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Variety reports Sunday afternoon that production has been halted on the new UPN series "Sex, Love & Secrets". The show premiered just last Tuesday at 9 PM ET/PT, got a miniscule 1.0 rating and 1 share.
Eight episodes of an initial order of 13 azre already in the can. And despite the fact that te show has not yet officially been canceled, it is unknown how many, if any, of those remaining eight episodes will actually be telecast by UPN.
“Threshold”: Don't Call It Science Fiction
By DAVE ITZKOFF The New York Times October 2, 2005
Sometimes, when devoted fans of fantasy and science-fiction entertainment - for economy's sake, let's just call them geeks - get together, they like to debate whether a particular red-caped superhero could best a certain green-skinned goliath in combat. Or whether a scenery-chewing starship captain was superior to his Shakespeare-quoting successor. But on occasion they want to talk about contingency planners.
"There's all these contingency plans that the government orders, for the most bizarre things that would never happen," said the screenwriter David S. Goyer, sounding less like the man who was a co-writer of "Batman Begins" and more like an excitable conspiracy theorist. "Our own government has a plan for what would happen if we made contact with aliens. I tried to get it, and it's all top secret, of course."
Despite the setback, Mr. Goyer continued to discuss his obsession with other open-minded geeks, including his next-door neighbor on the Warner Brothers lot, the producer David Heyman, who is best known for bringing J. K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" novels to the screen. And though their conversations on the subject could have resulted in many happily wasted man-hours, they ultimately yielded a television series.
The new CBS drama "Threshold," which is broadcast on Fridays at 9 p.m., follows the adventures of a contingency planner (played by Carla Gugino) and her ad hoc group of military and scientific specialists (including Brian Van Holt, Charles S. Dutton and Peter Dinklage) as they chase a malevolent alien life form that is spreading across the Earth.
Behind the scenes, "Threshold" has brought together a team with a decidedly different area of expertise: Mr. Heyman, Mr. Goyer and Brannon Braga, a veteran writer and producer of the "Star Trek" movies and television shows.
"We're like the Super Friends," Mr. Braga said, invoking the old Hanna-Barbera superhero cartoon. "We're a highly animated group."
Of the three, Mr. Goyer - a compact, sinewy man with a goatee and colorful tattoos running up his forearms - has the most experience with costumed crime-fighters. Starting with his script for "Blade," the 1998 film starring Wesley Snipes as the stylish vampire hunter from Marvel Comics, Mr. Goyer has become Hollywood's go-to guy for comic-book adaptations. In addition to "Batman Begins" and three "Blade" movies, he has written forthcoming films based on "The Flash" and "Ghost Rider."
The bespectacled, floppy-haired Mr. Braga hails from a decidedly different quadrant of the geek universe. He started out as an intern on the television show "Star Trek: The Next Generation" in 1990 and spent several months with Mr. Goyer expanding the idea for "Threshold" into a full-fledged television pitch.
"We wanted the science fiction to be accessible, that it not be like 'Star Trek,' that it not be technical, and everything has to be explained," Mr. Braga said in his office on the Paramount lot during a joint interview with Mr. Goyer. "We wanted it to be much scarier in the way it's presented."
Mr. Heyman, who splits his time between his Los Angeles office and his base of operations in London, may be the odd man out among "Threshold's" executive producers: his association with the fencing team at Harvard, where he was twice an all-American in the 1980's, is perhaps the geekiest entry on his résumé. But while Mr. Heyman does not consider himself a die-hard enthusiast of science fiction or fantasy works, he said he could identify with their underlying themes. "I'm drawn to stories about outsiders," he said in a telephone interview, en route to a scoring session for "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." "I'm interested in people on the fringe, ordinary people who have to deal with extraordinary things."
Like his colleagues, Mr. Heyman was just as adamant that "Threshold's" paranormal elements be tempered with a healthy dose of reality. "It's all played real and true, and it's not played as science fiction," he said. "It's played as science fact."
Sure enough, the extraterrestrial being pursued by the "Threshold" team isn't a bug-eyed little green man, but rather a mysterious signal that propagates itself through everyday technology - radios, computers, MP3 players - and creates chaos wherever it turns up. Were it stripped of this one otherworldly component, "Threshold," with its emphasis on forensic investigations and the interpersonal dynamics of its cast, could pass for another spinoff of "CSI."
And that, say "Threshold's" creators, is partly the point: for a contemporary sci-fi series to find a place on a network's schedule, it can't look too much like a sci-fi series. "There haven't been an enormous number of successful science-fiction shows on prime-time network television," Mr. Braga said. "You've got your 'X-Files' and now 'Lost,' which is arguably science fiction, though one could say it's something else."
While shows like "Battlestar Galactica" have more recently found success on basic cable, he said, "the sci-fi shows that are successful on cable have relatively small audiences. We want to reach a big audience."
At the same time, "Threshold" is just one of several new network series to offer varying degrees of science fiction or fantasy cloaked in real-world scenarios, including NBC's "Surface," ABC's "Invasion" and WB's "Supernatural." This trend, say the producers of "Threshold," is partly the result of viewers' reawakened appetite for escapist fare in an age of global terrorism. "It's unexplained phenomena which cause a threat to mankind, and that threat is not contained to one area," Mr. Heyman said. "It can happen any time, any place, to anyone. It's something people can really relate to right now."
But shows like "Threshold" may also reflect the networks' belated appreciation of the value of genre entertainment. "Have you seen the box office numbers on 'War of the Worlds,' by the way?" asked a "Threshold" co-star, Brett Spiner, who played the android Data on "Star Trek: The Next Generation." "I don't think the networks are in the business of doing things people aren't going to watch. I think they sniff some dollars here."
For all the conventions that "Threshold" is trying to upend, there was one its creators simply could not avoid: Comic-Con International in San Diego, where each July, geek consumers and industry members convene to trade memorabilia and learn about new projects. On hand to introduce "Threshold" to a potentially receptive demographic, the show's producers also came face to face with some of their most worshipful admirers. "At an autograph signing," Mr. Goyer said, "one guy came up and literally had tears in his eyes, and said, 'Thank you for saving him.' And I said, 'Who?' And he said, 'Batman.' Then he asked me to sign his Bat-a-Rang."
For Mr. Braga, who had just wrapped the final season of "Star Trek: Enterprise," the convention appearance was more bittersweet. "A guy came up to me," he recalled, "and said: 'Don't listen to what they say, Mr. Braga. You are a good writer.' "
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/02/arts/television/02itzk.html?pagewanted=print
TV SEASON PREVIEW: TUESDAY (10/4)
“Close to Home”
The Los Angeles Times
Stars: Jennifer Finnigan, Kimberly Elise ("Diary of a Mad Black Woman"), John Carroll Lynch ("Carnivàle," "The Brotherhood of Poland, N.H."), Christian Kane ("Angel," "Into the West").
The premise: The glow of new motherhood alternates with the fire of righteous indignation as spunky, unbeatable Midwestern Assistant D.A. Finnigan returns from maternity leave to find Condi Rice dress-alike Elise promoted above her and the world still full of bad men menacing good women. Postpartum crying jags in the office bathroom and breast milk in the communal fridge proclaim that the Bruckheimer Galactic Domination Procedural Drama Machine has its sights set on you, female America.
http://www.calendarlive.com/printedition/calendar/suncal/cl-ca-chris4sep04,2,3134676,print.htmlstory
TV SEASON PREVIEW: TUESDAY (10/4)
“Close to Home”
By Rick Kushman Sacramento Bee TV Columnist
New mom/tough prosecutor (Jennifer Finnigan) takes on those shocking suburban crimes that fascinate the hacks on cable news. Oh, and she has a new baby but is still tough.
What’s What: We may be topping out on good ways to do procedurals. This is from superproducer Jerry Bruckheimer, has Bruckheimer's sharp production values and features an appealing star. And yet: It never gets really interesting, despite a nifty twist in the pilot. And yet, part two: This is from Bruckheimer and has an appealing star. It could get better.
Rickster Scale: 2.5
http://www.sacbee.com/content/lifestyle/columns/kushman/v-print/story/13573084p-14413378c.html
TV SEASON PREVIEW: TUESDAY (10/4)
“Close to Home”
By Amy Amatangelo The Washington Post
The tagline you'll never see: Close to "Cold Case."
The basics: Prosecutor Annabeth Chase (Jennifer Finnigan) is back on the job in Indiana after a three-month maternity leave. She returns to discover that her promotion went to her single co-worker Maureen (Kimberly Elise), and her boss (John Carroll Lynch) doesn't understand why she needs her own refrigerator for breast milk. Her supportive and perfect husband (Christian Kane) is left to care for the baby and look sexy. For Chase, getting a conviction is just as important as getting the baby to sleep through the night. Her first case upon returning to work involves a mom who set her house on fire with her two children trapped inside. But any fan of Jerry Bruckheimer's dramas knows that things aren't always as they seem.
The lowdown: The network has replaced "Judging Amy" with another show about a working lawyer mom trying to do right by the world and by her family. But this time it's from hit-maker Bruckheimer -- who works every possible ounce of melodrama into the pilot. Cue the slow-motion montages and poignant songs. And, in a welcome change of pace, the violence against the woman in the pilot episode is more implied than graphically depicted.
Reality check: Chase confronts the juggling act facing many working moms, and it's kind of nice to see this familiar conundrum played out on the small screen. Things would be a lot better still if Chase didn't say things such as "I want to be a mommy and I want to work" -- and if her boss refrained from doling out pithy wisdom such as "You can't have it both ways." We get it. The characters don't need to spell out the whole thing for viewers.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/27/AR2005092701159_pf.html
Marcus Carr
10-03-05, 10:34 AM
FYI:
Paramount to offer movies on HD-DVD and Blu-ray
By Martyn Williams, IDG News Service
Paramount Home Entertainment has decided to offer high-definition versions of its movies on both HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc, the company said Sunday.
The announcement makes Viacom Inc.-unit Paramount the first major content provider to publically support both formats and comes as the two competing high-definition video disc systems prepare for commercial launch.
Until now major content providers and equipment makers have expressed a preference for one or the other format and thus set the stage for a format fight that many are comparing to the VHS versus Betamax battle of the 1970s and 1980s.
Both DVD formats offer significantly more storage capacity than current discs: HD-DVD provides 15GB or 30GB and Blu-ray Disc 25GB or 50GB, depending on the disc. but the two are incompatible with each other due to a difference in the depth of the recording layer inside the disc. HD-DVD follows DVD and puts the recording layer midway through the disc while Blu-ray Disc has it much closer to the surface.
Paramount was one of the first major content providers to back HD-DVD, a format developed by Toshiba Corp. and NEC Corp. and backed by the DVD Forum. Other major backers include Warner Home Video, New Line Cinema, HBO, Universal Pictures and Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. Last week both Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp. announced support for HD-DVD.
Blu-ray Disc is backed by a much larger number of equipment makers including Sony Corp., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. (Panasonic), Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., Apple Computer Inc. and Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV. Content provider support has come from Sony Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Walt Disney Pictures, Lions Gate Home Entertainment and Universal Music Group.
Recognizing that consumers will be forced to chose between the formats should they want to watch high-definition movies at home, Paramount decided to make content available on both formats.
Support for Blu-ray Disc, particularly in the PlayStation 3 games console, was influential in the decision to also offer Blu-ray Disc content, Paramount said in a statement.
The PlayStation 3 is expected on sale sometime in the first half of 2006 and could be a cheap way for consumers to get a high-definition disc player. If that happens it would mirror the PlayStation 2, which was purchased by many because at launch time it was cheaper than many DVD players on the market yet offered the same DVD playback features.
“After a detailed assessment and new data on cost, manufacturability and copy-protection solutions, we have now made the decision to move ahead with the Blu-ray format,” Paramount said.
Reacting to the news Toshiba said in a statement that it saw Paramount’s continued commitment to the HD-DVD format as “proof that the studio still recognizes HD-DVD’s advantages.”
HD-DVD will offer cost and productivity advantages over Blu-ray Disc in manufacturing, said Toshiba. The company is convinced such advantages will lead other Hollywood studios and content producers to adopt HD-DVD, it said.
The test will come when HD-DVD comes to market at the end of 2005 in Japan, and early next year in the U.S., when consumers will see which format really delivers the benefits of high-definition TV, Toshiba said.
http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/10/03/paramount/index.php?lsrc=mwrss
THE 2005-2006 TV SEASON
Are There No Blockbusters to Be Found?
By Bill Carter The New York Times October 3, 2005
One year ago, after the first two weeks of the new network television season, all anyone was talking about was "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives."
A year later, two weeks into the new season, all anyone is talking about is "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives."
ABC's two blockbuster hits of last fall, which are back and overpowering their competition again, may have led network executives to think that other shows could perform that kind of instant magic this fall. But early ratings suggest that, far from duplicating that kind of outsize success, the new television season will offer nothing even to approach it.
"There are no home runs this season," concluded Leslie Moonves, the chief executive of CBS, who has seen more new seasons than any other network entertainment executive. He pointed to a number of new shows that started out with some real promise, like the comedy "Everybody Hates Chris" on UPN (which Mr. Moonves oversees), the comedy "My Name Is Earl" on NBC and the drama "Prison Break" on Fox.
Mr. Moonves and other network executives cited a few other new entries as potential keepers, like "Commander in Chief" on ABC, "Supernatural" on the WB, "Bones" on Fox and "Criminal Minds" on CBS.
But as Preston Beckman, the executive vice president of Fox Entertainment, put it, the season has supplied none of the spectacular surprises of a year ago. "This season, it has mostly been negative surprises," he said.
Chief among these is "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart" on NBC, which had widely been expected at least to start strongly, thanks to all the attention surrounding the star's release from prison. The new NBC reality series - mainly another iteration of the Donald Trump version that exploded on the scene two years ago - has thus far achieved results so tepid that Ms. Stewart could not boil pasta with them.
And the second "Apprentice" may be hurting the first: the early ratings for Mr. Trump's version have skidded in two appearances this season, though it ticked up a bit in its second outing.
On Friday, NBC announced that "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart" would be shifted to 9 p.m. on Wednesdays from 8 p.m., putting it up against the "Lost" juggernaut but away from the reality-show competition of "America's Next Top Model" on UPN. But at least "Martha" is still on the air. The Fox network looked at the ratings for the first two episodes of the drama "Head Cases" and immediately took it out back for a ritual cancellation. A new Fox comedy, "Kitchen Confidential," was yanked almost as quickly (though not officially canceled.)
NBC also has had dismal news from a couple of other new dramas: the Pentagon thriller "E-Ring" on Wednesday (which will shift back to 8 p.m. from 9 p.m.) and the almost unnoticed (and unwatched) fertility clinic series, "Inconceivable," on Friday.
Still, at least in terms of falling short of expectations, ABC may be the most victimized. ABC had so much momentum coming into the season that expectations ran high that the network would come up with new talked-about hits and run away with the network competition this season. Following the pattern that produced that double-header of smashing results last September, ABC loaded up its promotion machine on behalf of two more new series this year.
The early results have been considerably different from what ABC achieved right off the bat with "Lost" and "Housewives." One of the favored new shows, a sci-fi drama called "Invasion," was handed ABC's best position on the schedule, 10 p.m. on Wednesdays, immediately following "Lost."
The castaways-on-an-island series, fresh off the Emmy Award for best drama, has more than held up its end of the bargain, racking up huge ratings in its first two outings.
But "Invasion," a show about aliens taking over human bodies, has showed vulnerability from the start. It lost a large part of the giant "Lost" audience in its first week, and then a huge portion - almost half - in its second. Both weeks, "Invasion" saw its audience drift away significantly from the first half hour to the second, usually a sign that viewers are not enjoying what they are seeing.
ABC's other big new hope for the season is the drama "Commander in Chief" on Tuesday night, with Geena Davis playing the first woman president. ABC spent much of last week promoting the numbers from the show's first episode, saying that with more than 16 million viewers, it was the new season's most-watched new show.
True. But ABC's competitors universally noted that the vast majority of those viewers were older women (over 50). ABC, perhaps more than any network, has declared that all that matters in television ratings are viewers between the ages of 18 and 49. In that category, "Commander" finished fourth in its first half hour (well behind another new entry, "My Name Is Earl" from NBC), surely not the result ABC hoped for after its publicity blitz on behalf of the show.
"Commander" did pick up in its second half hour, but it was still skewed heavily toward the over-50 set. ABC is now counting on the show to grow and to pull in so many viewers that it will edge its way upward in the 18-49 competition. It may get a boost in that endeavor next week, because the other classy drama in that hour, "House," which does far better with younger adults, will be off for several weeks while Fox devotes itself to postseason baseball.
Most prominent on the plus side of the surprises is surely "My Name Is Earl," the one sign of salvation in what has otherwise been a scratch-and-claw first couple of weeks for NBC. "Earl" won its time period twice in a row against perhaps the most ferocious competition on television. It did fall off in its second week, as most new series do (except the ones that are instant monsters, like those two ABC year-olds), but any rating near what "Earl" has scored so far provides a glimmer of hope for NBC after a run of grim ratings luck.
NBC is still a bit shell-shocked by the decline of the "Friends" spinoff "Joey," which lost in its first week to Chris Rock's new series about his life as a child in Brooklyn, "Everybody Hates Chris," on UPN. "Chris" came down to earth in its second outing, sparing "Joey" further humiliation. But "Joey" also declined in its second week, and its long-term prospects are now in serious doubt.
With "Earl" showing more promise than any other new series, and that good first week for "Chris," at least one senior network executive started to talk about seeing the faint glimmerings of a comeback for the sitcom genre, which has seemed to be doing a slow dance toward endangerment in recent years. Those outlines may get fainter after the falloff for "Chris." But comedy has gotten some tiny bits of further positive results, notably the continued strong performance on Sundays at 9 by Fox's "Family Guy," which came back for new episodes only last spring, and some respectable early results for "How I Met Your Mother," a CBS comedy at 8:30 on Mondays.
Of course, CBS also needs to worry about its new 9:30 Monday comedy, "Out of Practice," which has dropped far too many viewers from its lead-in show, "Two and a Half Men." The latter comedy is already showing signs that it won't be a stellar performer like the show it replaced, "Everybody Loves Raymond." Mr. Moonves says he is satisfied with the results for his "Men" show, knowing "it is replacing a classic."
A few new network entries have yet to have their premieres, including a couple of ABC comedies and a CBS drama, "Close to Home," that Mr. Moonves expects to do well. But none are likely to break the new season trend, which so far might be summarized as "lost" opportunities.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/03/business/media/03ratings.html?pagewanted=print
THE 2005-2006 TV SEASON: TUESDAY
“Close To Home”
Work vs. family on CBS: Crime does pay. And pay and pay
By Kay McFadden Seattle Times October 3, 2005
No network has leveraged the police procedural with greater success than CBS. A resurgence built on the spine of "CSI" has added the vertebrae of "Cold Case," "Without A Trace," "Numb3rs," "Criminal Minds" and more "CSI."
But even a Tyrannosaurus rex runs out of tail, and so let's hope "Close to Home" represents a final flourish of CBS' criminal ability to eat the competition.
"Close to Home," debuting at 10 p.m. tomorrow, stars Jennifer Finnigan ("The Bold and The Beautiful") as an aggressive young prosecutor and married mom who's just getting back to work after maternity leave.
The opening's a beauty. Snippets of Annabeth Chase (Finnigan) cooing to her infant are interspersed with suburban serenity — the trees, the newspaper boy, the wending streets. A soothing score plays underneath.
Then a house erupts in flames. Without relinquishing the lyrical photography or music, "Close to Home" zeroes in on a nail-biting rescue. Firefighters emerge with a terrified mother and two children.
"Close to Home" has been described as a law-and-order "Desperate Housewives." It actually resembles newcomer "Commander In Chief." Both are efforts to update the eternal dilemma of furthering one's career while embracing the full range of female identity.
Where "Commander In Chief" has chosen to convey this struggle in lofty and occasionally absurd rhetoric, however, "Close to Home" is more nuts and bolts.
Annabeth lies awake at night listening to her newborn daughter cry and shows up at work in a semi-zombie state. When she's assigned to prosecute a woman charged with attempting to burn down her house and kill her two kids, we're brought back to consider that first scene and the complex nature of maternity.
To create a built-in carom for this topic, "Close to Home" co-stars Kimberly Elise as Annabeth's hard-driving boss — a promotion obtained while Annabeth was on leave.
Thankfully, the show's producers want to get beyond the usual standoff between single woman and married mother. In barbed conversations set in the ladies room, Maureen Scofield (Elise) and Annabeth attack and defend their choices. What emerges is respect with a sharp edge tempered by the practicality of getting the job done.
Creator Jim Leonard's script for "Close to Home" skillfully weaves these insights into the crime-solving process. The cast generally is quite adept, including John Carroll Lynch as a district attorney and Christian Kane as Annabeth's in-the-background husband, Jack.
Yet it ultimately is hard to forget that "Close to Home" is a police procedural, with the pat formulaic demands of that genre and, at least tomorrow, an unsurprising conclusion.
Maybe CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler could make a vow to thrust the next one-hour heroine into some other gritty job where women are rare. Astronaut? Physicist? TV network executive?
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2002533903&zsection_id=2002119662&slug=kay03&date=20051003
redvette
10-03-05, 11:30 AM
Is this the proper place for news of the CBC lockout finally ending?
The weekend network prime-time ratings – andMedia Week Analyst Marc Berman’s opinions of what they mean -- have been posted at the top of Ratings News the second post in this thread.
I have said for quite a while that the networks will find a way to bypass their affiliates and sell their programming directly to viewers. Here is a story detailing what could be the first step in that process:
ABC, CBS and NBC Inch Closer to Launching Entertainment VOD
By John Consoli (—with Mike Shields) MediaWeek.com October 03, 2005
Talks between the broadcast networks and cable operators to bring prime-time entertainment shows to video-on-demand platforms are beginning to take on a more serious tone. There’s a strong chance that some networks could launch on-demand services on some systems as early as next summer and almost certainly by the start of the 2006-07 season.
What’s fueling this new sense of urgency is the broadcasters’ desire to come up with a new revenue stream as the costs of producing scripted shows continue to soar. Meanwhile, cable operators are concerned that if they do not have these deals in place sooner than later, broadcasters will instead look to the Internet as a plausible VOD vehicle (thanks in part to the explosion of broadband penetration).
How high a priority is it? Disney CEO Bob Iger recently met with Comcast chief executive Brian Roberts, according to sources, to see what needed to be put on the table to get a VOD deal done between the No. 1 cable operator and Disney-owned ABC. And Viacom co-president and co-COO Leslie Moonves has been meeting with financial analysts, touting the positives of offering CBS’ prime-time lineup to viewers via VOD.
Meanwhile, CBS has been in contact with Nielsen Media Research to find out what kind of ratings and demographic information can be assembled on VOD viewership. “This is a potential new money pit we are sitting on, and we want to take advantage of it,” said one executive inside CBS. “Leslie believes that we should offer people our content in as many ways as possible and let them decide how they want to receive it.”
David Poltrack, executive vp of research at CBS, said, “If we are going to sell our product, we want it in as many stores as possible.”
How soon will it be before broadcast prime-time VOD is offered on the major cable operators? No network executive is willing to say for sure. But Poltrack, who has been spearheading viewer research on VOD for the past several years, said that while the networks and cable operators are struggling to come up with the best business model, “VOD for prime-time shows is coming. It will be out there in some form fairly soon.”
CBS has been the most publicly vociferous in sharing its research data and ideas about the best way to finance it. Poltrack said an à la carte model that offers viewers a two-tier option to purchase seems to be the most feasible. Under that plan, viewers would pay $1 per show and have the ability to fast-forward through commercials or pay 50 cents without that option.
Poltrack said CBS surveys show that the average TV viewer would purchase about 100 hours of VOD programming per year; that same viewer watches 1,000 hours of TV in that span. “Losing 10 percent of their viewing to VOD is not going to hurt the [ratings] integrity of the free product that much,” he said. And the revenue drawn from the VOD should offset the ad dollars lost by lower ratings.
CBS has already overcome one of the major hurdles to pursuing entertainment VOD: digital rights. Although Poltrack would not comment, CBS insiders said the network worked language into its deals for shows that premiered last year or this season that spells out how VOD revenue would be split among the studio, show talent and the network. For veteran shows, new language is still being worked on.
Poltrack believes that for VOD to really take hold among viewers, all the networks must be involved. The more top-rated shows that are offered on VOD platforms, the more viewers will be driven to those platforms, he said.
J.B. Perrette, senior vp, new media, and CFO of NBC Universal Cable, who is spearheading the VOD efforts for his company, said NBC offered Comcast some of its broadcast and cable shows for its VOD platform to run for free, but Comcast did not want to share any additional costs the network had to pay in rights fees, so the deal fell through.
“Comcast had said it wanted to offer a free VOD platform to viewers,” Perrette said. “We told Comcast we would be willing to offer shows like Law & Order: SVU, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Las Vegas, Monk and Battlestar Galactica for them to run for free, but there is a rights-fee cost to us to pay to talent, for music and things like that, and we wanted them to share some of that cost.”
Now, Perrette said, NBC will probably also look to a pay-per-view model. “We are in discussions with all the major operators,” he said, “and open to any economic model that works.”
But media analyst Bruce Leichtman has some doubts about viewers agreeing to pay for broadcast repeats in VOD. “On demand has grown through delivering free programming,” said Leichtman. “Consumers have not necessarily shown a willingness to pay for programs.”
Still, cable operators want more content to drive viewers to VOD platforms, because VOD requires subscribers to upgrade to higher-margin digital services (and provides a service satellite companies like News Corp.’s DirecTV cannot). And broadcasters, whose programming still draws the greatest number of viewers to its programming, can fill the bill there.
CBS is willing to roll out its VOD service one MSO at a time, meaning if that first deal can get done—and it proves to be economically viable—other operators may be spurred to jump on board. And if Poltrack’s research numbers hold true, with each viewer who uses VOD paying for 100 hours a year, suddenly there’s a whole new revenue stream for all parties to divvy up.
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001219997
jim tressler
10-03-05, 02:17 PM
It will be interesting to see how Directv and Dish deal with or embrace VOD
D* and Dish can automatically download "VOD" programs to DVRs. Then you either pay to watch the programs whenver you want (the on demand part), or they are automtically deleted after a certain time period. Not quite true "on demand" but really not much different.
redvette:
Sure, why not?
To be frank, I didn't even know there was a lockout at the CBC.
Bye-Bye to “Sex”?
Numerous sources are reporting UPN has ceased production of its new series “Sex, Love and Secrets”.
But UPN apparently will keep airing episodes already shot in the Tuesday at 9 PM ET/PT time slot.
So, there is no official cancellation – yet.
ABC News Closes in On Anchor Duo
Net Denies Decision Made
By Michele Greppi TVWeek.com October 3, 2005
While it is not finalized and could change, ABC News is moving toward naming Bob Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas as the permanent co-anchors of "World News Tonight," succeeding the late Peter Jennings, according to informed sources.
Such a decision would be a blow to Charles Gibson, the current co-host of "Good Morning America," who has been filling in on "World News Tonight," and frequently acting as the face of ABC News on big breaking stories. Mr. Gibson, 62, is believed to want the "World News Tonight" anchor job which would cap a distinguished career that has earned him widespread respect within ABC News and beyond.
If he doesn't get the job, sources said Mr. Gibson would likely stay with "GMA" for another year and a half, and then might leave the network. ABC, a division of the Walt Disney Company, has been hesitant to move Mr. Gibson away from "GMA" at a time he and co-hosts Diane Sawyer and Robin Roberts have led a strong resurgence for the hugely profitable morning program which has moved it closer in the ratings to NBC's "Today Show" than it has been in a decade.
An ABC News spokesman on Friday told TelevisionWeek that no decisions about "World News Tonight" have been made and because things are going so well, there is no pressure to move quickly. "Your story is wrong," said Jeffrey W. Schneider, VP and spokesman for ABC News. "To be clear, no decision has been made. At best your sources are ill-informed gossips. At worst, your sources know they don't know what they are talking about. We are in no rush to make this decision. When we are prepared to make an announcement, we will make one."
However, well-connected sources inside ABC and other sources in the TV news circle say that ABC News hopes to beat CBS News to the punch by rolling out a younger-generation flagship newscast. Mr. Woodruff, who is 43, is seen as the epitome of that future. The ABC News spokesman said that what CBS does is not a factor in when ABC News will make its changes. Mr. Woodruff and Ms. Vargas have often anchored "World News Tonight," as has Mr. Gibson, since Peter Jennings announced he had been diagnosed with lung cancer in April. Mr. Jennings died in early August.
Inside ABC News, many regard Mr. Woodruff as a worthy successor to Mr. Jennings. He is a polished newsman who has reported from Iraq, New Orleans, the South Pacific tsunami or, as he did earlier this year, from inside North Korea.
Although Ms. Vargas, 42, who co-anchors "20/20" with John Stossel, has done several serious prime-time specials and reportedly has the enthusiastic backing of ABC News Senior VP Paul Slavin, she does not have the widespread rank-and-file support that Mr. Woodruff does. There is speculation that Mr. Woodruff often might be deployed in the field on big stories with Ms. Vargas at the anchor desk.
"World News Tonight" has been closing in on "NBC Nightly News" since last year, before Tom Brokaw turned the anchor desk over to Brian Williams, and "World News Tonight" edged "Nightly" in the 25-54 demographic for the just-concluded third quarter.
Meanwhile, there is speculation that pieces are falling into place for the next generation of "Nightline." Anchor Ted Koppel and executive producer Tom Bettag will leave the show and the network at the end of December. Informed sources said "primetime>live" correspondent and legal analyst Cynthia McFadden would take the anchor role held since 1979 by Mr. Koppel. Under this scenario, Terry Moran, who now covers the White House, would be a "Nightline" correspondent; and Jim Avila, the former NBC News correspondent who joined ABC News in 2004, and since has broken a number of big news stories, may succeed Mr. Moran on the White House beat.
Veteran investigative journalist Martin Bashir, who joined "20/20" in September, 2004, is also expected to be assigned as a "Nightline" correspondent.
The ABC News spokesman dismissed possible changes on "Nightline" as speculation.
Mr. Woodruff, who trained as a lawyer and is a veteran foreign correspondent, is currently also an anchor on ABC News' "World News Tonight Saturday." He moved to New York in 2002 after working for ABC in London.
Ms. Vargas joined Mr. Stossel as co-anchor of "20/20" in September, 2004. She has anchored numerous ABC News specials, including several one-hour "Vanished" reports and a "Child First Safety Special." She joined ABC from NBC News, where she was a correspondent and substitute anchor for "Dateline NBC" and "Today," and also a substitute anchor for NBC Nightly News' weekend editions.
http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=8648
TV PREVIEW: TUESDAY
“Close To Home"
A SuperMom Gets the Bad Guys
By Diane Werts Newsday Staff Writer October 4, 2005
At least the hero of the season's latest doting depiction of woman abuse is female. She's even played by a soap star. And she gets to coo over her baby and express breast milk while going after the bad guys. But if CBS' new "Close to Home" is a hormonal pendulum swing from the male knights of CBS' "Criminal Minds," Fox's "Killer Instinct" and ABC's "Night Stalker," that only makes its close-up/slo-mo depiction of gender terrorizing slightly less creepy.
Plenty of viewers will disagree, finding dogged Jennifer Finnigan ("The Bold and the Beautiful") to be the role model they've been waiting for. They'll happily overlook that she's the Six Million Dollar Heroine, everything about her role constructed from spare parts in the Hollywood arsenal of executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer (yes, the unstoppable "CSI"/"Cold Case" guy).
Subtle hasn't been Bruckheimer's forte since the original "CSI." That show reached Nielsen's top spot through vivid characterizations and slick storytelling, if you ask me - not the sick mysteries, forensic intricacies and swoop-de-do effects to which its success is often attributed. While "Close to Home" looks to have an equally fine cast, tonight's pilot unfortunately echoes "CSI's" technical traits more blatantly than its flesh-and-blood humanity.
Finnigan represents a suburban Indianapolis landscape drawn entirely in filmland cliche - spiffy white houses, manicured lawns, kids riding bikes (helmeted, of course), flags flying out front. (An American flag is shamelessly featured in the title logo.) Cinematic slow-motion photography and orchestral strains almost gorgeously render a striking house fire, all vibrant yellow flames and heroic firemen pulling soot-strewn kids to safety. But this tragedy is no accident, not in this perfect little corner of Americana.
Mommy did it.
So the resolute Finnigan gets to hit full crusade mode right away: "Nobody has a right to do this to kids!" Especially not when the incident pulls this sleek blonde dynamo away from her brand new baby! Now comes one nice twist. As the undefeated prosecutor is trying to "have it all" in her overt slice of sociology, the accused mom turns out to have less than nothing, to be living a life of unimaginable horrors.
Which, of course, we must now see not only imagined but detailed in scary dark flashbacks with menacing music and punctuating zooms. "Close to Home" wants to have it all, too. The pilot saga expands to deliver a class clash of snobby rich folks who practically cackle in their crisp clothes vs. heartrending hillbillies prone to saying "ain't" near peeling paint. There's also the married-to-her-job boss/rival in Kimberly Elise, who's great despite the typecasting. It's hinted that she has more depth than this cliche-stuffed pilot can get to. Ditto the new dad (Christian Kane), a hunky and helpful hubby who, tonight at least, may as well have The Perfect Man stamped on his forehead.
This canned stew is further flavored with too-snappy comebacks, too-slick repartee and too-clever contrivances. Making it bearable are cast members who do somehow manage to seem like people next door. Effective on the job beyond Finnigan and Elise are smart supervisor John Carroll Lynch ("The Drew Carey Show") and cagey detective Barry Shabaka Henley (Showtime's underrated "Barbershop").
But that very attribute only underscores the fetish-filming of misogynist nastiness that, as the title emphasizes, lies close to viewers' homes. This puts an exclamation point behind the show's subliminal warning to women: This Could Happen To You! At least the ugliness of the season's other abuse-fests tends toward the rare serial killer or singular nut job. "Close to Home" loiters around evil right down the block. That it provides a heroine-next-door is cold comfort.
http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/ny-ettel4453001oct04,0,6738992,print.story?coll=ny-television-headlines
TV's winners and losers emerge
By Gail Pennington The St. Louis Post-Dispatch Television Critic Monday, Oct. 03 2005
Did you catch "Head Cases"? That was the Fox drama with Chris O'Donnell as a
lawyer who, post-breakdown, teamed with fellow mental patient Adam Goldberg to
defend oddball clients.
Not the best new show by any means, "Head Cases" wasn't the worst, either. But
it does have the distinction of being the first canceled, yanked from Fox's
lineup after just two episodes.
As new shows continue to trickle onto the schedule - CBS' "Close to Home" on
Tuesday, the WB's "Related" on Wednesday and the ABC sitcom "Hot Properties" on
Friday - prime time is already sorting itself into two columns: winners and
losers.
Let's start on an up note.
UPN's "Everybody Hates Chris"? Big winner. In its first airing, "Chris" took
down NBC's "Joey" to become the most-watched sitcom in UPN history. "Chris"
also beat Fox's "The O.C." (does that "O" stand for "over"?)
Among other new comedies, NBC's "My Name Is Earl" also looks like a winner. So
does CBS' "How I Met Your Mother," which topped lead-in "Yes, Dear" (yes!) last
week. But don't get attached to CBS' "Out of Practice," a doctor sitcom that's
bleeding viewers, or the WB's "Twins." Fox's "Kitchen Confidential" is also a
ratings disappointment, underperforming along with "Arrested Development."
NBC's "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart"? Big loser. Wags at the Washington Post
point out that Martha drew just 7 million viewers, barely any more than the
debut of the summer flop "I Want To Be a Hilton" (6.8 million). More ominously,
even avowed fans of reality TV are complaining that Stewart's "Apprentice" is a
bore. In week two - in which Stewart eschewed her "You just don't fit in" catch
phrase but still wrote a nice farewell note - viewership fell even more, to 6.2
million.
Among new dramas, "Criminal Minds" was a winner for CBS in its Thursday night
preview (it whomped "ER" by more than 5 million viewers). "Minds," starring
Mandy Patinkin, fared less well after last week's move to its regular time slot
opposite "Lost," coming in second but minus almost half its previous audience.
"Invasion" was a Top 10 series for ABC in its first outing, following the
"Lost" season premiere, but lost as much as 20 percent of its audience to a
"Law & Order" crossover on week two. Jennifer Love Hewitt's "Ghost Whisperer"
looks like an early winner for CBS.
Is "Supernatural" a winner? So says the WB, which boasts that the ghost-hunting
drama won its hugely competitive 8 p.m. Tuesday time period last week with
women 12-34, even opposite "House," "The Amazing Race" and the debut of
"Commander in Chief." (In total viewers, "Chief" won the hour for ABC, with
"Race" just edging "Earl" for the 18-49 crowd.)
NBC's "E-Ring" and "Threshold" and Fox's "Bones" occupy the middle ground
between winner and loser, but viewers who sampled NBC's "Surface" swam off (and
rightly so) in the second week. Drama flops include "Inconceivable" (NBC),
"Killer Instinct" (Fox) and "Just Legal" (WB). For UPN, "Sex, Love & Secrets"
could be classed as a super-flop, drawing a minuscule 1.4 million viewers.
Among returning shows, CBS calls "NCIS" a winner. Ratings are up from last
season. NBC's "The West Wing" is an early loser; just 9 million people found
the former Emmy winner in its first airing in its new 7 p.m. Sunday home. Over
on ABC at that time, more than 16 million people were watching "Extreme
Makeover: Home Edition."
ABC's "Lost"? Big, big winner. More than 22 million people tuned in for last
week's second episode to learn more about what was going on in the hatch and
find out what happened after Walt was snatched from the raft.
"Desperate Housewives" - did you have to ask? The season premiere on ABC was a
big, big winner, drawing 28.2 million viewers. That's quite a contrast to the
3.1 million who watched the second and final episode of "Head Cases."
A surprise winner this season so far? Network TV. According to the trade paper
Daily Variety, viewership is up 5 percent from last season, and last week's
ultra-competitive Tuesday night saw the six broadcast networks improve 14
percent from last year with the 18-49 crowd.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/emaf.nsf/Popup?ReadForm&db=stltoday%5Centertainment%5Ccolumnists.nsf&docid=10C8E431E4C7AA958625708D00323604
Critics – and even viewers -- can say whatever negative things they want about a network. But when advertisers start to grumble – the network could be in big trouble. Unless something changes – and pretty quickly – it appears NBC is in for a long season until the Olympics arrive to bail it out in February.
NBC Draws CPM Queries; Top Rank at Risk
By John Consoli MediaWeek.com October 03, 2005
Although the new broadcast season is just two weeks old, another soft-ratings week for NBC has media buyers and financial analysts rumbling that the network’s reign as the advertising cost-per-thousand leader could be in jeopardy.
Meanwhile, all the first-week plaudits for the new UPN sitcom Everybody Hates Chris were tempered a bit when the show took a significant ratings dip.
“The pricing gap between No. 1 NBC and No. 4 ABC was 20 percent in the last upfront,” one analyst said. “It’s possible that NBC’s ratings erosion could move CBS ahead of NBC or even move ABC up to No. 2 in CPM, particularly if NBC cannot find a hit this season and if Lost and Desperate Housewives continue their huge ratings.”
NBC will get a major ratings bump in February with the Winter Olympics, but ABC has the Super Bowl this year, which will boost its cumulative ratings considerably in the battle for supremacy in the adults 18-49 demo. Media buyers noted that they factor out special events anyway when making their upfront buys.
Sam Armando, director of television research for Starcom, said that while Fox won the 18-49 race last season, the network would not have won the season without the Super Bowl airing. “Ninety-five percent of our advertising plans are based on ratings from regularly scheduled programming,” said Armando.
Few of NBC’s new shows are showing they can help much. Monday 8 p.m. drama Surface fell from a 3.8 to a 2.9 in its second week in 18-49s. On Wednesday, The Apprentice: Martha Stewart lost nearly 1 million viewers and dropped from a 2.3 to a 2.1 in 18-49 at 8 p.m., and new 9 p.m. drama E-Ring fell from a 2.5 to a 2.1 and lost 1.4 million viewers. The two shows will switch places,
effective this week.
While the jury is still out on critically acclaimed My Name Is Earl, even that show lost nearly 4 million viewers and fell from a 6.6 to a 5.1 in 18-49. A bright spot for NBC was Law & Order, in the Wednesday 10 p.m. time period, beating the debut of CBS drama CSI: NY in 18-49 (4.8 to 4.5) and falling just shy of ABC’s new drama Invasion (5.1). Last week, Invasion, leading out of ABC megahit Lost, produced a 6.8 18-49 rating. ABC got solid ratings for its premiere episode of Commander-in-Chief (Tuesday, 9 p.m.), which recorded a fourth-place 4.3 rating in 18-49, but won the time period in viewers with 16 million.
While UPN’s Thursday 8 p.m. sitcom Everybody Hates Chris beat NBC’s Joey head-to-head in week one in viewers and 18-49, last week Chris lost 1.6 million viewers and fell from a 3.2 to a 2.4 in 18-49. Joey drew 1.4 million more viewers than Chris.
Meanwhile, the WB accomplished what it wanted to on Thursday—to become a player in the lucrative ad market on that night. The premiere episode of Smallville won its time period among men 18-34 with a 3.5, the first time in the network’s history that it won an adult demo on Thursday.
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001220008
TV PREVIEW: TUESDAY
“Close To Home”
* 1/2 out of four
By Robert P. Laurence San Diego Union-Tribune October 3, 2005
Just one surprise would have been nice.
Just one. Is that too much to ask?
But no, from start to finish, there's not a surprise anywhere – certainly not a shock or a bombshell – in the hour-long pilot of "Close to Home."
You may be mildly taken aback, however, when you see the closing credit: Executive Producer Jerry Bruckheimer.
Some of TV's most inventive and glossiest productions of the past few years have rolled off Bruckheimer's unusually fecund assembly line, including the "CSI" trio, "Without a Trace" and "Cold Case."
This season, 10 Bruckheimer productions are on the prime-time schedule. But as any parent of a big family knows, it can be hard to keep track of all those children at the same time.
Jennifer Finnigan, as Annabeth Chase, prosecutes crime in the suburbs in "Close to Home."
"Close to Home" looks like the neglected child in Bruckheimer's brood, the one he can't seem to get around to.
An attempt to blend domestic drama with police procedural, "Close to Home" depicts a prosecuting attorney and new mother who investigates cases in the next block and around the corner from her home. The opening shot – an aerial view of a tree-lined suburban neighborhood, the tall buildings of the central city deep in the background – establishes the theme.
Jennifer Finnigan, last seen in the short-lived sitcom "Committed," is Annabeth Chase, just returning to work in the district attorney's office after 12 weeks of maternity leave. Her husband understands how she feels, her boss doesn't. And how Annabeth feels will be as important as what she does. She spends more time cuddling her baby tonight than arguing in front of a judge. Coziness counts in "Close to Home."
Her first case begins with a house fire. A neighborhood woman has torched her own home while she and her two children were inside. It seems that her abusive husband had kept them locked in the house for two years, and the truly desperate housewife, hoping to attract the attention of firefighters, resorted to arson as their only way out.
But from there on, the tale is the strictly by-the-numbers stuff we've all seen far too many times in too many TV dramas working the same territory. The woman won't challenge her husband, Annabeth's bosses set roadblocks in her way, the husband is defended by a sleazy, unscrupulous lawyer, yada-yada-yada.
Even the would-be "surprise" at the end isn't all that surprising.
Adding to the series' shortcomings, Finnigan makes for a sweet but bland heroine, bringing very little excitement or charisma to a program that badly needs both.
"Close to Home" isn't terrible; it's just not very interesting.
Like Annabeth's baby, it needs a strong, loving parent who will spend plenty of time with it and help it grow big and strong.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/entertainment/remote/20051003-9999-1c03remote.html
THE 2005-2006 TV SEASON: MONDAY
“Medium”
Rod Serling would have been proud of ‘Medium’
By Aaron Barnhart Kansas City Star Mon, Oct. 03, 2005
It has taken a while to warm up to this show. Finally, though, I did — once I realized that NBC was just pulling my leg.
Last winter, when “Medium” premiered, the network told us that Allison DuBois, an Arizona psychic who claims to have assisted law enforcement in solving crimes, was the inspiration for Allison DuBois, the Arizona psychic played by the voluptuous Patricia Arquette on “Medium,” who week in and week out helps law enforcement solve crimes.
However, a quick search for evidence to back up even the simplest claims about DuBois’ supernatural sleuthing powers came up empty. In the pilot, Arliss Howard plays a Texas Ranger who can’t locate a missing person until Allison shows up. The show’s producers claimed that was loosely based on a real-life episode involving DuBois and Texas Rangers.
Yet the Texas Rangers have denied working with her or any medium. DuBois, in response, told the L.A. Times, “Some reporters are shocked that the Texas Rangers won’t go on record,” then added, “I could bring five agencies forward who’d say, ‘Yeah, we use her. She was great.’ ”
Actually, one testimonial would’ve been fine by me. But as the Web site TwoPercentCompany.com pointed out, NBC.com took all the specific claims off its “Medium” page in March, after some reporters got over their shock at the Texas Rangers’ denials and called NBC seeking verification.
I’m not saying DuBois’ real life wasn’t a creative touchstone for Glenn Gordon Caron, the show’s creator. As Caron noted, it would be hard to make up DuBois, her aerospace engineer husband, Joe, and their three kids living happily in a Phoenix suburb, just another family next door except for the voices in Mom’s head helping her solve crimes instead of commit them.
What was off-putting to me at first was NBC’s insistence that the cases on “Medium” bore any resemblance to reality. I don’t have a problem, say, with someone on “Lost” seeing the same Powerball numbers everywhere he goes, because I know “Lost” is a fantasy.
Eventually, that’s what I decided about “Medium”: that a woman who has highly specific dreams (this was last week’s episode) that take her to the exact scene of an abduction is a complete fiction. No one is capable of this any more than people at real-life CSI labs have computers as powerful and snazzy as the ones their TV counterparts use.
Once I got over that, I found “Medium” an engrossing little whodunit (unlike its wannabe, CBS’ “Ghost Whisperer”). And Arquette, who deserved the Emmy she won last month, is a big reason why.
Tonight’s episode is a terrific tale about Allison dreaming she’s a dead woman from the 1950s. Then she wakes up and there’s the dead woman. You see, it isn’t a show about a psychic soccer mom. It’s “The Twilight Zone” with a happy ending!
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/entertainment/12786559.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Actor Nipsey Russell Dies
(New York-WABC-TV October 3, 2005) - Actor Nipsey Russell, known as "the poet laureate of television," passed away yesterday afternoon at Lenox Hill Hospital.
Eyewitness News has learned Russell died of cancer, confirmed his longtime manager, Joseph Rapp. He was in his early 80s.
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=entertainment&id=3496470&ft=print
THE 2005-2006 TV SEASON: TUESDAY
“Close To Home”
The mother of all dedicated attorneys:
With it's look and feel, CBS' "Close to Home"
is under the influence of Jerry Bruckheimer
By Robert Lloyd Los Angeles Times Staff Writer October 4, 2005
"Close to Home," which premieres tonight on CBS, begins with slow-motion footage of paperboys riding through a perfect, color-saturated upper-middle-class suburb, footage that in another sort of picture would signal the imminent explosion of an atomic bomb.
Here the damage is more localized, though the same sort of contrast is intended: A house goes up in flames; firefighters break through a window to rescue a woman and her children, drenching the house with their big hoses as we cut to scenes of Annabeth Chase, played by Jennifer Finnigan, bathing her baby. It has the look of a music video or Nike ad, and it is no surprise to find that this neighborhood, where all is not as pleasant as it seems, is under the influence of Jerry Bruckheimer.
The woman in the burning house will be charged with child endangerment and several other things I neglected to write down — there are some not-too-shocking twists here that I won't relate — and her case will be the first order of business for Annabeth when she returns to work from her maternity leave. Finding that Maureen, a colleague she considers her inferior (Kimberly Elise, "Diary of a Mad Black Woman"), has been promoted above her, she complains to her boss (John Carroll Lynch, "The Drew Carey Show"), who tells her she can't have everything, which is exactly what she wants, and exactly what she'll get to have, being the heroine of this story. "I want to be a mommy and I want work — I want everything," she tells hunky husband Christian Kane ("Angel"), whom the CBS website describes as "a rock for her to lean on when the challenges of her job start to infringe on their home life." Yes, she's got one of those too.
Finnigan is tough but vulnerable — petite, more delicately featured than your typical Bruckheimer heroine. Though she glows like a Renaissance Madonna, she's also the least appealing character here, the one you aren't compelled to know, or to want to know more about. I can't feel for her — I don't even believe it's her baby, or her husband. (She is quite convincing as a prosecutor, however.) But she isn't helped by a production that tends to make everything look artificial, that freezes the air between the characters and keeps them distant. (Interestingly, it's the courtroom scenes that are the most warmly lighted.)
A breast pump is a novel prop for a legal drama, I'll grant you, as are breast milk in the office fridge and crying jags in the women's bathroom, location of choice for confrontations between Annabeth and Maureen, who tells her, "You have got to stop making decisions with your hormones or your emotions or whatever it is you're not thinking with." The possibility that she might make an actual bad decision — as people do when they're overtired and stressed out and chemically imbalanced — is an interesting one that will perhaps be explored in some coming episode. For now, she gets to keep not only "that perfect little conviction rate you're so proud of," as Maureen archly puts it, but her own perfect convictions. The smile she wears, as she glides from the judge's chambers in tonight's climactic moments, having cowed slick opposing counsel Bruce Davison, is a smile not only of satisfaction but of self-satisfaction. But it's a saintly sort of self-satisfaction. Even if we are meant to see her, in a small way, as hubristic, aggressive and a little out of control, in the end she will be proved right, and those who mock her, wrong.
http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-et-close4oct04,0,7813619,print.story?coll=cl-tv-top-right
Marcus Carr
10-03-05, 10:33 PM
Drama flops include "Inconceivable" (NBC), "Killer Instinct" (Fox) and "Just Legal" (WB).
Just legal is also being shown on TNT. It will be interesting to see if both WB and TNT cancel it. :)
Of the three I thought "Just Legal" at least had some slight spark.
If the WB cancels it, TNT would probably run any unaired episodes.
Martha, Caught in NBC's 'E-Ring' Circus
By Lisa de Moraes The Washington Post Tuesday, October 4, 2005; C07
NBC has thrown Martha Stewart to the "Lost" wolves -- or polar bear, shark, tree-shaking monster, whatever -- on Wednesday, in an effort to rescue the boys at the Pentagon.
Starting tomorrow night, the Stewart-hosted version of "The Apprentice" will exchange time slots with Jerry Bruckheimer's new Pentagon-set drama. "E-Ring," starring Benjamin Bratt and Dennis Hopper, takes over at 8, nudging Martha to 9.
NBC had hoped that all that Martha's-out-of-the-slammer hoopla would bring in big ratings for her new prime-time series, but it was not to be. The show has averaged a lean 6.5-ish million viewers in two broadcasts at 8. ABC gets some credit here, having scheduled two consecutive weeks of "Lost" reruns in the same hour, which pounded Martha and produced record-low numbers for the "Apprentice" franchise.
Ironically, tomorrow night ABC will finally debut one of the two sitcoms that are supposed to air in that 8 p.m. hour -- returning "George Lopez," which will attract far fewer viewers than the 13 million who'd watched those "Lost" repeats during the first two weeks of the new TV season. (The second sitcom, "Freddie," debuts next week.)
But NBC did not wait to see how Martha would fare against the two comedies in announcing the schedule change, which seems designed to get "E-Ring" away from even stiffer competition in the form of "Lost" original episodes and the new CBS drama "Criminal Minds" at 9.
"E-Ring" last week logged just 7.7 million viewers against "Lost" (23 million) and "Criminal Minds" (11 million).
At 8, the only drama competition will be the WB's "One Tree Hill." Mostly "E-Ring" is going to be faced with sitcoms, such as those two from ABC, as well as CBS's "Still Standing" and "Yes, Dear" and, when baseball's over, Fox's "That '70s Show" and "Stacked."
And Martha? Like Andromeda, who (because her parents were nitwits) got chained to a rock so that a sea monster could destroy her, Martha finds herself chained to the 9 p.m. time period, where, odds are, she'll be devoured by "Lost" -- unless some son of Zeus comes to rescue her.
* * * *
UPN has shut down production on its new prime-time soap, "Sex, Love & Secrets," after one broadcast.
To be fair, seven episodes have been produced, so shutting down production doesn't necessarily mean the show, about beautiful people in UPN's demographic group living in the hip Silver Lake area of Los Angeles, has been scrubbed. But after nabbing a cable-esque 1.4 million viewers in its unveiling last week, the prognosis for this show's long-term viability is very bleak.
* * * *
Strong sign that "Nightline" has nothing to worry about:
ABC announced it has picked up "Jimmy Kimmel Live" through 2006, noting that the show has enjoyed a ratings bump of late.
Kimmel got that bump largely from "Nightline."
The week before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Kimmel averaged 1.1 million viewers. The week Katrina hit, Kimmel averaged 1.6 million. The following week, when the Katrina horror story continued to unfold, Kimmel hit 1.7 million viewers -- his biggest crowd since late last year.
Kimmel's lead, "Nightline," experienced similar ratings jumps those weeks, presumably due to viewer interest in Katrina coverage.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/03/AR2005100301452_pf.html
TV SEASON PREVIEWS: WEDNESDAY
”Related”
The Los Angeles Times
Stars: Jennifer Esposito ("Crash"), Kiele Sanchez, Lizzy Caplan ("Mean Girls"), Laura Breckenridge, Callum Blue ("Dead Like Me").
The premise: Four sisters (going "Sisters" one sister better) measure the thickness of blood versus water in a show whose heavy creative pedigree includes "Friends," "Sex and the City" and the bestselling self-help book "He's Just Not That Into You." Of course, they're as different as … four different kinds of peas, in a variety of pods: a corporate attorney, a legal aid lawyer, a special events coordinator (pregnant) and a college student dropping premed for experimental theater.
http://www.calendarlive.com/printedition/calendar/suncal/cl-ca-chris4sep04,2,3134676,print.htmlstory
TV SEASON PREVIEWS: WEDNESDAY
“Related”
By Judith S. Gillies The Washington Post
The tagline you'll never see: It's "Little Women" in the city.
The basics: Oh, those Sorelli sisters! They're beautiful, witty, care about one another, and alternately share personal information and, oops!, spill secrets.
Ginnie (Jennifer Esposito), is the eldest, a workaholic lawyer; second-born Ann (Kiele Sanchez) is a therapist who specializes in counseling transvestites; next is Marjee (Lizzy Caplan), who plans events with celebrity clients; and Rose (Laura Breckenridge), the baby of the family, is a college student. The death of their mother 15 years ago played a big part in their lives and how they grew up -- and now they're worried about their father (Tom Irwin) and his ever-cheerful girlfriend (Christine Ebersol).
They live in New York, range in age from 19 to 31 and face numerous challenges and life-changing events. In the pilot alone: One sister learns she's pregnant, another is dealing with the end of a longtime relationship, a third is evicted from her apartment, and a fourth is changing college majors from premed to experimental theater. ("Experimental theater? Is that mime? Am I spending $40,000 a year on mime?" asks Dad.) Callum Blue, as Ginnie's husband, seems rather bemused by all of the family intrigue.
The lowdown: Marta Kauffman, co-creator of "Friends," and Liz Tuccillo, a writer for "Sex and the City," have teamed up for this comic drama about relationships. "Related" is in a tough time slot against ABC's huge hit "Lost," but Kauffman said she's thrilled to be there and has great faith that the series will pull in a female audience.
Reality check: "Related" got off to a slow start because one of the sisters was recast and the pilot was almost completely re-shot, but the resulting ensemble plays well together. The dialogue is often clever and fast-moving and, with the ages and interests of the sisters, the show can explore a broad range of topics. Its biggest challenge is to avoid getting "Lost" in its time slot.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/27/AR2005092701159_pf.html
TV SEASON PREVIEW: WEDNESDAY
“Related”
By Rick Kushman Sacramento Bee TV Columnist
Four Manhattan sisters are best friends, sometime rivals, all very different, and all very sexy. Think "Sex and the City" but they're related.
What’s What: No pilot was available and some major roles were recast. Not good signs. WB says this will be good, and recruited "Friends" co-creator Marta Kauffman to run the show.
Rickster Scale: Unavailable for review.
http://www.sacbee.com/content/lifestyle/columns/kushman/v-print/story/13573084p-14413378c.html
THE 2005-2006 TV SEASON: TUESDAY
“Close To Home”
Work or be mommy? What's a TV gal to do?
By Melanie McFarland Seattle Post-Intelligencer TV Critic Tuesday, October 4, 2005
There's feminine, there's feminist, and then there's garden-variety girlie. The trick is to present them as a united front -- in the proper proportions.
No television archetype does this so well as the working woman, starting decades ago when Mary Tyler Moore presented the image of the fashionably independent career go-getter.
These days, when maintaining a career during motherhood is a necessity, the TV femme to watch is "Desperate Housewives' " Lynette Scavo. Her stories may not be sexy, but it's hard to imagine any working mom failing to grin as she deftly changes her baby's diaper while nailing a job interview.
Echoes of Lynette's twin drives -- maternal concern and career enthusiasm -- can be found in the new CBS series "Close to Home," debuting tonight at 10 on CBS, and, to a lesser extent, in The WB's "Related," which kicks off Wednesday at 9 the WB.
Mind you, each presents a wildly different take on maintaining one's career-family balance, to say nothing of the feminine-feminist-girlie formulation.
"Close" is a pitch for women in that 18-to-49 demographic facing the ongoing debate between career promotion and procreation. In choosing both, prosecutor Annabeth Chase (Jennifer Finnigan) gets a wake-up call when she returns from her maternity leave to see that her promotion has been swiped by co-worker Maureen Scofield (Kimberly Elise), assumed to be childless.
Annabeth's boss, Steve (John Carroll Lynch), argues that a bump up the ladder would translate to weekends away from her daughter and hard-body husband Jack (Christian Kane). She can't abide that. But at Jack's pillow-talk suggestion that she give it all up to stay at home, Annabeth flat-out refuses.
"I wanna be a mommy, and I want work," she replies. "I want everything."
Ah, yes, the modern feminist's battle cry. Since feminism is still a dirty word, it takes images like this to sneak the point across. Angel-faced Finnigan, last seen on NBC as a ditzy blonde in a midseason flop, "Committed," placates all sides by making Annabeth a force to be reckoned with in the office, heightening her vulnerability whenever she sinks into her construction-worker husband's arms.
Still, you wish executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer had found a way to do so with a little less creamed corn.
At the same time, it's easy to imagine working moms getting hooked on the way "Close to Home" creates situations in which Annabeth's maternal instinct hones her sense of justice. Her first case involves a mother setting fire to her home with her young children still inside, sending the lawyer into a mother bear's protective rage. But when she finds out the woman's husband abused them, Annabeth's feminine ability to relate takes over.
"Close to Home" is the replacement for "Judging Amy," whose faithful fans loved the relationship between Amy, a career-driven divorcee, and her tough old mother. Those still smarting over that series' cancellation may take a while to warm up to the way "Close to Home" wraps justice in a small fuzzy blanket.
THE 2005-2006 TV SEASON: WEDNESDAY
“Related”
But it has a bounty of brains in comparison to "Related," The WB's cloying attempt to cater to the older portion of its target demographic -- 12- to 34-year-olds -- with an overwhelmingly girlie dramedy about the four Sorelli sisters. There's girl power here, but only the kind created to sell Clairol and Clearasil, not jump-start a bond with viewers.
Producer Marta Kauffman ("Friends") obviously is channeling a certain HBO series about four stylish, career-oriented New York women constantly followed by bouncy piano, xylophone and bongo riffs. Only in "Related," they're sisters instead of pals and they whine and babble instead of trading spicy zingers. One more difference: "Related" is profoundly stupid.
The Sorellis must have sounded like a riot on paper, though, with a character to represent every possible female The WB could imagine. On the younger end, we have 19-year-old college student Rose (Laura Breckenridge) and 23-year-old Marjee (Lizzy Caplan). Rose switches from pre-med to the experimental theater wing, leading her to pierce her tongue and dye her hair Rainbow Brite blue, while Marjee is a party planner who can't get her act together and moves back in with dad.
Ann (Kiele Sanchez), described only as being in her mid-20s, is a therapist midbreakup with her boyfriend, the main event driving "Related's" opening episodes. Topping the charts in age if not dramatic potential is 31-year-old attorney Ginnie (Jennifer Esposito) who -- whoopsie! -- is pregnant, forcing that career vs. motherhood choice to rear its downy head again.
In theory, anyway. Other than the sisters creating a big to-do over Ginnie's delicate condition, the first episodes of "Related" push big sister's impending career difficulties under the carpet. Instead she mother-hens her sisters with a high-pitched, comforting tone and the surfacey smile of a pleaser, and puts them first over her husband, Bob (Callum Blue).
How dreamy is Bob? Well, not only is he a thoroughly whipped Brit, giving him an oh-so-cute accent, he grins and wanders off whenever his wife's sisters call or drop in unexpectedly to interrupt his sex life.
There comes a point at which sisterhood becomes powerfully irritating, and "Related" finds it within the first 40 minutes of its existence. Until it finds strength and purpose beyond four women flapping their gums at one another, it's just another girlie show unworthy of time or respect.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/printer2/index.asp?ploc=t&refer=http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/tv/243215_tv04.html
OBITUARY
Comic Nipsey Russell dies
Comedian and actor was 81
By PAT SAPERSTEIN Variety.com
Comedian and actor Nipsey Russell died Sunday of cancer in New York. He was 81.
Russell's first major role was as Officer Anderson on the early-1960s sitcom "Car 54, Where Are You?" He's also known for his many appearances on gameshows and talkshows throughout the 1960s and '70s.
Appearing on shows such as "The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts," "The Tonight Show," "Laugh-In" and "The Jackie Gleason Show," Russell often read one of his short poems, which earned him the nickname "the poet laureate of television."
Among his film roles, the best known was the Tin Man in 1978 musical "The Wiz," a box office disappointment that nonetheless became a cult favorite.
Born in Atlanta, Russell started in showbiz at the age of 3, doing a tap and rhythm dance routine as part of an act called the Ragamuffins of Rhythm. After attending the U. of Cincinnati and serving in WWII, he launched his showbiz career in 1949 in the early TV show "The Show Goes On" with Robert Q. Lewis. During the 1950s, he was a popular nightclub performer at Harlem's Club Baby Grand.
He appeared on several other TV shows, including gameshows "To Tell the Truth," "The Match Game," "Missing Links," "Your Number's Up" and "Hollywood Squares," as well as soaps "As the World Turns" and "Search for Tomorrow."
His one-man comedy special was shown on Comedy Central, and he narrated the HBO docu "Mo' Laughter," about the black experience in comedy. He also was emcee for three years on BET's "Juvenile Jury."
Russell's feature film roles included Snopes in Mario Van Peebles' Western "Posse," the principal of a ghetto high school in "Wildcats" and the Magic Maker in John Boorman's "Dream One."
In theater, he appeared in the road production of "The Odd Couple"; played Pseudolus in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" at Harrah's in Atlantic City, N.J.; and starred in the Long Beach, Calif., Civic Opera's production of "Hello Dolly."
More recently, Russell was a frequent guest on "The Conan O'Brien Show" and "The Chris Rock Show" and guest-starred in Sidney Lumet's "100 Centre Street" and "The View."
He had no survivors.
THE 2005-2006 TV SEASON: FRIDAY
“Inconceivable” pulled by NBC
“Variety” reports Tuesday that NBC will run a “Law and Order: Criminal Intent” repeat Friday night in place of the new series “Inconceivable”.
The fertility clinic-based drama has had extremely low ratings its first two weeks. At the moment, production continues on the show, and it is scheduled to return to NBC Fridays on October 14th.
Somewhere, Dick Wolf is at the very least chuckling over this news.
Wolf, the creator of the “Law and Order” franchise, was upset last May when NBC surprisingly canceled a slow-starting “Law and Order: Trial By Jury” in May to make room for “Inconceivable”. So far the new show’s ratings have been far lower than "L&O: TBJ".
Last season in the same Friday at 10 PM ET/PT time slot, "L&O: Trial By Jury" averaged 10.9 million viewers. Last Friday, according to Nielsen, "Inconceivable" had just 4.6 million viewers.
Even given the disaster that NBC prime-time has become, that is a big dropoff.
THE 2005-2006 TV SEASON: TUESDAY
Crime happens 'Close to Home'
* * * out of four
By Robert Bianco USA TODAY October 4, 2005
It's not the fault of Close to Home that its genre is close to played out.
A procedural on the mommy track, this crime show about the efforts of a young suburban prosecutor to balance work and family is the latest in a too-long string of CBS legal mysteries from the current masters of the genre: Jerry Bruckheimer Television. It's well cast, well executed and solidly competent across the board.
But exciting, it's not.
That may not be a problem if you are such a huge fan of CSI, CSI: Miami, CSI: New York, Cold Case and Without a Trace that the idea of yet another similarly shaped show from the Bruckheimer factory thrills you with delight. But it may pose a barrier to viewers in general, who will soon be in danger of being unable to tell one crime show from the other without a program.
For those who may be getting confused, you can pick out Close by its suburban setting and maternal approach. And you may find yourself drawn to the show by its easy-to-like star, soap veteran Jennifer Finnigan, last seen in prime time in the NBC sitcom Committed.
Finnigan plays Annabeth Chase, a first-time mom and high-powered prosecutor back from maternity leave with an interest in making her community more family friendly. For her first case, that effort involves figuring out who was responsible for a fire that trapped a woman and her two children in their well-maintained little home.
Like many such shows, Close has more than crime on its mind. Annabeth sets up the character's principal dilemma in an opening speech to her extremely understanding husband (Angel's Christian Kane): "I want to be a mommy and I want work. I want everything."
That desire puts Annabeth on a collision course with Maureen (Kimberly Elise), a career-only prosecutor who was given the promotion Annabeth wanted. Which means an unhappy Annabeth now has to report to Maureen.
Tuesday's case gets the show off to a fairly strong start, though unfortunately, as is so often the case, the blabby promos have already spoiled the episode's one big twist. Suffice it to say that the legal solution hinges on whether a woman can prove she has been abused.
We already have seen too many shows this season built around the infliction of pain on women. But at least Close doesn't revel in it. We're told far more than we're shown, and the image of woman-as-victim is countered by the show's presentation of a strong heroine.
Actually the show's treatment of women at work may be a greater sticking point. The writers seem to go out of their way to soften Maureen so she doesn't come across as a one-sided villain. Still, there may be some working women who feel the show is dredging up battles they already think they've won, or at least are tired of seeing fought on TV. And they may flee.
Which is what can happen when even a too-familiar show strikes too close to home
http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/reviews/2005-10-03-close-to-home_x.htm
THE 2005-2006 TV SEASON
Season's newcomers settling in
By Gary Levin USA TODAY
There's no new Desperate Housewives, but the strategy that helped launch last year's biggest new hit has lured viewers back to their sets.
The question now is: Can this year's crop of newcomers sustain or build their fan base?
Ever since ABC turned its laser-like marketing focus on Housewives and Lost last fall, most networks became choosier about which new series to support and spent heavily to promote just one or two. The tactic worked: ABC's Invasion and Commander in Chief, NBC's My Name Is Earl and UPN's Everybody Hates Chris opened big.
"The shows that were heavily promoted over the summer were heavily sampled," says ABC researcher Larry Hyams.
But early signs from big openings can be misleading. Invasion, Earl, Chris and Fox's Bones tumbled 20% to 30% in their second outings, and CBS' Criminal Minds lost half its sneak-preview audience when it moved to its regular Wednesday slot opposite Lost.
None has matched the sustained momentum of Lost, which is enjoying record ratings, or Housewives. Both were the first instant fall hits since Friends and ER in 1994.
"The question is, where do (the new series) level off?" ABC scheduler Jeff Bader says. "If you lose 30% and you still have a (big) rating, that's fine."
Of course, networks want big hits. But they'll settle for dramatic improvements in key time slots, as most of those shows have provided.
Other fall-season signs:
•Early misses. Casualties are easier to spot because a weak start rarely is reversed. Among them: WB's Just Legal, UPN's Sex, Love & Secrets, Fox's Head Cases, and NBC's Inconceivable, The Apprentice: Martha Stewart and E-Ring.
Martha and E-Ring will swap time slots this week in an effort to save both. Head Cases was canceled after just two episodes, and production has been halted on Sex, although UPN says it plans to air the seven remaining episodes.
•Steady as she goes. It will take another week or two for viewing patterns to settle. Still due: CBS' Close to Home (premieres tonight, 10 ET/PT), ABC's Hot Properties (Friday, 9:30 p.m.) and Freddie (Oct. 12, 8:30 p.m.), and WB's Related (Wednesday, 9 p.m.).
"After three weeks, you have a pretty good sense of where a show is headed," says Kelly Kahl, scheduling chief at CBS and UPN.
"By that time, you've seen everything the competition can throw at you."
Even then, Fox's postseason baseball, which begins tonight, further clouds the picture.
•Returning favorites down. CSI: Miami, Survivor, The Apprentice, ER and West Wing are among shows losing viewers. That helps explain why CBS (—2%) and NBC (—7%) are down from last season. Up sharply: ABC (+12%), Fox (+31%) and UPN (+19%).
http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2005-10-03-fall-tv_x.htm
The New York Times Obituary
Nipsey Russell, a Comic With a Gift for Verse, Dies at 80
By MEL WATKINS The New York Times October 4, 2005
Nipsey Russell, the comedian whose one-liners and impromptu rhymes made him one of television's popular talk-show guests and game-show panelists during the 1970's, died on Sunday at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan. He was 80 and made his home in Manhattan.
The cause was cancer, said his manager, Joe Rapp.
One of the early black stand-up comedians who found success with mainstream audiences, Mr. Russell started performing professionally in 1931 at the age of 6, when he was featured as a singing, dancing master of ceremonies for a children's troupe in Atlanta organized by Eddie Heywood Sr., the father of the jazz pianist. By the 1950's he had become a seasoned comedian who set his act apart from the baggy-pants, mostly raunchy comics who were the staple of most black clubs of the time.
Dressed in a conservative business suit and tie but wearing a raffish porkpie hat, he offered a confident, sophisticated approach to comedy. His jokes and topical observations were often delivered in the form of aphorisms and rhymes. He had begun reading Shelley, Homer, Keats and Paul Laurence Dunbar when he was 10 and sometimes quoted from Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales." Hip, glib and conspicuously intelligent, he attracted downtown crowds to Harlem, becoming a standout attraction at the Baby Grand, Small's Paradise and other cabarets with quips like "America is the only place in the world where you can work in an Arab home in a Scandinavian neighborhood and find a Puerto Rican baby eating matzo balls with chopsticks."
Mr. Russell prided himself on the universality of his humor and insisted that he did not want to be labeled a black comic.
"I use mother-in-law jokes, kid jokes, tax jokes - anything that works," he said. But, despite telling at least one reporter that there was less racial material in his act than on the nightly news, his satirical comments on civil rights issues during the 1960's suggested that his usual stage diffidence masked more intense concerns. One of his favorite stories concerned an African delegate to the United Nations who stopped at a restaurant in Maryland only to be told that blacks were not served there.
"But I'm the delegate from Ghana," the diplomat protested.
"Well, you ain't Ghana eat here," the waitress replied.
Speaking of nonviolent protest, he observed, "He who turns the other cheek will get hit with the other fist."
Nipsey Russell was born in Atlanta on Oct. 13, 1924. ("My mother just liked the way the name Nipsey sounded.") He moved to Cincinnati and lived with an aunt during his senior year of high school so he would be eligible to attend the University of Cincinnati tuition-free. A four-year enlistment in the Army - where he was commissioned as a captain in the field during World War II - interrupted his studies at the university. But he returned and earned a degree in English in 1946.
After college, he pursued his stage career in earnest, working black circuit clubs in the Midwest and on the East Coast before graduating to the Apollo in Harlem and top Catskills resort hotels like the Concord. It was his tenure at the Baby Grand, a Manhattan cabaret, however, that led to guest spots on Jack Paar's "Tonight Show," and those national television appearances ignited his career in 1959. His catchy verse, aphorisms and gift of gab were perfectly suited for radio and television and soon he was making steady appearances on Arthur Godfrey's morning radio program and a variety of television shows.
He played a policeman in the popular situation comedy "Car 54, Where Are You?" in 1961 and became the first black performer to become a regular panelist on a weekly network game show when he joined ABC's "Missing Links" in 1964. A year later, he became a co-host of ABC's "Les Crane Show." During the 70's, he was a co-star in the ABC sitcom "Barefoot in the Park" and appeared regularly on "The Dean Martin Show" and "The Dean Martin Comedy World."
Mr. Russell was a frequent panelist on television game shows like "Hollywood Squares" and "The $50,000 Pyramid," where he always came prepared with topical verse:
Before we lose our autonomy
And our economy crumbles into dust
We should attack Japan, lose the war
And let Japan take care of us.
A tireless performer, he appeared in Atlantic City and Las Vegas until the early 1990's and continued to make television appearances until last year.
There are no immediate survivors, Mr. Rapp, his manager, said.
Although Mr. Russell was best known for his television and nightclub work, probably his most admiring reviews derived from his role as the Tin Man in the 1978 film "The Wiz." The movie variation of the Broadway variation of "The Wizard of Oz" was generally panned, but critics praised his performance.
In The New Yorker, Pauline Kael wrote: "He understands that the roles are vaudeville-comedian turns. ... [and] shows here that all his years of playing the inoffensive black entertainer in front of white audiences haven't softened him as a performer; he has the true pro's integrity of style."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/04/arts/04russell.html?pagewanted=print
THE 2005-2006 TV SEASON
“Curb” Can’t Cope
New York Post---The new HBO comedy line-up of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "Extras" is struggling in its first weeks.
The first season of "Curb" debuted last Sunday to just 1.5 million viewers — less than half its first-week audience for season four. That premiere benefited from following the start of the final season of "Sex and the City."
Comedian Ricky Gervais' much-anticipated follow-up to "The Office," "Extras," which airs immediately after, drew barely 1 million viewers, despite positive reviews.
http://www.nypost.com/php/pfriendly/pfriendly_new.php
THE 2005-2006 TV SEASON: TUESDAY
“Close To Home”
pilot is stuck on the dark side
By Maureen Ryan [B]Chicago Tribune staff reporter October 4, 2005
The opening shots of the new CBS drama "Close to Home" (9 p.m. Tuesday, WBBM-Ch. 2) are of idyllic suburban scenes: a paperboy tosses papers from his bike as soft music plays in the background; we see clipped hedges, tidy yards, a mother cooing over her baby.
It's all so perfect that you know something really bad is about to happen.
And so it does. On her first day back at her job as a prosecutor, that new mom, Annabeth Chase, learns that the fire that she spotted from her living room window was set by a woman who purposely set her home ablaze -- with her two children inside.
Chase, who has a perfect record as a prosecutor, is determined to put her neighbor in jail, until Chase learns that there is much more to the story of the unfortunate woman and her two kids, who, as it turns out, have been the victims of years of domestic abuse.
"Close to Home" is a product of Jerry Bruckheimer's hugely successful television production company, an efficient machine that has given us the three "CSI" shows as well as "Cold Case" and "Without a Trace." "Home" shares the top-notch production values of those programs, and Jennifer Finnigan, star of the short-lived NBC sitcom "Committed," is well cast as a lawyer who frequently alternates between stressed-out new mom and driven seeker of justice.
The trouble with this drama is that it doesn't veer much from the often dark tone of the other procedurals from the Bruckheimer TV factory. It's not exactly another "CSI" -- it's more of a "CSM" ("Crime Scene Mommy") -- but the material in the pilot, anyway, is grim.
Much of the plot centers on the horrific violence inflicted on the mother whose home caught fire. To reveal more might give away spoilers, but more to the point, I'm betting you don't have a huge desire to hear about yet more extreme violence toward women.
Suffice to say, at one point, a child testifies in court about what his dad said about his misbehaving mom: "My daddy says, `When a dog misbehaves, you have to chain the [expletive] up.'"
Awkwardly grafted on to this disturbing narrative is an attempt to examine Chase's struggle to achieve a balance between work and home; it's an admirable impulse, but, in the pilot, the treatment of the topic lacks subtlety. Chase is set up as the noble, good mother and lawyer, and her co-workers are mostly unsympathetic to her desire to both put the bad dad in the slammer and pick up her kid from the sitter before 6 p.m.
"You have got to stop thinking with your hormones or your emotions or whatever else it is you're not thinking with and start thinking like a prosecutor again," Chase's boss snaps at one point.
Perhaps we're supposed to think it's progress when the boss who accuses a female employee of thinking with her hormones is an African-American woman.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/tv/chi-0510030301oct04,1,7192997,print.story?coll=chi-ent_tv-hed
THE 2005-2006 TV SEASON
WOMEN, TV AND ULTRAVIOLENCE
Women are the victims, stars and consumers of increasingly gory shows
By Mike Duffy Detroit Free Press TV Critic October 4, 2005
It's a crime what's happening to prime time.
Women are being beaten, terrorized, abducted and killed at an alarming rate this season. New and returning crime dramas have more gore, often targeting women as victims of increased levels of violence and mayhem.
When the new crime procedural "Close to Home" premieres at 10 tonight on CBS, the agonizing beat goes on. A woman is imprisoned in her home by an abusive husband who treats her like a dog. Literally.
It's revealed that he fitted his brutalized wife with a pet collar, locking her in the basement "because when a dog misbehaves, you have to chain the bitch up."
But "Close to Home" is far from the most gratuitous.
On the series premiere of Fox's "Killer Instinct," a serial killing rapist used venomous spiders to paralyze his female victims before assaulting them. And during the highly rated debut of CBS's "Criminal Minds," a horrified young woman was shown gagged and trapped in a cage, the victim of an "anger excitation rapist" who likes to keep women hostage for a few days before killing them.
Why this bloody trend?
"It's really over the top. I don't know if it's just chance or what with all these series pilots," says Amanda Lotz, who follows television as an assistant professor in the University of Michigan's department of communication studies.
"There clearly is this trend of increased violence toward women. But all of these shows, with the exception of 'Criminal Minds,' have prominent female characters," adds Lotz. "The networks might feel, 'We can get away with this salacious violence toward women because we have a strong female protagonist.' "
Even the people who create and produce the crime dramas acknowledge the disturbing upsurge.
"I agree, there has been a ratcheting up of the violence," says Jonathan Littman, an executive producer of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," television's most popular and influential crime procedural, which often uses gore-laced flashbacks and recently popped the trunk on hideously decomposed bodies in a car.
" 'CSI' has sort of opened this floodgate towards showing more violence when that was never the intent of the show. The intent was always to show the evidence and not the actual brutality of the crime. It should never be about the violence, it should be about the people," says Littman, who also oversees "Cold Case" and "Without a Trace," which, like the three "CSIs," comes from Detroit native Jerry Bruckeimer's hugely successful production company.
Female fans of crime procedurals have also noticed the escalation in violence.
"I'm not easily shocked. I'm a child of the '70s. But a number of the things now make me go, 'Whoa.' " says Diane McShane of Birmingham, who has been a fan of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit." "Some of the sexual deviancy is right out there. Some of the rapes and sexual crimes against women have been really detailed."
There's nothing new about women in jeopardy.
They've been targeted for decades in books, movies, television and video games.
Janet Leigh's terrifying demise in "Psycho" remains one of the most famous scenes in Hollywood history. And Drew Barrymore helped launch an wave of teen-targeted horror and slasher films in the 1990s as the high-profile first victim in the "Scream" team of horror movie hits.
Meanwhile, women are among the most enthusiastic consumers of TV crime procedurals like the three "CSI" shows and three editions of "Law & Order." Female viewers comprise nearly two-thirds of the Thursday night "CSI" audience in the coveted 18-49 demographic that anchors television's bottom line.
What's the appeal?
Those strong female protagonists, say some women. The fascination with forensic crime techniques, say others. But perhaps the appeal to female viewers is also something more psychologically reassuring.
"These shows wrap up in one hour. They always get the bad guys. It's a vicarious way to deal with the uncontrollable," says Mary Therese Lemanek of Allen Park. "It gives some sense of being able to manage the unmanageable."
Over the past decade, crime procedurals have become the most pervasive and successful drama format on television. A record 16 such network programs are airing in prime time this season. And No. 1 CBS is at the top of the police blotter with nine shows.
The increase in the intensity and nature of the violent crimes portrayed on television doesn't surprise Mary Ann Watson, professor of TV and film at Eastern Michigan University.
"I call it the violence escalator, and it just keeps going up," says Watson. "We get acclimated to a certain level of violence. It's like a dripping faucet. After a while you get inured to it."
And then there's the profitable sex and violence equation.
"The FCC has been paying so much attention to sexual indecency," says Lotz. "And network programmers have noted that the 'CSI's' have not been getting pressure from the decency police for their naked dead bodies."
The modern, more extreme crime procedural, adds Lotz, allows the networks to "still seem edgy and a little bit salacious."
And viewers often like what they perceive as gritty, unblinking realism. Some producers insist that the shows are merely reflecting the tragic facts of real-life crime in America, that women are indeed the victims of horrific crimes.
"Part of this world is that -- it's violence against women," says "Criminal Minds" producer Ed Bernero, a former Chicago cop. "That's what the majority of serial killers do. They pick on weak people. They pick on children. They pick on women."
But even if the programs reflect a certain grisly cultural reality, this season's escalation isn't a pretty picture.
"It's actually personally very upsetting to me to see the prevalence of violence against women on television," says Greer Shephard, executive producer of "The Closer," a popular new TNT crime drama focused less on gore and more on quirky police sleuthing.
"I'm concerned that it's going to numb America to that concept, and it will no longer seem as horrific as it is."
http://www.freep.com/cgi-bin/forms/printerfriendly.pl
Monday’s network prime-time ratings have been posted at the top of RATINGS NEWS the second post in this thread.
THE 2005-2006 TV SEASON
Look for more Friday laughs from Fox
By Kevin Downey MediaLifeMagazine.com Oct 4, 2005
When Fox moved “Bernie Mac” and “Malcolm in the Middle” to the 8 p.m. hour on Friday, the timeslot looked like an elephant graveyard. They’ve received only modest ratings thus far, but don’t expect them to go anywhere.
Instead, media people have begun speculating that after baseball Fox, will switch its struggling Monday night comedies “Arrested Development” and “Kitchen Confidential” to the 9 p.m. Friday hour, bumping drama “Killer Instinct” to a new night.
Right now the network has two nights with faltering comedies leading into dramas that media people think have potential but are hurt by their lead-ins. It makes sense to consolidate these struggling shows onto one night where ratings are usually low anyway.
And no matter how modest its Friday ratings, Fox only stands to improve on a night where it traditionally struggles. These comedies could even provide a boost among men and viewers 18-34.
“I can’t imagine that [Fox is] satisfied with Friday nights, so I can’t see them keeping it the same,” says Jordan Breslow, director of broadcast research at MediaCom.
Fox’s adult 18-49 rating the first Friday this season was up 32 percent over the same week last year, while its second Friday in the demo was up 23 percent, the latter based on fast national ratings.
Yet, with average ratings of 1.7 and 1.6, it still ranked No. 4 the first Friday of the season and tied for No. 4 last week, only beating the WB.
“They needed to do something on Fridays because nothing was working for them last year,” Breslow says.
Fox will probably struggle no matter what it puts on Fridays. Part of the problem it’s facing is that most major demographic groups are already spoken for on the night.
UPN is doing well reaching men since moving WWE’s “Friday Night Smackdown” from Thursdays, while CBS has a solid lock on women and older folks with modest hit “Ghost Whisperer.”
CBS is leading the way in the women 18-49 demographic, while ABC and NBC are bumping along with unspectacular ratings for reality show “Supernanny” and comedy “Hope & Faith” and “Three Wishes” and “Dateline,” respectively.
Fox’s one opportunity appears to be in more aggressively targeting young adults, judging by last Friday’s ratings. It was No. 2 to UPN among men 18-34, based on fast national ratings from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. It ranked No. 3 among men 18-49, also trailing CBS.
Moreover, it ranked No. 2 to ABC among young women but No. 4 in the women 18-49 demographic.
Fox will almost certainly try to remedy the clunky transition from sitcoms to the dark drama “Killer Instinct” at 9 p.m. “Killer” is suffering against tough competitors on Fridays and Fox in recent years hasn’t had success with dramas on the night. Remember “John Doe?”
“Killer,” once entitled “The Gate,” is in a timeslot that in the mid-1990s kicked off sci-fi hit “X-Files,” which had better luck after moving to another night, Sunday in that case. Such a move would make sense for “Killer.”
The drama has received so-so reviews. But it has an appealing co-star in Chi McBride, formerly of Fox’s “Boston Public” and a rising star. Although his movie “Roll Bounce” is proving to be an underachiever at the box office, his TV performance has been generating positive buzz.
“This is a procedural crime drama that could’ve played just as easily on CBS,” says Breslow.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=587574
humdinger70
10-04-05, 12:30 PM
THE 2005-2006 TV SEASON: FRIDAY
“Inconceivable” pulled by NBC
“Variety” reports Tuesday that NBC will run a “Law and Order: Criminal Intent” repeat Friday night in place of the new series “Inconceivable”.
The fertility clinic-based drama has had extremely low ratings its first two weeks. At the moment, production continues on the show, and it is scheduled to return to NBC Fridays on October 14th.
Somewhere, Dick Wolf is at the very least chuckling over this news.
He's also gotta be chuckling about Angie Harmon's BCM (Bad Career Move)...
"You left Law & Order for this? :D
Agreed (but in her defense, Ms. Harmon also wanted to start a family -- which she has done).
So it was not exactly a David Caruso (NYPD) or McLean Stevenson (M*A*S*H) move.
Nonetheless, it is an "I Told You So" day for Mr. Wolf, and yet another "oops!" day for NBC executives.
PJO1966
10-04-05, 12:55 PM
Agreed (but in her defense, Ms. Harmon also wanted to start a family -- which she has done).
So it was not exactly a David Caruso (NYPD) or McLean Stevenson (M*A*S*H) move.
Nonetheless, it is a day "I Told You So" for Mr. Wolf.
Are you saying that Mclean Stevenson leaving M*A*S*H for Hello Larry was a bad idea? :D
Agreed (but in her defense, Ms. Harmon also wanted to start a family -- which she has done).
So it was not exactly a David Caruso (NYPD) or McLean Stevenson (M*A*S*H) move.
Nonetheless, it is an "I Told You So" day for Mr. Wolf, and yet another "oops!" day for NBC executives.
Wolf may be laughing but part of NBC's problem is a lack of new and different shows, from the numbers I've seen so far this season, the other L&O's aren't doing all that great either.
On a positive note for L&O, my initial thoughts on Criminal Intent with Noth and Sciorra are that I like her character, sort of a female Goren. Not really original to just swap the gender of D'Onofrio's character but paired with Noth's often incendiary Logan just may work and gives the pair more balance than the Goren-Eames pair-up.(Although, I wouldn't mind just watching D'Onofrio for a full episode, Erbe seems to be there only to appeal to female audiences.)