FOUR KINGS
Midseason

The Premise: TBD
Will & Grace creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick are the forces behind this tale of four lifelong Friends (Seth Green, Shane McRae, Josh Cooke and Todd Grinnell) on the cusp of adulthood.

Lead-in: TBD
Competition: TBD

Who Was On the Panel: Josh Cook, Seth Green, Todd Grinnell, Shane McRae, and creator/executive producers David Kohan and Max Mutchnick

The Scoop: As to why the producers wanted to do a buddy comedy, here’s what David Kohan had to say:
“There’s a point in your life, now especially, that the limbo period between childhood and adulthood seems to just sort of be extending and extending. It’s like once upon a time your family was the family that you were born to and that you were raised by, and then on the other side of that is the family that you start yourself. And in between that time, who is your family? What is it? And where are they? And what constitutes a family when you’re right in the cusp of adulthood? And that’s sort of the question we want to answer on Four Kings.

[COLOR=limegreen The Reality: [/COLOR]
Although you have to credit David Kohan and Max Mutchnick for the first few seasons of the once riotous Will & Grace, they didn’t have much luck with NBC comedies Boston Common and Good Morning, Miami. And watching Will & Grace these days is a fun as having your teeth pulled. Given the current climate at NBC, there are unfortunately no protected time periods for a generic looking comedy like Four Kings to succeed.

Chance of Survival for Four Kings (Based on a scale of 1-1 to 10-1): Cannot be determined without a specific time period.

BOOK OF DANIEL
Midseason

The Premise:
Emmy nominee Aidan Quinn plays Reverend Daniel Webster, an unconventional Episcopalian minister who sees Jesus and discusses life with him. Academy Award winner Ellen Burstyn co-stars.

Lead-in: TBD
Competition: TBD

Who Was On the Panel:
Aidan Quinn, Ellen Burstyn, Susanna Thompson, creator/executive producer Jack Kenny, and executive producer Flody Suarez.

The Scoop:
Regarding the actual role Jesus plays in this series, according to Jack Kenny:
“He’s not imaginary to Daniel. We’re not doing ‘I Dream of Jesus.’ It’s not like somebody is going to walk in and embarrass him because he’s talking to himself or something. Jesus is the embodiment of Daniel’s faith. He is the best part of Daniel. He is there to remind Daniel how to live his life, not to tell him when he’s doing something good or something not good. You know when you’re doing the right thing and when you’re not. Jesus is just there to remind Daniel of that. And he’s also a friend. He grew up with him. He’s his best friend. They grew up together. So he’s the guy he talks to.

The Reality:
The problem with a show of a religious nature is the lack of mass appeal viewing potential. Although the intentions are good, the limited appeal Book of Daniel is not the kind of drama NBC needs to rise from the ashes.

Chance of Survival for Book of Daniel (Based on a scale of 1-1 to 10-1): Cannot be determined without a specific time period.

Press Tour Tidbits: Notes of Interest

Upcoming on NBC in November:
NBC will go back to the successful Saturday Night Live well, with special Saturday Night Live: The ‘80s scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 13 at 9 p.m. ET. Faith Hill will also appear on NBC in a musical/variety hour on Wednesday, Nov. 13 at 9 p.m. In the movie/miniseries department, look for a three-hour remake of The Poseidon Adventure on Sunday, Nov. 20 at 8 p.m., and 10.5: Apocalypse, a sequel to last season’s successful 10.5, on Sunday, Nov. 27 at 9 p.m. ET.

Access Hollywood at 10:
NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution will celebrate upcoming season 10 of veteran Access Hollywood with daily segments focusing on a great moment in Access Hollywood history. In addition, a Monday segment (This Week in Access Hollywood History) will take viewers back to what was happening in entertainment news at a certain time, and a segment titled Access Discovers will look at the stars that Access Hollywood helped put on the map. A one-hour retrospective special re-capping Access Hollywood’s first 10 years will run at the end of the 2005-06 season.

The French Version of Law & Order:
NBC Universal Television Distribution, Wolf Films and TF1 have announced that a localized French version of Law & Order will be produced for TF1’s Alma Productions. Historically, this is the first international format deal for any U.S. procedural drama.

(Remembering that “The Mary Tyle Moore Show” was set in Minneapolis, this DVD review is interesting)
DVDs: Mary Richards is back!

Randy A. Salas, Minneapolis Star Tribune July 26, 2005

Mary Richards gets a new lease on DVD life today with a second-season set of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." It has been a long wait.

When the first season of the classic '70s sitcom arrived on DVD in September 2002, series co-star Ed Asner crowed that extras were already in the can for a second-season set that would be coming the following March. Asner, who played boss Lou Grant on the show, was privy to such information; his son Matthew Asner produced the DVDs along with partner Danny Gold.

Unfortunately, the first-season set didn't meet sales expectations. Fox Home Entertainment put the second season on hold. 2003 came and went. Then 2004.

"We were disappointed," Fox executive Peter Staddon explained last year. "We put a lot of effort into marketing and promoting it, so our costs were very high as well."

Fox -- which had put out bestselling sets for "The X-Files,"The Simpsons" and "M*A*S*H" -- considered the fate of Mary Richards, Moore's plucky single gal who worked on the news show of a fictional Minneapolis TV station.

Could the company turn things around with a lower-priced, no-frills set? Would a season set split into two volumes work better, as Fox had done with "Lost in Space"? And what would it do with the bounty of extras already produced for the second season?

Fans questioned whether the show would continue on DVD at all. But it's here, finally. Not only is it out at a fantastic price -- $29.98 retail, $20 cheaper than the first set -- but the three-disc set also includes all of the originally planned extras.

Without a doubt, the most entertaining supplement is a faux "Newsbeat" report in which intrepid TV journalist Nancy Sykes (Kate Asner, Ed's daughter) tries to track down the "real" Mary Richards. The 11-minute segment was filmed in 2002 in Minneapolis -- or "of the waters city," as she calls it.

She tries to steal a garden hose from the house in south Minneapolis where Mary was shown to live on the series. After Minnesota Public Radio reporter Marisa Helms reconstructs the show's famous hat-tossing scene, Nancy swipes the tam and races down Nicollet Mall. She interviews real, but dubious, passers-by.

"He was killed, and he'll live on in our memories," she says to a stopped bicyclist about the untimely death of Chuckles the clown, who was eulogized in the show's most famous episode (from Season 6).

"Not mine," the man insists. "I don't know who he was, remember?"

After an interview with Mayor R.T. Rybak goes horribly wrong, she imagines herself in a sequence that brilliantly re-creates the sitcom's Minneapolis-set opening credits.

Another supplement will appeal especially to those who remember watching "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" when it first aired in prime time on WCCO-TV. It's a 1973 episode of the locally produced "Moore on Sunday," in which Twin Cities broadcast veteran Dave Moore (no relation to the sitcom's star) goes behind the scenes of the title sequence's filming. As Mary Tyler Moore does multiple takes in front of star-struck onlookers, Dave Moore wryly intones: "So many curious bystanders, you had to wonder if there was anybody in downtown Minneapolis who'd actually reported to work this morning."

Other extras include an hourlong retrospective; a Mad magazine parody, "The Mary Tailor-Made Show"; a photo gallery that includes script pages; karaoke versions of the title song (from the first season and as reworked for the second season onward), and a trivia game. There's also commentary for three episodes that includes the directors, Ed Asner and actor Gavin MacLeod, who calls his stint as writer Murray "the greatest seven years of my life."

Really, the only thing missing is Mary Tyler Moore, who declined to participate when the extras were assembled three years ago. It's her loss. Even without her, this second-season set, along with the first-, is one of the best TV DVDs ever produced. And I'm not just saying that because I'm a homer writing for the Minneapolis newspaper. Few other TV DVDs have extras that approach the breadth and quality found here and such a fine show to play with.

Besides today's release, Fox also is reducing the retail price of the first-season set to $29.98. In a phone call last week, Staddon said the company will closely monitor new DVD sales of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" before it decides if Seasons 3 through 7 will follow.

"We want to bring them to market," he said. "It's just a matter of finding the best way to do it."

Let's hope she makes it after all.

Monday’s network prime-time ratings have been posted at the top of Latest News the first item in this thread.

Costas Re-Ups With NBC
By John EggertonBroadcasting & Cable

Bob Costas has extended his contract with NBC Sports through the 2012 Olympic Games in London and has also been named to host the studio show for NBC's Sunday Night Football.

NBC got the Sunday Night Football game that has been carried by ESPN. ESPN will give that up in 2006 when it gets the Monday Night Game from co-owned ABC.

Costas' six-year extension will give him 31 years at the Peacock net.

NCTA Mocks NAB For "Free Ride'
By John Eggerton Broadcasting & Cable
The National Cable & Telecommunications Association released a White Paper Tuesday taking aim at broadcasters' push for mandated cable carriage of their digital multicast signals.

The paper comes as Congress contemplates changes to the ground rules for the conversion to digital.

Taking off from the Edgar Winter lyric, "Come on and take a free ride," NCTA said that's what broadcasters are looking for, calling their desire for multicast must-carry and dual analog/digital carriage anti-consumer, bad public policy, and based on "false and misleading arguments."

Cable argues that the government should not be dictating what cable operators put on their systems, that carrying every stations full complement of digital channels will crowd out other networks their customers might prefer, that must-carry is likely to be struck down as unconstitutional, and point out that the FCC has already rejected dual and multicast must-carry.

As Congress prepares a bill that could advance the return of analog spectrum and set the new rules of the road for the digital transition, NCTA's wish list includes not forcing cable to carry mutliple streams of what it says is "duplicative" broadcast programming and allowing cable to downconvert digital signals to analog at their discretion.

AIKMAN NIXED ESPN
By Andrew Marchand New York Post

Before re-signing with Fox Sports to be its No. 1 NFL analyst for the next seven years, Troy Aikman rejected an overture to join ESPN's "Monday Night Football," both Aikman and ESPN executive vice president Mark Shapiro confirmed to The Post yesterday.

Today, more 2006 NFL broadcasting news became official when NBC announced that Bob Costas will be its studio host. Costas had confirmed the news yesterday.

As for Aikman, ESPN looked at him as a huge name to slap on the marquee when "Monday Night Football" moves to cable in 2006. However, Aikman chose to stay with Fox because he is familiar with the people and excited about working in a two-man booth. Fox announced the deal yesterday.

Aikman is the second big-name analyst ESPN has failed to lure. The network offered John Madden a contract, but he chose NBC's Sunday night package instead.

"We have talked to a lot of people," Shapiro said. "We expressed an interest in Aikman. I met with him personally, but we never made a formal offer due to his contractual situation with Fox."

Aikman, via phone, said, "Mark and I had conversations. He is a very dynamic personality and there is no question that Monday night is very special, but I just felt that Fox was an opportunity right now, for where I am at in my career, that made the most sense."

Costas' new deal may include an interesting provision. He possibly could do a talk show for NBC to go along with his NFL and Olympic duties.

Currently, Costas has his own monthly HBO talk show, "Costas Now," and is Larry King's backup on CNN. Costas also is the host of "Inside the NFL." His HBO contract is up next July.

For NBC's Sunday package, Costas never seriously pursued being the network's play-by-play voice.

"From the start, the focus was on my hosting, that is what I preferred," Costas said yesterday.

Now, attention returns to Al Michaels. While vacationing in Hawaii, Michaels is mulling offers from NBC and ESPN for 2006. Shapiro said a report that Disney offered Michaels $12 million per year was inaccurate. He wouldn't divulge the actual amount.

The ESPN deal, which is believed to include the use of a private jet for game travel, is significantly more than NBC's offer to Michaels to call "Sunday Night Football." With NBC, Michaels would call two Super Bowls and playoffs games. ESPN can't offer Michaels those perks.

For Fox, keeping Aikman is a victory, because it had already lost Cris Collinsworth to NBC's Sunday night studio.

Radical makeover for ailing TV Guide

By Sean Leahy medialifemagazine.com

After more than 50 years as America's family room guide to TV listings, and recent years of spectacular circulation declines, TV Guide is undertaking a dramatic makeover that will slash its circulation to a third.

It will also dump most of the magazine's TV listings, replacing them with editorial content, and move to a larger format.

The company is announcing today that it will trim its ratebase to 3.2 million and transform the magazine from its reliance on listings to one made up of features, reviews and recommendations. The change comes in part as an effort to reduce production costs associated with maintaining one of the largest circulations in the industry, at 9 million.

The revamped TV Guide will produce one national edition instead of 140 different regional editions. But even with the reduction the company expects the magazine to lose between $90 and $110 million between its 2005 and 2006 fiscal years.

But the bigger reason for the makeover is that the listing format had outlived its usefulness in an era when TV viewers can find show listings on the internet, in their local papers, and on their TV sets with a push of a remote control button.

"Nobody actually needs a guide anymore," says Samir Husni, a magazine consultant and chair of the Journalism Department at the University of Mississippi. "We've come a long way from the days when we had a few [TV] options to having 500 options every night. We're looking for someone to give us more than the yellow pages for TV."

The revamp of TV Guide is hardly a surprise. Rumors had been circulating for the past several years, and they intensified over recent months. What is surprising is the degree of change, which will essentially kill off the old TV Guide in all but name and replace with an entertainment title more closely akin to Entertainment Weekly.

The new format will devote 75 percent of the edit space to features, reviews, photos and behind-the-scenes information, with 25 percent devoted to listings. That's a reverse from the old format that relied on a 75/25 percent split between listings and features. Further, instead of complete listings, the magazine will run highlights and recommendations for readers.

Scott Crystal, the senior vice president and publisher of TV Guide, told Media Life today that the magazine found readers did not want listings that have become readily available elsewhere but instead wanted a more appealing, more relevant and more entertaining magazine.

“What came back loud and clear is that they really wanted a magazine that had more color and more dramatic use of photography and more behind the scenes on the sets."

TV Guide has faced increasing pressure in recent years from outlets, including its corporate siblings like TVGuide.com and the TV Guide cable channel, that provide viewers with more current listings.

The move to a full-color entertainment magazine places the title in competition for advertising dollars not only with People and Entertainment Weekly, but also with the newsweeklies and with its own spin off, Inside TV, which launched in April. The company says the two titles will serve different demographics.

Inside TV is for a younger audience that is celebrity- and style-driven, while TV Guide will be a more TV show-focused, family-oriented magazine targeted for women 35-54.

But the company acknowledges that Inside TV has not performed well since its launch, and analysts are doubtful that both titles will survive. "They're courting the two magazines for a marriage," says Husni, who suggests that TV Guide might eventually give way to Inside TV because of its advertiser-friendly women 18-34 demographic.

Crystal disagrees. "They serve such distinct audiences and the products are highly different in look, design, feel and content," he says. "The long-term future if each one is incredibly positive."

In its circulation downsizing, the magazine is eliminating 3 million sponsored sales, about a third of its total circulation. It is guaranteeing advertisers 3.2 million subscribers and offering a bonus circulation of 1.3 million at the launch of the new format.

TV Guide expects to increase the proportion of newsstand sales under the new format, which will retail at $1.99, 50 cents less than the old format. Total newsstand pockets will fall, but the company says it will launch with 70,000 and expects to have 100,000 pockets by the end of 2006. It says it will find new high-volume pockets such as airports to attract readers.

TV Guide says it expects a pass-along rate of five readers per copy that would equate to about 20 million readers per issue at launch. The magazine says it expects to attract new ad categories such as fashion, beauty, automotive and consumer electronics.

"We absolutely will be more appealing to a host of new advertising categories," Crystal says.

But it may have a hard time convincing media buyers that a revamped TV Guide is more attractive than its predecessor.

"It's a big if," says Jack Hanrahan, the director of print operations at OMD USA.

"I'd be pretty skeptical about being in TV Guide until it shows it can do what it supposedly is going to do. There are a lot of good places to invest money while they find their place."

Despite the 9 million circulation TV Guide reached under its old format, media buyers do not see it as an attractive buy because at least 3 million are sponsored copies and many end up distributed in hotel rooms.

"They were reaching middle America but they didn't have a unique audience," says magazine consultant Martin Walker. "It was a struggle for them to get mainstream advertising other than mass market and mail order stuff."

Ad pages for TV Guide were down 20.6 percent year-to-date through June.

Some media buyers are already talking about the title in the past tense. Unless its new format reinvigorates TV Guide, subscribers may do the same. "It was product that was right for its time," says Hanrahan. "It was a huge success for many, many years, but times change."

Burnt 'Bridge:' Tiger's farewell flame
Woods' likely primetime golf finale near all-time low
medialifemagazine.com---Organizers of the seventh annual “Lincoln Financial Battle at the Bridges” recently said that last night’s event would be Tiger Woods’ last primetime golf outing. It looks like he’s getting out at the right time.

The made-for-TV “Battle at the Bridges” on ABC last night, which teamed Woods with John Daly versus Phil Mickelson and Retief Goosen, averaged a 3.4 household rating, according to Nielsen overnights, an all-time low and down from a 4.2 overnight rating last year.

Overnights reflect time slot delivery and not actual show delivery, and because the event was live, final ratings will likely change when they’re released this afternoon. But it will probably be close or at an all-time low.

Over the weekend, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported that Woods will end his participation in the event after this year, saying the recently married superstar wants more time at home. With its main attraction gone, "The Bridges" will probably be finished as well, though future primetime golf events aren’t out of the question.

“Battle at the Bridges” attracted 5.05 million viewers last night, and a dismal 1.2 rating among viewers 18-49. Summer to date, ABC has averaged a 2.1 18-49 Mondays from 8 to 11, a 43 percent difference.

“Bridges” was also off 12 percent from ABC’s 4.1 household average on Mondays.

Interest in Woods has tailed off in the last few years. His British Open victory last week was his lowest-rated major win ever, and ratings for "Bridges" have been falling since 2000.

All fall down and pray for Chris Rock
It's not just a sitcom but a hoped-for savior

By Kevin Downey medialifemagazine.com

Everyone in media is talking about “Everybody Hates Chris” as the one hot show this coming fall. But in the lulls between praises for the UPN show one senses panic.

Yes, it's so very funny, but what happens if "Chris” should fail to live up to expectations? And with all the buzz, can it ever hope to?

What's at stake is not just another sitcom. The show, based on the comedian's Brooklyn childhood, is seen as the best chance for the foundering sitcom genre to revive, to end the years-long drought in primetime comedy, as NBC’s “Cosby Show” did two decades ago.

That's a tall order, all based on one pilot episode. No wonder media people are anxious.

During the upfront presentations in May, when the networks previewed new programs to media buyers, and again last week at the Television Critics Association press tour, media people and critics asked for reassurances from the network and Rock that “Chris” won’t be dramatically tweaked between now and September.

Rock, obviously irked by questions over his commitment to the series, last Thursday quipped: “My name’s Rock, not Chappelle. Are you confusing me with another skinny black man?" Rock was referring to Dave Chappelle, who sidelined his hit Comedy Central show earlier this year when he hightailed it to Africa in an apparent panic over his-much delayed new season.

Both Rock and Dawn Ostroff, UPN’s entertainment president, have been working hard to quell media buyers' worries. Yet at the same time they have to be thrilled by the buzz, especially considering it's a show on UPN, a network famously overlooked when they're handing out Emmy nominations.

A year ago, the last worry on buyers' minds was that NBC might tinker with its debuting "Joey." They were happy simply to know that the show's pilot wasn't as bad as so many had feared. As the season wore on and "Joey's" numbers sank, the question became why NBC wasn't in there dramatically remaking the show.

But "Joey" wasn't expected to revive the sitcom, while "Chris" is, which explains the panic. “It’s the funniest new comedy to come along in a while,” says Shari Anne Brill, vice president and director of programming at Carat. “It’s out and out funny.”

Buyers have had hopes crushed before. Almost every summer, one or two upcoming fall shows generate buzz only to flame out. CBS’s “Bette” comes to mind. The short-lived sitcom with Bette Midler premiered with lots of hype in 2000 only to die shortly after.

But more troubling for “Chris,” the show is slotted to run on Thursdays at 8 p.m. While Thursday is not the night it was two years ago, when NBC still dominated, it's still a formidable evening on which to debut a new show, and in some ways more so. With NBC's "Friends" off the air, all the networks are aggressively programming for a slice of the night's still-sizable audience.

"Chris" will air against CBS's ever-strong “Survivor” and NBC’s weakened-but-still-showing-a-pulse “Joey” and “Will & Grace.” It will also compete with ABC’s “Alias,” Fox’s hit “The O.C.” and the WB’s “Smallville.”

Thursday is also a night that for the past decade has not been kind to sitcoms, outside those on NBC.
The last comedies to have modest success were Fox shows like “Martin” and “Living Single” in the mid-1990s. Before that, the then-nascent Fox generated good ratings against “Cosby” with “The Simpsons.”

But since then Thursday as been a sacrificial altar for comedies, as network after network has learned.

Working in "Chris's" favor, says Brill, is that the night's chemistry has changed since the departure of "Friends."

She thinks "Chris” has a good shot at pulling respectable ratings for UPN, perhaps half to slightly better than half the 5.7 adult 18-49 rating “Everybody Loves Raymond” pulled last season on CBS.

Or at least that's the hope.

“It will probably be [UPN’s] second-highest rated show, next to ‘America’s Next Top Model,’” says Brill. “Chris Rock has a following and that alone will get people to sample it. And there’s room for a second comedy because ‘Joey’ isn’t that strong.”

TV Critics Tour Blog
By Mark McGuire The Albany NY Times-Union Television Critic

Grant, NBC sing the blues

Singer Amy Grant is doing a reality show this year called ``Three Wishes,'' in which she fulfills hopes and needs of those needing help.

Awwwwwww.

Last night she played in concert at an NBC party. That is one of the perks of being out here: I would never, ever, ever -- did I say never? -- have otherwise seen her in concert. She was good, especially in some blues numbers.

But it was NBC that is singing the blues these days. The former undisputed king is in a free-fall. How bad is it? Many reporters said there was no way to take time off when UPN was in town (albeit for only one day), but the second day of NBC presentations called for a free period.

UPN being more important than NBC? Maybe that can be a storyline in NBC's upcoming miniseries ``Apocalypse: 10.5.''

ABC Premieres Leak into October

(zap2it.com)--Last July it would have been hard to fathom that in just a year ABC would not only have one, but a several returning shows that fans would be eager to return to watching a weekly basis.

Throw in five new series and ABC is going to have a busy fall. So, busy that the network's premieres will span not only the standard premiere week beginning Monday, Sept. 19, but into early October as well.

Returning comedies "According to Jim," "Hope & Faith" and "George Lopez" will all get one-hour premieres, while new series "Invasion" and "Night Stalker" will get high profile lead-in debuts in the form of "Lost's" second-season premiere and the return of "Alias," respectively.

The full premiere schedule for ABC is as follows (all times Eastern, new shows in bold):

Monday, Sept. 12
8 p.m. "Wife Swap"

Tuesday, Sept. 20
8 p.m. "According to Jim" (one-hour premiere)

Wednesday, Sept. 21
9 p.m. "Lost"
10 p.m. "Invasion"

Friday, Sept. 23
8 p.m. "Supernanny"
9 p.m. "Hope & Faith" (one-hour premiere)

Sunday, Sept. 25
7 p.m. "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" (two-hour premiere)
9 p.m. "Desperate Housewives"
10 p.m. "Grey's Anatomy"

Tuesday, Sept. 27
9 p.m. "Commander in Chief"
10 p.m. "Boston Legal"

Wednesday, Sept. 28
8 p.m. "George Lopez" (one-hour premiere)

Thursday, Sept. 29
8 p.m. "Alias"
9 p.m. "Night Stalker"

Sunday, Oct. 2
7 p.m. "America's Funniest Home Videos"

Tuesday, Oct. 4
8:30 p.m. "Rodney"

Wednesday, Oct. 5
8:30 p.m. "Freddie"

Friday, Oct. 7
9:30 p.m. "Hot Properties"

The ABC program starting dates have been added to ABC's 2005-2006 prime-time schedule near the bottom of Latest News the first item in this thread.

FOX Dances to Weekly Demo Win; CBS Rules Overall

(zap2it.com)--The breakout premiere of the summer reality show "So You Think You Can Dance" and the continued strength of fresh offerings like "Hell's Kitchen" and "Family Guy" led FOX to a win among adults 18-49 for the week ending Sunday, July 24. Despite those young-skewing hits, FOX still couldn't compete with CBS for the overall weekly crown.

CBS averaged a 5.0 rating/9 share, pulling in 7.33 million viewers per week in primetime, easily topping the 4.1/7 for NBC, which hooked 5.63 million nightly viewers. FOX's average of 5.75 million viewers was actually higher for the week, though its 3.7/7 was tied with ABC, which only drew 5.29 million viewers. UPN was fifth for the week with a 1.8/3 and 2.75 million viewers, leaving The WB to trail with a 1.2/2 and 1.68 million.

FOX grabbed the 18-49 demographic with a 2.5 rating in age range that makes most advertisers giggle like giddy schoolgirls. CBS was a close second with a 2.3 rating. ABC and NBC tied with a 1.8 rating. UPN's 1.1 rating was fifth, bettering the 0.7 rating for The WB.

CBS had 12 programs in the Top 20, including the week's most watched show, "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," which did a 9.9/17, with 14.6 million viewers. The procedural helped boost its lead-out, "Without a Trace," which was No. 2 with an 8.7/15. Other Jerry Bruckheimer-produced dramas delivering summer audiences were "CSI: Miami" (6.0/10, 10th), "Cold Case" (5.6/10, 15th) and "CSI: NY" (5.3/9, 17th).

It was a generally solid week for CBS' comedies, including "Two and a Half Men" (6.3/10, 8th), "Everybody Loves Raymond" (5.9/10, 11th) and "King of Queens" (5.3/9, 17th).

Two episodes of "Big Brother 6" were listworthy, tying for No. 17 with the Thursday (5.3/10) and Tuesday (5.3/9) shows. Also making the Top 20 were "NCIS" (6.5/12, 4th) and "60 Minutes" (6.1/12, 9th).

NBC's week was dominated by Dick Wolf dramas, a fact he'd tell you himself. Of the network's six programs in the Top 20, four come from the Wolf factory. "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (6.6/11, 3rd), "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (6.5/11, 4th) and the mothership (6.4/11, 6th) had nearly identical numbers and a second Wednesday "Law & Order" episode wasn't far off at No. 11 with a 5.9/10.

The network's other Top 20 entries were a "Most Outrageous Moments" special (5.7/11, 14th) and Sunday's "Crossing Jordan" (5.5/10, 16th).

FOX's best for the week was the premiere of "So You Think You Can Dance," which was tied for No. 6 with a 6.4/11 and performed even better with younger viewers.

ABC was led by "Brat Camp," another summer reality show, at No. 11 with a 5.9/10.

UPN saw "WWE Smackdown!" settle in at No. 62 with a 3.2/6, nearly doubling up the 1.7/3 for "Summerland," The WB's best, at No. 87.

(Last week's complete list of network prime-time ratings will be posted at the top of Latest News the first item in this thread, later in the day.)

Recycling fame

With TV craving content, self-mocking D-list celebs are the rage in reality shows this summer. Viewers love them.

By Beth Gillin Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer

Modern celebrity is like a colossal compost heap, swallowing amiable but forgettable sidekicks and drug-addled ego cases alike.

They seem to disappear into obscurity, but that's just an illusion. They're like those stubborn dandelions that squeeze through pavement cracks no matter how much Weed-B-Gon you aim at them.

Sooner or later all celebrities reemerge - some, like comic Kathy Griffin, with an entirely new face. It's inevitable, given both TV's insatiable appetite for content and viewers' boundless tolerance for whatever is placed before them, including Griffin, who has not only embraced D-listhood but fashioned a lucrative new career from it.

This summer, celebrity recycling has reached a sort of cosmic critical mass. Has-beens are the new gotta-haves. And we're tuning in by the millions.

We're watching Gary Busey and Wendy the Snapple Lady vie to lose weight on Celebrity Fitness Club, back for a second season on VH1.

We're following Botoxed ex-cover girl Janice Dickinson - survivor of three marriages, several battles with drugs and alcohol, and a stint terrifying the young contestants on UPN's America's Next Top Model - move in with a bunch of mismatched roommates, including Pink's motocross-racing fiance Corey Hart, on VH1's The Surreal Life.

Even the premiere of the much-derided Being Bobby Brown on Bravo, starring the addled onetime R&B star and his wife, the skeletal ruins of Whitney Houston, last month attracted 1.1 million viewers, which is hit territory for the cable channel.

ABC's Dancing With the Stars was this summer's breakout hit, and never mind that the "stars" were sub-B-list celebs with two left feet, among them boxer Evander Holyfield, '70s supermodel Rachel Hunter, and aging New Kid on the Block Joey McIntyre. Oh, and actor John O'Hurley, whom most people recognize not by his own name but as the mannered J. Peterman on Seinfeld, which for O'Hurley was seven long, hitless years ago.

The Dancing celebs may have been low wattage, but 22.4 million folks tuned in for the finale, when soap star Kelly Monaco, previously unknown to all but loyal fans of General Hospital, glided somewhat clumsily away with the trophy.

The network is searching for a new crop of hopeful hoofers for season two, to begin sometime later this year.

Has-beens are hot because they're "cheap, compared to big current stars, and they provide instant name recognition," said Mary Desjardins, associate professor of film and television studies at Dartmouth College, via e-mail.

"They bring a presold quality to the project, so that it doesn't need to be tested slowly while audience loyalty builds and new stars develop, as with more traditional productions."

And this is important, Desjardins said, at a time when the entertainment industry is increasingly obsessed with instant hits.

Because reality series are inexpensive to produce, and shorter in cycle than fictional shows (generally six episodes instead of 13), if a show flops, it's no biggie. There's another one waiting in the wings.

Which helps to explain Hogan Knows Best on VH1, in which hairy ex-wrestler Hulk Hogan is revealed as just another puzzled patriarch wondering if it's OK to let a 22-year-old college guy take his 16-year-old daughter on her first date. The show's July 10 debut set a network record, drawing 2.7 million viewers.

The aforesaid Griffin, her second-banana-to-Brooke-Shields career revived by playing herself on The Surreal Life, has a new series, Life on the D-List, starting Aug. 3 on Bravo.

All of this is great news for menopausal supermodels, creaky wrestlers and sitcom sidekicks - but what does it say about the rest of us? Why do we watch?

We are drawn to shows that put celebs into unaccustomed situations, said Desjardins, whose book Recycled Stars: Female Film Stardom in the Age of Television and Video is due out next year from Duke University Press. "They become more like us."

Audiences, Desjardins said, know that stars "are made and maintained by handlers, studios, etc." Reality shows promise a glimpse of "something that has escaped the built facade."

Dancing With the Stars was a hit for several reasons, Desjardins said. It was appropriate for the whole family, and it was up against reruns. But viewers liked the "stars" because they could either "laugh at their incompetence or empathize with their situation of being thrust into something they haven't done before."

Celebrity recycling is so big that some personalities are being snatched from the compost pile before they've barely registered with the public. Last night saw the premiere of Kill Reality on E!, featuring cast members from The Survivor, The Bachelor, The Amazing Race and such, attempting to act.

And consider Apprentice diva Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth, who has managed to parlay five minutes of Trump-bestowed fame into appearances on 10 shows - among them Fear Factor, Girlfriends and the soap opera Passions - plus a Burger King commercial.

She's starring on the fifth season of VH1's The Surreal Life, in which six members of the washed-up, the burned-out, the coulda-beens, and the hope-to-be's set up housekeeping while the cameras roll.

Omarosa is living up to her witchy reputation. Upon meeting surprisingly grabby housemate Bronson Pinchot, best known for playing Balki in the 1980s sitcom hit Perfect Strangers, she blurted, "Whoa, dude gained lots of weight."

When another housemate, baseball's steroidal ex-slugger Jose Canseco, said he could beat her at something, she accused him of threatening to beat her up.

And she seems destined for a showdown with Dickinson, who nastily observed, "When I first saw Omarosa, I thought it was Rick James."

But weep not for Omarosa. In a summer that has seen the recycling of both Pauly Shore (Minding the Store on TBS) and Howie Mandel (Hidden Howie: The Private Life of a Public Nuisance debuts next month on Bravo), she's holding her own.

Look for her next month on two Bravo shows.

She'll play cards on Celebrity Poker Showdown. And she'll provide commentary for something called, so help us, Battle of the Network Reality Stars.

ARE THESE DAN RATHER'S FINAL CBS DAYS?

By MICHAEL STARR NEW YORK POST

CBS chief Les Moonves' reference to Dan Rather in the past tense has sparked rumors that Rather could be leaving CBS - maybe even before his contract expires in January.

"I'm very fond of Dan. Dan's terrific. He had a long, illustrious career at CBS, and let's not forget that," Moonves told The Philadelphia Inquirer in response to questions about last fall's "Memogate" mess, which resulted in Rather's early departure from the "CBS Evening News" anchor desk.

Moonves' use of the word "had" has re-ignited talk that Rather, a 43-year CBS veteran, will leave for another network, according to the industry site tvnewser.com.

"Dan fully intends to fulfill his contract at CBS and expects to be there beyond January," Rather's agent, Richard Leibner, told The Post yesterday.

Industry sources say that Rather is not currently looking for another job, nor has he been told by CBS that they're going to let him out of his contract.

He also has not been offered a buyout by the network, sources say.

Rather stepped down from the "Evening News" desk after 24 years last March in the wake of the "Memogate" scandal - in which a "60 Minutes II" broadcast, anchored by Rather, used unsubstantiated documents in a story on President Bush's National Guard service.

The scandal resulted in the firing of the report's producer, Mary Mapes, and the resignation of three high-ranking CBS News execs, including "60 II" executive producer Josh Howard.

Rather was re-assigned to "60 Minutes" as a correspondent shortly thereafter.

"Dan is very much a part of next season's '60 Minutes,'" a CBS News spokeswoman said yesterday.

The Post's Cindy Adams reported last November that Rather could eventually be headed for CNN - which wooed him for a prime-time newscast back in 1997.

Rather has appeared numerous times on CNN's "Larry King Live."

A CNN spokeswoman said that Rather is "not in negotations" with the network.

NCTA Mocks NAB For "Free Ride'
By John Eggerton Broadcasting & Cable
The National Cable & Telecommunications Association released a White Paper Tuesday taking aim at broadcasters' push for mandated cable carriage of their digital multicast signals.


NCTA White Paper (www.ncta.com/pdf_files/Free%20Ride%20White%20Paper%207-25-05.pdf)
It's in PDF format

Former NFL QB Tackles “Survivor”
By Don Kaplan New York Post

Former Dallas Cowboy quarterback Gary Hogeboom is among the latest batch of castaways on "Survivor."

Hogeboom, 47, is now a land developer in Grand Rapids, Mich., but turned in his day job for another shot at fame on "Suvivor: Guatemala." Filming on the show is currently under way in Central America.

Hogeboom spent the first six of his 10 seasons in the NFL with the Cowboys, after he was drafted by the team in 1980.

Bret Hyble, one of Hogeboom's teammates from his days at Central Michigan University, told the Detroit Free Press that "Gary is a very outgoing person, once he puts his mind to do something, he does it."

TV Critics Tour Blog
By Ellen Gray Philadelphia Daily News Television Columnist

MAN OF THE MOMENT

Yesterday, we learned that NBC's fertility-clinic drama "Inconceivable" was partly inspired by the experiences of co-creator Marco Pennette, who, along with his partner, has a child who was carried by a surrogate mother.

Now we're hearing that his ABC sitcom, "Crumbs," which stars Fred Savage as a closeted gay screenwriter whose mother's nervous breakdown and parents' breakup lead to his return home to help with the family restaurant, was based on Pennette's family.

"This was the year I turned to myself to find what to write about," he says. "I was supposed to be developing a sitcom version of 'The Parent Trap' for ABC, believe it or not," when someone suggested that his family was "screwed up" enough for a sitcom.

And how do they feel about it?

"They are fair game, and I told them all that....This is our therapy," says Pennette.

"This is the show I've wanted to write for 15 years," he says. "I'm dealing with my brother's death, I'm dealing with my parents' breakup, I felt I owed them to do something different with it."

Somewhere amid all this heavy discussion, William Devane, who'll be playing Savage's father -- Jane Curtin's the mom -- kicked off his Birkenstocks.

THE METAMUCIL METAPHOR REVISITED

That "colonic" remark by NBC entertainment president Kevin Reilly is back to haunt us, courtesy of a reporter who this morning attempted to extend the metaphor in a question to Reilly's ABC counterpart, Steve McPherson.

Referring at first to the possiblity that there's "blood in the water" at fourth-ranked NBC, the reporter then suggested that given Reilly's comment, it might be more like "blood in the stool."

No, I don't like where this is going.

TV Critics Tour Blog
By Bill Goodykroontz The Arizona Republic

The ABCs of TV
.
ABC rolled in high on the hog, basking in the success of Desperate Housewives and Lost (and the surprise summer hit Dancing With the Stars).

It is a sign of the admirable restraint shown by Steve McPherson, ABC's Entertainment president, that he simply walked onstage and wasn't carried in on a litter.

Desperate Housewives and Lost won Television Critics Association awards Saturday, which McPherson acknowledged.

"The ratings are certainly what we're after," he said, "but your praise is incredibly meaningful."

Anybody else catch the whiff of a backhanded compliment there? Nah, just take a compliment any way you can get one. Anyway, McPherson is obviously a smart guy, and his approach -- humble but firm -- plays well with critics, including me. He's got a subtle wit that works well in a room full of cynical smart-alecks (not including me, the very voice of innocence and wonder). For instance, one critic noted that presumably a lot of men tune in to Alias to see Jennifer Garner run around in bathing suits and skimpy clothes.

Oh come on. You know it's true.

Anyway, Garner, now Mrs. Ben Affleck, is pregnant, so probably not a lot of bare-midriff shots this season, and probably not as much butt-kicking done by her in general. Did that worry McPherson, the critic wondered?

"She should be able to run a fair amount," he said, before giving a real answer.

It's a small thing, but having sat through my fair share of executives treading water, I can tell you that a sense of humor is absolutely not one of the requirements of the job. (Neither is good taste in television, but McPherson appears to have that, as well.)

Occasionally we get into a loop, asking question after question about the same thing. That happened with McPherson's session. Here is the guy whose two hit shows last season were pretty much responsible for stealing some of the buzz back from cable, one of which -- Lost -- has spawned a slew of imitators (including one on ABC, Invasion), who faces losing Monday Night Football not this season but next, and we talk to him about ... the controversy on that stupid dance show.

Oh, Dancing With the Stars was good summer fun, sure, though they used the words "dancing" and "stars" pretty loosely in some cases. Anyway, the big hubbub was that Kelly Monaco won, beating John O'Hurley (known now and forever as J. Peterman on Seinfeld), even though a lot of people thought O'Hurley's dancing was superior.

Monaco stars in an ABC soap opera, so the controversy raged: was the fix in?

(When I say things like "controversy" and "raged," what I actually mean is some people actually seemed to care enough to wonder why Monaco won. When in Rome....)

No, no, of course not, McPherson said, to the surprise of no one. What, you thought he would confess a scandal? Fat chance. He explained how it happened, why it might have, blah blah blah. But this was not enough. The questions continued. And continued. And, after that, continued a little more.

Finally, perhaps worn down by the thought of answering any more questions about the same thing, McPherson asked, "Should there be a rematch? A dance-off? Maybe that's what we'll do."

Imagine the self-satisfaction among us if that actually happens. Told you his approach plays well with critics.

NBC party: a hairy situation

BEVERLY HILLS -- The NBC party, while attended by some big-name people such as Dennis Hopper (shorter than you might think, with a neater haircut; then again, he's playing a colonel in E-Ring, a new NBC drama, which explains the hair if not the stature), generally had the air of stars not so much almost famous as vaguely familiar.

Isn't that ... is she ... nah. Publicist, not actress. That kind of thing.

But Jill Hennessey was there, always fetching (and taller than you might think, with pushed up, unkept hair; she was the anti-Dennis Hopper). Jason Lee, who was in Almost Famous the movie and pretty much qualifies as almost famous the description, looked rather glum for someone who is starring in one of the season's best new shows, the comedy My Name Is Earl.

(He sported the redneck mustache his character wears. What is it with the hair? I should have gone to barber college.)

Amy Grant, who stars in a reality show called Three Wishes, in which the wishes of three people -- clever -- are granted, performed a few songs, apparently granting the wishes of the people singing along with some of the numbers. Kept waiting for her hubby Vince Gill to show up -- I had read or heard somewhere that Mark Knopfler wanted him to be an original member of Dire Straits -- but it didn't happen.

The biggest fun of the night was spent chatting with Greg Garcia, who created My Name is Earl. It had to be sweet for him; he also created Yes, Dear, which takes a regular critical bashing. But it keeps staying on the CBS schedule, so if the criticism bothers him -- and it seems to -- he can make himself feel a little better by cashing the giant checks.

But criticism won't be a problem this time around. There are nothing but good things to say about Earl, in which Lee stars as a ne'er-do-well clunkhead who sets about to right the wrongs he's caused in other people's lives. If that sounds like a sitcom version of Three Wishes, it's not. It is delightfully twisted and often hilarious. It's also, and this is a word you don't get to use very often when describing a comedy, original. Man I hope it sticks, and good luck to Garcia. Really nice guy, and after all those Yes, Dear cracks, he deserves some praise.

TV Critics Tour Blog
By Diane Holloway Austin Statesman TV Writer

Top-rated ABC faces ‘Welcome to the Neighborhood’ flap

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Now that NBC is finished eating crow, it’s time for ABC to crow … about it’s No. 1 ratings.

You’d think ABC would be especially puffed up about suffering such Mickey Mouse ratings in previous seasons, but the network’s entertainment president, Stephen McPherson, told TV critics this morning that he just hopes to keep building on current success of hits such as “Desperate Housewives,” “Lost” and “Grey’s Anatomy.”

Being humble in the face of victory didn’t spare McPherson from addressing the “Welcome to the Neighborhood” flap. The reality show, which was filmed in Austin’s Circle C subdivision, sparked a slew of prebroadcast criticism about the concept of having three conservative white families picking the winner of a house in their cul-de-sac from seven wildly diverse families. Promos focused on negative comments from one judging family about a gay couple. Civil rights groups and fair-housing advocates howled, and ABC pulled the show 10 days before its scheduled debut.

But McPherson said the show was not axed because of outside complaints.

“If I stopped running shows because of advocacy groups, we’d have nothing but a test pattern,” he said. “The show just wasn’t right. It was a challenging show that we knew would be provocative, but we just did not anticipate that the episodic nature would be such a problem. After seeing it, we realized that viewers might be confused by the message that was intended.”

McPherson insisted he still hasn’t decided whether to repackage “Welcome” and air it. It’s hard to imagine how that would be feasible, since the rumor is all but confirmed that the gay couple won the house. Nobody has moved into the Alberta Cove residence yet, but ABC has said it will give the house to the winner.

McPherson also addressed a controversy that bubbled up after the finale of “Dancing with the Stars,” when many viewers felt ABC soap star Kelly Monaco shouldn’t have won over John O’Hurley. The buzz was that the judges’ final perfect 10s for an obviously flawed final dance by Monaco was proof positive.

“I love it that people are so wrapped up in the show,” McPherson said. “The judges sit where they can’t see everything the camera sees, but fans are going to root for who they want, regardless of the performance. And you can’t underestimate the power of the daytime audience.”

“Dancing with the Stars” will return with new contestants and the same annoying three judges.

Jennifer Garner, who is pregnant in real life (recently wed to Ben Affleck), will be pregnant on “Alias,” raising the specter of the first-ever pregnant action hero. The goal will be to make the situation realistic, not campy, while not endangering Garner or creating the perception that her pregnant character is in danger. (Viewers can’t always tell the difference, you know.) She’ll still run, kick and jump — at least in the prehuge stage — but she probably won’t get hit as much. Good thing.

The prospect of life without “Monday Night Football,” which moves to cable in the fall of ’06, is not all desperate, McPherson said. It might mean a dip in Monday ratings at first, but programming regular series will have its advantages.

“It’s difficult to re-launch Monday nights every six months, which is what we were having to do,” he said. “At least we’ll have the opportunity for some consistency there.”

As for the grumbling after the May finale of “Lost,” when once again we were denied entry to the hatch, McPherson said he does know what’s in the hatch, “And it’s definitely worth the wait.”

McPherson: ABC Killed Welcome to the Neighborhood for Creative Reasons

By John Consoli Mediaweek.com July 26, 2005

ABC entertainment president Steve McPherson said a decision was made to not air the reality show Welcome to the Neighborhood, not to cave in to advocacy groups who were protesting the show, but because he did not feel comfortable with how the show was episodically structured.

In response to a question at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour in Los Angeles on July 26, McPherson said, "It was a very challenging show. We knew it would be provocative. We knew it would challenge bias and preconceived notions, but we did not anticipate that the episodic nature of it would be as problematic as it was."

In the show, a varied group of families of different ethnicities and with different lifestyles are thrown together to live on a block, with an existing white, conservative family. Among them are a white gay couple who are raising a black child, and a family that practices wicca. The family that survives wins a house.

The show received complaints from several groups, and ABC made the six episodes available to some of them for viewing before the show aired. But McPherson said it was soley ABC's decision to pull the show. "It is clear that whatever advocacy groups may feel that they were involved [played a role] in this decision [not to air the show], this was our decision," he said.

McPherson said the network was actively promoting the airing of the show, while racing to get the rest of the episodes ready, and had not seen the completed series.

"As we started to see it, we realized that if you air it in the episodic nature that it was scheduled to air, you could, maybe confuse the audience as to what the message you are trying to get across and what you were trying to portray," he said. "And it really became a question of what's responsible, to air it or not. We didn't want to air something just because of the controversy. And I really felt like when I looked long and hard at it in this form, it wasn't right. The show was not ready to go, and the responsible thing was not to air it."

McPherson said he still has not decided if the network will eventually air the show or not. But he said he will not sell the rights to another network. "If I don't think something should be aired, why would I sell it to somebody else [to air]," he said. "If you don't think something is responsible to be broadcast, why would you encourage it to be broadcast elsewhere?"

McPherson said he is trying to figure out if there's a way to edit and air Welcome to the Neighborhood "in a different form that can really execute what our original intention was about that transformative process (as portrayed on the show). At this point, we haven't figured that out, so I don't know if it will air or not."

fredfa, on the first page America's Most Wanted is listed as HD for the fall. Is that correct?

Nope, my error...thanks I'll get it corrected!

Also, Three Wishes on NBC. (I was going to add that to my other post, but you were too fast! :))

And Jake In Progress and Emily's Reasons Why Not should be HD. (Last one, I swear.)

Hey I appreciate all the proof reading help I can get!

Last week’s network prime-time ratings have been posted at the top of Latest News the first item in this thread.

O'Hurley/Monaco Dance-Off in Works

By Ben Grossman Broadcasting & Cable

ABC is considering a “dance off” between Kelly Monaco and John O'Hurley, finalists of the recent summer reality hit Dancing With The Stars.

ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson said Dancing will likely return for its second season in January, but McPherson said the network is also considering a special to reunite the finalists of the show, which drew more than 22 million viewers for its seaason finale.

“We are serious about it,” he told reporters Tuesday at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills. “I think it’s a great idea.”

While one year ago ABC execs were being grilled about how the network was going to get out of the doldrums, this year McPherson was most under the gun about the voting for his dancing reality hit.

The weekly show eliminated contestants based on a combination of judge and fan voting.

Due to the vague and somewhat awkward nature of the results tabulation--fan voting counted toward the next-week's show's vote-off-- McPherson was questioned as to whether Monaco won because she is an ABC daytime star. He said ABC will consider a results show, a la American Idol, next year.

“With Dancing there is a valid concern without a results show, but I think we are going to consider whether a results show makes sense,” he said. “To me there is not much to say, the voting was not fixed whatsoever. What else is there to discuss?”

McPherson also danced around questions about marketing plans for the fall season.

While last year ABC succeeded by focusing its promotional push on shows like Lost and Desperate Housewives, this year they will have to re-launch hits like Desperate, promote the shifting of returning shows like Alias and Lost, and push their new fare.

While revealing the network will once again promote Desperate Housewives on the side of dry cleaning bags (and also give away shirts as part of the strategy), other details were few and far between.

“I don’t mean to be cagey, it’s just gotten so competitive and people are stealing everything,” he said. “I want to give as little as possible to the other networks. It’s kind of cooky, people have realized how good our marketing is, and we’re flattered they appreciate what we did and are going to imitate some of it, but its hard when people are trying to rip off ideas, too.”

And on the subject of imitation, McPherson said he expects Fox to tone theirs down from a programming standpoint.

“I hope that with Peter Liguori at Fox we are going to see a little different approach,” McPherson said. “I was certainly disappointed to see Ice Skating with the Stars. But what can you do? It’s pretty sad.”

Other highlights of McPherson’s presentation:

• He claimed the decision to sideline Welcome To The Neighborhood, the reality show that was criticized for its selection process for the winners of a new home, was solely that of the network and not influenced by external pressures.
“This was our decision,” he said. “I mean, if I stopped airing things just because advocacy groups had issues with it, we would run a test pattern. I can't tell you how much of that stuff goes on. So it would be clear that whatever advocacy groups may feel that they were involved in this decision, this was our decision.”

• He said they want to improve on Thursdays, but won’t rework their schedule to do so. “We haven't performed very well there,” he said. “But I can't say that it is the penultimate night for us, because a lot of the movie money now we're seeing on both Wednesday and Sunday.
"And you know, at this point we're not going to take one of our giant shows and move Desperate to Thursday night just to win Thursday night. Step by step, we'd like to be a real performer on Thursday. We're not looking to win it this year, certainly."

TV Critics Tour Blog
By Ellen Gray Philadelphia Daily News Television Columnist

NOT EXACTLY A DREAM ROLE

Gail O'Grady's looking frosty, and it's not just the air-conditioning in the Beverly Hilton's main ballroom, where parkas would not be inappropriate.

The press conference for ABC's "Hot Properties" just kicked off with a reporter asking O'Grady how she went from the idealized mother of NBC's "American Dreams" to, well, a slut.

("Hot Properties" is supposedly a comedy about real estate agents, but in the pilot, real estate and comedy seem to be taking a back seat to cheap sex jokes, and O'Grady's character is kind of a slut, although a newy married one who may be trying to clean up her act.)

"I think I'm just playing a different kind of role," said O'Grady evenly.

It must have worked, because no one's following up or asking how Meg and J.J. and Patty and Will would feel about their TV mom talking about sex on ABC.

WORD WATCH

David E. Kelley, who explored the dramedy form in "Ally McBeal" -- and won an Emmy for comedy as a result -- isn't exactly sure how to characterize the increasingly comic "Boston Legal," the ABC show he spun off from that Emmy-winning drama "The Practice."

But he thinks "you could call it a comma."

He might want to dispense with punctuation altogether, though, since he notes that when he worked on "L.A. Law," he could write 48 minutes of every hour, and now it's down to 41, thanks to "commercial encroachment."

Sounding more businesslike than he has in the past, Kelley's floating ideas like "co-producing" with a sponsor in the hopes of getting a minute or two back for the words.

Some of us smell a deal in the works.

OLD STOGIES HE HAS FOUND..

You might think that the easiest thing for James Spader and William Shatner to accomplish on ABC's "Boston Legal" would be those end-of-the-episode scenes where they light up cigars and just shoot the breeze.

Not so, says Shatner, who describes them as "aversion therapy."

After deciding that it might be more fun, visually, to smoke short cigars -- which bring the smoke closer to his face -- Shatner discovered some drawbacks.

"After 20 cigars, I was ill," he says. "A sheen of oily sweat was on my brow" and the makeup people had to put rouge on his face to balance the green.

(I’ve enjoyed reading some of the blogs from the TV critic’s tour. You may be finding some (or all) of them interesting. (I hope you do, anyhow.) Or, you might find them boring. It is obvious that Variety veteran Brian Lowry is not a blog fan.)

Press Tour getting bogged down in blogs

By BRIAN LOWRY variety.com

IF NEWSPAPER EDITOR Horace Greeley were around today, his famed advice to a cub reporter probably would have been, "Go blog, young man."

Newspapers have become strangely enamored with Web logs, a.k.a. blogs, recently adopting an "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" mentality. Examples range from ink-stained curmudgeons blogging away at the TV Critics Assn.'s semiannual gathering in Beverly Hills to the Los Angeles Times' revamped, Internet-oriented Sunday op-ed section. No one, in fact, is immune from high-tech pandering, including National Public Radio's "Talk of the Nation" program, which solicited emails last week containing listeners' TV series suggestions in a misguided attempt to seem cool.

Alas, these demographically motivated incursions by conservative old media into the online realm almost invariably reek of desperation, much like an aging hipster uncomfortably trying to squeeze into jeans from the young men's dept.

The difficulty with blogging from events like press tour or the network upfronts isn't the level of blather about stars and parties. It's that if blogs are supposed to provide a free-wheeling, unfiltered glimpse into journalists' psyches, newspaper-sanctioned versions are hard-pressed to honestly convey the mind's tendency to stray faced with the tedium of wall-to-wall press conferences.

The more pertinent problem, however, is whether anyone in charge has a clear sense for whom such excruciating detail is intended. Because so far, anyway, traditional media's adventures in the blogosphere apparently give scant thought to how their newfangled toy benefits consumers, confusing extra volume with legitimate value.

FRANKLY, I do this for a living and can't imagine mustering the strength to wade through this murky stream of TV criticism for the few nuggets it might yield. Yet recognizing the practice's inevitability, before dismissing it I felt compelled to at least try assembling an unexpurgated view of what passes through my head during these press tour Q&A sessions, and the results weren't pretty:

9:12 a.m.: Dear God, please say the network execs aren't going to run down their entire scheduling strategy again.

9:17: Interesting Wall Street Journal editorial. I had no idea that President Bush had cured polio.

9:21: They're only up to Wednesday night? What is this, a congressional filibuster?

9:25: What's that guy's name again? And was he that bald six months ago?

9:32: Whoa, did the head of the entertainment division just publicly accept blame for a mistake? He must have. The PR folks are doing the Lambada in their chairs.

9:47: Mental note: Investigate Karl Rove's role in determining the "Dancing With the Stars" winner. Geez, get a life, people.

10:20: That actress on stage right now -- the third lead or something -- is really cute. Maybe I should go to the All-Star Party. Seriously, who am I kidding? If this were a WB series I'd be playing her dad.

10:34: Tom Cruise and I are the same age. I should call my sister and thank her for never volunteering to handle my publicity.

11:09: Wow, that's the single dumbest question I've ever heard at one of these things. "Who would you rather be, Angus, the Charlie character or the Alan character?" Why not just ask the kid who would win in a fight between Jesus and Superman?

11:18: I'd really like a doughnut, but it's too close to lunch.

11:29: OK, I'm bored. Would anyone notice if I began playing BrickBreaker on my Blackberry? Say that three times fast. Heh heh heh.

11:42: Unbelievable. That was dumber than the previous question.

11:47: How does the dog keep getting in the bathroom and unraveling the toilet paper? I swear, that bitch is part Houdini.

11:52: Let's make it official: "The Island" is my last Michael Bay movie.

11:55: Must begin working through the East stack of preview DVDs and tapes. That way, I can move the West stack off the coffee table and onto the fireplace.

12:01 p.m.: Is it worth hanging around just for lunch? If so, I need to avoid that publicist who keeps harassing me about reviewing those gardening documentaries. I'd sooner watch all 12 hours of "Into the West." Maybe I could grab a drive-thru burger. I have that dollar-off coupon.

12:05: That does it, I'm out of here, and the burger wins. Besides, if newspapers are really lumbering toward the elephant burial ground, I'd rather not attend my own funeral on a rubber-chicken lunch.

HD May Be too Good to Last
By Tom Shales TVWeek July 25, 2005

I've gone gaga over HDTV, even though there still isn't a lot of programming available. As when color TV began, you find yourself watching something because of the process in which it's being transmitted, not because of the content. But then anyone who watches lots of TV has learned that content often either does not exist or, if it does, is better ignored.

Legendary NBC executive Paul Klein was a fascinating cynic who could quote McLuhanesque theory or CPMs and HUT levels with equal ease. I asked him once, "What's the biggest misconception critics have about television?" He answered, "That the content matters."

Sometimes, of course, form is content or the medium is the message, to hark back to Marshall McLuhan again, and with HDTV you find yourself so visually impressed that you become not just involved but immersed. One of the HDTV channels-don't ask me which because sometimes listings don't even appear on DirecTV's rolling scroll-irregularly offers something called "Sunrise Earth" that is crazily uneventful and thoroughly wonderful.

"Sunrise" could be categorized as reality television if the term hadn't been horribly perverted. It's real-time tape of the sun coming up in some exotic or prosaic spot on the globe, so far only places where wildlife instead of human life prevails. It might be sunrise in a Florida swamp, and over the course of an hour, to an increasing amount of light, you'd see (and hear, in stereo) birdies chirping, frogs grumbling and an alligator appearing, eyes-first, peering out of the water, then surfacing like a submarine.

There is no spoken narration, but occasional captions tell you as much as you need to know, and they're unobtrusively tucked away in the lower left corner. One of the unfortunate things about the coming of HDTV is that commercial broadcasters and cablecasters will simply see its larger playing field (16 by 9 versus 4 by 3) as more space to muck up with animated promos and sneaked-in commercials. If only HDTV, with its almost immeasurably improved picture, would bring back some respect for the frame and help re-establish the line, so long since blurred, between program material and commercials.

Generations of viewers, however, have come of age tolerating all kinds of spurious incursions into the once inviolate domain of the program. They're accustomed to news tickers zipping along at the bottom of the screen and to the TV equivalent of Web site pop-ups that deface the picture with characters from an upcoming show or blurbs promoting something that airs 16 days from now. HDTV might inspire ad agencies to make sponsors' commercials even more vivid and eye-catching than they already are, but it's unlikely network promotion departments will be so awed by the beauty of the picture that they'll say, "Let's not spoil it with our filthy old clutter."

Clutter is like global warming-very hard, if not impossible, to reverse.

We HDTV converts have more to watch than just the sun coming up in Patagonia, of course. NBC Universal's new HD channel has a good deal of stand-in filler-reruns of old Universal shows plugged into holes that will later, presumably, be filled with fresher goods-but even programs not shot in HD look better bumped up to 1080i or whatever the technical specifics of HD are. Some events at last year's Olympics were shot in HD and since NBC owns the tapes, viewers who couldn't see those events in HD when they first aired can see many of them now in Olympic reruns that air here and there across the channel's weekly schedule.

The best part may be the mini-travelogue of Greece and the Greek isles that was used to fill holes in the HD feed where regular stations cut away to local commercial time or news updates or whatever. There's probably no way of knowing how much Greek tourism was affected by that six or seven minutes of tape, but it sure was and remains an eye-popper. Incredible as it may sound, travelogues are suddenly hot stuff again.

You never know what will make your eyes widen on HD. In Washington, the Gannett-owned CBS affiliate, WUSA-TV, has been making a big deal out of having the first regularly scheduled HD newscasts. Sometimes it's only the set and the anchors that are really in HD; news footage itself is still mostly analog. But that new blue set sure does look pretty! Movies look better on HD, of course, and I've found myself watching such absolute losers as Charles Chaplin's "A Countess From Hong Kong" and producer Ross Hunter's howlarious remake of "Lost Horizon" just because the prints were so pristine and the images so crisp and vivid.

One of the most enthralling things I've seen yet, and I don't even know where I saw it, was a concert taped in London's Albert Hall. It amazed me simply that I could make out all the faces-and there must have been more than 300 of them-of the orchestra and chorus. I couldn't move from my chair-and no, not because I'm a member of the fat community. Why bring that up now? Maybe because a column of only happy thoughts would make me feel guilty. No one should let themselves get too happy these days.

There is the chance that the earliest days of HDTV will be the best, as the first years of television were. When the medium truly becomes mass-as elitist as this may sound-is when the compromises set in and when the money starts making all the decisions. Live drama was killed by economics. The New Yorkishness of early TV became a liability in the minds of the people selling deodorant; Sid Caesar's brilliant movie parodies couldn't make it when TV reached out beyond metropolises, it's been said, because the stix nixed his hip pix. They didn't have easy access to the Italian and Japanese films being parodied.

Popularity may kill HDTV too, and obviously its hugely improved picture will, before the decade is out, become commonplace. But right now, TV has been reinvented, and we're lucky to be here for the long-delayed unveiling. Or deveiling, because a veil is being lifted between the viewer and the viewed. The whole experience of watching TV may change in ways that even the most prescient haven't prophesied. For now, seeing is bewitching.
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(Shales is the Pulitzer Prize-winning TV critic for the Washington Post.)

Desperate? Lost? Not this network
Successful ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson refrains from gloating at TV critics' gathering

By Scott Collins Los Angeles Times Staff Writer July 27, 2005

Few Hollywood executives enjoy the kind of good luck Steve McPherson has seen over the past year, but ABC's entertainment czar doesn't sound ready to take a victory lap just yet.

When he was hired in April 2004 to oversee ABC's prime-time lineup, the network was mired in fourth place. But last season the dramas "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost" — both developed by McPherson's predecessors — turned into major hits. And "Dancing With the Stars," a summer dance competition, proved so popular that ABC is bringing it back midseason.

Even so, caution was the watchword for McPherson when he met reporters Tuesday at the semiannual Television Critics Assn. press tour in Beverly Hills.

"The success of last year, I take that with a grain of salt," McPherson, who formerly ran ABC's sister studio, Touchstone Television, said. "With this job, you're judged on what you did well last week, not last year."

ABC has good reason to be wary of overconfidence. Five years ago, network executives gloated over the success of their game-show smash "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." But viewers tired of the program when it began airing as many as four nights a week, and ABC's overall fortunes sank with it.

McPherson said the phenomenal ratings for "Housewives" and "Lost" are sure to inspire similar "serialized" dramas, in which the plotlines and characters develop subtly from week to week. That's a shift from the last few years, when TV has been dominated by police dramas like NBC's "Law & Order" and CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."

"Serialized dramas are here to stay," McPherson said. But he added that "Housewives" and "Lost" could not be duplicated because of the unique visions that inspired them.

McPherson brushed off a reporter's question about whether "Dancing With the Stars" might have been rigged because the eventual winner, Kelly Monaco, stars on ABC's soap "General Hospital."

He defended the network's decision not to air "Welcome to the Neighborhood," a reality program that featured families from various racial and cultural backgrounds vying to win a house in a predominantly white neighborhood. Some critics said the program perpetuated stereotypes and might have violated housing laws.

"The show wasn't right. It wasn't ready to go," McPherson said of "Neighborhood." But he disputed that activist groups forced ABC to yank the show, saying, "This was our decision."

McPherson said the elevation of Robert Iger, who will take over from Michael Eisner as chief executive of ABC parent Walt Disney Co. on Oct. 1, has not affected network decision-making.

"They're really letting me run the show," he said. "It's our team that makes the decisions." He added, however, that "it's reassuring to know that the guy who hired me will be the one making the decisions."

TV Critics Tour Blog
By Melanie McFarland The Seattle Post-Intelligencer Television Critic

"Lost" and "Desperate" for dish

Now that ABC's turn is here, I have stopped contemplating how I'm going to make it through the rest of my seasonal sentence in the Hollywood gulag.

ABC actually has series that people care about, thank God, along with a few that exist to take our abuse. The finale of "Dancing with the Stars," for example. Kelly Monaco's victory inspired a great deal of discussion this morning, which I'll recap later. There's only a small window between now and that session, and we're all fairly testy today, so it should be a good time.

So I'll just share a few details about "Lost," "Alias" and "Desperate Housewives," as revealed to us this morning by ABC's president of entertainment Stephen McPherson, as well as other ABC sources.

-- "Desperate Housewives" premieres Sunday, Sept. 25, at 9 p.m. ("Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and "Grey's Anatomy" also kick off that night, at 7 and 10 respectively. "Extreme" has a two hour premiere.)

-- McPherson said that ABC is gearing up for sizable marketing campaigns linked to its series. For example, in support of "Desperate," ABC is circulating dry cleaning bags with the show's logo on them. As a bonus, random customers will get t-shirts included in their clean laundry.

McPherson did not reveal which markets or dry cleaners would get the bags because ABC is afraid some other network (Fox, I'm looking in your direction) might steal the idea from the Alphabet before they can implement their plans.

He was similarly mysterious as to which other shows will bribe viewers with graft. "I really can't get into it because other people are ripping the ideas off. It's that competitive," he said.

If Seattle is targeted to receive the "Desperate" bags or any other show-related goodies, we'll start seeing them next month and after Labor Day.

-- Rex Van De Kamp really is dead.

-- "Lost" and "Desperate" will each have 23 episode seasons. "Lost's" kicks off Wednesday, Sept. 21 at 9 p.m.

-- Also, "Lost" fans will be happy to know that a key mystery is finally going to pay off. “Literally, in the very opening show, you will find out what’s in the hatch," McPherson said. "And it’s not like, ‘Oh, we went down, and there another ladder!’ It’s much, much more significant." He went on to say that what Jack and the rest find there will change the dynamic of the entire show.

--Damon Lindelof did not want McPherson to reveal whether the guys on the raft will make it. Or whether anyone is marked for death this season.

"I can’t say that they’ll all live or they all die. But I think, who knows? Many of them are fantastic characters that we probably want to keep around," McPherson said. "That said, when people die on the show, and I think Damon said it, people will be dead. We’re not going to have people reappear."

-- So yes, Virginia, Boone really is dead.

-- "Alias" creator JJ Abrams intends to incorporate Jennifer Garner's pregnancy into the storyline. Presumably that won't mean standing behind plants or inappropriate restaurant scenes.

"The show runners this year and JJ are really focused on how to do that and how to make it realistic and not, you know, campy," McPherson said. "JJ is a master at this stuff. I love the fact that he's embracing it. I think it would be a mistake to hide it.

-- Abrams also knows what makes the show tick: Garner running in her underwear.

-- And jiggling.

-- And fighting.

-- Without shots of Sydney in her underwear, jiggling and fighting, a new hire may be taking over thong duty. "She's going to be mentoring a younger agent, and you'll be able to get some of that, maybe, sex appeal, if you will, in different places."

New season of Gilmore Girls won't leave fans hanging

Hal Boedeker Orlando Sentinel Television Critic July 26, 2005

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. -- Gilmore Girls won't leave fans hanging over its romantic cliffhanger, but family turmoil peaks when the WB series starts its sixth season Sept. 13.

When last seen, Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham) was asking Luke Danes (Scott Patterson) to marry her.

"We're going to answer the proposal pretty much right away,'' series creator Amy Sherman-Palladino says.

The estrangement between Lorelai and daughter Rory (Alexis Bledel) will play out over the season's first half. Rory has moved in with her grandparents, Richard (Edward Herrmann) and Emily (Kelly Bishop). "Which is Lorelai's worst fear in the entire world,'' Sherman-Palladino says.

"For Lorelai, her investment in 'I want this kid to be different from me' really kind of gets attacked,'' Graham adds. "It brings the family conflict on to a new level.''

Rory is taking time off from Yale, but she'll still be with boyfriend Logan (Matt Czuchry).

"We really like them together,'' Sherman-Palladino says. "I like the fact that she's got a boyfriend who doesn't just fall at her feet and find her the angelic, darling, wonderful, perfect thing that I think she is. He's a difficult boy. He is not a commitment guy.''

The Gilmore Girls crew knows what it's like to be jilted. Once again, the Emmys ignored the comedy-drama despite stellar reviews. "We're terrifically disappointed,'' says David Janollari, president of WB Entertainment. "We all walked around very gloomy on that Thursday morning [the nominations came out], as did Amy and Lauren.''

Mix 'n' match with The WB's fall lineup

By Pamela Sitt Seattle Times staff reporter

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — If UPN is Where the Girls Are, then The WB is where the girls grow up. The network that was once home to "Felicity," "Dawson's Creek" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" appears to be having a Not-A-Girl-Not-Yet-A-Woman moment. (That's Mrs. Federline to you.)

"People in their late 20s, early 30s do not perceive the network yet as 'for me,' " WB chairman Garth Ancier told TV critics on Friday. "It's sort of a guilty pleasure, or people just don't acknowledge watching it, and we're trying to crack it."

Full disclosure: I loved "Summerland." However: The WB frog is dead, and it tasted like Jesse McCartney.

I was supposed to leave the Television Critics Association press tour after the cable portion ended last week. But I stuck around to see what a broadcast network panel was like.

OK, I really stayed for The WB party. Which was so worth it. I gleefully ran around interviewing every member of the "Gilmore Girls" cast I could find. More on that (Logan, Logan, Logan) in a forthcoming column, I promise.

But back to the state of The WB. You know those days when you stand in front of the closet and can't decide what to wear? That's kind of how I feel about The WB's fall schedule. Does "Gilmore Girls" really go with the paranormal thriller "Supernatural"? Hmm, let's just try on some stuff and see how it fits.

Looking at The WB's four new shows coming this fall, I really can't tell what it wants to be when it grows up. Then again, when I was the same age — the network turns 10 this year — I wanted to be a ballerina ...

• "Supernatural": The most promising of the bunch stars Jared Padalecki (Dean from "Gilmore Girls") and Jensen Ackles (his bio says "Smallville," but I seem to recall him being on "Days of Our Lives") as brothers who chase ghost stories and urban legends. "This is the show that's designed to make it difficult to go to sleep that night after you watch it," said executive producer McG ("The O.C.," "Charlie's Angels"). "Like, if you're watching it by yourself, you're in trouble because your mind is going to be playing tricks on you a little bit." Oh, and McG also said that the show will be "extremely Google-worthy," so all you fans of "MythBusters" can go nuts. Prognosis: Excellent. Probability that I will watch: 0. I can't even watch previews for "Dark Water." I have to avert my eyes. (Premieres 9 p.m. Sept. 13, KTWB)

• "Just Legal": Buddy comedy, or maybe dramedy, starring an unlikely (of course) pair of lawyers set in Venice Beach. Don Johnson is the alcoholic fallen star; Jay Baruchel ("Million Dollar Baby") is the boy wonder who rejuvenates his passion for the law, blah blah blah. Honestly, the premise sounds a bit schmaltzy but series creator Jonathan Shapiro kind of sold me on it during the panel. Proceed with caution. (Premieres 9 p.m. Sept. 19)

• "Related": Four sisters love, laugh and cry in New York City. Stars Jennifer Esposito ("Spin City"), Lizzy Caplan ("Mean Girls") and some other people. The sisters have really weird jobs. Like, one of them is a therapist who specializes in transvestite mental health. Huh? "Related" (premieres 9 p.m. Oct. 5) comes from a creative team whose résumé includes "Friends" and "Sex and the City," but that is not necessarily a quality guarantee, which brings us to ...

• "Twins": From the creators of "Will & Grace," clearly conceived during the slump years. Don't watch this show unless you are a diehard fan of Melanie Griffith or Sara Gilbert. Actually, if that's the case, then definitely don't watch this show, because you might change your mind. (Premieres 8:30 p.m. Sept 16)

• Elsewhere: Jason Lewis ("Sex and the City") and Kaley Cuoco ("8 Simple Rules") join the cast of "Charmed" (premieres 8 p.m. Sept. 25) instead of Mark McGrath ... Haylie Duff (best known as "Hilary's sister") joins "7th Heaven" (premieres 8 p.m. Sept. 19) ... James Marsters ("Buffy") will appear on "Smallville" as Professor Milton Fine, aka "Brainiac" (premieres 8 p.m. Sept. 29) ... Aquaman visits "Smallville" and dates Lois Lane ... Speaking of Aquaman, my favorite line from HBO's "Entourage" so far this season: "What is ... Smallville?"

TV Critics Tour Blog
By Diane Holloway Austin Statesman TV Writer

Gail & Freddie: Good People, Bad Shows

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Life would be so much easier if only awful people made awful shows.

But that’s not the case, and today the nation’s TV critics were faced with back-to-back press conferences featuring really nice, talented people who will star — for a short time, at least — in truly stinky ABC sitcoms. It’s such a shame, and it makes for really difficult Q&A sessions.

First up this afternoon was a session for “Hot Properties,” a painfully unfunny show about four women working in a Manhattan real estate office who are in various stages of desperation about their sex lives. Gail O’Grady, who first got our attention as soulful Donna Abandando on “NYPD Blue” and then melted our hearts as the wonderful mother on “American Dreams,” plays a 40-something former party animal devoted to her 25-year-old husband — and trying to conceive a kid.

The pilot is rife with ribald sex talk among the women, including a super-saucy Latina (Sofia Vergara), a social loser (Nicole Sullivan) and a naive virgin (Christina Moore). The creator may have had “Sex and the City” and “Designing Women” in mind, but that’s not what “Hot Properties” is.

When stars arrive for these press sessions, their green room preparation by network staffers has included a sense of how critics received their show. In the case of O’Grady, she was told that most of us were not laughing our heads off, so she walked in with an icy stare and a chip on her shoulder. It didn’t help matters when the first question was a rudely worded quip about how she had gone from playing a sweet Catholic mom to — what was the word used? oh yeah — a “slut.”

As you might imagine, it was more or less downhill from there.

“I’m thrilled to be doing a half-hour show with a live audience and lighter material,” O’Grady said through clenched teeth. “I’m excited to be working again.”

You’ll recall that NBC bumped “American Dreams” from its comfy Sunday night perch last season, tossed it onto Wednesday nights where it was ignored and then axed it without airing the final episodes. It may not have attracted a massive audience, but the show was superb and O’Grady was a major reason why. Now she’s doing her best to make “Hot Properties” not stink. But it does.

Moments after that cold-hearted session ended, Freddie Prinze Jr. arrived to tout his new ABC sitcom, “Freddie.” I’ll say this for young Mr. Prinze: He knows how to charm a crowd. He was smart, funny and ready for the lion’s den. Even those of us who will pan his show will wind up saying nice things about him.

Prinze, who is Puerto Rican on his father’s side and Italian on his mother’s, is married to Sarah Michelle Gellar, formerly of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” He happily talked about the Puerto Rican culture that has informed his life, from his late father (who died of a drug overdose when young Freddie was a baby) to his extended family.

The sitcom is about a chef who winds up with a house full of female relatives after his brother dies and his sister gets divorced. Poor writing and overacting made for more groans than grins. Prinze, who grew up in Albuquerque, said the show is semi-autobiographical. He is creator, writer, executive producer and star. You’d think he’s be even more cranky than O’Grady about the less than warm reception of his personal show, but he wasn’t. He was open and unruffled.

“The Puerto Rican side of my family is hard-core Catholic that borders on voodoo,” Prinze said. “There are massive spiritual differences between Mexicans and Puerto Ricans. It’s an ‘inland versus island’ mentality. And we Puerto Ricans are not known as the hard workers in the Latino community. We’re more laid-back. We don’t take things too seriously.”

That explains it.

HD May Be too Good to Last
I've gone gaga over HDTV, even though there still isn't a lot of programming available.

Most scripted, prime time shows are HD. Leno's HD. SNL is going HD. If you get PBS OTA you see HD 24/7. HBO & Showtime broadcast most movies and all their scripted shows in HD. Most major sporting events are in HD. We'ved got Discovery HD, HDNet & HDNet Movies going 24/7. We get some Sci-Fi and USA programs on Universal HD after the fact. TNT-HD gives us their scripted shows, some movies and sports in HD. There's the VOOM originals on Dish and the INHDs on cable.

There is a LOT of HD programming out there. Now if Viacom, Disney and Fox would come up with an equivalent to Universal HD those would cover most of the decent cable channels that are not broadcast in HD yet!

TV Review
Legal sharks: Who survives?
The lawyers on David E. Kelley's reality series aren't as interesting as his fictional ones, but they sure are good-looking
By Robert Lloyd Los Angeles Times Staff Writer July 27, 2005

David E. Kelley has lent his rust-proof imprimatur to "The Law Firm," a "People's Court"-meets-"The Apprentice" reality series that debuts Thursday night on NBC. That the creator of "Picket Fences," "Ally McBeal" and "The Practice" has gone into business with the producers of "Surreal Life" and "Blind Date" — who approached him with the idea of a competition featuring real lawyers arguing real cases in front of real (retired) judges and juries, with weekly eliminations leading to the time-honored cash prize — does seem like news of sort, a suggestion of exhaustion or opportunism on the sometime Golden Boy. But Kelley has done worse by television ("Snoops," "The Brotherhood of Poland, N.H.") and lived.

The series begins, as all such series do, with the arrival of the players onto the playing field — in this case, a suite of offices in downtown L.A. — to meet a father figure. Hotshot Miami lawyer Roy Black, who already does on-camera legal analysis for the various NBC networks and has counted William Kennedy Smith, Marv Albert and Kelsey Grammer among his clients, plays the "managing partner" of this nameless "law firm." We are told that he is a "legal legend" — he's "the biggest reason I became a lawyer," says one contestant — and that the gathered attorneys are not only vying for cash but for his approval: "recognition by me as the finest young trial lawyer at the law firm."

Expensively put together and clearly in charge of the room, Black does cut a composed and imposing figure. And though he represents rectitude and commitment here, the business of his own practice, "ranging from murder to drug smuggling, securities fraud, money laundering, Internet sex crimes, mail fraud and tax evasion" (as his own website reports) suggests rather the sort of lawyer television drama invariably paints in a negative light, a rich person's mouthpiece, steeped in white-collar crime and celebrity misbehavior. "I represent people who want whatever can be done to be done," Black told Miami magazine several years ago. "There are only a few lawyers who are willing to go as far as I do, strategically.... I don't take prisoners when I go to trial."

But the rich and powerful deserve a vigorous defense — even the guilty do. That is the strange but necessary fact of our criminal justice system, a fact with which Kelley loves to play on his fictional law shows. The participants in "The Law Firm" must be prepared to argue either side of a case — they are randomly assigned to prosecute or defend — and we see that to do the job well requires a willful suspension of disbelief, a kind of deep allegiance to whatever compelling narrative best makes the client's case. In one instance, it becomes clear that a client has invented an assault charge against her ex; this depresses but does not derail her lawyers.

On "The Practice" or "Ally McBeal" such derailment of justice might be the occasion for reflection, depression or comedy. In this series, however, the emphasis is mainly on winning. (Though merely being on a winning team does not protect a contestant from elimination.) The relative merits of truth and justice are little reflected upon. "Despicable and brilliant," is how one lawyer describes an opponent's inflammatory closing argument, admitting that he would have done it himself.

There is an undeniable baseline fascination in watching the contest, and as these game shows go, "The Law Firm" takes its subject more seriously than most — though no more so than, say, "Project Runway" or "Situation: Comedy." And that how these lawyers perform has real consequences for their clients — the decisions are legally binding — does add a certain spice to the proceedings, if less than the show intimates. These are civil, not criminal cases — chosen to highlight a range of issues and illustrate particular challenges of the job — and no one is going to jail when they're over.

Oddly, the show's real-life lawyers do not come across as fully dimensional as Kelley's invented ones. Certainly they are less fun. By restricting the business of the show so strictly to the casework and the courtroom, the deeper souls that might inhabit these type-A juggernauts remain unglimpsed; they are all work and no play, and many display an alarming and tiresome capacity for childish pique, finger-pointing and complaint, undoubtedly exacerbated by being in a contest — and in a TV show edited for excitement. (The big egos are not unexpected.)

And they have clearly been cast for their looks — there is not one shaped like Camryn Manheim or Michael Badalucco — which is not to say that they aren't good at what they do, just that they also happen to be good-looking. "Is that a crime?" Kelley — the good-looking husband of good-looking Michelle Pfeiffer — might reasonably ask. ("Only against reality," I might answer.)

The Law Firm
Where: NBC
When: 9 PM ET/PT Thursday
Ratings: TV14 (may be unsuitable for children younger than 14)
Roy Black...Managing Partner
Executive producer David E. Kelley

Note to Piratess: Check the last item!

Weekly Ratings Notes
Viewers just gotta 'Dance'

By Bill Keveney USA TODAY

•Dance fever. With 10.3 million viewers, the premiere of Fox's So You Think You Can Dance was TV's third-most-watched show. It finished second in coveted young adults (18 to 49). Dance trailed the June premiere of ABC's Dancing With the Stars but attracted more young adults.

•Reality watch. ABC's Brat Camp dropped just 10% from its premiere a week earlier, tied for sixth among viewers and finished fourth in young adults. A CBS time slot change didn't help Rock Star: INXS' Wednesday results show. It drew only 3.3 million, down about 30% from a week earlier.

•Legal battle. TNT's The Closer (4.9 million viewers), which features Kyra Sedgwick as a star police interrogator, edged USA's detective series Monk (4.5 million viewers) for the week's top spot among scripted cable series. Monk, however, took young-adult honors, averaging 1.9 million 18-to-49-year-olds to Closer's 1.7 million.

•Westward low. TNT's six-part Into the West has faded into the sunset. It attracted only 3.6 million viewers for its finale Friday, a low for the miniseries on that night and a 45% drop from its June premiere. Rebroadcasts drew 2.6 million and 2.5 million viewers, respectively, on Saturday and Sunday. The six Friday episodes averaged 4.5 million.

•Homeric feat. When it comes to misbehaving TV families, Fox viewers will take the funny one. A rerun of The Simpsons drew 6.8 million viewers Sunday, filling in for the departed Princes of Malibu. On July 17, Princes attracted an unprincely 4 million viewers. Fox pulled the reality series after two episodes.

•Cable reality matchup. In the battle of Wednesday premieres, A&E's illusionist Criss Angel MindFreak edged ABC Family's Venus & Serena: For Real at 10 p.m. ET/PT, 1.7 million to 1.5 million viewers, respectively.

•HBO highs. After a schedule reshuffling, Entourage (2.1 million viewers) enjoyed its season high Sunday. Six Feet Under (2.5 million viewers) nearly matched its season premiere. The Comeback, which follows Entourage, still lags, attracting 955,000 viewers.

A rematch for Dancing With the Stars?

By Hal Boedeker Orlando Sentinel Television Critic

To placate disappointed fans of Dancing With the Stars