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fredfa

09-13-06, 02:21 PM

The New Season
Second Looks:
''Studio 60,'' ''Ugly Betty,'' ''The Class,'' ''Jericho,'' ''House,'' ''Nip/Tuck''
By Rich Heldenfels in his Akron Beacon Journal TV blog Sept. 13, 2006

As I have said more than once, reviewing a new TV show can be tricky because you're seeing a single episode -- and not necessarily a representative episode -- to gauge how a show might be over 22 telecasts. Networks have come to realize that over time, so they'll send out additional episodes to give you a better feel for the show. ''Law & Order: Criminal Intent'' sent out something like six before its debut, and ''The Wire'' ultimately sent out its entire fourth season before that began recently. So the mail lately has included second telecasts of some shows, and here's where I stand on them now.

''The Class.'' Didn't like the pilot for this sitcom, in which third-grade classmates reconnect in adulthood. Didn't like the second episode, either, at least for the 14 minutes I could bear to watch. It pulled one laugh -- well, it was partly a surprised snort out of me, but this still is not anywhere near my must-see list. I don't even think it's on my I'll-watch-one-more list, even though CBS sent out a third episode as well.

''Jericho.'' The pilot made my list of shows worth a second look, and now I'm ready for a third. The post-apocalyptic story (with overtones of 9/11) can feel kind of bleak, but it at least tries to be more or less fair with the theme. The second episode, for example, has the townspeople preparing for a wave of radiation expected after a nuclear explosion. Some of the preparations look silly, and there's a melodramatic subplot that requires one character to act really stupidly at first. But the pace and tension are pretty well maintained, and I'll be back for a third show.

''Studio 60.'' I had a lot of reservations about Aaron Sorkin's pilot for this show about the making of a late-night variety series. And I have reservations about the second episode. (For one thing, even though you see it in fictional TV a lot, reporters do not as a rule applaud the people they're interrogating at a press conference.) That said, I know I'll be watching this for awhile. Matthew Perry, for one thing, is really good -- even better than in the pilot. D.L. Hughley, after not getting much to do in the pilot, has some moments in the second episode. There's a nice scene in the writers' room. And I was intrigued by the stories.

Still, I worry that people are going to think that this show is as factual about the TV business as Sorkin's ''West Wing'' was about politics. But ''The West Wing,'' as good as it was, remained a reassuring fantasy and this show, too, is mired in fantasies about the network game. Also, in the second episode, we see an actual sketch from the late-night show that's supposed to be great -- only it isn't.

At this point, I'm kind of where I was when arguing about the show with my colleague Alan Sepinwall. I see all these things that are wrong -- although Alan saw more things than I did -- and I still want to watch it again -- because it still contains the seeds of some great television.

''Ugly Betty,'' the comedic telenovela about a plain girl in the fashion world, had a really good tone in its pilot, albeit one that could be hard to match week after week. Fortunately, the second episode was as delightful as the first -- funny, sweet and offbeat enough to keep you guessing about how things might go. Still very much worth watching.

Fox's early-launch strategy for shows doesn't work with all viewers. I was talking to some folks earlier this week who were surprised to hear that ''Bones'' was already back, and the bride had some friends who thought ''House'' returned last night -- when it actually began new telecasts a week ago. But for those of you who have been watching ''House,'' how has it felt to have two weeks of a ''new'' Dr. House? I thought it was intriguing but was both pleased and disappointed that we're going back to the old ways. Pleased because I want to see the old House (and because I've been waiting for a planned storyline where he gets a real nemesis). Disappointed because the change was so sudden, making it all feel too much like a gimmick. Your thoughts?

Also, now that we've all seen two episodes of ''Nip/Tuck,'' I'm really interested in where that goes next. I have seen the third episode, but it still feels as if there's a lot to come, especially about Matt and Kimber and their approach to life. Anyone happy/excited/perturbed?

http://blogs.ohio.com/beacon_tv/

keenan

09-13-06, 02:32 PM

Thanks Jim; it does sound like my kind of show. Don't know why I missed it up to now. I'm not a Netflix guy, and renting a TV series at the local video emporium, where you have to rent so many disks to get all of the series, usually ends up costing as much or more than buying the box set. But that may not be true with HBO series since they cost so much. I'll check it out....
You might be surprised, my neighbor wanted to get caught up with "Prison Break" and she rented the entire first season from Blockbuster for about $20 for 7 days, it was 6 or 7 discs I believe, not really a bad deal. Personally, Blockbuster is not a place I patronize but you do what you have to do.

fredfa

09-13-06, 02:33 PM

The New Season
NBC Streams All Its New Shows
New Ad-Supported Content Will Be Showcased on 'NBC 24/7' - NBC Universal's Video Player
NBC News Release September 13, 2006

BURBANK – September 13, 2006 -- NBC today announced plans to stream full episodes of its new Fall primetime shows on www.nbc.com for free.

The ad-supported model will allow viewers to watch episodes of their favorite NBC primetime shows on NBC 24/7, NBC Universal's video player which will re-launch on October 1st with a new enhanced high-resolution, large-format version.

Additionally, nbc.com will feature live premiere blogs from the creators, producers or cast members for every show on the air (complete list follows below). All new, returning, scripted or reality shows will host a live blog immediately after the premiere episode. Viewers will be encouraged to engage in a dialogue with the creator, producer or cast member about the episode as soon as the broadcast concludes.

The announcement was made by Jeff Gaspin, President, NBC Universal Cable Entertainment, Digital Content and Cross-Network Strategy.

"When you launch a new season, it's important that you get the shows in front of as many eyeballs as possible," said Gaspin. "We've created a variety of new, engaging digital offerings to generate excitement and drive viewership to the network."

NBC.com will offer the following programming after the network broadcast:

The first four episodes of "30 Rock," the new comedy starring Tina Fey (who also created the series), Tracy Morgan and Alec Baldwin and the new comedy "Twenty Good Years," starring Emmy winner John Lithgow ("3rd Rock from the Sun") and Jeffrey Tambor ("Arrested Development").

In addition, nbc.com will provide eight episodes of the new dramas "Kidnapped," starring Jeremy Sisto ("Six Feet Under"), Delroy Lindo ("The Cider House Rules"), Emmy winner Dana Delany ("China Beach") and Oscar winner Tim Hutton ("Ordinary People"); "Friday Night Lights," the new drama based on the theatrical film hit about high school Texas football starring Kyle Chandler ("King Kong"); "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," the critically acclaimed new drama from Emmy-winning executive producers Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme ("The West Wing"); and "Heroes," the controversial and fresh new drama about ordinary people who discover their have extraordinary powers, starring Milo Ventimiglia ("The Bedford Diaries").

New Live Premiere Blogs to Accompany Every Show on NBC

The live premiere blogs will feature the following creators, producers or cast members from each primetime show:

"Deal or No Deal" – September 18th – The Banker's Blog
"Studio 60" – September 18th – Aaron Sorkin, Creator and Executive Producer and Thomas Schlamme, Executive Producer and Director
"Law & Order: Criminal Intent" – September 19th – Warren Leight, Executive Producer
"Law & Order: SVU" – September 19th – Neal Baer, Executive Producer
"The Biggest Loser" – Wednesday, September 20th – Bob Harper, Trainer
"Kidnapped" – September 20th – Jason Smilovic, Creator and Executive Producer
"My Name Is Earl" – September 21st – Greg Garcia, Creator and Executive Producer
"The Office" – September 21st – Greg Daniels, Executive Producer
"ER" – September 21st – John Wells, Creator and Executive Producer and David Zabel, Executive Producer
"Law & Order" – September 22nd – Dick Wolf, Creator and Executive Producer
"Heroes" – September 25th – Tim Kring, Creator and Executive Producer
"Friday Night Lights" – October 3rd – Peter Berg, Creator and Executive Producer
"30 Rock" – October 11th – Tina Fey, Creator and Executive Producer
"Twenty Good Years" – October 11th – Marsh McCall, Creator and Executive Producer
"Crossing Jordan" – October 20th – Robert Rovner, Executive Producer, Jon Cowan, Executive Producer and Kathy McCormick, Executive Producer
"Las Vegas" – October 20th – Gary Scott Thompson, Creator and Executive Producer

fredfa

09-13-06, 02:39 PM

The New Season
ABC.com to Offer Seven Shows for Free Viewing

By Daisy Whitney TVWeek.com September 13, 2006

ABC will stream seven shows including "Ugly Betty" and "Lost" on ABC.com beginning Sept. 23, marking the network's widest distribution of its marquee shows online.

The network also will offer full-length, advertising-supported episodes of "Desperate Housewives," "Grey's Anatomy," "Six Degrees," "The Knights of Prosperity" and "The Nine." ABC.com ran a two-month trial of the service with two shows in May and June.

The broadcaster also said that it struck a deal for local affiliates to feature the ABC.com video player on their Web sites and to sell local ads. That allows stations to insert ads on the player, which may boost their revenue and smooth feathers ruffled when ABC last year bypassed affiliates to make its landmark deal to sell show episodes on Apple Computer's iTunes store.

The iTunes deal and the ABC.com trial in spring have helped put ABC at the forefront of networks putting TV shows on the Web. The ABC.com video player will be a permanent feature of the Web site. Its development indicates that the broadcaster wants to build up its own Web site to compete with online portals such as Google Inc. as a destination for Internet video.

The seven shows will be available on ABC.com the day after their broadcast premieres, with about four episodes from each show offered at any given time. In addition, ABC.com will include half-hour recaps of "Lost," "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy."

The ABC.com streaming initiative has been well-regarded in the industry for its ease of use and was honored with an Interactive Television Emmy Award.

In May and June, the player served more than 5.7 million episodes, and ABC said research from Frank N. Magid Associates found that 87 percent of users were likely to recommend the site to others.

http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=10738

keenan

09-13-06, 02:42 PM

Just a few thanks to make for a few people in this thread.

Whenever I finish up on some of the shows I've been watching, I'm going to watch what I have not see of "Thief" (is the dvd out yet?) and I will try to get into "The Wire". I have never seen that show but I've been hearing such good things about it this season I'm going to have to check it out now.

How is it this is the first year I've really heard anything about it in the press? I knew of the show, but I didn't know it was considered such a strong and powerful series.

So thank you, I now have two more good shows to check out. :)
There's a number of reasons why "The Wire" has never made a big splash. First and foremost, it's just not that kind of show, there are no big stars, in fact, the biggest star of the show is the city of Baltimore itself and how it relates to urban areas all over the country. Another is that it isn't pretty and flashy like say a big network primetime show, and the subject matter is about things that most folks would rather ignore or not want to know about. It's intelligent, thought-provoking TV, something that is very rare nowadays.

fredfa

09-13-06, 02:48 PM

(From Marc Berman’s Wednesday, September 13, 2006, Programming Insider column at Mediaweek.com )
National Ratings in Primetime:
Week of September 4, 2006

Ignited by the Miami/Pittsburgh NFL match-up on Thursday and the debut of Sunday Night Football (Indianapolis/New York Giants), NBC moved into the top spot for the week of Sept. 4 in households, total viewers and adults 25-54, building by as much as 75 percent over the year-ago week. Fox led among adults 18-49 (one-tenth of a rating point ahead of NBC) and adults 18-34, also posting growth from one year earlier of margins of 9 to 28 percent. ABC finished third in the five surveyed categories, with year-to-year losses of 9 to 16 percent, while CBS finished fourth, with similar erosion.

In season/series premiere news, the third season-premiere of Fox’s House roared out of the Tuesday gate, finishing second overall for the week in total viewers (19.65 million) and third among adults 18-49 (7.2/20) at 8 p.m. The debut of lead-out Standoff certainly benefited, with an initial sampling of 13.62 million viewers and a 4.7/12 among adults 18-49 -- both top 10 rankings.

Fox also had plenty to smile about on Sunday, with the season premieres of The Simpsons, American Dad, Family Guy and The War at Home all cracking the top 20 among adults 18-49. But the debuts of Thursday Fox comedies ‘Til Death and Happy Hour were thwarted by the competing football game on NBC. ‘Til Death with former Everybody Loves Raymond star Brad Garrett kicked-off with 8.82 million viewers (#24 overall) and a 3.1/10 among adults 18-49 (tied for No. 21) at 8 p.m., followed by Happy Hour at a not-so-happy 6.96 million viewers (#44) and a 2.4/ 7 among adults 18-49 (tied for #40). And that was without CBS’ upcoming Survivor: Cook Islands in the mix.

Results for other recently introduced series results on Fox are as follows:

Vanished (Monday 9 p.m.)
Viewers: 7.59 million (#39)
A18-49: 2.7/ 6 (tied for #33).

Justice (Wednesday 9 p.m.)
Viewers: 8.44 million (#29)
A18-49: 2.9/ 8 (tied for #25)

Elsewhere, NBC’s ongoing Behind the Camera made-for movie franchise reached a new low, with the Unauthorized Story of Diff’rent Strokes at just 3.90 million viewers (#79) and a 1.6/ 4 among adults 18-49 (tied for #69) on Monday from 8-10 p.m.

Here are the final national ratings for the week of September 4, 2006 (with percent change versus the comparable year-ago period in parentheses). Due to low coverage percentages caused by the debut of MyNetworkTV, ratings for soon-to-depart UPN and the WB are no longer being reported.

Households:
NBC: 6.4 rating/11 share (+45)
Fox: 5.8/10 (+23)
ABC: 4.9/ 8 (- 9)
CBS: 4.8/ 8 (- 6)

Total Viewers:
NBC: 9.70 million (+55)
Fox: 9.34 (+28)
ABC: 7.46 (-10)
CBS: 7.12 (- 5)

Adults 18-49:
Fox: 3.6/10 (+16)
NBC: 3.5/10 (+75)
ABC: 2.6/ 8 (-16)
CBS: 2.4/ 7 (- 8)

Adults 25-54:
NBC: 4.0/10 (+67)
Fox: 3.8/10 (+23)
ABC: 3.0/ 8 (-14)
CBS: 2.9/ 8 (- 6)

Adults 18-34:
Fox: 3.5/12 (+ 9)
NBC: 2.9/10 (+93)
ABC: 2.2/ 7 (-15)
CBS: 1.7/ 6 (-11)

• Source: Nielsen Media Research data

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/newsletters/proginsider/index.jsp

Gaiwan

09-13-06, 03:11 PM

Excellent info, thats pretty much what I was looking for. I knew of the premiere date but hadnt heard much about its past ratings and I was also looking to see if there was any buzz surrounding the show. Thanks again guys.

RussTC3

09-13-06, 03:11 PM

...begging again for an updated Fall program grid...

Xesdeeni
I went ahead and made a few changes. Here is what I changed:

Sunday
Put “Football Overuns” in at 7:00-7:30 and 7:30-8:00 timeslots (HD)
Corrected New Show status of “Everybody Hates Chris”
Corrected New Show status of “The War at Home”

Monday
Switched "The Class" and "How I Met Your Mother"
Added complete name to “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”

Tuesday
Switched around “House” and “Standoff”
Corrected the name of “Lets Rob…” to “Knights…Prosperity”
Added HD status to "Dancing with the Stars"

Wednesday
Added HD status to Dancing with the Stars" Results Show

Thursday
Removed “Big Day” and “Notes from…Underbelly” and replaced with ‘Ugly Betty” (name changed)
Replaced "The O.C." with "Celebrity Duets"

Friday
Replaced “Betty the Ugly” with “America’s Funniest Home Videos”
Replaced Trading Spouses with "Celebrity Duets - Results Show" (HD)

If there are any mistakes, or if the person who made the initial Excel file wants to redo it, they or someone else can.

fredfa

09-13-06, 03:31 PM

Thanks again Russ. I appreciate the hard work.

The updated grid is now at the bottom of post # 2, which contains the network schedules.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=4265637&&#post4265637

fredfa

09-13-06, 03:33 PM

fredfa

09-13-06, 03:38 PM

TV Notebook
The view from the 'Today' couch
From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher”

The last two weeks have been the tale of two TV makeovers.

“The View” added Rosie O’Donnell to its couch last week, increasing the chaos level exponentially. The show also unveiled a garish new set that was designed to assault the retina, if not the tear ducts.

“Today,” on the other hand, added former “View” resident Meredith Vieira and her throaty chuckle to its morning lineup on Wednesday. She fit right in not only with co-anchor Matt Lauer, but with the show’s new, slightly space-age but soothing set.

NBC may be missing Katie Couric -- though maybe not, since Brian Williams’ “Nightly News” appears to be reasserting itself as the ratings leader after Couric’s CBS “Evening News” got a big first-week bump -- but no matter: Hiring Vieira was clearly a smart move.

Vieira seemed a little stiff reading the news headlines, something she’ll no doubt ease into more as time goes on, and her interview with “Meet the Press” host Tim Russert lacked Katie Couric’s deceptively nonchalant tenacity, but Vieira has genuine chemistry with Lauer, which is something that can’t be manufactured.

Speaking of chemistry, the new “View” lineup seems to be hurting for it. And adding one more host to the lineup, which the show plans to do later this year, seems to be courting disaster, since the present fractious group can be prone to shrieking all over each other.

With Vieira, "The View" was a pleasant if occasionally prickly girls-only kaffee klastch, but now it's the simply the Rosie show, though this week she's clearly making an effort to back out of the spotlight a bit. Still, Rosie doesn't appear made for second-banana status.

Things were decidedly more harmonious at "Today."

“I have not been more excited to come to work since the day after Bryant [Gumbel] announced he was leaving,” Lauer quipped in the show’s opening minutes. Later, Vieira and Lauer joked about a recent People shot of Lauer’s well-developed torso; in a short clip, President Bush was seen clutching the magazine picture, asking Lauer for an autograph before a recent interview with the “Today” host.

“He’s turned on by your abs,” Vieira joked.

The celebration of the new host included a live feed from her former grade school, and Williams stopped by to bring Vieira flowers and comment on the new set’s soothing, spa-like aura.

“I ordered the seaweed wrap and the hot stone massage,” he joked.

The pace of the broadcast was energetic and genial, even giddy at times. Much of the middle hour was taken up with “Today’s” wedding contest, which dragged a bit, and Lauer’s interview with a schoolteacher who slept with a 14-year old was spread out over two seemingly endless segments.

Still, Vieira and Lauer are an inspired pairing. They were even able to turn her flubs into jokes, the true sign of on-air chemistry. Early on, she messed up a line leading in to a commercial. “Redo! Redo!” Lauer yelped.

No need. The warm Vieira fit right in to “Today’s” mix of frothy celebrity updates, tabloid stories and bits and bites of actual news.

“Ultimately people to see me as just me, a normal person trying to get through the day just like they are,” she said in a biographical profile that aired in the first hour. Well, most “normal people” aren’t paid millions to sit on a couch and joke around between interviews and news headlines, but Vieira’s talent is that she pulls of her regular-gal persona with élan and charm.

http://tempo.typepad.com/entertainment_tv/

fredfa

09-13-06, 04:15 PM

TV Notebook
Pregnant pause in Fox pursuit of business channel?
By Phil Rosenthal Chicago Tribune Media Columnist September 13, 2006

When discussing the launch of a business news channel to take on CNBC, News Corp.'s Fox News Channel keeps saying "if."

And it keeps sounding like "when."

FNC on Tuesday named former CNBC correspondent Alexis Glick director of business news. That's a management position, but the announcement went out of its way to note that "in the event FNC secures the distribution necessary to launch a business channel, Glick would also serve in an on-air capacity."

Since Glick, as an on-camera presence, was for a time considered a contender to replace Katie Couric on NBC's "Today," this news, coming on the eve of Meredith Vieira's debut as Matt Lauer's NBC couch mate, leaves little doubt of Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes' game plan.

Glick, in the third trimester of a pregnancy, will work behind the scenes with Neil Cavuto, whose official title is vice president and managing editor of business, although he also appears on FNC and on Fox-owned stations, including WFLD-Ch. 32.

For now.

"I expect he and Alexis will work together to create an even stronger business unit and prepare for the launch of a possible business channel," Ailes, whose Fox News Channel turns 10 next month, said in a statement. "While we are not announcing the launch of such a channel, hiring Alexis enables us to be prepared if plans move forward."

Ailes told a group of critics this summer that he has a business plan for a Fox business channel, but it is predicated on getting adequate shelf space on cable systems and the like.

"And you have to negotiate that," he said. "Stay tuned. It probably won't happen this year. After that, it could happen, and we are in active negotiations on it."

In other words, once Glick gives birth, look for this baby to be next.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/columnists/chi-0609130105sep13,0,6712284.column

fredfa

09-13-06, 04:35 PM

Washington Notebook
Sen. Gordon Smith On Stuck Telecom Bill: Help!
By John Eggerton Broadcasting & Cable 9/13/2006

We need your help.

That was Oregon Republican Senator Gordon Smith's message to The Media Institute lunch crowd Wednesday on passage of a now-controversial communications reform bill in the Senate.

Commerce Committee member Smith said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) was trying to help get the 60 votes needed to bring the bill to a floor vote (essentially to make it filibuster-proof), but said that likely won't happen, if at all, until a lame duck session after the November elections. "I expect to be here until Christmas Eve," he said.

Smith's specific topic was the broadcast flag content protection technology that is part of the omnibus--more omnibus than he would have liked--Senate bill. But his text was a general handicap of the bill's prospects, which have been dimmed over the issue network neutrality, and warning about what its defeat would mean.

If the bill doesn't pass, he said, the country will fall behind in broadband deployment to the tune of a trillion dollars and a million-plus jobs lost. "We need your help, we need 60 votes," he told the crowd of media executives.

Asked why the network neutrality supporters had been so successful in impeding the bill, given they had been outspent by the telcos on lobbying, Smith said he could only speculate, but pointed to the populist argument that the internet, that came to us "almost by accident" and had become available virtually for free. They don't want to change that."

"I'd love everything to be free too," he said, but argued that if the country is to get to the "next level" of broadband, and get it to more and more Americans, "you allow the marketplace to work. If you say right up front you can't charge this or you can't discriminate as to customers who bring volume, then you take a tremendous incentive away from investment."

The bill, in addition to protecting broadcast digital content via the flag, primarily eases video franchise regs to allow telcos to more easily get into the business and build out broadband. The flag is key, he argued, because it will pave the wave for content that will drive subscribers.

"All that goes in the trashcan," he said, if a bill doesn't pass. Calling network neutrality the Elephant in the Room--though given the partisan split on the issue, it is more like a Donkey--Smith said that it was a "mistake" to be talking about the issue because it could thwart all the good that could come out of the bill's passage.

Saying the network neutrality proponents had some good arguments--saying they frame it as an issue of consumer protection--he called the debate a "game of chicken."

Smith said one of the "grassroots complaints" he hears "all the time" is over cable bills, a reason he thought pressure would build for the bill, "hopefully some middle ground will be struck, and we can move this bill. but where it stands, it's stuck, and I wish it were otherwise."

Republicans have already threatened to make a campaign issue out of the bill's stalemate, pitching it as Democrats standing in the way of broadband deployment and price and service competition to cable.

If the bill ultimately fails, he said plan B was to separate out the broadcast flag part and try to pass it separately.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6371856

fredfa

09-13-06, 04:37 PM

Cable Notebook
Starz to Help Comcast Boost HD VOD
MultiChannel News 9/13/2006

Comcast will offer 100 hours of HD fare via its Comcast On Demand video-on-demand service starting Friday, including at least 20 HD movies from Starz Entertainment Group, the two companies announced Wednesday.

The initiative will be highlighted by the debut of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Friday, more than one week before its scheduled air date on Starz HD.

The MSO will also offer a Starz Free Preview Friday-Sunday for all of the programmer’s services, including the Starz suite of premium channels, HD and newly launched Starz HD On Demand and Encore HD On Demand.

“Customers have clearly expressed their desire for more HD programming, and our fall HD VOD lineup will become the destination for HD movie fans," Comcast senior vice president and general manager of video services Page Thompson said in a prepared statement.

"The addition of Starz HD to Comcast's growing HD VOD library and early premieres like The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe are helping to transform the HD-viewing experience for our customers by giving them more programming on their schedules,” Thompson added.

http://www.multichannel.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleid=CA6371861

VisionOn

09-13-06, 08:36 PM

The MSO will also offer a Starz Free Preview Friday-Sunday for all of the programmer’s services, including the Starz suite of premium channels, HD and newly launched Starz HD On Demand and Encore HD On Demand.

(looks sadly at Time Warner Cable HD channel lineup)

Sigh. :(

randosel

09-13-06, 09:21 PM

I'm going to watch what I have not see of "Thief" (is the dvd out yet?)

There has been no announcement of a DVD release of THIEF. But with an Emmy win.. who knows if that changed anything.

re THE WIRE. I initially watched it because of David's previous work on the NBC's Homicide: Life on the Street. I didn't really like THE WIRE initially. But as things progressed and the story started to develop, I could not stop watching it. Every episode takes it's time. A lot of the episodes does not necessarly have an "ending" like on many shows. Example, many shows need to have a cliffhanger or something resolved at the end of every single episode.

keenan

09-13-06, 09:23 PM

There has been no announcement of a DVD release of THIEF. But with an Emmy win.. who knows if that changed anything.

re THE WIRE. I initially watched it because of David's previous work on the NBC's Homicide: Life on the Street. I didn't really like THE WIRE initially. But as things progressed and the story started to develop, I could not stop watching it. Every episode takes it's time. A lot of the episodes does not necessarly have an "ending" like on many shows. Example, many shows need to have a cliffhanger or something resolved at the end of every single episode.
Yes, this is another reason why it's not very popular, it doesn't have that "canned" gratification at the end of the episode. It's more a visual novel.

fredfa

09-13-06, 09:24 PM

DBS Notebook
EchoStar Seeking 120-Day DNS Cutoff Transition
By Ted Hearn MultiChannel News 9/13/2006

In a court filing late Tuesday, EchoStar Communications asked for at least 120 business days to comply if ordered by a federal judge to terminate Big Four network programming to more than 800,000 subscribers largely located in rural areas.

EchoStar is facing a sweeping injunction from a federal judge in south Florida that would bar it from selling ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox programming to a class of subscribers who qualify under federal law to purchase imported network signals because local affiliates can’t be viewed with off-air antennas.

News Corp. -- which controls DirecTV, EchoStar’s main rival -- is insisting that the scope of the injunction should include all four networks. But EchoStar claimed in the court filing that because 95% of network affiliates have settled, any injunction should be narrow, applying just to the delivery of Fox programming in the 25 markets where Fox owns TV stations.

EchoStar is in legal trouble after court rulings found that the direct-broadcast satellite company sold distant network signals to hundreds of thousands of ineligible customers. The sudden cutoff of popular network programming has some on Capitol Hill worried. Senate Commerce Committee chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) is trying to pass legislation that would avoid a massive cutoff.

EchoStar told the court it would need at least four months to help consumers find alternative means of receiving network programming, including purchase of a local-TV-signal package in the 165 markets where that option is available.

The company added that another option for cutoff subscribers was an “off-air antenna,” but that seemed a strange rationale for extra time because the distant network option was created by Congress to serve viewers for whom off-air antennas were useless.

Lastly, EchoStar said that without a reasonable transition period, it feared that 10 company-owned-and-operated call centers would become “clogged,” upsetting existing and potential customers seeking personal service.

http://www.multichannel.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleid=CA6371889

fredfa

09-13-06, 09:30 PM

TV Notebook
Good Morning, Meredith
By Rich Heldenfels in his Akron Beacon Journal TV blog Sept. 13, 2006

Meredith Vieira started on the ''Today'' show this morning. Here's a preview of the bloggish column I wrote about her debut for tomorrow's Beacon Journal:

The best moment on Wednesday's Today show may have been NBC anchor Brian Williams making fun of the daytime program's new set. The ickiest was probably the interview with Debra Lafave, an apparently inarticulate and overly made-up woman famous for having sex with a 14-year-old boy when she was 23 and a teacher in his school.

Standing in between -- and sitting, and even dancing a smidge -- was Meredith Vieira, the newscaster more recently known as one of the co-hosts of ABC's The View. Wednesday was her first appearance as new co-host of Today, succeeding Katie Couric, who has gone to CBS to anchor its evening news.

Today has never been shy about playing up the personalities and private lives of its stars, and there was plenty of that in the first hour-and-a-half of the three-hour program, which was all I could stand to watch.

I maxed out when Willard Scott and Gene Shalit took Vieira in hand for a brief stroll while singing Follow the Yellow Brick Road. But even before that, I was reminding myself -- indeed, pleading with myself -- that most people don't watch an entire Today telecast, and I had probably seen everything I needed in the first half hour.

After all, this morning was about introducing Vieira to an audience that may not have watched The View, let alone her news work before that. So in the first half hour, people learned that:

-- Vieira thought that being with co-host Matt Lauer was ``like the first day of school and I'm sitting next to the cutest guy.''

-- Her family had given her a bracelet to mark the occasion.

-- She once had a hamster named Al. (This by way of greeting weatherman and former Clevelander Al Roker.)

-- She thinks NBC's Tim Russert is ``a genius.''

-- She laughs easily.

-- She's comfortable needling Lauer, bringing up his recent swimsuit photo in People magazine and the ribbing he got about it from President Bush.

-- She's very human, messing up her first introduction of a commercial break.

Not that it was all frivolity. Vieira interviewed Russert about the latest political controversy between the White House and the Democrats, to demonstrate early on that she can talk about hard-news issues.

Nor is she treated any differently from other elements of the show in terms of being the story instead of reporting it. Witness Lauer's People photo, or the tour of the show's new studio.

Still, she wasn't kidding much when she said the second half-hour was ``all about me.'' A prepared profile of her, covering her childhood, her career and her family life, ran about 6 1/2 minutes. Lauer's interview with Lafave, touted repeatedly during the newscast, wasn't as long.

Which gets to the basic lesson of Wednesday's show. Maybe you'll like Vieira. Maybe you won't. Either way, you'll see plenty of her. And I'll still prefer getting the morning's headlines from the Internet.

http://blogs.ohio.com/beacon_tv/

fredfa

09-13-06, 10:37 PM

TV Notebook
Bob Woodruff Returning to ABC News
Note From Lee Woodruff
(From "The World Newser" at abcnews.com)

Below is an excerpt of an email that Lee Woodruff, Bob’s wife, sent today to friends and family.

Dear Friends and Family,

You haven’t heard much from us lately but that's a good thing. We spent the summer together doing a lot of healing and just being a family. And it felt great. I took a break from communicating to the world this summer and it was nice to step back.

Bob has continued his therapy from our house with a web cam. He also went back to NY for a few weeks and spent time at the ABC offices– he’s planning to be back at work more regularly in the fall.

It has been amazing to have him home for such a big chunk of time. We’ve realized how little he has really been at our summer home over the years. If we try to look for little gifts out of a horrible situation, one of them is the amount of time we've been able to spend all together after so many years of him being on the road. It makes me sad that summer is over.

I think if you haven't seen Bob, you would be amazed. His hair has grown in; he has been playing some killer tennis, driving the boat for the kids to tube, doing some Pilates with my sister and playing scrabble like a fiend. He looks and sounds so much more like himself each week.

The other big milestone of the summer…Bob celebrated his 45th birthday. He made it!!!!!

We remain blessed as a family. Lots of love.

Lee and Bob

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theworldnewser/2006/09/note_from_lee_w.html

fredfa

09-13-06, 11:35 PM

DBS Notebook
Don't Sink Our Subs, EchoStar Tells Court
By John Eggerton Broadcasting & Cable 9/13/2006

EchoStar has told a Florida district court that it should not have to pull the distant network signals of 800,000 subscribers because circumstance have changed dramatically since a court ordered it to, and consumers would be unduly and unfairly hurt by the move. Also, they say, competitor DirectTV would directly benefit from the move.

The Florida court had given the company until Sept. 12 to explain why the court should not immediately impose a permanent injunction against delivery of those signals as ordered by the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

Fox has argued that even though Echostar recently settled complaints over distant-signal delivery with 95% of the affected stations, the injunction should still apply.

EchoStar says that that Aug. 25, $100 million, settlement--with all but Fox affiliates--is a "substantial" change in circumstance since the injunction was ordered. It also says that in light of the settlement, a permanent injunction would be "unjust, particularly to consumers."

It would also vitiate the 100 million settlement," EchoStar pointed out.

Fox, which did not settle with Echostar, on Aug. 31 asked the court to issue the injunction.

The networks and station affiliate associations sued EchoStar back in 1998 for delivering distant networkTV signals to ineligible households.

While the $100 million covered 95% of the complaining stations, which included the affiliate associations of ABC, CBS, NBC, and even Fox, the Fox-owned stations did not settle, and Fox Broadcasting argues that the payout does not change the federal appeals court directive based on its finding that EchoStar repeatedly violated the act. Fox is owned by News Corp., which controls competing DBS service DirecTV.

Echostar Wednesday argued that Fox's refusal to join the $100 million settlement was so that DireTV could then grab the customers whose distant signals EchoStar was forced to yank.

Fox argued in its court filing Aug. 31 that the injunction was based on the Eleventh Circuit's finding of a "willful and repeated pattern of delivering copyrighted programs to ineligible households," and that "even the parties to the litigation themselves cannot alter this Court's obligation to comply with the injunction mandate."

Echostar counters that the changed circumstance empowers the Florida court not to impose the injunction.

Fox points to a harshly-worded opinion of the three-judge panel of the Eleventh Circuit back in May, in which it declared: "We have found no indication that EchoStar was ever interested in complying with laws regulating how satellite TV companies deliver broadcast stations to their customers."

The case is part of a long-running copyright dispute between broadcasters and satellite companies over homes located in the fringes of TV markets. TV stations want to reach every home in their areas. But subscribers in fringe areas often prefer their satellite companies to deliver stations from, say, New York City rather than Hartford, Conn.

According to law, EchoStar--and DirecTV--are permitted to deliver so-called "distant" network signals only to homes that cannot receive a sufficiently clear signal from their local affiliate of that network. But EchoStar’s method of determining which customers were eligible for the distant signals has been a bone of contention-- and litigation-- for years.

Broadcasters complained that EchoStar abuses the rules and violates the Satellite Home Viewer Act by regularly delivering out of market stations in competition to local stations in the market that carry the same network programming. The Eleventh Circuit court agreed.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6371879

fredfa

09-14-06, 12:08 AM

TV Notebook
Vieira Comes Alive on 'Today'
The new co-host's serious and silly sides are a perfect replacement for Katie Couric.
By Matea Gold Los Angeles Times Staff Writer September 14, 2006

NEW YORK -- Sitting behind a gleaming new white desk, scores of "Today" fans waving through the windows behind her, Meredith Vieira looked positively giddy Wednesday as she started her first day on the job.

The new co-anchor of NBC's top-rated morning show drummed her fingers on the desk and giggled nervously as Matt Lauer welcomed her "to our family and to our team."

"I feel like it's the first day of school and I'm sitting next to the cutest guy, you know?" she gushed, clasping his hands with hers.

Lauer said he has "not been so excited to come to work since the day after Bryant [Gumbel] announced he was leaving," referring to his predecessor.

The chumminess continued throughout the morning. Vieira high-fived news reader Ann Curry, teased weatherman Al Roker ("I'm particularly fond of you because I had a hamster named Al growing up") and received a bouquet of flowers from "NBC Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams.

Beyond the lovefest, Vieira's first appearance on "Today" was designed to showcase her self-deprecating, down-to-earth manner, a style producers think will be Vieira's biggest asset in replacing Katie Couric.

During a video montage of her life and career, which included an early clip of the then-novice reporter earnestly embracing a snowman, the 52-year-old admitted that she fell into her career.

Throughout the program, Vieira cracked jokes about her age — "I'm going to be the broad in broadcasting" — and admitted how nervous she was about her new gig.

"Ultimately, I want people to see me as just me: a normal person, trying to get through the day, just like they are," she said.

Though Vieira's arrival on "Today" has been largely overshadowed by Couric's move last week to "CBS Evening News," NBC has not shrunk from promoting its new anchor. Throughout the show, the picture cut away to shots of a plane flying a "Welcome Meredith" banner over the New York skyline.

Vieira's first day also coincided with the unveiling of the new "Today" set — an ultramodern, stylized room designed in a palette of whites. Behind the new cream-colored couch, a wall of incandescent glass cubes was cast in soft oranges and yellows. After presenting Vieira with her welcoming bouquet, Williams quipped that he was waiting for his seaweed wrap.

Wednesday's program wasn't all levity. Vieira — a longtime co-host of "The View" and a veteran of "60 Minutes" — did have a chance to show her news chops during a sit-down with "Meet the Press" moderator Tim Russert. She seemed at ease discussing the political implications of President Bush's Sept. 11 anniversary speech and the White House strategy for buttressing public support for Iraq.

But most of the program was devoted to the kind of celebratory antics for which "Today" is well-known. Producers surprised Vieira with a live feed from the Quaker girls school she attended in Providence, R.I., where the students and several of her friends had gathered to celebrate her first day.

And in a taped piece, Vieira spun jubilantly around in Rockefeller Plaza, flinging a red beret off her head à la Mary Tyler Moore.

The three-hour show concluded with a montage of the day's program, scenes of Vieira doubled over in laughter and ribbing her new co-workers, moments already gilded in nostalgia.

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-wk-vieira14sep14,0,5158904,print.story?coll=cl-tvent

fredfa

09-14-06, 10:02 AM

The TV Column
Meredith and Matt Make Merry
By Lisa de Moraes Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, September 14, 2006; C01

"Ifeel like it's the first day at school and I'm sitting next to the cutest guy!" Meredith Vieira gushes on her first day co-anchoring NBC's "Today" show, after nine years playing The Sane One on ABC's morning gal-gaggle "The View."

"I haven't been more excited to come to work since the day Bryant [Gumbel] announced he was leaving!" Matt Lauer replies, and you believe he really means it. If you close your eyes and try to imagine it's still 1991, it's almost as if Katie Couric never happened to the show.

Today it's all about Meredith, starting with carefully orchestrated, good-natured ribbing between the two hosts.

It's still 'Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira,' " Meredith says of their billing on the morning infotainment show.

"I don't think that's going to change," Matt says.

Is the joking over already?

Changing the subject slightly, Meredith assures him, "I'm going to be the 'broad' in broadcasting" for which, of course, there is no good response a guy can safely give, and Matt wisely doesn't go there.

Later, Meredith holds up a photo of Matt looking pretty cut in swim trunks at the beach, then producers show a clip of President Bush holding up the same magazine photo and asking Matt for his autograph.

"He's turned on by your abs!" Meredith teases.

Matt threatens to show viewers an old photo of Meredith from Esquire magazine. Peals of laughter.

"Today" is also debuting its new Hi-Def set this morning. "Hi-Def is dangerous," Meredith complains to Matt, who stretches back his crow's-feet with his hands.

Remind me again how this show is different from "The View" and Meredith has returned to "journalism"? Oh, that's right -- Ann Curry, a.k.a. Did Not Get the Job, reads the news for a few minutes every so often.

Curry reads. Fires in California, more dead in Middle East. One or two election results.

Enough downer news -- say hello to "Today" weatherman-and-so-much-more Al Roker, Meredith.

"I had a hamster named Al, growing up," Meredith says.

"He's dead."

"I'll go get my wheel," Roker quips.

She tells viewers she's a nervous wreck taking the co-anchor chair on "Today" -- understandable given that it's been No. 1 in morning ratings for a decade and has been television's most profitable show. She displays the lovely bracelet her husband and children got her to buck her up on her first day. But she appears confident and pretty relaxed -- as would anyone who'd wrangled Dopey, Goofy, Crazy and Babs for nine years on "The View" and lived to tell the story.

Still, though Meredith was a journalist once upon a time, even served as correspondent on CBS's venerable newsmag "60 Minutes," those years at "The View" do seem to call for a little rehab. So Meredith gets to do "Today's" first "serious" segment on this day, plugging NBC's Sunday Beltway show anchor Tim Russert.

Which, coincidentally, is exactly how CBS News handled Couric's first day on the "CBS Evening News" -- her first interview was with a journalist. Journalists interviewing journalists is usually pretty safe: You can bet your subject isn't going to try to nuke you -- unless you go with someone from, say, Fox News Channel, in which case you're just too dumb to live.

Anyway, Russert tells Meredith the Dems are asking for equal time after President Bush's Sept. 11 speech -- which was carried by all the networks -- and that events on the ground in Iraq over the next few weeks will have much more influence on voters in upcoming elections than any blah, blah, blah-ing by either party back in the United States.

Meredith calls him a "genius"; Russert simpers.

Enough downer news. Let's get back to . . . Meredith!

"Coming up this half-hour, aw shucks, it's all about me," she says.

"As they say at the dentist, this is not going to hurt a bit," Matt says. Then he plugs his upcoming exclusive interview with Debra LaFave -- the middle school teacher who made big news when she had sex with one of her 14-year-old students. NBC News has been teasing viewers for days with bits from this interview in hopes it will goose the numbers on Meredith's first day.

But first -- a bit about Meredith, who, turns out, drank lots of Tab in her youth, loved Paul McCartney, thought about becoming a Rockette, was nicknamed TuTu LaRue because she tap dances. As she gets older, Meredith falls into journalism, does local TV, moves to New York, does the Esquire photo shoot Matt alluded to sporting hair teased into a hornet's nest and a short skirt showing miles of legs. Gets grief -- gets gig on "60 Minutes."

"She's a great broadcaster -- loaded with sex appeal," "60 Minutes" creator/legend Don Hewitt says in a taped bit.

Meredith gets married, has baby. Big turnoff for Hewitt: "She said her baby is more important than my 'baby' -- that rankled me."

Cut to: Meredith reminiscing. "I thought, 'Why would I do daytime television?' " Husband tells her, "You're a newswoman who doesn't want to report."

That settles it; she does "The View" and later starts hosting ABC's syndicated version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."

Segue to creepy slo-mo shot of Meredith, outdoors at Rockefeller Center, wearing huge red beret that she takes off and, ripping off the iconic opening sequence on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," tosses into the air as the "MTM" theme plays in the background.

"Poor Mary Tyler Moore, she's probably gagging now," Meredith jokes. She's probably right -- we definitely gagged a little bit.

One ad break later, Roker promises a spanking machine. Sadly, it never materializes.

Almost as good/naughty, we get Matt's interview with LaFave, who's sporting her long super-blond hair and bright red lipstick.

Matt wonders rhetorically why her tawdry story became national news. LaFave says she has no idea. Matt, undeterred, plows ahead: "I'll say it: Do you think it's because you're pretty?" he asks. Yes, she's a victim of prettiness. Matt forgets to add she's also a victim of blondness and whiteness.

"I think so -- and sex sells," LaFave says, looking pretty darned disgusted with "the media." Like they violated her or something. Oh wait, she's the one who had sex with a minor. So hard to keep the bad people straight on this story.

LaFave, incidentally, is under house arrest -- but a judge gave her a timeout so she could do the interview to help Meredith celebrate her first day on "Today."

Matt takes viewers through her close encounter with her student: first sex at her apartment; first sex at school. "Yeah, he wanted it. Yeah, I gave it to him," she tells Matt.

Want more? Sorry, gotta watch "Dateline," Matt tells viewers. Because it's back to Meredith, which is to say Brian Williams, anchor of NBC's evening newscast, who shows up with flowers.

What seems like an eternity is taken up with "Today's" wedding competition: Two couples who want to be married on national TV are told to decorate wedding cakes to express who they are. After they're done, Matt tries to get Meredith to smell one of the cakes.

She leans toward the cake and Curry, a.k.a. Did Not Get the Job, rushes forward and grabs Meredith and pulls her back, explaining that Matt was probably going to push her face into the cake. And all in all, this was extremely menschy given that she Did Not Get the Job. We like her better for it.

Then Meredith walks over and puts icing on Matt's nose.

"I can't believe you were going to smell that cake," Matt chides.

"At the end of the day, who looks stupid?" Meredith responds.

"You were going to push my whole face in the cake and you know it."

This is getting off to a really good start.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/13/AR2006091300884_pf.html

fredfa

09-14-06, 10:12 AM

Critic’s Notebook
This 'Survivor' may surprise
By Jonathan Storm Philadelphia Inquirer Television Critic Sep. 14, 2006

Survivor divides its tribes along ethnic and racial lines tonight. The world will continue to spin.

The series, which premieres in its 13th go-around at 8 PM ET/PT on CBS, has always been a fascinating social experiment and top-rated TV series, and everyone involved is too smart to mess up either characteristic by flaunting racial stereotypes.

But that hasn't stopped grandstanding politicians and activists from calling for the show's cancellation and the tar-and-feathering of executive producer Mark Burnett and host Jeff Probst.

"We're sensitive people, and we understand their concern," Probst said in a conference call with TV critics, "but they have absolutely no idea what they're condemning... . If people give it a chance, they're going to be surprised at the results."

I believe him. Even in its dullest incarnations, Survivor has been surprising. There's just no telling what people are going to do. "Look... at all the jackasses we've had on the show who were white," Probst said. "White people who can't swim, [who] make the same ridiculous social mistakes, [who] were bigots."

The unpredictable interactions, combined with stunning nature photography and the natural suspense of the game, makes Survivor one of the few reality shows worth watching.

The racial divide won't last long. Unlike in recent seasons, an advance copy of the first episode was not made available for review, so specifics remain unknown. But most likely, the four five-person teams will meld into two larger teams in the first few episodes, just as the age- and gender-segregated mini-teams did last season, when one member of each made it to the vaunted Final Four.

Shot this time in the Cook Islands (where executives could languish in one of the South Pacific's most comfy resorts while contestants starved in the wilderness a mile away), the show begins with four tribes of five: African American, Asian, Caucasian and Hispanic.

Contestants range from a guy who sells photocopiers to a policewoman whose cop father was murdered and who herself was seriously wounded by a gunman. There are two professional musicians: a heavy-metal guitarist who also wrestles under the name "Spanish Fly," and a man who has recorded with Ray Charles, Michael Jackson and Paul Anka. A third has made a hip-hop CD but now sells shoes. Many players are first-generation Americans, and there are immigrants from Vietnam, Peru, Mexico.

There's a large contingent of L.A.-based apiring showbizzers. For Survivor, the group is noticeably middle-aged. Fewer than half are in their 20s. Only two are under 25. Two have graduate degrees. They're both Asian.

Uh-oh.

Christopher J. Wright has written a book about the series, Tribal Warfare: Survivor and the Political Unconscious of Reality Television, analyzing how people from different economic classes perceive the show.

"At first, I was kind of appalled," he said when asked in a phone interview about the racial divide this time around. "I think it's mainly a publicity stunt to get ratings."

But Wright said he agreed with Probst that the active recruitment of minorities, left behind in the traditional casting approach that forced contestants to apply, was a watershed that could produce more diverse casts for the life of the series.

"It might have been more interesting if they were mixed together in two tribes at the beginning," he said. As numbers dwindled, "would the people of each race who are left stick with their tribe mates, or join together by race?"

He, too, said it was too early to criticize the ethnic split. "We're going to have to wait and watch and see how it turns out... . It's still going to be fascinating, like it always is. It's only a question of, 'Will it be a fascinating train wreck?' "

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/entertainment/television//15512936.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

fredfa

09-14-06, 10:30 AM

TV Notebook
It's fall, and the 800 lb. gorila is dozing
By Kevin Downey MediaLife Magazine Sep 14, 2006

For the longest time, Univision could seem to do no wrong. If it did, the Spanish-language network was so large it almost didn't matter.

Now it does matter.

Unvision is still the No. 1 Spanish-language network, and the nation's fifth-largest broadcaster, but as it enters the fall season it's showing a distinct lack of nimbleness with a primetime lineup that offering little in the way of new or innovative programming.

This comes at a time when its competitors, such as Telemundo, are on the rise. Telemundo has been especially aggressive in beefing up its programming, focusing on original content it produces in the U.S. or Mexico, including an upcoming version of parent NBC’s “Deal or No Deal.”

“They are probably being a bit complacent,” observes Teddy Hayes, vice president of media services at Los Angeles-based La Agencia de Orci, speaking of Univision.

Univision isn’t in immediate danger of falling from No. 1, but there's the real risk that if it doesn't move quickly to improve its programming, ratings could be in for a serious tumble.

They're already in decline. Univision’s 18-49 primetime audience for the period Sept. 19, 2005, through July was 1.85 million viewers, down 9 percent on a year-to-year basis. Its younger-skewing sister network, TeleFutura, was down 15 percent, to 318,000.

Meanwhile, Telemundo saw its audience grow 27 percent, to 649,000, while upstart Azteca America doubled its audience from a year ago, to 126,000 viewers.

And Telmundo is hardly Univision's only worry. A bigger one is the threat of the English-language networks, which are vying to win over bilingual Hispanics. One approach is with novelas, or soap operas, that have long been the staple of Hispanic TV, including the new MyNetworkTV’s two-hour daily block, which debuted on Tuesday.

The worry of losing such viewers to the English-language networks will only grow as more immigrants learn English.

Univision’s strategy this year, as it is most seasons, is to stick with what works, much like CBS among the English-language networks. But also like CBS many of its shows are beyond their prime.

Univision is relying on a daily primetime block of novelas produced and originally aired in Mexico or South America, imported to the U.S through long-term deals with with Mexico’s Televisa and Venezuela’s Venevision. These novelas include “La Fea Mas Bella,” the latest incarnation of Colombia’s “Betty La Fea,” which is the basis for ABC’s upcoming “Ugly Betty.”

As for this year, new novelas like “Duelo de Pasiones,” set on a Mexican coffee plantation, will be capped off with variety shows at 10 p.m., including “Don Francisco Presenta,” with the host of Univision’s long-running variety show, “Sabado Gigante.”

Univision will also air specials such as the “Latin Grammy Awards,” sports like soccer tournament Copa America, and it will continue with newer versions of a weekend reality hit in which regular people are paired with celebrities, “Cantando por un Sueno,” or “Singing for a Dream.”

But media buyers say the Hispanic audience’s taste is changing as the population becomes increasingly English-dominant and, more significant, accustomed to watching American programs.

Univision's recent sale to a group of investors may eventually lead to changes. But this transaction won’t be finalized until early next year, meaning any shakeup to Univision’s strategy will probably be held off at least until next fall.

“Univision will be fine,” says Hayes. “But, certainly, with Telemundo and even Azteca America producing their primetime programming in the States, the more at risk Univision is. I don’t think anything will happen tomorrow, but it’s an insidious down-the-road type of thing.”

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_7275.asp

fredfa

09-14-06, 11:11 AM

TV Sports
NFL Sunday Ticket HD Channels

The HD channel assignments for the NFL Sunday Ticket package have been added to this week’s HD Football listings at the top of the first post in the thread.

fredfa

09-14-06, 11:19 AM

Many of you receive WGN in your cable or satellite packages. If you want to watch the end of The WB, it will be shown there. (All times in this story are Central.)
Critic’s Notebook
I spy a good drama
…plus Fox's late-night show and the death of the WB

A few notable shows to watch this weekend:

• One of the ongoing disappointments of the cable world is that A&E has consistently -- and expensively -- hyped reality swill such as “Gene Simmons Family Jewels,” while doing a poor job of promoting the best show on the network, the scripted spy drama “MI-5.” Sometimes you wonder why A&E, which used to stand for Arts and Entertainment, airs this galvanizing show at all, given that the network appears to be determined to bury it (airing it at 10 p.m. on a Friday? What’s that about?).

It’s a shame, because the imported British spy thriller is smartly plotted, well-acted and engrossing, and in its fourth year, “MI-5” is timely as well; the first story of the season concerns a series of bombs in central London. In “MI-5,” craven mistakes, unheralded bravery and personal trauma are all part of the cloak and dagger world of intelligence agents, and fans of “24” and intelligent drama in general should seek out this hidden gem.

• It’s far too soon to say that Fox has broken its late-night curse (it has never been able to successfully launch a show in the wee hours), but “Talkshow With Spike Feresten” (11 p.m. Saturday, Fox) is a disarming entry into the late-night sweepstakes. Feresten, a former “Late Show With David Letterman” staffer and “Seinfeld” writer, is engaging in a slightly weird, self-mocking, Letterman-esque way, with only occasional forays into dippy post-frat humor.

In a skit that has a Fox executive tapping Feresten to host a late-night show (after Dave Chappelle turns the network down), the executive asks, “Who are you?” “It’s Fox. Does it matter?” Feresten replies. The guests on the first two shows, Andy Richter and Mary Lynn Rajskub, reflect Feresten’s oddball humor, and the show’s better skits, which include searching for a sidekick on some of L.A.’s meaner streets, will no doubt end up on YouTube.com soon.

• “The Amazing Race” arrives in its new Sunday home this weekend. A 90-minute special will air at 7:30 p.m. on CBS; future airings will be at 7 p.m.

I’m not saying that I hold a grudge against “The Amazing Race,” because this show has provided so much adrenaline-charged pleasure in the past, but the fact is, after the misbegotten family edition, I couldn’t really get into the following “regular” race. Here’s hoping the latest season makes me forget both the family edition and the rather forgettable one that followed.

• Finally, on Sunday, the WB marks its final night as a broadcast network. (The new CW network, which was formed by the merger of the WB and UPN networks, debuts Wednesday on WGN with a new season of “America’s Next Top Model.” Promotional programming about the new CW network and WB repeats air on WGN-Ch. 9 Monday and Tuesday).

To mark the event, the WB is airing (in the following order, starting at 5 p.m. Sunday on WGN), the “Angel” pilot, the first two episodes of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and the pilot of “Dawson’s Creek.” (Viewers who don't live in Chicago can also see the pilot of "Felicity" at 5 p.m. Eastern time. "Felicity" airs in Chicago at noon, followed by a Cubs game.)

A silent prayer that the new CW network will come up with new shows that are just as smart and addictive as the best WB fare is, of course, entirely optional.

http://tempo.typepad.com/entertainment_tv/

fredfa

09-14-06, 12:00 PM

Critic’s Notebook
The New Season
Top-rated CBS only adds 4 shows to its sleek fleet
By Kay McFadden Seattle Times TV Critic Thursday, September 14, 2006
(All times are Eastern and Pacific)

Success can breed complacency. No network demonstrates that better than CBS, which has enough front-running, highly rated scripted dramas in its lineup, and the most successful comedy block on television, to keep it competitive, if not always victorious, for the foreseeable future.

That means it can get away with only premiering four new series, none of which look like slam-dunks. They only occupy 3 1/2 hours of the schedule; even if all of them tank, the network can just fill the gaps with "CSI" and "Cold Case" reruns. Simple as that.

Give old Tiffany some credit, though. None of the new series is a police procedural and, in fact, one of them invites you to cheer for a band of criminals played by movie stars. The pilot looks like it should be on cable, or in a movie theater. That's fairly bold for CBS.

The rest is the same old, with an ensemble comedy, a lawyer vehicle for James Woods and an odd, dusty genre series. Haven't heard much in the way of anticipation or curiosity surrounding any of these shows, but CBS might not care about that lack of buzz anyway. Other series are giving us plenty to anticipate, the foremost being "Survivor: Cook Islands," which kicks off the season tonight at 8, finally stopping all the pregame screaming.

"Survivor," like most other reality competitions, was notorious for its homogeneity, and this cycle's development took things in a completely different direction. You've probably heard the squabbling over it by now, but in case you haven't, in this 13th go executive producer Mark Burnett and host Jeff Probst are dividing the teams along racial boundaries with black, Hispanic, white and Asian teams.

The announcement caused an uproar, complete with furious speculation on blogs and some eyebrow-raising odds calculated on gambling Web sites. White supremacist message boards apparently had a field day at the idea, according to reports from the Southern Poverty Law Center. That, really, is the main problem. Americans aren't too keen to be reminded that segregation and racial tension still exists.

But when I heard about it, I merely shrugged. Remember, "Survivor" divided teams by age last season and gender in another; if you didn't think race was in Burnett's deck, you were fooling yourself. The man has never been too shy to get people talking about his shows and, gee, after 12 editions, "Survivor's" potency has undeniably waned. It's been off this viewer's weekly rotation of can't-miss television for quite some time.

As I recall from when I did watch regularly, the team conceit only sticks around for a few episodes. The tribes merge, and given that they're in four groups, that's bound to happen sooner rather than later. Before it does, each tribe will be forced to vote off their own anyway, so the divide may begin along ethnic lines, but once it comes down to the finalists for the million-dollar prize, tensions always stem from, with apologies to Dr. King, the content of one's character.

The only aspect I'm curious about is this: Many minority professionals feel they have to work twice as hard to get the same level of respect their white peers get; I wonder how that will play out in the game.

But I doubt it'll even get that profound. No review tapes of tonight's episode went out to critics, but my guess is that by the end of the premiere, our collective reaction will something like, "Oh. OK." And it'll be back to the usual business of watching people starve and stab each other in the back.

Besides, if CBS's status quo of casts lacking minorities in them makes you more comfortable, then you'll be happy to know its new comedy obliges you.

Here it is, along with the rest of the new series.

'The Class'

8 p.m. Mondays, premieres Sept. 18. CBS describes "Friends" co-creator David Crane's new sitcom as: "A new comedy about a group of 20-somethings who are inextricably bound together by sharing the same third-grade class." The industry term for this scenario is "a stretch." Be that as it may, the story is that a nice doctor named Ethan Haas (Jason Ritter) tracks down the people in his third-grade class (bunch of actors you might come to know via better, future shows) for a party to surprise his girlfriend, who was also in third grade. And nothing in their lives has turned out as expected, i.e., their jobs are jokes, they're broke, their love lives are DOA (clapclapclapclap!). From that point, a few of them keep crossing paths, even though they never did so before, and a narrator fills us in on what happened last week. A similar introductory device was used in "Soap," except that show was funny.

SO, WHAT'S THE PROBLEM? You've seen better versions of this sitcom dozens of times already, but to further illustrate that idea, take Crane's old show -- you know, the one he can't let go? Water it down with contrived situations, insipid existential dialogue and all-too-familiar characters. Throw in a mincing effeminate heterosexual husband and two gay men to constantly remind us he's fooling himself (har!), a blond, Caucasian moppet named Oprah (har!), depressing, inappropriate suicide humor (oooh ... uh, har?) and other jokes that start turning brown around the edges by the first commercial break. Now, in spite of all this, you might think you can get into "The Class." Hang out for a while, though, and you may quickly realize why you didn't stay in touch with most of your fellow third-graders. People like these suck the life out of you.

ON THE OTHER HAND: "The Class" is part of CBS's still-potent Monday night comedy block, although placing it at 8 makes it easy to skip it completely and start the night with "How I Met Your Mother" at 8:30.

'Smith'

10 p.m. Tuesdays, premieres Sept. 19. A band of professional thieves headed by Bobby Stevens (Ray Liotta) executes daring heists of high-profile targets, the first being an art museum. Though they're the best, they know they're only one botched job away from disaster, an idea that makes Bobby want out, and his wife, Hope (Virginia Madsen), increasingly tired of feigning ignorance about how he makes his money. The crew includes Annie, a sexy con artist (Amy Smart); Jeff, a sharpshooting sociopath (Simon Baker); Joe, the wheel man (Franky G); and Tom, getting back in the game after a prison stint (Jonny Lee Miller). The incomparable Shohreh Agdashloo plays their fixer, rounding out a stupendous cast that makes the premiere breathe like a moody, dark theatrical release -- one that tastes like Quentin Tarantino muddled with Michael Mann -- as opposed to a pilot from executive producer John Wells.

SO, WHAT'S THE PROBLEM? This is the third series about thieves to hit television within six months; the other two didn't make it. There's that, and the realization that one person's idea of moody, dark and cinematic is what five others would call plodding and dull. "Smith" explodes at all the right points and does so with panache, but the quiet stretches allowing actors Liotta and Madsen to show off their acting chops might drive viewers over to the action-packed and dominant "Law & Order: SVU" or the witty, energetic "Boston Legal," both road-tested series with devoted audiences.

ON THE OTHER HAND: Wells has delivered some terrific, cable-caliber writing in the pilot and, if he can maintain the same level of excellence, a network could be moved to give the show time to find an audience. CBS is not known for patience, but it is allowing "Smith's" hour-plus pilot to air with limited interruption, and only with ads for Martin Scorsese's upcoming film, "The Departed."

'Jericho'

8 p.m. Wednesdays, premieres Sept. 20. When a mushroom cloud appears on the horizon outside of a small Kansas town, the people fear they may be isolated and struggle not to give into fear and chaos. But even as the situation brings out the best in the Green family, headed by Mayor Johnston Green (Gerald McRaney) and his recently returned son, Jake (Skeet Ulrich), others show their darker sides, and one relative stranger (Lennie James) seems to know more about what's going on than anyone else.

SO, WHAT'S THE PROBLEM? If my memory serves me correctly, a nuclear crisis made "The Day After" one of the most memorable and horrifying TV movies of the '80s. There are scores of mile markers, creatively speaking, between that film's vision of post-apocalyptic Lawrence, Kan., and Jericho, because a catastrophic nuclear crisis never looked as boring and convoluted as it does here. Even the hint of a larger conspiracy in the works doesn't make you want to stick around much beyond that first hour, and if you do, what do you get? Another woman in danger of sexual assault scenario -- at a secluded farmhouse, no less -- in episode two. A little early to start digging into the classics, don't you think?

ON THE OTHER HAND: I'm not sure there is an upside here, especially when you look at the competition. "Dancing With the Stars" is set to trample it, Fox's "Bones" might even best it for second place, even The CW's "America's Next Top Model" could pose a threat. Not good.

'Shark'

10 p.m. Thursdays, premieres Sept. 21. Ruthless top defense attorney Sebastian Stark (James Woods) gets blindsided by his conscience after one of his cases takes an unexpected turn and decides to go to work for the city prosecutor's office. There, he takes a crew of inexperienced ADAs under his wing and, by teaching them the same dirty tactics that made him a courtroom champion, uses his power for good, not evil.

SO, WHAT'S THE PROBLEM? Here's The Husband's reaction to experiencing this show with his back turned to the screen and sifting through paperwork. "OK, I'm not even watching this thing and James Woods' constant yelling is getting on my nerves. Can you shut him up? Do you have to watch this for work? You do? Your job is killing me. That's it, I'm going to the other side of the house, come get me when it's over." Yeah. If you don't like Woods' frantic, frequent speeches, and you can't get out of the "Without a Trace" Thursday habit, best to steer clear. Even if you're a fan, it might be hard to swallow the state-of-the-art replica of a courtroom in the basement of Stark's architecturally perfect home.

ON THE OTHER HAND: The Byronic hero gig works so well for "House," one would think that a legal version would be a more natural fit. When it comes to comic timing, charm and understatement, there's no contest -- Hugh Laurie prevails over Woods. Still, "Shark" has much more in its favor than almost every other new series, starting with a gargantuan lead-in, "CSI," and questionable competition in a fading "ER" on NBC, and J.J. Abrams' slow-moving "Six Degrees" on ABC. The jury, as the cliche goes, is still out.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/printer2/index.asp?ploc=t&refer=http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/tv/284959_tv14.html

fredfa

09-14-06, 12:26 PM

The Wednesday prime-time ratings – and Media Week Analyst Marc Berman’s view of what they mean -- have been posted just under the HD Football listings near the top of Ratings News the first post in this thread.

fredfa

09-14-06, 12:28 PM

(From Marc Berman’s Thursday, September 14, 2006, Programming Insider column at Mediaweek.com )
Syndication Ratings Scorecard:
Dr. Keith, Greg Behrendt, Cristina’s Court and Judge Maria Lopez

Mirroring recent seasons, the reality of the syndication landscape remains low initial sampling for almost all new first-run series. Although no show can be adequately evaluated until the national ratings are available (and, of course, one week does not a hit or miss make), the two metered market benchmarks to focus on at present is retention from the lead-in and year-ago time period averages. And right now Twentieth Television’s Cristina’s Court and Sony Pictures Television’s Judge Maria Lopez are fully maintaining both comparisons. After three days, Warner Bros.’ Dr. Keith Ablow is off, on average, by 17 percent in rating and one share point from both the lead-in and year-ago time period averages. After two days, Sony Pictures Television’s Greg Behrendt is down by a heftier 36 percent in rating and two share points from the lead-in average, and 42 percent in rating and two share points from the year-ago time period.

Here are the metered market results (versus the lead-in and year-ago time period averages). When you look at the overnight results, keep in mind that the time periods inherited by Dr. Keith, The Greg Behrendt Show, Cristina’s Court and Judge Maria Lopez are certainly not the best out there.

DR. KEITH ABLOW (54 markets)
Sept. 2005 time period: 1.2/ 4

Monday 9/11
Lead-in: 1.1/ 4
DR. KEITH: 0.9/ 3

Tuesday 9/12
Lead-in: 1.3/ 4
DR. KEITH: 1.0/ 3

Wednesday 9/13
Lead-in: 1.3/ 4
DR. KEITH: 1.0/ 3

THE GREG BEHRENDT SHOW (52 markets)
Sept. 2005 time period: 1.2/ 4

Tuesday 9/12
Lead-in: 1.1/ 4
GREG BEHRENDT: 0.7/ 2

Wednesday 9/13
Lead-in: 1.1/ 4
GREG BEHRENDT: 0.7/ 2

CRISTINA’S COURT (50 markets)
Sept. 2005 time period: 1.2/ 4

Monday 9/11
Lead-in: 1.3/ 4
CRISTINA’S COURT: 1.3/ 4

Tuesday 9/12
Lead-in: 1.3/ 4
CRISTINA’S COURT: 1.3/ 4

Wednesday 9/13
Lead-in: 1.3/ 4
CRISTINA’S COURT: 1.2/ 4

JUDGE MARIA LOPEZ (54 markets)
Sept. 2005 time period: 0.8/ 2

Monday 9/11
Lead-in: 0.9/ 3
JUDGE MARIA LOPEZ: 0.9/ 3

Tuesday 9/12
Lead-in: 0.9/ 3
JUDGE MARIA LOPEZ: 0.9/ 3

Wednesday 9/13
Lead-in: 0.9/ 3
JUDGE MARIA LOPEZ: 0.9/ 3

• Source: Nielsen Media Research data

Ratings Box: What’s Hot/What’s Not

• U.S. Tennis Open Total Audience Figures:
Complete coverage of the 2006 U.S. Tennis Open Championships on CBS, including its weeknight Late Night Show, averaged an estimated 63.5 million viewers watching all or part of it. Comparably, that was the highest number of viewers since the 78.3 million in 2002, with 1.2 million more than last year’s 62.3 million.

• The Big 400 in Syndicated Court:
Based on ratings for the week of Aug. 28, veteran Paramount duo Judy and Judge Joe Brown held the top two spots in households, respectively, in court for the 400th consecutive week. Judge Judy averaged a 4.5 household rating (based on AA – average audience rating) -- up 7 percent over the year-ago week. Judge Joe Brown averaged a 2.9 -- down 3 percent from one year earlier.

• Emmy Coverage Lifts on ET and The Insider:
Ignited by coverage of The 58th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, both Entertainment Tonight and The Insider from Paramount posted double-digit gains over the comparable year-ago week. Based on ratings for the week of August 28, ET averaged a 4.7 in households -- up 15 percent from one year earlier, with a 5.4 for its Emmy coverage on Monday, Aug. 28. The Insider perked up to a 2.5 -- an increase of 14 percent year-to-year, with a 2.7 for its Emmy coverage that Monday.

• More Growth for FX’s Nip/Tuck:
Season four of FX drama Nip/Tuck continues to build over it’s year-ago average, with 3.9 million viewers and 2.8 million adults 18-49 on Tuesday at 10 p.m. this week. Comparably, that’s an increase of 13 percent in total viewers and 15 percent among adults 18-49 from the season three averages. Also of note was the median age of Nip/Tuck dropping to 33.8 years-old -- the second lowest median age of any Nip/Tuck episode ever.

• Source: Nielsen Media Research data

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/newsletters/proginsider/index.jsp

fredfa

09-14-06, 12:30 PM

Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
Night 2 trot: Strutting 'Stars' hog floor
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Sep 14, 2006, 10:44

As expected, bow tie-less MSNBC host Tucker Carlson was booted first from “Dancing with the Stars” last night after spending most of his first dance routine sitting in a chair. And as expected, after Tuesday’s big debut, the ABC reality hit showed gains over its first results episode last year.

“Stars” averaged a 4.1 adults 18-49 rating, according to Nielsen overnights, up 37 percent over last year’s 3.0 for the initial results show of the second season in January. Of course that show aired on little-watched Friday night, where “Stars” stayed relatively quiet all season.

Yesterday, though, “Stars” had some competition, airing opposite Fox’s “Bones,” which averaged a 2.7, and CBS’s season finale of “Rock Star: Supernova,” which averaged a 3.0, down 14 percent from the previous night’s penultimate episode.

“Stars,” too, dipped from its opening-night 5.7, down a substantial 28 percent. But among total viewers it maintained more of its audience, averaging 16.1 million last night to Tuesday night’s 20.01 million.

And “Stars” nearly doubled its closest competitor, “Bones,” among total viewers in the timeslot. It bodes well for October, when “Lost” returns to the Wednesday schedule with its potent ratings and ABC premieres the highly regarded new drama “The Nine” premieres.

“Stars” also helped ABC’s fall season preview to much better ratings than NBC or CBS got for theirs, averaging a 2.4 in 18-49s at 9 p.m. Neither of the other two cracked 1.1.

But while “Stars” did very well, it didn’t do well enough to win the night for ABC, with a Jimmy Kimmel primetime special dragging down the 10 p.m. hour.

NBC won the night with a 3.1 rating and 9 share in 18-49s, followed by CBS at 2.8/8, ABC at 2.7/8, Fox at 2.6/8, Univision at 1.8/5, and the WB at 0.5/1. (UPN is not included as many of its affiliates have already switched over to MyNetworkTV.)

ABC’s “Stars” finished No. 1 at 8 p.m. with its 4.1, followed by “Rock’s” 3.0, “Bones’” 2.7, NBC’s “Dateline” at 2.5, Univision’s “La Fea Mas Bella” at 1.5, and WB’s back-to-back “Blue Collar TV” repeats at 0.6.

At 9 p.m., NBC grabbed the lead with a 3.9 for “Dateline,” followed by CBS’s 2.5 for a “Criminal Minds” repeat, ABC’s 2.4 for the fall preview, Fox’s 2.5 for the third episode of “Justice,” Univision’s 2.0 for building “Barrera de Amor,” and WB’s 0.4 for a repeat of “One Tree Hill.”

At 10 p.m., CBS and NBC tied for No. 1 at 2.8 with repeats of “CSI: NY” and “Law & Order,” followed by ABC’s Kimmel special at 1.7 and Univision at 1.5.

Among households, ABC led at 6.5/11, followed by NBC at 6.2/10, CBS at 5.8/9, Fox at 5.1/8, Univision at 2.3/4, and the WB at 1.0/2.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_7300.asp

fredfa

09-14-06, 12:52 PM

Critic’s Notebook
HBO's live 'Wire'
By Alan Sepinwall Newark Star-Ledger Thursday, September 14, 2006

SOMETIMES -- very, very rarely, but sometimes -- it's not about the money.

Whenever a reader asks why a show they loved was renewed, or wonder why a show they can't stand is still around, I point to the almighty dollar and explain that in the business of show, the bottom line -- in ratings and advertiser revenue -- is always the deciding factor.

And then HBO goes and does something wonderful like ordering a fifth and final season of "The Wire" only two days after the fourth season premiered Sunday night with a minuscule, even for HBO, audience of 1.5 million viewers.

That number will go up once HBO factors in viewings on other nights and via On Demand (where each episode is available six days before it premieres on HBO proper), but it still won't be in "Sopranos" territory, and maybe not even "Deadwood" territory -- and we all know what happened to "Deadwood."

What happened with "The Wire" is that HBO boss Chris Albrecht declared in July that the fate of the show rested on the critical response and buzz about the fourth season. And the critics -- from everyday columnists like yours truly to celebrity scribes like Stephen King in Entertainment Weekly -- responded by spending the last several weeks declaring the show to be one of the best ever to air on television (in some cases, the best).

"The fact that Stephen King blew his whistle, and the critics came up out of the trench with fixed bayonets and began charging across no man's land -- this definitely had an effect," David Simon, the show's delighted creator, wrote in an e-mail. "We don't go more than a season or two without the critics behind us."

Season four had been planned with a fifth and final year in mind -- while a number of this year's story threads wrap up within the 13 episodes, at least as many will be left open -- and Simon was prepared to write the series' conclusion as a prose novel if HBO didn't give them a pick-up.

Simon was as effusive in his praise for Albrecht and HBO entertainment president Carolyn Strauss as he was for the critics, and I present the last few paragraphs of his e-mail in their entirety:

"I'm going to tell him, 'Chris, one day in the distant future, you will find yourself sitting across from a man who doesn't understand who you are, what you did, what you accomplished. He will stare at you, uncomprehending, as you explain the fundamental actions, accomplishments and motivations of your life, until finally, you look him in the eye and say, 'I was the guy who kept "The Wire" on HBO for its full five-year run.'

"And that man will then **** his eyebrow, nod, and reassess the paragon of enlightened humanity before him.

"'That's really great, sir,' the man will say finally. 'But it's 2 a.m., so you need to finish that drink and go home.'

"Because when all is said and done, most people turn on their televisions and expect laughs and thrills and nonsense. And most of the money made in television comes from servicing such expectations. Chris and Carolyn did something yesterday that argues against the industry's common denominator. That such moments happen at HBO means misapplied people like me can make a home for themselves in television. Whatever is out there beyond grateful, that's where I am."

Racism or Hollywoodism?

The big fuss over "Survivor: Cook Islands" (8 PM ET/PT Tonight, CBS) is obviously over the decision to divide the four teams along racial lines. I've already said here that this has the potential to be a complete fiasco, but on paper there's some merit, given complaints by previous minority contestants about how they were treated both by other contestants and by the editors.

But lost in the shuffle over all the "Survivor: Race Wars" jokes is an oddity about this cast: No matter what their ethnic background, it seems like everyone either has worked or wants to work in show business.

Reality TV has always been filled with Hollywood wannabes or people with tangential connections to the biz, but this group is excessive even by those standards. There's Jonathan Penner, a sitcom actor who's been a regular on CBS' "Grapevine" and ABC's "The Naked Truth" (as well as the writer of the WB's infamous "Lone Ranger" pilot with Chad Michael Murray). There's Rebecca Borman, an Emmy-winning makeup artist for "The View" (where she helps "Survivor" alum Elisabeth Hasselbeck look good every day); jazz musician Sekou Branch; heavy metal guitarist Billy Garcia; Cristina Coria, a cop who's been a technical consultant for movies and appeared on several cable reality shows; Adam Gentry, a copier salesman whose CBS bio includes a stint on MTV's "The Grind"; and several others who have either been in show biz or clearly want to be.

None of these people match the pre-show fame level of ex-quarterback Gary Hogeboom from last fall's edition, but this is still a ridiculous percentage.

Then again, maybe the only people Mark Burnett and company could get to agree to such an explosive premise were people who needed the TV exposure.

http://www.nj.com/columns/ledger/alltv/index.ssf?/base/columns-0/1158213324223780.xml&coll=1

fredfa

09-14-06, 01:45 PM

TV Notebook
Show didn't cause suicide, host says
But Melinda Duckett's family says the publicity about her missing son's case added to her stress
Stephen Hudak Orlando Sentinel Staff Writer September 13, 2006

LEESBURG VA -- The plight of missing 2-year-old Trenton Duckett is the latest cause taken up by ex-prosecutor and national talk-show host Nancy Grace, who frequently uses her cable forum to draw attention to abduction cases.

But the Headline News host found herself answering Monday whether she had become part of the story -- only days after grilling the boy's mother in a televised interview. The day after that probing series of questions, Melinda Duckett killed herself.

"I do not feel our show is to blame for what happened to Melinda Duckett," Grace said on the air Monday.

Grace also noted that "Melinda committed suicide before that interview ever aired."

Melinda Duckett's family members have said the publicity surrounding the case may have added to her stress in the days before her suicide.

The boy's father, Joshua Duckett, said he did not blame Grace for Melinda's suicide. He was estranged from his wife, who had custody of Trenton.

"Nobody made her do the show," he said. "Nobody made her do anything."

Since her death, investigators have increasingly said they are looking at the boy's mother as being involved in his disappearance. They have not officially labeled Melinda as a suspect.

Police are trying to piece together a 26-hour period during which they cannot account for Melinda Duckett's whereabouts. They said she gave "vague" answers about her activities Aug. 26 and 27.

Grace questioned Melinda Duckett about the time gap.

The ex-prosecutor demanded details, including the names and locations of the stores where Melinda Duckett said she had taken her son shopping in Lake and Orange counties.

Grace also pressed Melinda Duckett about refusing to take a lie-detector test.

Grace declined to be interviewed Tuesday but issued a statement by e-mail.

"We feel a responsibility to bring attention to this case in the hopes of helping find Trenton Duckett, who remains missing. Our goal in our continuing coverage of Trenton's disappearance is to enlist the public's help in finding him," Grace's statement read. "While Ms. Duckett's death is an extremely sad development, we remain hopeful that Trenton will be found safe, and we will continue to cover the case until it is solved."

Grace, who has helped publicize the cases of Natalee Holloway, JonBenet Ramsey and other youthful crime victims, featured Trenton Duckett's case twice in the past few days. She questioned Melinda Duckett during a taped interview Thursday.

Melinda Duckett committed suicide at her grandparents' home in The Villages the next day.

Grace also interviewed Joshua Duckett on the same show, posing similar questions. He and Melinda Duckett disagreed on how heavy a sleeper their son was -- a relevant point because the boy's mother claimed Trenton was taken from his bedroom while she watched a movie with two friends.

Joshua Duckett said the boy was a "very, very light sleeper" and would have cried if he had been awakened by a stranger.

Melinda Duckett contended their son was a heavy sleeper. "You can move him from room to room, and he'll still be asleep," she told Grace.

The boy was reported missing Aug. 27.

While police use cadaver dogs in a hunt for the boy, Grace's show is among the national programs that offer hope to Joshua Duckett that his son will be found alive. He also agreed to interviews with others, saying he met Tuesday with Court TV.

Police said America's Most Wanted also is preparing a segment.

"It's another way to get his picture out there," he said in a telephone interview. "It keeps Trenton's name and his face out in the news. I think it helps."

During her daily news briefing Tuesday, Leesburg police Capt. Ginny Padgett agreed with Joshua Duckett, describing as "promising" a flurry of recent tips phoned into 800-CALL-FBI.

Joshua Duckett, who spends part of each day posting "missing" fliers on poles and in store windows, said police and the public have scrutinized him as closely as they did Melinda.

"They asked questions. All she had to do was answer the questions honestly as I answered them," he said. "In the beginning, I had the finger pointed at me, too. But I answered their questions and proved I had nothing to do with this. It was up to her to prove herself."

Joshua and Melinda Duckett were high-school sweethearts embroiled in a divorce that involved police, the Department of Children & Families and other agencies.

Joshua Duckett said he was unlikely to attend Melinda Duckett's memorial service Friday at the Chapel of Christian Faith in The Villages. He said he remains troubled by her answers to questions posed by police and reporters, but he does not dwell on her.

"My focus is on my son," he said.

Leesburg police, who have spent $25,000 on overtime in the investigation, refused Tuesday to discuss details of the probe.

They asked news agencies to publish or broadcast a photograph of a 2000 Mitsubishi, similar to the vehicle that Melinda Duckett drove.

Padgett said investigators hoped the photo might pique someone's memory.

"We want to bring Trenton home," she said.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/tv/orl-missingboy1306sep13,0,6263119,print.story?coll=orl-caltvtop

fredfa

09-14-06, 02:03 PM

Reminder: The New Season
Prime Time Reference Material

Over the next few weeks this thread will include many critical views of the new TV season.

If you are curious about the new network shows, there are many easy-to-use references to help you in this thread.

You can find all the network schedules, including which shows are being broadcast in HD in the second post of this thread here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=4265637&&#post4265637

mini reviews and comments on the season’s new shows by many critics are here, in the third post in the thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=4267598&&#post4267598

fredfa

09-14-06, 02:24 PM

HD Sports Notebook
Preliminary HD Football Schedule for Next Weekend
NOTE: Subject to change! (All times are Eastern)

Thursday, Sept. 21
Virginia at Georgia Tech[/B] 7:30 PM ESPN-HD

Friday, Sept. 22
Northwestern at Nevada 8 PM ESPN2-HD

Saturday, Sept. 23
Wisconsin at Michigan 12 Noon ESPN-HD
Minnesota at Purdue 12 Noon ESPN2-HD
Penn State at Ohio State (Regional) 3:30 PM ABC-HD
Alabama at Arkansas 3:30 PM CBS-HD
West Virginia at East Carolina 4:30 PM ESPN2-HD
Kentucky at Florida 7:45 PM ESPN-HD
Boston College at North Carolina State 8 PM ESPN2-HD
U S C at Arizona (Regional) 8 PM ABC-HD
Notre Dame at Michigan State (Regional) 8 PM ABC-HD

Sunday, Sept. 24
Carolina at Tampa Bay 1 PM Fox-HD
Green Bay at Detroit 1 PM Fox-HD
Chicago at Minnesota 1 PM Fox-HD
Washington at Houston 1 PM Fox-HD
Philadelphia at San Francisco 4:15 PM Fox-HD
New York Giants at Seattle. Louis 4:15 PM Fox HD
Denver at New England 8:15 PM NBC-HD

Monday, Sept. 25
Atlanta at New Orleans 8:30 PM ESPN-HD

Note: Some sources list the Notre Dame-Michigan State game as being carried on ESPN2-HD as well as regionally on ABC-HD. But the ESPN website lists the Boston College-North Carolina State game.

fredfa

09-14-06, 03:19 PM

TV Notebook
NFL Network Cuts Comcast Deal
A Broadcasting & Cable EXCLUSIVE
By John M. Higgins and Ben Grossman Broadcasting & Cable 9/14/2006

The three-year-old NFL Network has quietly cut a deal for this season with Comcast Corp., the largest U.S. cable operator, to carry its controversial package of eight live football games on terms far weaker than the league is seeking.

Meanwhile, the NFL Network will go dark on Time Warner Cable systems recently acquired from Adelphia Communications in a bankruptcy sale.The Adelphia dispute is part of a larger duel in which the No. 2 cable operator is resisting paying the NFL network's high license fee and carriage demands. Time Warner has said the NFL is looking for a 250% increase in those fees.

When the NFL Network’s new eight-game, Thursday-Saturday package kicks off on Thanksgiving, Comcast will air the games on a digital tier available to fewer than one third of its subscribers. The league has been seeking carriage on basic cable, which would be available to nearly all of the operator's 23.3 million subscribers.

While the league is seeking fees in the 70-90 cents per subscriber per month range, according to cable executives, Comcast is paying a significantly lower rate under terms of the current arrangement.Comcast seems to hold more leverage at the moment – it has the right to put the network on a digital sports and entertainment tier that is available to a tiny fraction of its subscribers.

Comcast and NFL Network executives would not comment.

The status of the Time Warner systems is more clear. Time Warner/Adelphia markets “will be dark” in those markets as of early Friday, says the NFL’s Seth Palansky.About 1.3 million subscribers will be affected, including those in NFL hotbeds such as Buffalo, Cleveland and Dallas.

While noting the network may pursue some longer-term legal strategies going forward, Palansky says in the short term it will tweak its ad strategy in those markets to drive customers to outlets such as satellite carriers that air the NFL Network.

Time Warner had first removed the network from its lineup on August 1st before the FCC mandated it be put back on for 30 days.An additional 15-day extension was then negotiated, but Friday is its last day.

The NFL is pushing to get its network carried on basic cable packages as it looks to boost penetration after passing on $400 million in annual rights fees it could have commanded by selling the eight games to an outside network (one of the main bidders was Comcast’s OLN/Versus).The network is currently in 41 million homes, 27 million of those via satellite carriers.

The NFL has the ability to black out the eight games on any cable carrier not paying an increased surcharge it is demanding.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6372251

RemyM

09-14-06, 04:44 PM

Philadelphia at San Francisco 4:15 PM CBS-HD

That should say Fox-HD, 2 NFC teams.

fredfa

09-14-06, 05:45 PM

TV Notebook
Today Is a Winner With Meredith
By Allison Romano Broadcasting & Cable 9/14/2006

Meredith Vieira's debut on the Today show Sept. 13 gave NBC one of its best morning news ratings in more than a year outside of the Torino Winter Olympics and Katie Couric's final day last May, according to preliminary ratings from Nielsen Media Research.

Today averaged 6.9 million viewers and a 2.6 rating in the key adult 25 to 54 demo on Vieira's first day co-anchoring with Matt Lauer. Outside of four days during last February's Olympics and Couric's send-off, it was Today's largest audience since since Dec. 9, 2005.

The show's Sept. 13 marks were good enough to handily beat ABC's Good Morning America, which posted 4.4 million viewers and a 1.7 rating in 25 to 54s.

The usually heated race between Today and GMA is expected to get even more competitive this fall. Even after Couric left the show at the end of May sweeps, Today continued to beat GMA over the summer. GMA is adjusting to a new cast as well. Co-anchor Charlie Gibson departed over the summer to anchor World NEws.

On Sept. 5, GMA introduced its new news anchor Chris Cuomo and weatherman Sam Champion, who join co-anchors Robin Roberts and Diane Sawyer.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6372314

fredfa

09-14-06, 05:46 PM

That should say Fox-HD, 2 NFC teams.

Thanks for the catch, RemyM.

fredfa

09-14-06, 11:42 PM

TV Notebook
Murdoch May Make Malone an Offer
By Anne Becker Broadcasting & Cable 9/14/2006

Rupert Murdoch wants John Malone to get out of his hair. To that end, Murdoch might be offering Malone DirecTV. Murdoch's News Corp. is proposing to Malone's Liberty Media a tax-free exchange of its DirecTV stake in return for the $10 billion stake Liberty owns in News Corp., according to a report by CNBC's David Faber.

Both News Corp. president Peter Chernin and Liberty CEO Greg Maffei have been hinting to investors at a Merrill Lynch media conference today that a swap may be under way, according to the report.

Liberty last year abruptly increased its voting stake in News Corp. from 9% to 17%, startling company Chairman Rupert Murdoch and prompting him to establish defenses against an unwelcome takeover.

News Corp. has tried unsuccessfully for years to lure Liberty out of the company., but has never offered anything Malone deemed worthy of exchanging for his stake, 188 million voting shares and 324 million non-voting shares. In the past, for example, News Corp. offered Liberty several local stations .

With the satellite business limited in its growth, DirecTV has frustrated News Corp. lately which could explain the company's willingness to part with it. Murdoch aggressively went after DirecTV for years, but has been so disappointed with it lately, he has called it a "turd bird."

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6372374

rustycruiser

09-14-06, 11:48 PM

homcom

09-14-06, 11:59 PM

Hmm. That stinks.

I wonder if the games will be simulcast in the local markets ala ESPN?
Yep, it is NFL policy to air cable games on OTA stations in the local markets.

fredfa

09-15-06, 12:19 AM

TV Notebook
News Corp., Liberty Weigh a Swap?
Murdoch Considers Trading DirecTV Stake to Malone To Solidify Family Control
By JULIA ANGWIN The Wall Street Journal September 15, 2006; Page A3

News Corp., in a sign it is considering exiting from the U.S. satellite-TV industry, is in talks with Liberty Media Corp. to trade its controlling stake in DirecTV Group Inc. to Liberty in exchange for Liberty's stake in News Corp., according to a person close to the situation.

If a deal is reached, the swap would represent an astonishing change of heart for News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch, who took control of DirecTV in late 2003 after a years-long battle.

It would also catapult Liberty Media Chairman John Malone back to a position of prominence in the U.S. media sector, several years after he sold cable giant Tele-Communications Inc.

The deal would allow Mr. Murdoch to solidify his family's control of News Corp. In late 2004, Liberty disclosed it had doubled its voting stake in News Corp. to 18%, putting Liberty's holding less than a dozen percentage points below the roughly 30% voting stake held by the family of Mr. Murdoch….

Mr. Murdoch's willingness to consider giving up News Corp.'s stake in DirecTV comes as the fortunes of the U.S. satellite-television business have been declining, as intensifying competition from cable-TV operators and the entry of phone companies into the TV market have sharply eroded satellite growth. (In Italy, Prime Minister Romano Prodi said Telecom Italia's chairman outlined talks with News Corp. See article on B3.)

Both DirecTV and its main rival, EchoStar Communications Corp., have seen their rates of subscriber growth weaken in the past year as cable operators market their so-called triple-play offerings of phone service, high-speed Internet and television.

The slowdown has put pressure on EchoStar and DirecTV to consider merging or at least combining some of their operations.

It is also forcing the firms to spend more to sign up new customers, as they offer subsidized digital video recorders and other incentives.

Mr. Malone has long had an interest in satellite TV. Liberty considered bidding against News Corp. for control of DirecTV when it was being sold by its former controlling shareholder, General Motors Corp. Liberty backed off, worried that News Corp. would simply outbid it, and instead Liberty increased its stake in News Corp., deciding to get its exposure to the satellite industry through the media giant. Liberty also considered buying EchoStar several years ago.

"I had always coveted being in the satellite business," said Mr. Malone in an interview early last year.

To read the entire story, Wall Street Journal subscribers go here:

http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB115827814906363744.html

fredfa

09-15-06, 12:25 AM

TV Notebook
DirecTV could go to Liberty in swap with News Corp.
By Georg Szalai The Hollywood Reporter Sep. 15, 2006

NEW YORK - Has Rupert Murdoch grown tired of owning DirecTV Group after repeatedly touting the satellite TV giant as a key strategic asset allowing him to own content and distribution assets alike?

Sources confirmed late Thursday a CNBC report that John Malone's Liberty Media and Murdoch's News Corp. have discussed a swap of Liberty's voting stake of about 20% in News Corp. for the conglomerate's controlling 38% stake in DirecTV and at least one other asset, most likely one or more TV stations.

CNBC had said a deal is eyed to be worked out before News Corp.'s annual shareholder meeting in October, which is currently set to see a shareholder vote on an extension of the company's anti-takeover, or poison pill, provision, set because of Liberty.

Spokespeople for News Corp., DirecTV and Liberty declined comment Thursday evening.

One source with knowledge of the situation said DirecTV has indeed been "the subject of recent talks" recently in the long-running discussions between the two sides. Another source Liberty has been considering taking ownership of virtually any News Corp. asset, but added that getting DirecTV alone would mean Liberty would incur a big tax bill.

Malone has been known to avoid tax payments, which is why in the talks with News Corp., Liberty has focused on a tax-free swap of an operating asset. To be qualified as a tax-free deal, a swap must involve an asset, in which a firm holds at least 25%, plus it must have been run as an active trader business, whose financials get consolidated, for five years. The second condition wouldn't be met with a swap involving DirecTV, according to a source.

The talks about DirecTV's future owner are a sign that Murdoch has soured on the satellite TV business, CNBC said. A spokesman declined comment.

Wall Street has in recent months increasingly wondered about his commitment to DirecTV, which has seen slower subscriber growth and stronger cable competition in addition to having struggled finding the best way to offer high-speed Internet service.

Questioned by analysts about News Corp.'s commitment to the satellite TV sector during the firm's latest earnings call last month, president and chief operating officer Peter Chernin had said: "We remain bullish on the satellite industry." He added, "It's a great business for us overall and strategically" (HR 8/9).

It remained unclear what other asset beyond DirecTV News Corp. may be willing to leave to Liberty, but TV stations have been at the center of attention.

In recent months, Wall Street attention has focused on one or more of News Corp.'s TV stations as core assets for a swap, which Liberty CEO Greg Maffei earlier this year outlined as a possible scenario that would work for him (HR 6/13). A condition for that was FCC approval for the transfer of station licenses from Murdoch to News Corp., which was expected over the summer.

However, Chernin earlier this week at a Merrill Lynch investor conference wouldn't say whether that transfer has occurred yet. Some took that plus his comment that discussions have been "pretty positive" as a sign that the talks weren't as focused on a TV station swap anymore.

Other assets that have also been understood to be on the table in the News Corp. and Liberty talk in the past include the National Geographic network and print insert business.

It was not immediately late Thursday how a DirecTV-plus-TV station deal would be valued, but one Wall Street observer said it would likely allow News Corp. to get back the entire stake Liberty holds in it plus maybe some cash.

DirecTV's market capitalization stood at $23.44 billion as of Thursday's close, according to Yahoo! Finance. This would value News Corp.'s stake at about $8.9 billion.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003122683

fredfa

09-15-06, 12:28 AM

Critic’s Notebook
A Tragedy Shines a Spotlight On Attack-Dog TV.
By Ray Richmond The Hollywood Reporter in his blog “Past Deadline”

I've never been a big fan of prosecutor-turned-TV personality Nancy Grace's scorched earth style of tabloid journalism, which has always seemed to me a rather unctuous push for ratings. The fact that Grace's show airs on CNN's Headline News is doubly troubling, given that network's onetime penchant for being a straight-ahead newsgatherer. So it's disturbing to witness the story that broke over the past week about how Melinda Duckett -- a mother whose two-year-old son was reported snatched from his crib and missing -- was found dead in what authorities say was a suicide on Sept. 8, the day after being confronted by Grace during a taping while a guest on her show and tacitly fingered as a suspect.

In no way am I implying that Grace was directly, or even indirectly, responsible for Duckett's having shot herself to death. And Grace herself issued a statement on Tuesday absolving her show's role: "I do not feel our show is to blame for what happened to Melinda Duckett." Not that it's such a preposterous thought to draw a link between the two, mind you. It's just that no evidence exists that the Grace appearance is what sent Duckett over the edge and it's unlikely any ever will surface.

My issue is with Grace's ongoing use of the disappearance of two-year-old Trenton Duckett and subsequent suicide of his mother to bring viewership to her show, as she has all of this week. To say this feels singularly shameless is to indulge in great understatement. No matter that Grace noted in the same Tuesday statement, "We feel a responsibility to bring attention to this case in the hopes of helping find Trenton Duckett, who remains missing. Our goal in our continuing coverage of Trenton's disappearance is to enlist the public's help in finding him...While Ms. Duckett's death is an extremely sad development, we remain hopeful that Trenton will be found safe, and we will continue to cover the case until it is solved."

To which I say: yeah, right. And TV's ongoing fascination with the Natalee Holloway case is simply about helping law enforcement in its quest to find her and finger her killer(s). This smacks of the worst kind of disingenuousness. Neither Nancy Grace in particular, not TV news in general, gives two hoots about finding missing people apart from the potential ratings bounce that overcoverage of sensational cases might supply. Where this is even more upsetting is in Grace's having become an accessory of sorts in this tragedy and using that link to help draw eyeballs her way.

We should never be surprised by the utter unwillingness of certain news personalities to step outside themselves and honestly examine their own predilection to exploit. Some are simply incapable. And that's enormously sad.

http://www.pastdeadline.com/

fredfa

09-15-06, 12:31 AM

Washington Notebook
Martin: Expanded Basic a Tying Arrangement

By Ted Hearn [b]MultiChannel News 9/14/2006

Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin said Thursday that cable’s expanded-basic tier is a “tying” arrangement because consumers are denied refunds for channels they either block or refuse to watch.

Martin, who supports the a la carte sale of cable channels, told Wall Street analysts cable's most popular programming tier is not an example of bundling in an economic sense because none of the channels is available for sale outside of the tier.

Instead, he added, expanded basic is an example of commercial tying.

“Tying is taking things that are sold separately and stopping selling them separately and only selling them together in a bundle,” Martin said. “Tying is what’s occurring in the cable industry, and that’s different from just bundling.”

Martin -- who spoke on a conference call co-hosted by Aryeh B. Bourkoff, cable, satellite and entertainment analyst at UBS Investment Research -- stressed that consumers needed relief from rising cable rates, noting that many consumers are paying more to receive channels they don’t want to watch.

“Cable prices for the expanded-basic tier are up almost 100% -- it's about 90% -- since the 1996 [Telecommunications] Act was passed,” Martin said. “If [subscribers] don’t want to have X channel -- MTV -- come into their home and have to have it blocked, why should they have to continue to pay the 50 cents per month ... for a channel they’ve asked to be removed?”

http://www.multichannel.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleid=CA6372384

fredfa

09-15-06, 01:07 AM

Critic’sNotebook
The curtain goes up Monday on the new CW
By Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury News Sep. 14, 2006
(Note: All times are Pacific)

The headstones go up this weekend:

UPN. Born: Jan. 16, 1995. Died: Sept. 15, 2006.

The WB. Born: Jan. 11, 1995. Died: Sept. 17, 2006.

The death of the two ``netlets'' -- their viewership was a fraction of the audiences drawn by the big boys -- was pronounced earlier this year when their parent companies, CBS Corp. and Time Warner Inc., merged them into the new CW. That decision pulled the plug on more than a decade of heavy financial losses as UPN and the WB had battled over young viewers, buzz and even the rights to shows (most famously, ``Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' back in 2001).

So after this weekend, they'll be gone, replaced by a niche network that will combine the ``best'' of their old schedules. The new CW will make its debut Monday, although much of its new lineup won't be in place until the week of Sept. 25. (Locally, the new CW will be KBCW, Ch. 44, the old UPN station, while KBWB, Ch. 20, the old WB outlet, will be scrambling for programming.)

One never wants to speak ill of the dead, but it's hard to believe too many viewers will be mourning the passing of UPN. It had its moments: ``Star Trek: Voyager'' in its early days, the last couple of seasons of ``Buffy'' and the more recent ``Veronica Mars'' and ``Everybody Hates Chris.'' But it never established a clear identity, and its programming development also produced some of the worst shows in TV history.

The WB played on a different, higher plane. Until its final months, when things started to crumble creatively, it had a very clear sense of what it was and what worked for its audience. Over the years, it had a fistful of memorable and often influential series: ``Buffy,'' ``Angel,'' ``Felicity,'' ``Dawson's Creek,'' ``Gilmore Girls,'' ``Smallville,'' ``Everwood.'' Even its commercial failures -- ``Jack & Bobby,'' ``Popular,'' ``Grosse Pointe'' -- had real artistic snap and pop.

It also provided a launching pad for some of television and film's most distinctive voices, including J.J. Abrams (``Alias,'' ``Lost''), Joss Whedon (``Serenity''), Amy Sherman-Palladino (who just left ``Gilmore Girls''), Ryan Murphy (``Nip/Tuck''), Kevin Williamson (``Scream'') and Greg Berlanti (the new ``Brothers & Sisters'').

The differences between the two remain right to the bitter end. UPN will end its run with yet another installment of ``WWE Smackdown!'' (8 p.m. Friday, Ch. 44). The WB goes a classier route one more time with an evening of the original pilots for its top shows. (Don't go looking for it locally, though, because sore loser KBWB has decided to pre-empt the night for syndicated programs.)

Just exactly how things shake out at the CW remains to be seen.

Perhaps wisely, it is building its first schedule almost entirely on returning WB and UPN shows with just one new drama (``Runaway'') and one new sitcom (``The Game''). That gives it a certain stability while it decides how to shape its identity. (It needs to move fast because such series as ``7th Heaven,'' ``Smallville'' and ``Gilmore Girls'' are nearing the end of their TV lives.)

One can only hope that there will be more WB than UPN on the new CW.

Falling from `Trees'

ABC's ``Men in Trees'' got a sneak preview earlier this week, but if you missed its opening episode, you can catch up with it Friday (8 p.m., ABC), followed by the show's second hour at 9. And you should give this newcomer a shot.

The romantic comedy-drama is perhaps the most pleasant surprise of the fall season, especially given all the tabloid baggage that star Anne Heche brings with her. But as written by Jenny Bicks (who cut her teeth on ``Sex and the City'') and directed by James Mangold (``Walk the Line''), this ``Northern Exposure''-esque series about a relationship guru (Heche) who decides to find love and happiness in the small Alaska town of Elmo is sweet, charming and often witty. Some of the key moments are totally unbelievable, but Heche and an engaging supporting cast (John Amos and Abraham Benrubi -- Jerry on ``ER'' -- are particularly good) make them work.

At one point, this show was part of what looked like a solid, chick-lit-style night of TV with the buzz-heavy ``Ugly Betty.'' Now, ``Betty'' has become such a hit-in-the-making that ABC moved it to Thursdays, when there is a bigger audience. That leaves ``Men'' hanging out to dry -- which is too bad, because this could a very enjoyable diversion.

Spy world

A&E finally brings back the marvelous ``MI-5'' for its fourth season this week (11 p.m. Friday). The British equivalent of ``24,'' it's a taut, thrill-a-minute drama about a crack anti-terrorist unit. The big difference is that ``MI-5'' is much more grounded in reality than its American counterpart. And if you think ``24'' is fatalistic and bloody, this series makes Jack Bauer's day look like a bright, sunny stroll in the park.

This season's opening two-parter, involving a group triggering a bomb every 10 hours until its leader is released from custody, will have you on the edge of your seat as the MI-5 unit deals with myriad surprise twists in the case. It's a most welcome return for a very good series.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/television/15515998.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

fredfa

09-15-06, 03:49 AM

TV Notebook
Murdoch May Swap DirecTV
By Sallie Hofmeister Los Angeles Times Staff Writer September 15, 2006

Rupert Murdoch spent more than a decade trying to gain control of DirecTV Group Inc., the nation's leading satellite TV operator.

But the chairman of News Corp. appears willing to give that up for something he values even more: bulletproof control of his own company.

Murdoch is negotiating to swap his 38% stake in El Segundo-based DirecTV to cable pioneer John Malone for the 19% voting stake in News Corp. owned by Malone's Liberty Media Corp., according to two people familiar with the negotiations.

The trade would free Murdoch from fears that Liberty's chunk could fall into unfriendly hands and threaten his family's grip on News Corp. In the last year and a half, Liberty has become the second-largest shareholder in News Corp. after the Murdoch family, which controls nearly 30%.

If accomplished, a deal also would allow Murdoch to opt out of a crushing battle in the pay television business, as telephone companies enter the market. Already, DirecTV's growth has slowed as cable rivals such as Comcast Corp. have provided high-speed Internet access and phone service over the same wire into the home that they use to deliver TV.

At the same time, the swap would return Malone to media's big leagues. Liberty's assets include the nation's largest home-shopping network, QVC, the Starz movie channels and large stakes in Discovery Communications and Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp., but Malone's status as a media mogul waned in 1999, when he sold the nation's leading cable television provider, Tele-Communications Inc., to AT&T Corp.

If he gains control of DirecTV, Malone eventually would pursue a merger with its sole rival, EchoStar Communications Corp., according to sources at News Corp., who asked not to be identified because the negotiations are private.

Executives at Liberty Media could not be reached for comment.

Federal regulators rejected a proposed combination of the nation's two satellite TV providers in 2002 as anti-competitive. However, Murdoch, 75, has said publicly that the new competition in the pay television business from telephone companies could make Washington more amenable to such a deal today.

Murdoch purchased its DirecTV holdings from General Motors Corp. in late 2003 to fill a void in a satellite apparatus that reached every corner of the globe. Among News Corp.'s satellite services are BSkyB in Britain and StarTV in Asia.

However, his enthusiasm for DirecTV has diminished in the last year because of satellite TV's technical limitations and its slowing growth, News Corp. insiders say. Satellite technology is not capable of delivering the advanced services at the core of the cable-phone rivalry.

This summer, Murdoch and Malone tentatively agreed to a widely publicized trade involving 10 News Corp. TV stations. But in mid-July, when the pair were at the Allen & Co. media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, they discussed the DirecTV transaction, according to News Corp. insiders.

DirecTV is among several options on the table, people close to the discussions said. Malone has also expressed interest in Murdoch's regional sports channels. The talks could still break down, as they have several times in the last year, the sources said.

Under the terms being discussed, Liberty would swap its 19% stake in News Corp., which is worth more than $11 billion, for the 38% stake in DirecTV, which is valued at about $9 billion. Liberty, which is based outside Denver, would get another asset in the trade such as a television station and would contribute some cash so the deal would be tax-free for News Corp., sources said.

Malone has insisted on trading his stock for a hard asset owned by News Corp. rather than cash to allow him to avoid paying capital gains taxes.

Malone, a former partner of Murdoch's in several cable channels, took the Australian-born magnate by surprise in late 2004, when he doubled his stake in News Corp. by accumulating shares on the cheap when fund managers in Murdoch's native country began dumping them out of their portfolios as the company moved its headquarters to New York and its stock listing to the New York Stock Exchange.

Although Malone has publicly assured investors and Murdoch that he had no intention to make a hostile play for News Corp., Murdoch has been obsessed with paying off Malone and eliminating any threat, News Corp. sources said.

Murdoch was expected to use his expanded powers in pay television to launch several channels. But to date, News Corp. has created only two channels on the satellite platform, Reality TV and Fuel, a sports network.

A business news channel that would compete with NBC Universal's CNBC has been on the drawing board for more than a year and is expected to be launched in early 2007. Since the acquisition, DirecTV's subscriber base has grown by a third to nearly 16 million.

Malone's holdings in News Corp. date to 1999, when Liberty Media swapped an interest in the Fox/Liberty Networks sports venture for News Corp. stock. A year later, Malone exchanged a stake in Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc. for more News Corp. stock.

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-fi-liberty15sep15,0,4252952,print.story?coll=cl-tvent

keenan

09-15-06, 05:00 AM

From Broadcasting & Cable,

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6372324.html?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP&nid=2228
Broadcasting & Cable Breaking News articleFlat CA6372324

Breaking News

Officials Ordered FCC Report Destroyed, Says Ex-Staffer

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/14/2006 5:05:00 PM

Adam Candeub, a former lawyer with the FCC's Media Bureau, is alleging that senior FCC officials ordered all copies of a localism report drafted by the FCC in 2004 to be destroyed. Candeub is now a professor at Michigan State University.

Candeub was a staff level attorney with the media bureau. He tells B&C he was reviewing the study not as part of his job, but because he was friends with the authors. He also said he had co-authored authored scholarly works with the authors.

He says the study was "common bureau discussion" at the time. "Exactly who stopped it dead in its tracks, I don't know," said Candeub, but the word came down that "we have to get rid of this. We have to end the study. They don't want any more research done. They want us to collect copies and destroy them." He said he did not know who "they" were.

If Candeub is right, not all the copies were successfully destroyed. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) produced a copy of the report at Martin's renomination hearing in the Senate Commerce Committee this week. She said it had been sent to her anonymously. She asked who suppressed the report and Martin responded that he had never seen it, knew nothing about it, and had not been chairman when it was produced. The FCC is currently preparing an official response to Boxer's inquiry.

The study in question concluded that locally owned TV stations do more local news than network-owned or "non-locally owned" stations do, a finding that was at odds with an earlier FCC conclusion. The FCC, under former chairman Michael Powell, opened a proceeding on localism in 2003. To Boxer's unhappiness, they have yet to conclude those proceedings, and she has requested answers from the FCC on who knew about the study--and who did not.

Pointing to its own studies, the FCC under Powell had dismissed similar allegations of a disparity in news coverage in 2003. This was at a time when the NAB and the networks were divided over raising the station ownership cap, the networks in favor of it while stations opposed.

In a 2003 response to NAB and NASA (the Network Affiliated Stations Alliance), the FCC concluded:

"The national cap is not necessary to encourage local stations to air local news and public affairs programming."

The record actually suggests that the national cap diminishes localism by restraining the most effective purveyors of local news from using their resources in additional markets.The studies before us show that network-owned stations air, on average, more local news and public affairs programming than affiliates overall."

The commission also said the studies showed that network news was of higher quality. The 2004 FCC working paper Boxer produced "suggested," instead that "locally owned television broadcast stations are more local news than network owned and operated and non-locally owned stations," a conclusion it said had "implications for broadcast ownership rules."

Martin told Boxer Thursday that he was investigating the disappearing report, but had concluded that it was relevant to both the localism and ownership proceedings and that he was making it part of the record in both.

fredfa

09-15-06, 10:59 AM

TV Sports
West Coast Apparently Agrees With 'GameDay'
By Larry Stewart Los Angeles Times staff writer September 15, 2006
(Note: all times are Pacific)

ESPN's traveling circus, known as "College GameDay," is coming to town.

The cast of Chris Fowler, Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit, sometimes referred to as "the three wise men of college football," will be at the Coliseum on Saturday to do their show at 7 a.m. before USC's 5 p.m. game against Nebraska.

ESPN has been taking this show on the road since 1993 but didn't make a West Coast visit until 1998, when Oregon, then ranked 12th, played second-ranked UCLA at the Rose Bowl.

Before 2004, there was only one other West Coast appearance, in 2000 when No. 8 UCLA played at Oregon.

The show made two stops at the Coliseum in 2004 — for USC games against California and Notre Dame — and was there last season for UCLA-USC.

One perceived problem about West Coast appearances was that the early start would be a deterrent to getting much of a crowd. But this show has become so popular, it could probably draw a crowd at 3 a.m.

After the first two weeks of this season, the show is averaging a 1.7 rating. Games on ESPN are averaging a 2.4 and games on ESPN2 a 1.1.

One reason for selecting Saturday's Nebraska-USC game as the place to be was that Nebraska draws well, even on the road, and its fans love the show. When Notre Dame played at Lincoln, Neb., in 2001, a record crowd of about 15,800 showed up.

Other possibilities this weekend were Louisiana State at Auburn and Michigan at Notre Dame, even though those games are on competing networks. To ESPN's credit, the show is not restricted to being at only ABC and ESPN games.

Sites last season included two Southeastern Conference games on CBS, the USC-Notre Dame game on NBC and the Bayou Classic between Southern and Grambling on NBC.

"College GameDay" originated in 1987 with Bob Carpenter as the host, and Corso and Beano Cook as the analysts. The current cast has been together for 11 years and plays a key role in the show's popularity.

The first road show in 1993 was at South Bend, Ind., on Nov. 13, when No. 1 Florida State played No. 2 Notre Dame.

Corso says he knew at the time that ESPN had hit on something.

"After that show, I said that within four years colleges will be paying us to come to their school," he said this week. "They don't pay us, but they sure barter for us."

Corso himself is another reason for the popularity of "College GameDay." He has the expertise of a former coach — he coached at Louisville, Indiana, Northern Illinois and one year in the USFL before being hired by ESPN in 1987. Plus, his zaniness is usually entertaining and his candor refreshing. He's never afraid to express an opinion, even one that might anger certain fans.

Of Saturday's Nebraska-USC game, Corso said, "Realistically, Nebraska doesn't have a chance." He softened the blow, though, by adding, "If USC doesn't play tough, Nebraska has a chance."

He calls Pete Carroll "the best college coach in America," without concern about offending anyone else.

There was a time, though, when he did fear he had offended someone.

After the 1999 Virginia Tech team had lost the BCS championship game to Florida State, "GameDay" was at Virginia Tech for the opener the next season.

"I predicted on the air that Florida State and Kansas State would be in the championship game at the end of that season, and got booed by the Virginia Tech students," Corso said.

"After that segment, I went out to the parking lot and discovered my rental car had been hit by lightning. I was told it was like 500 billion to one that lightning would hit my car.

"When I went back on the air, I said, 'I don't know what a Hokie is, but God must be one. Go, Virginia Tech!'
http://www.latimes.com/sports/printedition/la-sp-tvcol15sep15,1,835131,print.column?coll=la-headlines-pe-

fredfa

09-15-06, 11:04 AM

The New Season
Premiere Dates

Thursday, Sept. 14
8 PM ET/PT Survivor: Cook Islands - CBS

Sunday, Sept. 17
8:30 PM ET/PT The Amazing Race 10 - CBS

Monday, Sept. 18
8 PM ET/PT The Class - CBS
8:30 PM ET/PT How I Met Your Mother - CBS
9 PM ET/PT Two And A Half Men - CBS
9:30 PM ET/PT The New Adventures of Old Christine - CBS
10 PM ET/PT CSI: Miami - CBS
10 PM ET/PT Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip - NBC

Tuesday, Sept. 19
8 PM ET/PT NCIS - CBS
9 PM ET/PT Law & Order: Criminal Intent - NBC
9 PM ET/PT The Unit - CBS
10 PM ET/PT Smith - CBS
10 PM ET/PT Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - NBC
10 PM ET/PT Boston Legal - ABC

Wednesday, Sept. 20
8 PM ET/PT Jericho - CBS
8 PM ET/PT America's Next Top Model - CW
9 PM ET/PT Criminal Minds - CBS
10 PM ET/PT Kidnapped - NBC
10 PM ET/PT CSI: NY - CBS

Thursday, Sept. 21
8 PM ET/PT My Name Is Earl - NBC
8:30 PM ET/PT The Office - NBC
9 PM ET/PT Grey's Anatomy - ABC
9 PM ET/PT CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - CBS
10 PM ET/PT Six Degrees - ABC
10 PM ET/PT Shark - CBS
10 PM ET/PT ER - NBC

Friday, Sept. 22
8 PM ET/PT Ghost Whisperer - CBS
9 PM ET/PT Close To Home - CBS
10 PM ET/PT Numb3rs - CBS
10 PM ET/PT Law & Order - NBC

Sunday, Sept. 24
7 PM ET/PT Extreme Makeover: Home Edition - ABC
9 PM ET/PT Desperate Housewives - ABC
9 PM ET/PT Cold Case - CBS
10 PM ET/PT Brothers & Sisters - ABC
10 PM ET/PT Without a Trace - CBS

fredfa

09-15-06, 11:35 AM

TV Review
Thursday's terrific "Survivor"
By Aaron Barnhart Kansas City Star in his blog “TV Barn” Friday, September 15, 2006

“Survivor's” controversial game of apartheid -- with its 20 contestants divided into four “tribes” of blacks, Asians, Latinos and whites -- began Thursday night.

Critics spent two weeks decrying the 13th edition of the adventure reality game that they had yet to see (and, one suspects, had ignored until now). The windfall of publicity was just what a TV show looking for a rebound in the ratings needed.

When it aired, “Survivor” delivered an exciting and entertaining hour. And the first results from the racial groupings seemed to vindicate the show's producers, who have been slammed in the past for loading up on white contestants while choosing non-white players that reinforced negative images of minorities.

Some players took to the groupings, however tenuous, and set about translating their lifelong perceptions of racial identity into game strategy.

“No one suspects these little people with slanted eyes,” said Cao Boi Bui, a free-spirited member of the all-Asian “Puka” squad and its only native Vietnamese. “People always underestimate Asians.” Stephannie Favor, a member of the African-American “Hiki” team, said, “I think we all feel the pressure to represent.”

The ugliest side to “Survivor's” racial politics has been its reflection of “white privilege” in American society, that is, the tendency of the dominant race to favor its own kind. It's been a running joke among African-Americans that “the brother gets voted off the island first,” and though a black woman did win the fourth “Survivor,” the perception persists.

But by giving each player enough racial allies to form a flying wedge through most of the competition, “Survivor” took white privilege off the table, at least for now.

True, the all-black Hikis are down one member as a result of the first elimination. But as host Jeff Probst noted, if its members kicked out the right person, it will make their group stronger. That's how you win on “Survivor.” And indeed, no one could say afterward that jazz musician Sekou Bunch was sent packing because he was African-American. He was sent packing because he alienated teammates and couldn't get a fire started. That's how you lose on “Survivor.”

Or at least, how you're supposed to.

Other notable things about Thursday's episode:

• Jeff Probst had told us in a conference call that this was the most extensive contestant search in "Survivor" history. At one point, he said, they scouted out the Miss Koreatown pageant in Seattle for potential players. (Next edition of "Survivor," they deal with sexual stereotyping....) As a result, Probst said, they got a pile of people who had never seen the show in their life. And that allowed them to play the game fresh -- notice the intro scene was almost exactly like the intro scene to "Survivor 1." Also, notice in the final scene how excited the Hikis were to get fire -- apparently none of them knew that the losing team almost always gets fire after tribal council.

• I think this was one of the most beautifully designed challenges I've seen on "Survivor," with colorful puzzle boats whose braces are converted into ladder rungs on the final ascent.

• The white people reinforced white privilege, didn't they? They just yakked on about game theory through individualist eyes: "This is Survivor. Somebody's gonna win a million dollars and they're gonna have to cut the throat of the guy next to them at some point," as Jonathan put it. Of course, it wasn't "the guy next to him" who sent him off to Exile Island ...

• My money's on Ozzy, the strong, non-leaderly leader of "iTunes" (which is what Aitu sounds like).

• I think Billy was based on Hurley from "Lost." He's big, droll and hilarious, and people are suspicious of him. "We got this ass backwards ... My parents paddled AWAY from an island," Billy, whose folks grew up in the D.R., joked.

• With four tribes, it is possible that the racial groupings could go well into the show. But it would help if Hiki didn't lose another member in the next two episodes.

http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/2006/09/review_thursday.html#more

fredfa

09-15-06, 11:55 AM

Critic’s Notebook
New fall season doesn't replace summer dreaming
By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle Friday, September 15, 2006

The official start of the new fall television season is Monday, and though a handful of series have jumped the gun and premiered already, there's still a freshness about it all, a full nine months of possibility. It's the promise of September -- a bloom not fully smashed back into the ground until at least November.

And yet, it's hard to look forward without looking back. (In a year-round television environment, that's merely a figure of speech.) Only the savviest of viewers know how lucky we are: Good television is there to be witnessed literally all year. Just as three of television's top series have wrapped -- HBO's "Deadwood" and "Entourage," and FX's "Rescue Me" -- already a phenomenal new season of "The Wire" has begun (also on HBO) and, as a bonus, has been renewed for a fifth and final season. This on the cusp of yet another broadcast television season of quality freshman offerings.

So let the inevitable onslaught of mediocrity and awfulness pour forth, a kind of relentless fulfillment both of cynics' lowered expectations for the medium and the well-documented 80 percent (plus) failure rate of new series. It does not darken the spirits of those who really know where the good stuff is. And even if hopes are dashed -- if "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" flames out or "The Nine" is judged boring by the masses -- who could write off the next three quarters of the year when "Rescue Me," "Deadwood" and "Entourage" impressed so mightily?

That's a long-winded way of saying, "Damn, there's more?" It was a wild ride for all three series and though the final episodes might have left some wanting (except, perhaps, "Entourage," which closed as usual with an effortless click), who could possibly be let down by the collective effort?

Let's start with "Deadwood," our beloved Shakespeare-in-the-mud epic, which reached all new heights of brilliance only to falter in the last hour, a victim of offscreen negotiations that will end the series prematurely before a very necessary fourth season (and deliver, we are told, a pair of two-hour movies that will allegedly wrap up things nicely).

It's tough to imagine "Deadwood" creator David Milch being able to focus on his new project, the yet-to-be-filmed "John From Cincinnati," when so much of "Deadwood" remains vitally alive. The pending wrath of George Hearst (Gerald McRaney), alluded to yet never fully witnessed, remains leashed. If the third season was meant for anything, it was to build in the viewer the feeling of imminent doom, of Al Swearengen (Ian McShane), Cy Tolliver (Powers Boothe) and Sheriff Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant) heading inexplicably to a fate bigger than their collective will. It was all set in motion with the very first episode, "Tell Your God to Ready for Blood," but when it ended after 12 episodes, Hearst rode off, an exhalation wafted over the Black Hills with unfinished business on everyone's mind.

And that's it? Talk about unfinished business.

fredfa

09-15-06, 12:11 PM

TV Q&A
Ask Matt
(from the Ask (TV Critic) Matt (Roush) column at TVGuide.com
By Matt Roush TVGuide.com TV Critic

Question: I've heard much positive buzz about Friday Night Lights, but the truth is I'm skeptical. Except for Kyle Chandler, most of the cast of this show are new to acting, having appeared in a few TV shows or movies. How many of these kids can deliver nuanced performances like Michael Chiklis, James Gandolfini, Hugh Laurie, Dennis Franz or any of the actors from Studio 60? Won't this show be hampered by the fact that most of these kids are basically still learning to act?— Ian
Matt Roush: Not to be rude, but what kind of an assumption is that to make about a show and a cast you have yet to meet? One of the few universal truths about TV is that it's better at creating new stars than at repackaging veteran stars. Another way to look at Friday Night Lights is as an opportunity for a new generation of potential stars to get noticed. (The last high-school football drama NBC aired, 1993's short-lived Against the Grain, featured a then-unknown Ben Affleck, so you never know.)

At least one of the young Friday Night players, Scott Porter, has extensive stage credits, including being the lead singer of the off-Broadway hit Altar Boyz. And since when does young and unknown necessarily spell inferior? Think Alexis Bledel pre-Gilmore Girls; think the Buffy and Veronica Mars casts. There's plenty of young talent out there waiting to be discovered, including on this show — which is already enough of an underdog as it is, don't you think?

Question: I just spent my summer vacation watching the first three seasons of The West Wing on DVD. It was about as addictive as any drug I can imagine — the best TV a viewer can ever hope for. Although I continued to enjoy West Wing right up to the end, I had forgotten how high they had set the bar in the early years (and how damn sexy Allison Janney is!). I have not seen any advance episodes of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Can I expect the same excellence from Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme? Can Bradley Whitford step out of Josh's shoes? And when will Josh Malina's character transfer from the Sports Night spot?— Albert S.

Matt Roush: I was with you until the Josh Malina joke. (Seriously, the Will character worked my nerves. I think we could use a break.) I've now seen two episodes of Studio 60, and I was even more dazzled by the second episode than I was by the pilot (which at times, especially at the beginning, seems a little full of itself). The production design, the dialogue, the performances and the pace are all pretty spectacular and stimulating. The real question here is whether the world of TV programming is as fruitful an arena for Sorkin as the White House was. On The West Wing, story lines were suffused with importance, whereas Studio 60 can sometimes feel self-important. But this is still great, sophisticated entertainment, and I hope there's more of an audience for it than there turned out to be for Sports Night, which may have been ahead of its time (and as we discussed way back in the day, it might have had more success on NBC instead of ABC).

Question: Has ABC finally sent out the Brothers & Sisters pilot yet? If so, what do you think? I really want it to be good, and I have been hearing some more positive things in recent weeks, but I still can't shake my nervousness. Also, I can't help but think that whatever the merits of the show are, it doesn't look like a good match with Desperate Housewives. In that sense, do you think it will be a good replacement for Grey's Anatomy in the 10 pm/ET hour?— Jake

Matt Roush: I did see it, and my review is on the site this week (and in this week's jam-packed Returning Favorites issue of TV Guide, which you really ought to pick up). The hardest sort of review to write is one conveying ambivalence (it's much easier to write a rave or a pan), and that's what I feel right now about Brothers & Sisters. With that much talent in front of and behind the camera, it's not a disaster or a stinker. But it also struck me as something less than a winner. It's awfully solemn, and the characters are a hard-to-warm-up-to clan of malcontents. As for the show's suitability as a companion piece to Housewives, the first impression isn't good. Then again, with the exception of a couple of saucy scenes involving Bree in the season opener (which I just screened this week), Housewives is getting off to a rather sluggish start this season as well. Too early to write off either show, but there's nothing yet to get jazzed about, either.

Question: Ausiello has seen the Gilmore Girls Season 7 premiere. Have you? What did you think?— Eva

Matt Roush: An impatient lot, aren't you? While I'll be writing more about closer to premiere (Sept. 26), I will say that I tend to look at Gilmore Girls as being in the same boat as Desperate Housewives. I still like much about each show, but feel that the writers/producers have painted their characters into such unpleasant and uninteresting (to me) corners that it's going to be a long and tiresome journey to watch the shows fix themselves. With the Gilmore opener, I enjoyed much of the writing (David Rosenthal has a flair for Gilmore-style banter and overall lunacy), but hated the main story, if that's what you can consider the Luke-Lorelai rift, which I find even less enjoyable that the Rory-Lorelai split (which at least made dramatic sense). That said, and as an acknowledged non-fan of Logan, I loved the twist involving Logan's going-away gift to Rory. I'll reveal why at a later date.

Question: I couldn't agree more with your assessment of The Wire as classic television. One of the things that I love about the show is its incredible realism. I am a second-year law student at Harvard, and when I took criminal law, I was amazed by how much I already knew from watching the show. The show got all of the laws about wiretapping and search and seizure right, unlike some other shows, like Law & Order, which change the details to fit the story. The U.S. attorney for Maryland was recently at my school, and someone asked if his impressions of the war on drugs had changed since taking office. He replied that they had, and that if you really wanted to know what it was like, you should watch a show called The Wire. You don't get much better of a recommendation than that.— Daniel P.

Matt Roush: I'd say. And I'll say it again: The Wire is the best TV you should be watching this season, and that's coming from someone who likes an inordinate amount of TV.

Question: I appreciate your comments to Uwe B. in Monday's column. I have to disagree with you a little, though. While I am not into creating my own fall lineup, I do get disappointed when the networks prematurely cancel a show. I know that ratings are king, but it is next to impossible to allow a show to create buzz when you don't give it time to grow. Firefly, My So-Called Life and Love Monkey were all canceled without even giving viewers half a season to "find" the show. One of my favorite shows, Party of Five, was not a fan favorite, but the fan base was incredibly loyal and the series lived for a number of seasons. By today's network standards, it wouldn't have lasted 12 episodes. I can't blame viewers for their "skittishness and cynicism." The ironic thing is that with people on the sidelines waiting to see what will happen, it almost dictates that more quality shows will be casualties before their time. TV is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.— Amy

Matt Roush: Only if we let it be. Look, terrific and terrible shows die by the bushel (and that even applies to reality shows nowadays, given the glut). Sometimes a great show squeaks through for a long run (like Party of Five), and I don't have to tell you that critically condemned shows have been known to run for years. It's all a crapshoot. But how can a show develop the sort of "loyal fan base" that rescued Party of Five (which I pegged the day I saw the pilot as a show that was going to need both critical and fan attention, and got it) if viewers refuse to meet the networks halfway?Uwe's letter prompted quite a bit of response, including this from Brian, which I include in part because embedded within is a reference, perhaps unintentional, to the Viewers of Quality Television, a much-missed organization: "I was a bit disturbed by Uwe B.'s comments in Mondays' column. By not watching these shows until they prove longevity, they are a source of the problem. I would guess a lot of people watched House and Bones expecting a quick pull, given Fox's history. Fortunately, the people who watched passed on raving reviews to those who didn't, and momentum built. If viewers of quality television aren't watching out of fear of cancellation, how are they going to tell others the show is good to stop it from being canceled?"

Question: Here's a thought on your discussion about Showtime: The network has alienated a lot of faithful viewers as far back as when they axed Odyssey 5 despite the show's very decent ratings (worse, the cancellation followed a cliff-hanger season finale). Showtime was on record as saying they canceled the show because they didn't want to become known as a science-fiction network. Then, of course, they bought Dead Like Me and canceled it after two seasons, again in spite of decent ratings and a deeply fanatical following. Maybe Showtime shot itself in the foot by canceling these shows, and now no one wants to take a chance on its programming because good shows could vanish tomorrow for no good reason.— Sheldon

Matt Roush: Simply put, I'm not interested in grudges. I'm interested in good programming, and so should anyone else who pretends to care about the future of TV, whether on broadcast networks or pay cable. Showtime has clearly gone through several radical regime changes, with shifting priorities (from series to movies and back again). But in the last year or so, the network has been flexing its programming muscle in interesting ways. I can see why the unforgiving (and at times seemingly undiscriminating) sci-fi fan would resist many of Showtime's new programs, but they deserve something more than a cold shoulder.

Question: I'm not sure if you're still watching Vanished, but what were the writers smoking when they thought that a dumber-than-24's-Kim-Bauer daughter was a good idea for a character? So far, the plot is intriguing enough to keep me watching (albeit on TiVo, and with my finger on fast-forward), but if she runs into a mountain lion in the next few episodes, I'm outta here.— Nathan C.

Matt Roush: Of all the many problems of Vanished (which I think I'm about to bail on, now that there's actual competition arriving in the time period), the character of Marcy is almost certainly the worst and most ludicrous. And this letter came in even before we learned that she was pregnant and had been carrying on with the federal judge who's now a Supreme Court nominee, and that this is why she had a falling-out with her missing stepmom. What a petulant, ridiculous brat. If anyone should vanish, it's her.

Question: I really enjoyed Saved on TNT. I was wondering if it was coming back like The Closer is? Would it come back in December as well? I have to say, I was surprised to see the ad for The Closer coming back in December, since it didn't last year. Please give me good news!— Amy W.

Matt Roush: Too soon to know if Saved will be renewed. I checked with TNT earlier this week, and there was no news yet. But neither show is likely to begin a new season until next summer. The ad you saw regarding The Closer in December involves a two-part episode, directed by Kyra Sedgwick's husband, Kevin Bacon, which will air that month as an original special. That will be the official season finale for The Closer, and it won't return with new episodes until next June or thereabouts.

Question: Are you pleased with how terribly Desire and Fashion House did during their first week? Ratings are horrible! I can't imagine anyone wanting to tune in to these series five or six times a week when there are already daytime soaps and Spanish telenovelas. It reminds of me when NBC tried a soap called Sunset Beach. It always ranked near the bottom because who has the time to invest in a new five-hour-a-week series? What were MyNetwork TV's expectations? I'm sure they weren't met!— Joe

Matt Roush: Especially considering that these shows launched in early September, without the real competition of most regular network series, the early numbers are probably as disappointing to the network's powers-that-be as the programming itself is to the public at large. But you asked if I'm pleased, and the answer is no. I'm never pleased about failure. I want TV to succeed. But I am gratified to think that the public won't necessarily swallow junk delivered this cynically. Dead air would

http://tvguide.com/News-Views/Columnists/Ask-Matt/default.aspx

fredfa

09-15-06, 12:15 PM

Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
Weaker debut for race-based 'Survivor'SVU'
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Sep 15, 2006

After all the hype over the new racially divided tribes on “Survivor: Cook Islands,” the ploy didn’t perk up numbers for the long-running CBS reality show. In fact, it had its lowest-rated debut in years.

“Survivor” averaged a 6.3 adults 18-49 rating last night, according to Nielsen overnights, down 10 percent from last spring’s 7.0 for the debut of “Survivor: Panama-Exile Island” and the lowest-rated premiere in at least the last five cycles of the show.

Though “Survivor” dominated the hour, nearly equaling the combined averages of CBS, Fox and ABC, it faced only two originals. Next week, when NBC returns its cult hits “My Name is Earl” and “The Office” in the 8 p.m. timeslot and ABC premieres the highly touted “Ugly Betty,” “Survivor” should still win the timeslot but perhaps with a lower rating.

Among total viewers, the show averaged 17.7 million, down 8 percent from last year’s 19.3 million.
Earlier this summer, CBS announced that this edition of “Survivor” would split the tribes into four groups according to race: whites, blacks, Asians and Hispanics.

The move drew protests from some minority groups and disdain from many “Survivor” fans, who wondered just how desperate for ratings the show had become.

CBS called the move a sociological experiment, but it was clearly sparked by declining ratings for the once-dominant franchise, which last spring had its lowest average ever among total viewers, dipping below 17 million.

Still, “Survivor” fared much better than week two of the new Fox sitcom “’Til Death,” also at 8 p.m. A week after debuting respectably against the highly rated NBC NFL opener, “Death” declined by 20 percent, averaging a 2.4 to last week’s 3.0. The show, which received mixed reviews, stars “Everybody Loves Raymond’s” Brad Garrett.

“Survivor” helped CBS win the night among adults 18-49, averaging a 5.3 rating and 16 share, followed by ABC at 3.0/9, Fox at 2.2/7, NBC at 2.1/6, Univision at 1.7, and the WB at 0.7.

At 8 p.m., “Survivor” was No. 1 with a 6.3, followed by ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” repeat at 2.4, Fox’s “Death” (2.4) and “Happy Hour” (2.1) at 2.2, NBC’s two “Earl” repeats at 2.0, Univision’s “La Fea Mas Bella” at 1.8, and the WB’s “Smallville” repeat at 1.6.

At 9 p.m., CBS kept the lead with a 4.8 for a “CSI” rerun, followed by ABC’s “Grey’s” rerun at 3.4, NBC’s “Earl” and “Office” reruns at 2.4, Fox’s “Celebrity Duets” at 2.3, Univision’s “Barrera de Amor” at 1.8, and the WB’s “Supernatural” repeat at 0.6.

At 10 p.m., CBS’s “CSI” rerun led at 4.7, followed by ABC’s “Primetime” at 3.3, NBC’s “ER” rerun at 2.0 and Univision’s “Aqui y Ahora” at 1.5.

Among households, CBS led at 10.0/7, followed by ABC at 5.7/10, Fox at 3.9/6, NBC at 3.5/6, Univision at 2.2/4 and the WB at 1.1/2.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_7328.asp

fredfa

09-15-06, 12:24 PM

The Thursday prime-time ratings – and Media Week Analyst Marc Berman’s view of what they mean -- have been posted just under the HD Football listings near the top of Ratings News the first post in this thread.

fredfa

09-15-06, 12:54 PM

Critic’s Notebook
Veronica Marvelous
By Rich Heldenfels in his Akron Beacon Journal TV blog

Sometimes getting to see shows ahead of time can be frustrating. In July, a bunch of us saw a new episode of ''The Shield.'' It was really good. But the show doesn't come back on the air until January. So there was considerable whining about having to wait to see more. It was like getting an appetizer at a banquet, then having to sit through hours of speeches before you get the rest of the meal.

So two episodes of the third season of ''Veronica Mars'' arrived in the mail yesterday. And since I had a break between writing my DVD column and covering Leonard Nimoy, I watched them. Now I'm sitting here, knowing that ''Veronica's'' third season doesn't start until Oct. 3, and I've also seen the Oct. 10 telecast and, well, I WANT TO SEE THE OCT. 17 EPISODE AND I WANT IT NOW.

Regular readers of this blog know that I am a ''Veronica'' fan. But I had some fears going into the new season. Veronica and her peers have gone off to college, for one thing, and that's a significant change to deal with. And instead of doing a season-long story, the show will have three shorter serials, so new viewers can join in easily. And, in its third season, ''Veronica's'' characters have so much history -- both chronological and emotional -- that it still has to walk the high wire between being too obscure for potential new fans and being too obvious for people who have memorized every detail.

I am pleased to report that ''Veronica'' gets two out of three. The shift to college starts off very well; imagine, for starters, how Veronica might do in a criminology class. The show recognizes the ways that college can be just like high school, so there are similarities in the characters' interaction. But it's also a place where someone like Veronica has to realize that she didn't learn everything in high school; the two episodes refer more than once to how well people judge others' character, and that's an issue for Veronica and for her father, Keith.

The shorter story arc actually feels better than the longer ones of the first two seasons. By the end of the second episode, it feels as if things have moved very fast and that more revelations are coming soon -- a big reason why I WANT TO SEE THE OCT. 17 EPISODE AND I WANT IT NOW.

The one flaw may be in trying to bring new viewers up to speed. There is a lot of explanation and even introduction woven into the first show, relationships sketched, references to the past. If, for example, you don't know what a jerk Dick Casablancas has been, you get ample new evidence.

But the many layers of ''Veronica'' can't all be covered in a show that is still moving rapidly forward, so I suspect some new viewers will be unclear why Logan is so sad, or where Kendall fits into everything. But I urge those viewers to watch because soon enough they will see that ''Veronica'' is funny and clever, dramatic and surprising. And those of you who have been watching should need no more convincing -- only a painful cry of ''Is it Oct. 3 yet?''

http://blogs.ohio.com/beacon_tv/

fredfa

09-15-06, 12:57 PM

Critic’s Notebook
Former FCC Head Powell Responds to Report Flap
TVWeek.com September 15, 2006

Former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell said he knows nothing about the quashing of an agency study that would have undercut his push to loosen media ownership rules.

The 2004 study, unveiled by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., at a Senate hearing Tuesday, was produced under Mr. Powell as part of the FCC's look into how media-ownership affects television news programming.

The study said that locally owned stations average 5.5 more minutes of local news per half hour of news than stations owned by distant media companies. That finding would have conflicted with the FCC's push at the time to ease media ownership rules and allow more out-of-town ownership of stations.

"He said he never saw the report, never heard of it until yesterday and never ordered it destroyed," a spokeswoman for Mr. Powell said Friday.

Adam Candeub, a law professor at Michigan State University who worked under Mr. Powell as a lawyer in the FCC Media Bureau, told Television Week yesterday that agency officials came into the office one day and told the two researchers to halt work work on the study.

"They said that the project was dead, and to delete computer records," Mr. Candeub said, adding that the researchers had spent considerable time going through tapes of TV station news broadcasts to analyze their content.

Mr. Candeub's suggestion that the project was killed and "every last piece" of the study ordered destroyed was first reported by the Associated Press.

Sen. Boxer has demanded an explanation from current FCC chairman Kevin Martin and consumer groups are asking for a probe by the FCC's Office of Inspector General.

Mr. Martin, who has said neither he nor his staff had seen the study before Tuesday, moved quickly to add the study's contents to the FCC's current examination of localism.

The controversy could put more pressure on the FCC to complete the study on so-called localism in broadcasting before making any changes in media ownership rules.

The study was part of the efforts of a localism task force launched by Mr. Powell in 2003 supposedly to "advise the commission on steps it can take … that would strengthen localism in broadcasting."

http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=10760

fredfa

09-15-06, 01:03 PM

TV Review
“Studio 60 on Sunset Strip”
Bottom line: Aaron Sorkin's show-within-a-show is a show of brilliance
By Barry Garron The Hollywood Reporter

"Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" (10 PM ET/PT Monday, NBC) is on the air. Gentlemen, start your TiVos. The season is under way.

Actually, several new fall series already have begun, but the launch of "Studio 60" -- an ambitious and hugely entertaining drama -- somehow tells us that the new fall season truly has begun.

In case you've just awakened from a coma, this drama is about a previously fired producer-director team (sort of like exec producers Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme) who are hired to revive a legendary but fading weekly sketch comedy series (sort of like "Saturday Night Live").

It might just as easily have been titled "Aaron Sorkin's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" because his fingerprints are everywhere. The dialogue, spoken with Sorkin's unique and lyrical cadence, rails against two of his favorite topics: the mediocrity of much of TV and the hypocrisy of the religious right. Many of the cast members are recognizable from previous Sorkin series and, for good measure, there's a showrunner struggling with a persistent coke addiction.

In the opening scenes, the producer of this fictional comedy show (guest star Judd Hirsch) wages a losing battle to include a comedy sketch likely to offend the religious right. "Living where there's free speech means sometimes you get offended," he protests, to no avail. Frustrated, he takes to the stage while the show is on the air and urges viewers to switch the channel.

The outburst occurs just as new network president Jordan McDeere (Amanda Peet) arrives at NBS (National Broadcasting System, which is sort of like, well, you get the idea). Her answer is to rehire the team of writer-producer Matt Albie (Matthew Perry) and director-producer Danny Tripp (Bradley Whitford), both of who were axed from the show four years earlier. They take the job, albeit with some reluctance.

Sorkin has figured out that the best way to defend himself from inevitable charges of liberal bias is to co-opt his critics by having characters that, at least in theory, represent an opposing point of view. Hence the presence of Harriet Hayes (Sarah Paulson), a "Studio 60" cast member who also is a fundamentalist Christian, and McDeere, a network exec with brains and guts (though the glamorous Peet is not an obvious choice for the role). Even so, that likely won't be enough to placate those who take umbrage to Matt's calling Pat Robertson a hypocrite. But, then, some of the pleasure of watching a Sorkin show is the occasional controversy it generates.

There are more than a few well-made dramas this season, but "Studio 60" -- with its intelligent dialogue, ironic humor, brilliant acting and Schlamme's inspired direction -- lays claim to being the most exciting new show of the season. If it doesn't bash the time period competition and restore some of the lost luster to NBC, it would be both a shame and a wonderful source of material for Sorkin's next show.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/reviews/review_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003122580

fredfa

09-15-06, 01:06 PM

Critic’s Notebook
“Studio 60 on Sunset Strip”
You May Soon Be Saying, 'Thank God It's Monday'
By Ray Richmond The Hollywood Reporter in his blog “Past Deadline”

I wholeheartedly agree with my TV critic colleague Barry Garron that Aaron Sorkin's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" (premiering Monday at 10 p.m.) is a singularly brilliant hour of drama. It's gut guts, a clearly defined and unapologetic political point of view, great acting (from Matthew Perry, Bradley Whirford, Amanda Peet, Timothy Busfield and Steven Weber, among others) and the trademark crackling dialogue of Sorkin, who used his pen to create characters so vivid they're instantly relatable and riveting. They are, in this case, also irresistibly flawed, and indeed the tainted duo portrated by Perry and Whitford are very much stand--ins for creator/exec producer/wrirter Sorkin and his longtime partner Thomas Schlamme.

What's perhaps most thrilling about the "Studio 60" pilot is the subtext of social commentary that fuels its point of view. NBC has given Sorkin apparent cart blanche to chomp the hand that feeds him with impunity -- at least by inference. Through his characters, he takes well-targeted shots at TV's lily-livered soul and penchant for rewarding humdrum imitation. The only area where Sorkin will need to guard against crafting a mythology is with regard to having a bunch of middle-aged white guys running a "Saturday Night Live"-style network sketch comedy series when it's so often twentysomething Harvard grads guiding the ship.

Will "Studio 60" give Sorkin and NBC another hit akin to "The West Wing"? It's unlikely to reach that level as quickly as did "Wing," and indeed this milieu could well be a bit less accessible than the political realm. But they also said you couldn't make a hit based on politics, that it was too limiting and brainy and complex, and Sorkin proved them wrong. I wouldn't be a bit surprised were he able to pull it off again -- so long as the quality remains as consistently high as the bravura pilot.

http://www.pastdeadline.com/

fredfa

09-15-06, 02:00 PM

TV Sports
Fox's NFL pregame grip slips
By Michael Hiestand USA Today

Usually, TV sports is beholden to a factor beyond its control: whether the games end up being compelling. NFL pregame shows are different. They're a sort of junior version of the network evening battles as men in (TV) makeup go mano a mano and somebody finishes first.

That's almost always Fox, which claims a 134-1-2 ratings record vs. CBS' pregame show. (Cable's ESPN gets good numbers, but it's an also-ran, partly since it hasn't had games after its midday show.)

Fox should win, given its NFC game package has teams in more big TV markets than CBS' AFC package. Which makes this noteworthy: CBS' pregame show Sunday drew 3.5% of U.S. TV households — up 25% from last year — which nearly tied Fox's 3.6%, a rating that was up 9% from last year.

This near-parity comes after CBS' 2005 average rating finished just 0.9% behind Fox, the smallest gap since CBS regained NFL coverage in 1998.

Scott Ackerson, coordinating producer for Fox's studio show, doesn't sound concerned. After Fox host James Brown went to CBS, he was replaced by Joe Buck as the show now goes on the road to wherever Buck is calling games. Ackerson, talking about Buck's debut, doesn't sound like he's disappointed: "I knew Joe was really, really good, but I didn't know he was that good. And that's the God's honest truth. ... He's the best in the business."

Ackerson doesn't sound concerned that CBS added ex-NFL general manager Charley Casserly for inside tips. He notes Fox's Howie Long said Sunday that New England's Deion Branch would be traded to Seattle — which happened Monday — and Casserly just said he'd be traded. "You've got a guy who worked in the NFL for years just saying he'd be traded," Ackerson says. "I could have said that."

Ackerson, on whether he thinks about CBS as he plans his show: "Absolutely zero."

Eric Mann, senior producer for CBS' studio show, says Casserly is a "terrific addition" and "everybody loves" Brown. And when it comes to Fox, Mann doesn't offer quotes that can be tacked up over any pregame show buffet: "It's not like we study them. We do our own show. The ratings fall where they fall."

Mercifully, both shows are cutting back on taped features. Fox sometimes won't air any. Says Ackerson of those starchy pregame staples: "With few exceptions, most everybody says the same things in those features anyway."

Madden and Robinson still clowning around on the bus

John Robinson's record coaching Southern California was 104-35-4 and he also led the then-Los Angeles Rams to two NFC title games. Fancy credentials for his current gig: a sort of broadcast-booth spotter for a TV announcer.

But not just any announcer. He's alongside John Madden, his buddy since they began going to school together in fifth grade in Daly City, Calif. And the retired coach suggests he's not along for this ride just for the perks: "I'm going to heaven. Because if God says when I die, 'You're going to hell,' I'll say, 'Hey, I rode that (Madden) bus.' "

After an exhibition game last month in Indianapolis he headed back to Madden's bus figuring they'd roll to a nice restaurant. "But we end up sitting in the bus with (NBC Sports chief) Dick Ebersol watching more preseason football on TV and eating peanut butter sandwiches. I'm wondering what the hell I've gotten into."

He's mostly kidding. For Madden, he watches game tapes of teams that will play on NBC, noting schemes and substitutions from "the coaching standpoint" and says it's "really fun" to go with Madden to meetings with coaches. During games, Madden and Al Michaels use their regular spotters — "Malibu" Kelly Hayes and George Hill — freeing Robinson to look for whatever Madden might miss. "I just pass him notes. There's no pressure on me." (Robinson, in the booth, also blogs for NBCSports.com.)

Robinson says "the funny thing about John is he really hasn't changed" since grammar school, when "he cheated off my tests — or it was the other way around." But as coaches in 1977, Robinson won a Rose Bowl and, just days later in the same stadium, Madden won a Super Bowl. Says Robinson: "It's worked out pretty well for two doofuses from Daly City."

Danielson set for SEC debut on CBS

Gary Danielson, after calling games on ESPN and ABC since 1990, makes his CBS debut Saturday night as an analyst on No. 6 Florida vs. No. 17 Tennessee.

But Danielson, who became CBS' main analyst for its Southeastern Conference prime-time package after Todd Blackledge moved to ESPN, doesn't expect viewers to buzz over his job switch.

"People want analysis of the game (and) probably won't notice that I was at ABC and went to CBS," he says.

And Danielson isn't exactly nervous about working with Verne Lundquist, his new partner: "I might be in trouble if Verne and I were doing ice dancing. But football is football."

Although Danielson starred at Purdue and was an NFL quarterback for 11 seasons before retiring in 1988, he says he wasn't exactly recruited for TV work before he was hired by ESPN.

"I must have called them 20 times and never got a call back," he says. "Then they called, and I got an audition and was hired. I was lucky. I don't know if it would work like that now."

Probably not.

For the first Saturday in 12 years, seven games — three on ABC, two on CBS, and one each on NBC and CSTV — will have nationally ranked teams playing each other in what ESPN is hyping as "Separation Saturday."

In leaving ABC/ESPN, Danielson leaves behind the opportunity to cover the national-title picture getting played out in various conferences.

But he's content with his new focus on one league.

"There are only two conferences that really get national attention — the Big Ten and the SEC."

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2006-09-14-weekend_x.htm

fredfa

09-15-06, 02:06 PM

Critic’s Notebook
More fun and sex on “Desperate Housewives”
By Diane Holloway Austin American-Statesman in her TV blog Friday, September 15, 2006

If you were one of the millions of “Desperate Housewives” fans who found last season woefully inadequate, I’ve got good news.

The new season, which begins Sept. 24 at 9 ET/PT on ABC, marks a return to the dark comedy and outrageous plot twists that made the show a hit in the first place. The opening episode offered up for preview is resplendent with shocks, guffaws and good-old fun.

Creator Marc Cherry spent the summer apologizing for last season, which skidded off track on a number of levels. The worst development was bringing in the mysterious Applewhite family. Alfre Woodard’s enormous talent was wasted on that son-in-the-basement mess, and Austin’s own Mehcad Brooks as the hunky son not in the basement never got a chance to shine. The writers did a big disservice to the cast and the fans in that basement.

The Applewhites are gone now, and all is right on Wisteria Lane. The saga begins six months after we left them.

Mary Alice’s suicide is no longer a mystery, although she continues to narrate the neighborhood melodrama. The new mystery is an apparent murder (is anything really certain on Wisteria Lane) that threatens to unravel a new romance.

Bree, brilliantly played by Marcia Cross, is the light and dark of this particular installment. She has a new love now, the oddly creepy dentist played by Kyle MacLachlan. One hilarious scene finds Bree overcome by lust after seeing her new guy work some miracle cure on her spotted crystal glasses. When he begins a romantic, uh, interlude that she finds shocking, Bree sits bolt upright and announces, “I don’t do that! I’m a Republican.” He forges ahead and Bree is, shall we say, overcome by the result. So much so that she races to her doctor to find out what happened.

Meanwhile, Gabriella is forced to take care for her former housekeeper-turned-surrogate Xiao Mei as her marriage to Carlos collapses. Susan meets a new guy who, like her, is tending to a comatose lover in the hospital. Mike, you may recall, was run down in last season’s cliffhanger.

And Lynette goes to war with the mother of her husband’s illegitimate daughter. You’d scream the battle cry, too, if your spouse’s lover squirmed her way into the family Christmas photo.

Laurie Metcalfe joins the cast as a nosy neighbor who threatens to ruin Bree’s new happiness.

There are equal parts hilarity and mystery … in other words, “Desperate Housewives” has recovered from last season’s malaise.

http://www.austin360.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/tvblog/

keenan

09-15-06, 02:32 PM

Critic’s Notebook
Former FCC Head Powell Responds to Report Flap
TVWeek.com September 15, 2006

Sounds like some definite hanky-panky going on, does the FCC ever totally destroy any report they may have been working on? Just trash the data completely? Something doesn't seem right with this.

fredfa

09-15-06, 02:38 PM

Sounds like some definite hanky-panky going on, does the FCC ever totally destroy any report they may have been working on? Just trash the data completely? Something doesn't seem right with this.

It seems like the FCC's head-long rush to allow corporations to own more local TV stations might have to slow a bit.

And that segment of the report showing how much more news content locally-owned stations provided -- while not surprising -- was certainly damning of the corporate owners.

fredfa

09-15-06, 02:41 PM

Washington Notebook
FCC Lawyer Says TV Study Was Hushed
The agency killed a 2004 staff report, he alleges, over findings that media consolidation hurts local news coverage.
By Jim Puzzanghera Los Angeles Times Staff Writer September 15, 2006

WASHINGTON — A former Federal Communications Commission attorney said the agency, in its push to let media companies own more television stations, killed a 2004 study that showed that locally owned TV outlets broadcast more local news because the outcome conflicted with its own agenda.

"The initial results were very compelling, and it was just stopped in its tracks because it was not the way the agency wanted to go," said Adam Candeub, an assistant law professor at Michigan State University. "The order did come down from somewhere in the senior management of the media bureau that this study had to end … and they wanted all the copies collected."

Candeub was an attorney in the FCC's media bureau at the time but did not work on the study. Critics of media consolidation contend that big station conglomerates often skimp on local news.

FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin, a Republican who was on the commission but did not head it in 2004, said he had not seen the study before Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) asked him about it at a Senate hearing this week. Boxer said the report was given to her by a whistle-blower, and on Thursday she called for an investigation by the FCC's inspector general after learning of Candeub's allegation.

"Here they are overseeing the media and supposed to be protecting free speech in the media and destroying every piece of a document they didn't like," Boxer said Thursday.

W. Kenneth Ferree, who headed the media bureau in 2004 and has since left the FCC, said Thursday that he had no recollection of the study "or anything to do with it." Former FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell, who headed the commission at the time, did not return a call seeking comment.

The controversy surrounding the study could be a factor in a new round of FCC deliberations on whether to expand the number of media outlets — TV, radio and newspapers — that companies can own in the same market.

"It's an outrage that this study was deep-sixed," said Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein, a Democrat who voted against relaxing media ownership rules in 2003. Martin and Powell supported the rules, which passed the FCC but were blocked by an appeals court.

The 23-page study — based on a 1998 database of 4,078 news stories from 60 stations over a five-day period — found that locally owned TV stations broadcast nearly 5 1/2 minutes more of local news than stations not locally owned. Martin Kaplan, associate dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication, said the findings were similar to those he presented in 2003 but would have been significant coming from the FCC's staff.

Responding to a letter from Boxer on Wednesday, Martin wrote back that he was trying to determine why the study had not been made public and that it was now posted on the FCC website.

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-fi-fcc15sep15,0,6593607,print.story?coll=cl-tvent

fredfa

09-15-06, 03:42 PM

Critic’s Notebook
Fall TV preview
Comedy takes a back seat to serials in networks' new lineup
By Dusty Saunders (Denver) Rocky Mountain News September 15, 2006

Jeremy Sisto is an actor - not a producer or network programmer.

And yet he facetiously pinpoints the problem facing the broadcast networks as they premiere the fall season.

In NBC's Kidnapped, one of nine new serialized dramas on the new schedule, Sisto plays a former FBI agent hired to help a family rescue their kidnapped son.

In a press conference with Kidnapped stars and producers, the touchy situation was broached:

What happens if NBC cancels Kidnapped before the kidnapping plot is resolved?

Noted Sisto: "We have a quick episode to wrap things up. The kid's behind the couch."

Humor aside, network executives really don't know how to answer that question. Nearly all admit they'd pull a low-rated series from the schedule, thus risking the wrath of viewers.

While all weekly network dramas are essentially connected through continuing characters and story-line arcs, most wrap up single adventures one week and then move on to another story line the next.

The serials are different.

Look at the cliffhanger formats of Emmy-winners Lost and 24 and Prison Break, successful series that keep viewers hanging week-to-week.

If the nine new serial-type dramas would attract audiences like the three successes mentioned above, networks and producers wouldn't have the problem Sisto "solved" for them.

The networks also have another "problem": a plethora of decent new dramas (including the serials).

Executives know not all of them will make the Nielsen ratings grade.

TV critics basically are a cynical, cranky bunch, ready to write negative comments about a new season.

But there was a feeling this summer during Hollywood interview and screening sessions that this fall schedule contains an above-average group of decent dramatic series.

From a quality perspective, drama has replaced comedy in the network lineups.

Also, critics and viewers have one less broadcast network to kick around this season.

Gone are the WB and UPN, which have been merged into the CW, featuring the most highly rated programs of the two defunct operations.

The new CW has two new series.

One, appropriately, is Runaway, a serialized drama about a family on the run because the father and husband has been accused of a murder he didn't commit.

A look at the networks' new series:

A B C

• Knights of Prosperity [/b](9 PM ET/PT Tuesday, premieres Oct. 17). How would you go about robbing Mick Jagger's New York penthouse? A group of blue-collar misfits will show you in this offbeat half hour that has comedy potential.

• Help Me Help You (9:30 PM ET/PT Tuesday, premieres Sept 26). There were times when Sam Malone needed psychological help on Cheers. Now a white-haired Ted Danson returns in a new comedy portraying a therapist who really needs help. Never underestimate Danson's comedic style.

• The Nine (10 PM ET/PT Wednesday, premieres Oct. 4). Nine diverse individuals have one thing in common in this serialized drama. They survived but were traumatized after being held hostage during a bloody bank holdup. Cast includes Tim Daly, Scott Wolf, Kim Raver and Chi McBride.

• Ugly Betty (8 PM ET/PT Thursday, premieres Sept. 28.) Betty Suarez is anything but a wafer-thin beauty. So how does this zaftig, plain Jane fit into the world of fashion? The how is what makes this dramedy based on the popular Colombian telenovela potentially appealing. America Ferrera (Real Women Have Curves) stars.

• Six Degrees (10 PM ET/PT Thursday, premieres Thursday). J.J. Abrams (Lost) is the executive producer of this offbeat drama about six divergent New Yorkers whose paths continue to cross in interesting ways. Cast includes Jay Hernandez, Hope Davis, Erika Christensen and Bridget Moynahan.

• Men in Trees (9 PM ET/PT Friday, premiered on Sept. 12). Perhaps the producers of this dramedy were big fans of Northern Exposure and its rugged but appealing environs. Anne Heche plays a New York author who hibernates in Alaska after learning her fiancé cheated on her right before their wedding.

• Notes From the Underbelly (Scheduled to premiere in November). This comedy from director Barry Sonnenfeld and two producers of Two and a Half Men centers on a young couple dealing with the wife's first pregnancy.

• Brothers & Sisters (10 PM ET/PT Sunday, premieres Sept. 24.) A family drama, moving into the key Grey's Anatomy time period, this hour already has won an award: The Most Troubled New Series. Changes in cast members and producers have produced an industry backlash despite a talented cast that includes Sally Field, Calista Flockhart, Rachel Griffiths, Patricia Wettig and Ron Rifkin.

C B S

• The Class (8 PM ET/PT, Monday, premieres Monday). Ethan's life is pretty dull, so he decides to reunite his third-grade class after 20 years. This strange move produces an eclectic group, which tries hard to get on the same emotional and romantic wavelength. Jason Ritter heads the cast as the square, lonely Ethan.

• Smith (10 PM ET/PT Tuesday, premieres Tuesday). This heist caper is better than its title. Denver's John Wells (ER, The West Wing) created this flashy tale of a group that pulls off major heists, and then returns to normal lives. Ray Liotta plays the suave leader with Virginia Madsen as his seemingly befuddled wife.

• Jericho (8 PM ET/PT Wednesday, premieres Wednesday). This serialized drama already has received local press because it opens with scenes of a mushroom cloud over Denver. Actually, the drama tells how residents of a small Kansas town near the Colorado border cope with a potential nuclear disaster.

• Shark (10 PM ET/PT Thursday, premieres Thursday). Television is full of fast-talking lawyers. An energized James Woods plays one who may out-talk them all. His Sebastian Stark is a cutthroat L.A. defense attorney, who turns into a prosecutor after a high- profile client beats his wife to death hours after Stark gets him acquitted of battery charges.

The CW

• The Game (8:30 PM ET/PT Sunday, premiering Oct. 1). The game in this case is pro football, as this series takes a comedic look at how players and their wives react behind the scenes to fans, groupies, managers and NFL executives. Tia Mowry is a feisty wife.

• Runaway (9 PM ET/PT Monday, premieres Sept. 25) A family is on the run from the law as the father (Donnie Wahlberg) tries to prove he's not a murderer. He also has to protect his wife (Leslie Hope) and his three kids from the real killer. A busy hero.

• Several WB and UPN series Note that the CW is a new network formed by combining the WB and UPN networks, which are no longer in existence. Several of the series on both networks will move to the new CW beginning next week.

Fox

• Vanished (9 PM ET/PT Monday, premiered Aug. 21). Some viewers are already familiar with this series, dealing with the mysterious "kidnapping" of the wife of a U.S. senator from Georgia. An FBI team portrayed by Gale Harold and Ming-Na are trying to unravel all the tightly knit family and political strings that led to the ugly event.

• Standoff (9 PM ET/PT Tuesday, premiered Sept. 5). FBI agents are all over the Fox schedule. This drama concentrates on a team, played by Ron Livingston and Rosemarie Dewitt, who not only work together but also sleep together. Obviously their bosses don't like the idea, even though they catch the bad guys.

• Justice (9 PM ET/PT. Wednesday, premiered Aug.30), Victor Garber (Alias) portrays the head of a slick law team that defends high-profile clients regardless of their guilt or innocence. Each episode ends showing exactly what happened: Was their client guilty? Was justice served?

• 'Til Death (8 PM ET/PT Thursday, premiered Sept. 7). Brad Garrett, the long-suffering brother on Everybody Loves Raymond, has new reason to raise his gravelly comedy voice. He and Joely Fisher portray a long-married couple living next door to a newly married duo that has different ideas about marital bless.

• Happy Hour (8:30 PM ET/PT Thursday, premiered Sept. 7). Looking for an old-fashioned comedy story line? Try this: A suddenly single young man, played by John Sloan, learns to enjoy life in a new apartment building filled with quirky people including, of course, some young women who throw him some curves.

• Celebrity Duets (9 PM ET/PT Thursday, premiered Aug. 29) An obvious rip-off of Dancing With the Stars, this weekly hour features nonsinging personalities teaming with entertainers who can actually sing in weekly competition against other duos.

• Nanny 9/11 (8 PM ET/PT Friday, premiered Sept. 8). A group of frustrated parents and their nasty kids get involved in this reality show in which a nanny helps a stay-at-home mom whose hubby is never around.

N B C

• Heroes (9 PM ET/PT Monday, premieres Sept. 25). A mix of fantasy, mythology and sci-fi story lines, this series deals with a handful of humans, scattered across the globe, who are superhuman and can use their special gifts to save the world from disasters and help

• Studio 60On The Sunset Strip (10 PM ET/PT Monday, premieres Monday). Producers Aaron Sorkin and Tommy Schlamme, who gave the dramatic bite to The West Wing, return with this fast-paced drama about the behind-the-scenes life of a network comedy-variety show (think Saturday Night Live). The cast includes Matthew Perry, Bradley Whitford and Amanda Peet.

• Friday Night Lights (8 PM ET/PT Tuesday, premieres Oct. 3). If you read the book and/or saw the movie, you might be interested in the series, detailing life in a small Texas town where high school football reigns. Kyle Chandler stars as the stoic coach who must deal with often-arrogant teens, their pushy parents and win-at-all-cost townspeople.

• Twenty Good Years (8 PM ET/PT Wednesday, premieres Oct 4.) Two veteran performers who know how to chew the scenery portray longtime friends who decide to address mortality by living fuller lives. John Lithgow is a womanizing surgeon and Jeffrey Tambor is his widower buddy.

• 30 Rock (8:30 PM ET/PT Wednesday, premieres Oct. 11). Tina Fey, talented Saturday Night Live alum, stars as the harried head writer of a late-night network comedy show. Cast includes Alec Baldwin as an arrogant producer and Tracy Morgan as a comic who loves blue material.

• Kidnapped (10 PM ET/PT Wednesday, premieres Wednesday). A teenage boy, son of wealthy East Side New York parents, is kidnapped on his way to school. But this is no ordinary kidnapping since his parents have skeletons in their closet, which provide twists and turns in the season-long case. Timothy Hutton and Dana Delany are the parents.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/movies/article/0,2792,DRMN_23_4992594,00.html

fredfa

09-15-06, 04:30 PM

TV Sports
ABC Takes Off-Beat Approach With Nebraska-USC Announcing Team
By Larry StewartLos Angeles Times Staff Writer September 15, 2006

The announcing team working the new 5 p.m. college football series on ABC, and thus Saturday's Nebraska-USC game, is an eclectic group.

Veteran Brent Musburger handles the play by play, relative broadcasting newcomer Bob Davie is one commentator and Kirk Herbstreit, best known for his role on "College GameDay," is the other.

So how did ESPN, which now also runs what used to be called ABC Sports, come up with this lineup for such a high-profile series?

That question was posed to Norby Williams, ESPN executive vice president in charge of announcer assignments.

"Brent is a signature voice for ABC and ESPN," he said. "If you hear his voice, you know it is a big game. He has credibility and is one of the best in the business."

Of Davie, the coach at Notre Dame from 1997 through 2001, Williamson said, "We wanted to bring a coach's perspective into the mix. And his personality is starting to come out."

Of Herbstreit, who has done commentating on ESPN's Thursday night package of college games, Williamson said, "He brings energy and an entertainment factor to the booth."

Football Dominates Ratings

Much has been made of the ratings success of the NFL during Week 1. College football is off to an equally good start.

Last Saturday's Ohio State-Texas game on ABC got an 8.2 national Nielsen rating and it was watched in 9.1 million households, the most for a regular-season college game since Florida-Florida State drew 10.6 million households in 1996.

Penn State-Notre Dame, despite being a 41-17 blowout by the Irish, got a 4.7 national rating, a 24% increase over Notre Dame's home opener last season. The 4.7 was the second highest Notre Dame NBC rating since 2000. The only higher one since then was a 6.7 for USC-Notre Dame last year.

Another example of the popularity of football, both college and professional, is that ESPN.com has had four of its 11 most-viewed days since Sept. 2. Last Sunday, the website set a record with 95.3 million page views.

________________________________________

The NBA studio show for this season's coverage on ESPN and ABC will have a different look. Dan Patrick will replace John Saunders as the primary host, with Saunders moving to play by play. Patrick is expected to be joined by analysts Mark Jackson and Michael Wilbon. Apparently, Greg Anthony, Tim Legler and Stephen A. Smith will have reduced roles.
________________________________________

For what it's worth: Sports Business Daily conducted a poll asking which network had the better NFL presentation the first week, NBC or ESPN? NBC won, getting the nod from 54% of the 380 respondents.

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-spw-tvcol15sep15,0,4152893,print.story?coll=cl-tvent

homcom

09-15-06, 04:51 PM

TV Sports
ABC Takes Off-Beat Approach With Nebraska-USC Announcing Team
By Larry StewartLos Angeles Times Staff Writer September 15, 2006

Veteran Brent Musburger handles the play by play, relative broadcasting newcomer Bob Davie is one commentator and Kirk Herbstreit, best known for his role on "College GameDay," is the other.

Does this mean College Gameday will be at the site of the ABC Primetime game each week? If that is the case, that is too bad as it was fun to see Gameday travel around the country to the biggest game each week, even if the game was on a different network.

fredfa

09-15-06, 05:32 PM

fredfa

09-15-06, 05:37 PM

The Business of TV
Wall Street Reaction

How the stock prices of the companies effected by the DirecTV/Liberty Media rumored swap fared on Friday:

NewsCorp Class A + .45 +2.39%
NewsCorp Class B +.54 +2.76
DirecTV -.46 -2.40%
EchoStar -.38 -1.16%

keenan

09-15-06, 07:24 PM

It seems like the FCC's head-long rush to allow corporations to own more local TV stations might have to slow a bit.

And that segment of the report showing how much more news content locally-owned stations provided -- while not surprising -- was certainly damning of the corporate owners.
Yup, it looks like the poo is starting to hit fan. When I posted that first article I figured there was going to be some wide-ranging implications.

From the above post, Boxer can go overboard at times, but her statement below seems to pretty much cover it.

"Here they are overseeing the media and supposed to be protecting free speech in the media and destroying every piece of a document they didn't like," Boxer said Thursday.

Makes you wonder if there were any documents destroyed with regards to the Comcast RSN in Philadelphia....

homcom

09-15-06, 07:34 PM

I haven't seen any announcement about that. But since there are often regional games, it gives them some choice.

Did they ever appear oustdie a stadium where a Fox, NBC or CBS game was being broadcast?
Yes they have appeared at the sites of NBC and CBS games numerous times. In fact the first road show was at Notre Dame (NBC).

fredfa

09-15-06, 10:03 PM

Wow, homcom, that is so unlike ESPN with its "branding" philosophy.

fredfa

09-15-06, 10:22 PM

Critic’s Notebook
After the hype, Couric needs more than fluff to get viewers
By Melanie McFarland Seattle Post-Intelligencer TV Critic Saturday, September 16, 2006

Finding the right sign-off is a top priority for Katie Couric, and she has put it in her audience's hands, soliciting suggestions on www.cbsnews.com. On Tuesday's "CBS Evening News With Katie Couric," the anchor announced that the Web site had gotten more than 40,000 suggestions.

"My favorite, however," she said, "is: 'Don't blame me. I just work here.' "

Bingo. That's perfect.

Couric weathered the months prior to her premiere with a light attitude, and handled the week since with panache. The reviews of her first newscast were mixed, at best; to give the woman a chance, we thought it only fair to give her a couple of weeks to settle into a groove.

Two weeks on, with most of her jitters calmed down, we can be secure in saying that "CBS Evening News With Katie Couric" is a more attractive network newscast, and one transformed for the worse.

And ... I'm not sure that's her fault.

The new high-tech set, all awash in futuristic blue, looks terrific. As an anchor, Couric is accessible, warm and appropriately serious while reading the news of the day.

Problem is, there's not much news to see. Content has suffered in the overhaul, with shallower secondary elements and an emphasis on lighter features over more hard news -- some set to a cheese-puff pop music soundtrack no less. You want more than a brief on health problems facing more than 70 percent of people who worked at ground zero after 9/11? Off to the Web site with you. Meanwhile, here's a photo of Suri Cruise!

A week later, "CBS News" learned from some of its mistakes and beefed up its content, spotlighting tremendous work from its staff. Lara Logan's reports from the Middle East have been great, and Byron Pitts, Bill Whitaker and Steve Hartman have all shone, making the most of that temporary audience spike.

One wonders about the sustainability of "Free Speech." The entries have, so far, seemed out of place, pointless and a bit too earnest. Morgan Spurlock spouting about drooling extremists yelling from the left and the right? Tell us something we don't know. Comedy writer Jim Twohie, observing that we should get the same vacation time as Congress? I think Andy Rooney ranted that one into the ground three administrations ago. And in eight entries, only one "Free Speech" came from a woman. On a newscast anchored by a woman.

These changes are "CBS News' " efforts to make the broadcast more accessible for viewers, but what seems to be lost on its producers (led by Executive Producer Rome Hartman) is that accessibility doesn't mean lightweight and fluffy. Instead of bringing more viewers to the evening news, which people unfairly wondered if Couric would do, it is instead underscoring the reasons why we've tuned it out.

Most of us aren't home at 5:30 p.m., and if we are, trust us, we can find something more interesting to do. No problem; CBS's newscast is available, whenever you want it, on the Web. But if you can get deeper cover on a galaxy of other sites that are just as reputable, or more so, why would you bother?

One can't discount Couric's image and deportment completely. Within the past two weeks, Couric's "serious" face got a little work. Thursday night, when she spoke briefly with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., her expression was one of concern, almost anger, furrowing her brow.

That represented a big change from the uncomfortable nervous grin during the flimsy interview with President Bush on her second day, which was an ambitious but terrible decision. In such a contentious pre-election atmosphere, viewers would expect an anchor to hold Bush's feet to the fire. Couric's hard-interview skills are rusty, though, and she didn't do much more than ask him to elaborate his talking points from various stump speeches on terrorism.

Well, of course. Why do you think Couric got an exclusive interview with the president? Compared to what he would have faced across from Brian Williams or Charles Gibson, Couric's easy.

By the way, have you been watching "NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams" lately? In a late-night television interview conducted shortly before Couric hit the air, Williams answered the question of whether he was nervous about her arrival by saying, "A rising tide raises all boats." No kidding. She's making Williams look like Edward R. Murrow.

The thrill is wearing off. "CBS Evening News" dropped from last week's dominant top spot -- Couric's premiere Sept. 5 netted 13.59 million viewers, according to Nielsen ratings -- to third place on Monday with 7.5 million. But she was back in first on Tuesday with 8.6 million viewers to NBC's 8.1 million.

You could look at this fluctuation in a couple of ways. On its face, it simply looks like a matter of the ratings leveling out from last week's curiosity spike, as viewers tuned in to see if Couric's first week lived up to the months of hype and speculation preceding it. Nobody will know how Couric's assumption of the anchor chair will affect "CBS News" in the long term for several months, when the ratings truly stabilize. Besides, even if the newscast is back in third that's fine as long as it's a close third. Her boss, Les Moonves, has said that he only needs for her to make "CBS News" competitive again.

Another interpretation doesn't bode well for Couric. This week didn't begin with any other Monday; it was the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Every network had ongoing coverage that peaked during the evening newscast, and where did viewers go? To "NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams" first, and "World News With Charles Gibson" second.

This is telling. The evening news may indeed be slowly going the way of the respected, serious television anchor and will be extinct in the years to come as Web sites and cable news channels continue to grow in dominance among news consumers. However, ratings during national crises always spike; we're still conditioned to look to the anchors on the big three for information and a measure of comfort during emergencies.

The anniversary of 9/11 wasn't the event itself, we'll grant you, but it certainly reminded us enough of where we were and who we trusted on that day. Americans overwhelmingly went to NBC and Williams, leaving CBS and Couric in third.

Greater tests are yet to come -- some can be met with a plan, like the contentious, heated midterm elections in November. It's the events that take all of us by surprise that will show us what Couric is really capable of. In the interim, Couric is in the unenviable position of trying to make a mark at the center a newscast of reduced substance.

But she just works there; so don't blame her ... yet.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/printer2/index.asp?ploc=t&refer=http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/tv/285299_tv16.html

fredfa

09-16-06, 01:21 AM

Television in Review
Talkshow with Spike Feresten
By Virginia Heffernan The New York Times September 16, 2006

Spike Feresten keeps emphasizing how bad and cheap and lame his new weekly show is on tonight’s debut of “Talkshow With Spike Feresten.”

He’s right. Yeah, Mr. Feresten is the guy who made up the Soup Nazi on “Seinfeld” — and, in memory, that in itself seems sort of lame. What was funny about it again? Calling a mean man a Nazi? Whatever. We were so hopped on “Seinfeld” in those days that it all seemed like Shakespeare.

Just as Jimmy Kimmel seems finally to be getting out from under the we’re-gonna-be-canceled inside-television jokes he made at the start of his late-night talk show on ABC, Mr. Feresten has assumed a burden of abjection that even seasoned male comedians have a hard time with.

Men shouldn’t do self-deprecating. They really should stick to strutting and yelling and leave the I’m-an-idiot-but-I’m-great jujitsu humor to women.

What’s more, audiences don’t care about the politics of Fox, or where the studio is, or the arcana of comedy history. But they do want to see good-looking women onstage, and tonight’s first episode features no women at all. Astounding. Some self-satisfied comedy wonks, including the intermittently likable Andy Richter, who appears tonight, really must have decided that they were all so self-evidently funny that they could just get some sketches together and throw it on Fox. This show’s utter indifference is almost impressive.

But it’s the burden of self-consciousness that crushes “Talkshow.” This fragile enterprise — an unknown comedy writer in pinstripes, with no following, sidekick or band — should never start off with references to bygone M.C.’s like Steve Allen that only television scholars are likely to care about. Nor should it evoke a fictional curse on the network or the playbook for absurdist Letterman-era comedy. It’s far too nervous and foolishly derivative. Working with Brian Dunkleman, Ryan Seacrest’s onetime co-host on “American Idol,” Mr. Feresten does a man-on-the-street segment called “Can Dunkleman touch your sea bass?”

Mr. Feresten wears his brown hair half-plastered with styling product, and it looks pretty good: it recalls the combed and parted styles of men in the 60’s whose Brylcreem didn’t entirely hide their innate coarseness. But in spite of the good hair, Mr. Feresten has no coarseness; he’s just an A student and a glad-hander who likes comedy.

This is mean — late-night comedy is mean, right? — but you can see him in the writers’ room, saying, “That guy with the soup stand on 55th Street is such a jerk that he’s like a ... Nazi!” And, though no one laughed, somehow everyone had to give it to him because it was such a bold move by such a nifty little buddy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/16/arts/television/16roun.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=television&pagewanted=print

fredfa

09-16-06, 01:25 AM

The Business of TV
Talk of Liberty Deal Leaves Some Puzzled
By Geraldine Fabrikant and Richard Siklos The New York Times September 16, 2006

News of talks that could result in a swap of the Liberty Media Corporation’s stake in the News Corporation for the News Corporation’s holding in DirecTV was generally greeted with enthusiasm by investors in the News Corporation and some skepticism by Liberty shareholders.

Several investors in Liberty indicated yesterday they were puzzled by the potential swap.

“This is a definite negative for Liberty,’’ said Richard Greenfield, a media analyst at Pali Capital. “Most investors were expecting a stock buyback, and now Liberty is becoming an operating company again.”

The possible deal would call for the News Corporation to swap its 38 percent of DirecTV, valued at roughly $9 billion, along with one or more television stations and possibly cash for Liberty’s 19 percent of the News Corporation, valued at $11 billion. Should a deal go though, it would allow the News Corporation to exit a business whose growth potential, in the face of competition from cable and telephony, seems precarious.

And the future of the DirecTV business seemed even more precarious on Thursday when Kevin J. Martin, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, said at a UBS telephone media conference that the F.C.C. would not look favorably on a merger of DirecTV and the EchoStar Communications Corporation.

Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of News Corporation, recently mused about such a deal, but Mr. Martin said the competitive landscape would still not justify it.

Some analysts and media experts had been hoping for a merger of the two satellite companies as a way of cutting costs and consolidating marketing and programming operations.

Aryeh Bourkoff, a UBS media analyst, said he was recommending the sale of both companies “because they are competitively disadvantaged.’’

“Their strategic options had been priced in and now the merger as an option for cost-cutting has gone away.”

A transaction would get the News Corporation out of a business that Mr. Murdoch favors less, as he pursues better growth opportunities for his satellite businesses in Britain and Italy, and on the Internet and other digital media where he has been making acquisitions.

It is less clear, analysts said yesterday, what Liberty Media would get out of the transaction. To be sure, John C. Malone, the chairman, has long sought to extricate Liberty from a series of passive stock investments in companies, among them the News Corporation, Viacom and Sprint.

And under Gregory B. Maffei, the new chief executive, efforts to transform Liberty into more of an operating company have accelerated, according to several executives close to Liberty who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak on the matter.

Douglas Shapiro, an analyst at Banc of America Securities, wrote in a report that it was also unclear if Mr. Malone would be entitled to the number of seats the News Corporation has on the DirecTV board if the stake changed hands. Mr. Murdoch holds 3 of the 11 seats, and Chase Carey, DirecTV’s chief executive, is a longtime Murdoch employee.

Still, Liberty would own only 38 percent of DirecTV, so that it could not consolidate the cash flow with its own company’s cash flow.

But the swap has great tax appeal for Mr. Malone. Because tax rules require that at least 25 percent of the assets swapped in a tax-free transaction are operating assets, the contemplated swap would qualify, according to Robert Willens, a managing director and tax expert at Lehman Brothers.

In addition, News Corporation would need to contribute a business that it has operated for at least five years, even if it is a small one like a television station, Mr. Willens said.

Yet the tax angle is not the only consideration, and Liberty investors were concerned about the strategic value of the swap.

“I am surprised because I would have thought that Liberty wanted a cash-flow-producing asset that they controlled so that they could leverage it for acquisitions because the company is largely investments rather than operating businesses,’’ said Dennis Leibowitz, who runs Act II Partners, a media hedge fund.

Still one long-term approach might be to slow DirecTV’s growth and let it become a cash cow, Mr. Leibowitz noted. That would mean giving up aggressively chasing new subscribers to cut marketing expenses and increase cash flow.

And Mr. Bourkoff, the UBS analyst, added that Liberty might even try to take DirecTV private in a leveraged buyout.

But even as an investor in DirecTV with three board seats, Mr. Malone might argue to increase the dividend or merge, or he might even increase Liberty’s stake.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/16/business/media/16liberty.html?ref=business&pagewanted=print

fredfa

09-16-06, 10:41 AM

TV Sports
Clock Expiring for TW, NFL?
By Mike Reynolds Multichannel News 9/16/2006

Barring a Hail Mary, last-second deal, Time Warner Cable was expected to drop NFL Network from several of its recently acquired Adelphia Communications and Comcast systems at midnight Saturday.

Sources close to both sides said no negotiations were expected to take place before the deadline, which means that more than 1 million former Adelphia and Comcast subscribers who received the channel under pacts the two operators previously inked with the National Football League will no longer receive the network.

Time Warner has not reached a carriage deal with league-owned channel, which will distribute eight regular-season NFL contests on Thursday and Saturday nights beginning on Thanksgiving.

Neither Time Warner nor NFL Network would comment on the matter.

Meanwhile, NFL Network and Comcast continued to talk about extending their current carriage deal. Comcast currently carries the service, but neither side would confirm reports that the MSO has the rights to distribute the NFL games -- a package valued at some $400 million -- through the life of the network’s six-year deal,

Sources close to the two sides said Comcast may air NFL Network as part of a newly created sports and information tier it is considering launching as early as January.

A Comcast spokeswoman would only say that the MSO “has a pre-existing affiliation agreement with the NFL. We are talking with the NFL but expect that we will make the games available on some level of service.”

http://www.multichannel.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleid=CA6372775

fredfa

09-16-06, 11:50 AM

Today’s HD Football
Iowa State at #16 Iowa 12 Noon ESPN-HD
BYU at #23 Boston College (Regional)12 Noon ESPN2-HD
#17 Miami at #12 Louisville (Regional) 3:30 PM ABC-HD
#11 Michigan at #2 Notre Dame 3:30 PM NBC-HD
#6 LSU at # 3 Auburn 3:30 PM CBS-HD
#8 Texas at Rice 6:00 PM ESPN2-HD
Clemson at #9 Florida State 7:45 PM ESPN-HD
#19 Nebraska at #4 USC 8 PM ABC-HD
#7 Florida at #13 Tennessee 8 PM CBS-HD
Army at Texas A&M 9:15 PM ESPN2-HD
Navy at Stanford 10 PM FSN-HD

fredfa

09-16-06, 12:05 PM

The New Season
The Season's Best, Ripe for Picking?
Their Foothold Eroding, the Networks Dig Down and Come Up With Some Keepers
By Tom Shales Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, September 17, 2006

Although there'll be no mistaking the 2006-07 television season for a golden cultural renaissance, prime-time TV -- despite claims and fears to the contrary -- has one sizable silver lining: It's actually, genuinely getting, well . . . better.

Just see it to believe it: You will find fewer outrageously stupid shows among the new crop, and a greater number of them intelligently engage, earnestly challenge or cleverly confuse. You're likely to discover a new treasure or two this season (which, by the Nielsen count, officially starts tomorrow) -- something to absorb, provoke or even strike you as boldly delightful. We're talkin' NBC's reverberant "Friday Night Lights," CBS's star-driven mega-drama "Shark," Fox's glitzy but gripping "Justice" and, perhaps best of all, ABC's lovely "Ugly Betty."

The season also seems to be one of sobriety, with the networks walking the steps of recovery and assuming their cultural role with a newfound earnestness. This, dear viewer, is the season the networks get serious.

Maybe too serious? Perhaps. Several new shows convey the grim malaise of a post-9/11 world, with the terrorist tragedy of 2001 prominent again in our collective consciousness.

Even some new comedies have their bleak side. In NBC's sitcom "Twenty Good Years," Jeffrey Tambor and John Lithgow play men crossing the scarifying watershed of 60. "How many good years do you think we have left on this planet?" Lithgow's character asks Tambor's before answering his own question: "Twenty at best."

If TV's content is more grown-up and responsive, style and presentation are changing, too: More new series than ever look like carefully crafted theatrical features.

No matter how much programming improves, however, media savants tend to see the medium living out numbered days. It's feared that the Internet will do to TV what TV did to the movies in the 1950s. But instead of panicking, the networks are finding ways to co-opt the Web. NBC's "Friday Night Lights" is being featured on the teenage Web site Bebo, and YouTube is streaming advance peeks at such new series as "30 Rock." Viewers thrilled beyond containment at the prospect of "Studio 60" can catch new episodes a week early on AOL Television, if AOL happens to be working that night.

We must be realistic about the degree to which prime time is getting better. Promising pilots can devolve later into weak weekly series. A season ago, ABC's "Commander in Chief" looked like the best new drama, but it stumbled on a slippery slope and hurtled downhill before getting impeached from the schedule.

Now, though -- despite no new fake presidents to root for, hate or ignore -- a shiny prime-time season is at hand. And whether they're bad or beautiful, snazzy or sleazy, the shows must go on . . .

Note: All times are Eastern and Pacific)

A B C

CHARMING 'BETTY,' BRIGHT 'KNIGHTS'

'The Knights of Prosperity'

"The Knights of Prosperity" boasts -- although boasting might be overdoing it -- one of the craziest concepts of the season: A small team of downbeat deadbeats, feeling they have missed out on the major platinum-card pleasures of life, hatches a daffy scheme to burglarize the Manhattan apartment of rock god Mick Jagger (whom they see showing off his bodacious abode on a peekaboo TV show). Once titled "Let's Rob Mick Jagger," the series had to be renamed when Jagger announced he never imagined he'd appear in more than one episode. Regardless, the show is funkily funny and endearingly offbeat, with hilarious Donal Logue as the leader of the gang -- a ragtag Logue's gallery of lovable losers. (Tuesdays, 9 p.m.; premieres Oct. 17.)

'Help Me Help You'

"Help Me Help You" needs help itself, as the plaintive title implies. Ted Danson follows -- very belatedly, of course -- in the noble footsteps of Bob Newhart, playing a psychiatrist with an assortment of flaky patients. The difference is that they meet in group therapy, each whining in turn; then we follow them home to see how badly their lives are going. Danson -- his appearance seemingly altered by extensive laboratory work -- makes a likably rumpled straight-arrow, although his counsel to patients seems about as profound and practical as the hooey dispensed by that dopey Dr. Phil. (Tuesdays, 9:30 p.m.; premieres Sept. 26.)

'The Nine'

"The Nine" has nothing to do with half a game of golf -- or with anything playful, as a matter of fact. It's one of several new series that would seem to work much better as a one-time theatrical or TV movie. The "nine" of the title are hostages held for 50 hours or so by a mixed-up bank robber who puts them through an awful array of ordeals (few of which we see in the pilot). Instead, the narrative hops around in time and place, fleshing out portraits of the hostages and their captors -- the prey and the predators. With Scott Wolf ("Party of Five"), still smiling boyishly, playing doctor, and Tim Daly as a cop with a gambling addiction, just about everybody is thoroughly screwed up and frankly, it gets a little wearisome. (Wednesdays, 10 p.m.; premieres Oct. 4.)

'Ugly Betty'

A scream, a howl, a hoot and a joy, this buoyant, poignant series about a less than gorgeous young woman working for a fashion mag is the season's best and most beguiling new comedy. "Ugly Betty," in fact, is one of the first shows in years to which one might apply the accolade "wonderful." Its wonderfulness runs merrily amok. America Ferrera -- that's what it says in the news releases -- plays Betty beautifully, treading lightly on both the pathos and the slapstick, which coexist seamlessly from scene to scene, smiling back at the world through thick glasses and sporting braces on her teeth -- and you can't help but love her. "Betty" was adapted from a South American hit that started in Colombia and was exported to many other countries. It hits the States not a moment too soon. (Thursdays, 8 p.m.; premieres Sept. 28.)

'Six Degrees'

Like more than one of the new fall shows, "Six Degrees" owes some of its inspiration to ABC's hit drama "Lost" (for the few who don't know, it involves a group of strangers trapped on an island by a plane crash). The concept of throwing strangers together and watching them interact obviously grew out of the "reality" show, especially "Survivor." In "Six Degrees," the island is Manhattan, and the strandees are lost in a kind of spiritual, philosophical sense for the most part. One of them, narrating the drama, utters this bit of news: "Anyone on the planet can be connected to any other person through a chain of six people," hence the title. But what an old idea that six degrees of separation is, and "Six Degrees" does very little to spruce it up and pass it off as fresh. (Thursdays, 10 p.m.; premieres Thursday.)

'Men in Trees'

Without much conviction, ABC is trying to pass off "Men in Trees" -- about a jilted "relationship coach" -- as a comedy. But there's little to laugh about in the misadventures of Ms. Coach, played by Anne Heche, as she stumbles around a small town in Alaska where she'd gone to plug her latest book, "I'm Getting Married and So Can You." In the premiere, she flirted with the town hunk, drank herself into a stupor and chased a raccoon that had run off with her wedding dress. That is all ye need know, unless you're the proverbial glutton for punishment and actually intend to tune in. (Fridays, 9 p.m.; already premiered.)

'Brothers & Sisters'

"Brothers & Sisters," no relation to last year's "Sons and Daughters" -- a much better series that unfortunately didn't make it to a second season -- brings Calista Flockhart back to network TV as a conservative political pundit named Kitty who's about to move up from satellite radio to television (assuming that is "up"). But the big star on the premises is not Flockhart and not Tom Skerritt as her father, but rather Sally Field (still looking great) as Mom. Unfortunately, the family's struggles and crises seem lame and stale, so having Field around comes off more as a waste than a wonder. (Sundays, 10 p.m.; premieres Sept. 24.)

C B S

A FEISTY, FORMIDABLE 'SHARK'

'The Class'

People who avoid high school and college reunions with a near-religious devotion will be especially baffled by "The Class," a cockamamie drama in which presumably sane individuals just can't get on with their lives until they return to third grade at Woodman Elementary School and see dear old Mrs. Klinger again -- or is she dead? It's hard to recall, so many ancient and arcane crises, neuroses and anxieties are dredged up again. Characters include two token gay men, a sexy blonde married to a brain-damaged football star, and a fellow who's spending adulthood with his shrewish mother. "It's all good," one of them says. She must be talking about some other show. (Mondays, 8 p.m.; premieres tomorrow night.)

'Smith'

"Smith" is nearly as plain and undistinguished as its anonymous-sounding title, but it does have Ray Liotta (most notably of "GoodFellas" fame) making the transition to TV with a strong performance as an antihero for our time: a thief who sets his sights on an art museum as the premiere opens. See, he's a classy kind of thief. No convenience stores or pawnshops for him. Although created by John Wells of "ER" fame, "Smith" limps when it should sprint -- and dressing it up with kinetic explosions doesn't help. (Tuesdays, 10 p.m.; premieres Tuesday.)

'Jericho'

"Jericho" doesn't bother with mere malaise, a condition that infests several new dramas, but instead goes all the way to the biggest bang in prime time: nuclear bombs sending mushroom clouds into the sky and apparently -- although the premiere isn't 100 percent clear on this -- obliterating Denver and Atlanta. Jericho is a small Midwestern town, and when residents see those clouds in the distance, they have to interrupt their hug marathon (it's the huggingest show on TV until then) and prepare themselves for the worst -- although no one is sure exactly what that will be. Serialized and serious, the drama seems to lack credibility and conviction, but maybe it will acquire some along the way. (Wednesdays, 8 p.m.; premieres Wednesday.)

'Shark'

"Shark" is the very appropriate nickname given a tough, tenacious, icy-hearted trial lawyer who's talked into crossing over to the other side to become a tough, tenacious, icy-hearted prosecutor. Good idea for a courtroom series? Yes, but it becomes a great one simply because James Woods is cast in the title role. Brash, blunt and more intimidating than a letter from the IRS, Woods blasts his way through the show with such self-assurance and bravado that it's very hard to take your eyes off him. This is like the lawyerly version of Fox's medical drama "House," and Woods makes his character as compellingly abrasive as Hugh Laurie's House is. (Thursdays, 10 p.m.; premieres Thursday.)

Fox

'VANISHED' HAS TRACES OF PROMISE

'Vanished'

An unusually strong cast tries to make sense of this confused drama about the FBI, missing persons and a political campaign. Gale Harold, formerly of Showtime's "Queer as Folk," stars here, with such big-time guest stars as the beautiful Penelope Ann Miller and heartthrob Esai Morales. (Mondays, 10 p.m.; already premiered.)

'Standoff'

This mediocre drama about the exploits of a crisis-management team is made downright irritating by the sappy badinage between spatting lovers who bicker about their relationship even while victims of mayhem are waiting to be rescued. As for the performances of the principals, they aren't phoned in -- they're cellphoned in. Or maybe BlackBerried. The show is plagued by a facetious flippancy that undercuts whatever drama is brought to a boil. (Tuesdays, 9 p.m.; already premiered.)

'Justice'

"Justice" purports to take viewers backstage at dramatized high-stakes trials. Unfortunately, courtroom dramas are not exactly rarities on the tube. This one is spiced up with the kind of fancy, high-tech gimmickry for which the executive producer, Jerry Bruckheimer, is famous. The production values are strikingly high, but that might not be enough to justify yet another "Law & Order" imitation, especially when the producers of "Law & Order" are so busy imitating themselves over on NBC. (Wednesdays, 9 p.m.; already premiered.)

' 'Til Death'

" 'Til Death" transfers Brad Garrett from second banana on the now-extinct "Everybody Loves Raymond" to top banana on a so-so comedy. The show contrasts two couples who live side-by-side: veterans of a lengthy if bumpy marriage and a naive pair of cutesy, cooing newlyweds. Garrett is about the only thing the show has going for it, but he's no slouch at getting laughs. (Thursdays, 8 p.m.; already premiered.)

'Happy Hour'

The worst new sitcom of the season, this is also the most old-fashioned. Its stale adventures of two mismatched roommates and their daily 4 o'clock martinis are all vermouth and no gin, one might say. We wouldn't, but one might. The cast is as unattractive as the scripts are crude. (Thursdays, 8:30 p.m.; already premiered.)

N B C

'FRIDAY NIGHT' SCORES; 'GOOD YEARS' IS GOLDEN

'Heroes'

"Heroes" is a spectacular adventure series hobbled by its own pietistic pretentiousness. The heroes are a far-flung group of young people who come to realize they have superhuman powers, although what they intend to do with them -- and how they'll all get together to battle the evil in the world -- isn't revealed in "Volume One," as the series premiere is called. One woman can fall out a window, break every bone in her body, then mend miraculously in a twinkle. A peculiar young man paints accurately prophetic pictures of future catastrophes and complains, "Something's wrong with me." The transformations into superheroes "will not occur overnight," the prologue warns. By the end of the first hour, though, viewers might already be running out of patience -- and wandering amongst the other channels. (Mondays, 9 p.m.; premieres Sept. 25.)

'Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip'

One of the most eagerly awaited of the new dramas, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" is Aaron "West Wing" Sorkin's attempt to dramatize what might go on backstage at a sketch comedy show like NBC's own "Saturday Night Live" (also the setting, of course, for another new NBC series, "30 Rock"). Sorkin's drama takes place in Los Angeles -- one of the superficial ways to tell it from the other show -- and gets off to a fairly compelling start: Judd Hirsch, as the aging grump of a producer, tells viewers, "It's not going to be a very good show tonight; change the channel." He's obviously been inspired by Peter Finch's immortal Howard Beale in Paddy Chayefsky's "Network," and as part of his rant, he tells viewers they've all been "lobotomized" by television. Speak for yourself, pal. A very iffy beginning, but hopes for "Studio 60" remain high. (Mondays, 10 p.m.; premieres tomorrow night.)

'Friday Night Lights'

Based on a movie about a Texas town's obsession with its high school football team, "Friday Night Lights" is one of the season's best and most evocatively atmospheric new dramas. The premiere follows a week in the town's life as it prepares for the big game Friday, with Kyle Chandler giving a strong, convincing performance as the coach (a man apparently under about as much pressure as the president of the United States). One player drinks heavily, another is a snarling racist, and the star quarterback (pure as Ivory Snow) unfortunately suffers a major injury in the season's first game. You don't have to give a hoot about football to find the details fascinating, and "Friday Night Lights" is habit-forming from the very first scene. (Tuesdays, 8 p.m.; premieres Oct. 3.)

'30 Rock'

"30 Rock" is former "Saturday Night Live" head writer Tina Fey's sitcom about being head writer of "The Girlie Show," a network comedy. The pilot shown to critics is undergoing major renovations -- partly because things weren't working very well, but also because Alec Baldwin, several times an "SNL" host, has joined the cast as a network executive. Fey is a clever writer with a wicked wit, but as an actress, she tends to vanish into her own scenes. Even so, there are plenty of laughs on the premiere, and it's the kind of quality show worth rooting for. (Wednesdays, 8 p.m.; premieres Oct. 11.)

'Twenty Good Years'

"Twenty Good Years" dares to star two actors who are not in their twenties or thirties or even teens. In fact, Jeffrey Tambor and John Lithgow play baby boomers who are facing a fearsome crossroads in their lives: turning 60. What they go through is not only funny but also often touching, resonant and, if you happen to be part of the same generation, a trifle terrifying. Both actors are at the top of their game; they're like a Hope and Crosby for our time -- richly and royally hilarious. (Wednesdays, 8:30 p.m.; premieres Oct. 11.)

'Kidnapped'

"Kidnapped" is another TV series that seems like it should be a movie. In fact, it was a movie, more than once: Parents wait anxiously for news of a child abducted by criminals. The versatile Jeremy Sisto is the standout in this version, playing a kind of freelance private cop who's an expert at retrieving kidnapped children alive. The suspense is intense, and the second episode takes surprising twists and turns, which suggest that the producers and writers (and an outstanding cast) will be able to keep the story going week upon week. (Wednesdays, 10 p.m.; premieres Wednesday.)

The CW

Stepping Out With a Bit Of Drama

The CW is a semi-new network formed by the merger of the now-defunct UPN and the WB -- "weblets" in industry parlance. The bill of fare mostly includes such returning shows as "7th Heaven," saved from cancellation by the merger, but there are two new dramas:

'Runaway'

"Runaway" stars Donnie Wahlberg as Paul Rader, a husband and father of three who sinks his Volvo in an early scene before gathering up the family and running away (hence the title) to Bridgewater, Iowa, population 23,827, plus five. Rader was wrongfully convicted of committing what CW publicity calls "a terrible and violent crime." So his wife, two teenagers and cute little boy must assume new identities and be suspicious of every knock at the door. A suspenseful drama, "Runaway" bears a superficial resemblance to "Running on Empty," an underrated Sidney Lumet movie about a family of hippies in the same predicament as the Raders. (Mondays, 9 p.m.; premieres Sept. 25.)

'The Game'

"The Game" is football, but the series is not so much about the players of the game as their wives, girlfriends and groupies. Not likely to be as racy as "Footballers' Wives," the British import playing on BBC America, this grown-up soap -- co-produced by Kelsey Grammer -- stars Tia Mowry as Melanie (girlfriend of the team's new wide receiver), who's headed for a crash course in the politics of pro sports. (Sundays, 8:30 p.m.; premieres Oct. 1.)

P B S

New Season? What New Season?

Little seems new on the PBS bill of fare as the season wobbles off to a start. PBS officials are excited, however, about a two-part, three-hour special called "The Mormons" that will mark the first time that old PBS reliables "Frontline" and "American Experience" have pooled their resources on a program. But it won't air until April.

Among the "Masterpiece Theatre" offerings this season: a two-part, four-hour adaptation of the very venerable "Jane Eyre," with no big names i

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/15/AR2006091500827_pf.html

fredfa

09-16-06, 12:16 PM

fredfa

09-16-06, 12:58 PM

The Business of Television
Primetime TV production
Nine television executives survey the landscape of production, profits and the emergence of digital delivery

By Cynthia Littleton The Hollywood Reporter

Once more unto the breach.

On the verge of the start of the 2006-07 television season, presidents of the six major studios and the largest independent player in the scripted primetime programming arena sat down with The Hollywood Reporter editor Cynthia Littleton for a deep dive into everything from the digital media revolution to cast and scene sprawl in big-budget dramas.

The round-table dialogues were held Aug. 24 with Lionsgate TV's Kevin Beggs, NBC Universal TV Studio's Angela Bromstad, Touchstone TV's Mark Pedowitz and Warner Bros. TV's Peter Roth; and Aug. 25 with CBS Paramount Network TV's David Stapf, Sony Pictures TV's Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg and 20th Century Fox TV's Gary Newman and Dana Walden.

The Hollywood Reporter: The wide open road of digital content and distribution is all anyone's talking about in the industry these days. From your perspectives as the stewards of primetime development and production, what does digital mean for your businesses today?
Gary Newman:From the studio perspective, I think it's the most empowering opportunity that's come along during our careers. It has changed our studio from a traditional television production company to really a global content company. We find it incredibly empowering. The whole point of it is that it was the networks that traditionally had the relationships with the audience. Now this enables studios and our shows to develop direct relationships with the audience.
Peter Peter Roth: We are content companies. Any time any form of distribution increases the value of our product, that's a good thing. How that will be monetized still remains to be seen. But the principal and most immediate and obvious advantage and opportunity that exists is really in marketing. There's this proliferation of choice, of thousands of choices for the viewer, and getting your message out there to as many people as you possibly can is hard. You don't want to miss any opportunities. I believe marketing is the best value that (digital) offers us in the digital space. Eventually, there will be additional value to our content as well. I'm not sure that any of us have our hands on exactly what that means just yet.
Angela Bromstad: When we saw what iTunes did for us in terms of "The Office" ... that was huge for a show that was a little on the bubble and a little precarious. Primarily right now it (digital's value) is promotional. And I think the Web has a lot to offer to our creators in the sense of a place to experiment. Eventually we'll do (original) content.
David David Stapf: It's all in its somewhat nascent stages. ... From where we sit at the studio, we think about how we can enhance the viewing experience for a show by opening it up to another platform. We don't see it all that differently from how we looked at "Entertainment Tonight" and those facets of publicity when they came along a long time ago. It was just another way to get eyeballs to your show.
Mark Mark Pedowitz: As much as the Web as distribution is interesting, all of us have to keep in mind that our executive producers must be focused on the core property. If they lose that focus, there is no other ancillary market, there is no ability to do anything. I do agree with Angela that the Web will offer something more valuable to our writers and producers. Take the same money you'd get for a script and shoot something. A piece of film is a lot more valuable to look at than sometimes a script.
Zack Van Amburg: I think because the rules haven't been written yet, there's a spirit of experimentation. Because we're not exactly trying to quantify what digital distribution means to our television shows today, that gave us the security to say, "Let's go try something like 'Rescue Me 2.5,' " where we produced a brand extension episode that was exclusive for the digital space and would keep the show alive between seasons. We need to pay attention to and come at it from two standpoints: one, a marketing and promotional standpoint, and two, something that we're trying to be aggressive in figuring out how we can create content for in a different way.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: How do you evaluate all of the emerging opportunities in Web, broadband, streaming, download-on-demand, wireless, etc.? Your phones must be ringing off the hook with pitches.

Dana Wklden: Last year, we hired a dedicated executive (Mark Pearson, senior vp brand and franchise management) at the senior vp level who works very closely with (20th senior vp marketing) Steven Melnick, whose job is brand management, to be out there looking for opportunities and evaluating the choices that we have out there. We realized we needed someone with expertise to help make a determination after presenting options to Gary (Newman) and myself. It's clearly an important area.

Mark Pedowitz: You have to ask, does this partner offer you an opportunity to platform the show and market it and help you with the branding? Can it potentially help you accelerate any profitability? That's a more recent occurrence than when the original (Disney/ABC) iPod deal happened (in October). You have to look at what that platform is going to do for you and your product. If that platform is going to put you up next to a user-video porn site, you can't do it.

Kevin Beggs: : On a number of cable deals, the initial proposition has been, "Let's stream them all." We've pushed back and said, "Let's stream the first one, and if it gets the bang and the buzz, then let's talk." But if (digital distribution rights) just become part of the package, what do we have left, back-end or otherwise? Or what are (the channels) going to do to enhance the license fee to make sense of it for us? We support the marketing side of it completely, but as it potentially devalues the back-end, it's not so interesting for us.

Jamie Erlicht: For the immediate future, whether that's six months or nine months or two years, I think you have to see it as mostly a marketing tool. It helps you get exposure that you otherwise wouldn't get, especially for the 18-34 demographic. ... We think a really good midrange plan is to use it to not only monetize existing assets, but as an incubation device and find the next group of talent that's out there. I think there are really interesting voices that can find a way to break through the traditional Hollywood system.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: Are you starting to scout talent on YouTube and its ilk?

Dana Wklden: At Fox 21 (20th's lower-cost production unit), we have creative execs who spend a lot of time looking at nontraditional sources of material. At the studio, we're getting most of our talent through traditional avenues. Quite frankly, I think the chances of finding someone (on a viral video site) who is very interesting and a person you can build a show around are slim. But, for example, we just made a deal with (writer-producers) Steven Levitan and Chris Lloyd. If they came to us and said, "We've found someone who has an original voice that we'd like to supervise," we'd say yes in a heartbeat. Because then you have the people in place who can guarantee you 22 episodes, and you're not going find yourself shutting down production by episode three.

David Stapf: The acting pool, the directing pool that we pull from on our shows -- they're really good at what they do. They're trained. You're not going to shut your eyes to a diamond in the rough, but ...

Zack Van Amburg: We did a pilot for a character called Gay Robot with (Adam Sandler's production company) Happy Madison for Comedy Central. And it didn't get picked up. But we believed in it so we took Gay Robot the character -- and he is exactly what it sounds like -- that comes from Adam's comedy CD (2004's "Shhh ... Don't Tell") and we created a MySpace page for him. And we leaked a couple of clips. And now we're getting inquires about getting him booked on some of the late-night shows. So we're creating a digital strategy for Gay Robot, as grand as that sounds, that we hope will lead back to actually getting the television show on the air.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: How much are you thinking about potential digital ancillaries when you're developing new shows these days?

Dana Wklden: Is it impacting the way we develop shows? Not really. We do look at the DVD marketplace and the international marketplace and try to be savvy about the arenas that we go into, particularly if it's going to be a big-ticket item, like our "Prison Breaks" or "24s." In the digital space, the extensions seem to come after the fact. We're trying to create brands on the (broadcast) networks that are enhanced by digital opportunities. So right now that's the way we're viewing it.

Zack Van Amburg: As we begin to understand this business a bit more and understand how it can be monetized and quantified, we've had a lot of conversations recently about whether we are structured the right way. The more prolific we become in (the digital) space, the more it starts to become stand-alone work and not just an adjunct of an existing job.

Gary Newman:It's everything from creating original content that allows audiences to dig deeper into the show to furthering the brand and deepen the experience. "24: Conspiracy" was the first mobisode series, and that was a few years ago now. It was primarily done for a European audience, and it was a marketing tool and a launch platform for us there. It helped us monetize our asset and enrich the experience for the viewer.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: Was it a business for you? Did 20th make money on "24: Conspiracy"?

Gary Newman:It was primarily promotional for us -- that was where we'd started from. But it began a new platform. And we monetized it in the sense that we started a new platform that everyone will be monetizing in the future.

David Stapf: What we at the studio get a lot, and it's fun, is your more entrepreneurial showrunners who come in and pitch the whole arc of their season and then say, "And this is what I'd like to do on a digital platform and hopefully marry it up (with broadcast episodes) at some point." ... We have yet to really do it but we've been hearing a lot of those pitches internally, which at some point will be exciting once we figure out the business model of how to do it.

Jamie Erlicht: (Gesturing to Stapf) We're now working on a project together on a show that was a pilot for CBS that didn't land on the fall schedule. It was a different and innovative piece of material. And we're now trying to figure out if there's a digital platform for that to let the show live, and then maybe it goes back to the network or maybe we find a way to monetize it and keep in the digital space.

Angela Bromstad: You always have to start with a great product. "The Office" was something that just seemed perfect for playing out on the Web. It'll be interesting because "Office" webisodes have done very well this summer. It'll be interesting to see (the success rate) with our new series. "Heroes" is a show that is more conducive to being on downloads. We'll see how it works with (new NBC shows) "Friday Night Lights," "30 Rock" or "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip." I don't think every show is tailored for that.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: What is this considerable new exposure doing to shows' traditional syndication value? Are there any metrics you can use now to quantify what it means to the back-end? Or for that matter, ratings for the first-run airings?

Mark Pedowitz: We think it's additive. ... ABC did an experiment a few months back with streaming. What we did discover was that 5.7 million streams occurred in which we had limited advertising. Eighty-seven% of the people who watched a stream of an episode remembered who the advertiser was, and we found that the average age of the user was right in the sweet spot of the demographic, about 29. So we've actually gotten some information. We don't believe it affected the ratings of our shows.

Peter Roth: I don't think there's anything but anecdotal information at this point as to the additive value of any other form of distribution. I think time will tell. My personal experience is people are watching more television than ever before, and they're watching in more and various ways. Any time you get your product out there to people who wouldn't see it through traditional television viewing, it seems to me that adds value to the content.

Gary Newman:All of us are continually balancing the benefit of the additional exposure against the deterioration of our potential revenue. That's what we're all talking about. At the start of the fall season with a new show, it's, "Yes, get it out there to be seen by more people (through Web streaming and download-on-demand platforms)." If a show breaks out and becomes a hit, you'll probably see us shift more to protect the asset so there can be a revenue payoff down the road. The DVD was the first way of doing it. Now the question is, Will that same dynamic shift to the digital side of this business? Now that you can go buy episodes some three or four hours after they've been on the air, this is going to impact our syndication revenue.

Jamie Erlicht: The future of the economics of the business is digital, whether you pay $9.95 a month to get exclusive content on a show or are selling your episodes. I think the future of the business is digital, and it's going to help all of us produce our shows in the future.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: It would seem you all need help with the boom in costly, large-ensemble serialized dramas. How are you handling the era of $3 million per episode dramas? What's the single-biggest cost driver?

Dana Wklden: It's largely above the line. It's also the cost of serialized dramas; for us on our dramas, it's the number of scenes. Where traditional dramas used to be told in about 50 scenes, last year you had "Prison Break," which averaged about 88 scenes an episode. When you're having to move the whole company 88 times in an eight-day period, inevitably you're going to have to pick stuff up and there'll be additional second-unit work to be done. So it is both above the line and the genre of television that you're in.

Peter Roth: Jerry Bruckheimer in particular has brought a visual style that has been called "feature television," and that has increased needs for production. The viewers' appetite for more and more and more keeps growing. We have to compete with each other for not just a great script, great story and great writers, but also for great scope as well. This has caused production costs -- for our pilots and our series -- to be absolutely astronomical. Fortunately, we're in a very robust international marketplace, (and) that helps balance some of these costs. It's still a great business if you have a hit.

Kevin Beggs: : It's all about the costs. A lot of those cable shows, a big part of the (cost) discrepancy is where you shoot. Some cable shows shoot in L.A., but many of them are shooting everywhere and anywhere. We're in Albuquerque, we're in Toronto, we're in Pittsburgh, wherever those tax deals are driving us. For us, that's money in to offset the money out, along with the license fee and whatever the international and the video (sales) might be. And you should be breaking even or ahead on a cable show or you shouldn't do it.

Mark Pedowitz: It is interesting. You can go into cable and you can produce your shows for two-thirds of the price of what you spend on a broadcast show, and a lot of that is from the expectations. You're only doing 13 episodes. The cast, the writers, the producers all have lower expectations on salary. For some reason, if you take that same show and say, "I'm developing it for network," that extra one-third comes in. It's the most fascinating thing I've ever seen. The needs get bigger, the wants get bigger, and that's from everybody, the buyer, too. ... But what Peter said was very true. The viewer has become very, very sophisticated in what they want to see. It has to feel and taste and almost look like a feature. The hardest part of our jobs is containing all those costs as best we can while our management waits for the hit to come to pay for it all.

Angela Bromstad: It's about discipline. It's about holding to certain expectations. We need to have the discipline (knowing) that some shows like (new NBC fantasy-drama) "Heroes" are designed to be of massive scope and with large ensembles. So that means we have to have shows like (new NBC drama) "Raines," which is a procedural. We're not skimping on that by any means, but because of the nature of the show, it is more (cost) containable.

David Stapf: That also speaks to the audience we're catering to. Things are faster. Many older things, you look at (them) now and they feel slow. Now there is that demand to increase your page count on your scenes. Eighty scenes in a script is fairly common now. It's difficult.

Peter Roth: There is a tendency toward trying to be bigger and better every year. But that razzmatazz only goes a short way with the viewer. Eventually what they invest themselves in is great characters.

Mark Pedowitz: And whether Meredith will go with McDreamy or the veterinarian (referring to the cliffhanger of ABC/Touchstone's "Grey's Anatomy").

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: How do you know when to take a flier on a show?

Gary Newman:There's a kind of ... call it "lotto mentality" ... right now. There's a feeling of, "Let's go for it." One of the turning points in that mentality was "Lost." They spent an amount of money on that pilot ($10 million-plus), and people around town were in disbelief. And yet the risk they took paid off in a major way. I'm sure with their international and DVD sales, (Touchstone) was quite happy with the risk they took. There are rewards for taking risks and offering greater production value.

David Stapf: That's what we're paid to do. We're not always right. That's what comes with the job -- you get to champion something or say no to something. It's a very personal decision but it also comes down to being cognizant of what the network landscape is, what people are looking for and what's going to sell.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: Twelve years ago, the industry was in a tizzy over the FCC's deregulatory kick, which spurred consolidation in all areas. What's the biggest change in the business you've seen since then?

Kevin Beggs: : There's a lack of those entrepreneurial titans: the Cannells and the Spellings, may he rest in peace, and the Carsey-Werners, those shops who had their own imprimatur as a supplier. With the consolidation after fin-syn was repealed, they're all gone, that kind of scrappy, "I'm going in and selling on a napkin," Wild, Wild West of television, where guys could become hugely successful in the TV movie business when it was one of the most lucrative arenas of all time. There's something kind of sad about their passing.

Gary Newman:The real impact of the fin-syn rules (being repealed) was that it took a business that frequently, particularly on the production side, was driven by entrepreneurial, smaller-sized companies and chased them out of the business. It put the business in the hands of larger corporations. And in some ways I think that's unfortunate. I think the loss of the entrepreneurial spirit is always a loss for an industry. However, I think the party that we most have to be concerned with is the public. Are they getting the kind of programming they're desirous of? I can't imagine anyone looking at the diverse landscape of programming out there that you could say that people aren't getting the type of programming they want. ... Most of (the changes) have been driven by the fact that as costs rise, you're getting into a much higher-risk business and you need a large company behind you to support the kind of spending we do on these shows.

Mark Pedowitz: The end of fin-syn wasn't the only thing that pushed independent producers out of the business. It's 20 years ago now that the (federal) investment tax credit went away. And when the investment tax credit went away, it affected the Spellings and the Cannells because it made it harder for them to figure out how to deficit-finance these one-hour dramas (by changing the rules on how to account for business losses). In a business situation with an 85% failure rate, the investment tax credit allowed independent producers to come in and play with the big boys.

Jamie Erlicht: From our perspective (at Sony), networks consistently buy the best product. Yes, they have sister (studio) companies now and yes there are sweetheart deals sometimes, but at the end of the day, most networks are not going to put on a show they don't believe in because it comes from their sister studio at the expense of a better one from somewhere else.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/feature_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003121171

fredfa

09-16-06, 02:42 PM

Friday’s network prime-time ratings are now just under the HD football listings at the top of RATINGS NEWS (the first post in this thread).

fredfa

09-16-06, 03:34 PM

The New Season
Sorkin returns with 'Studio 60' and stars follow
By Mark McGuire Albany Times Union staff writer

Felicity Huffman stays pretty busy with her ABC hit "Desperate Housewives." But when Aaron Sorkin, her old boss at "Sports Night," asked Huffman to appear as herself in the pilot of his new NBC drama "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," she said yes before he could finish the question.

"If Aaron called up and said, 'Please come clean my cat box,' I would," Huffman said. "I mean, the guy is a national treasure." (The same goes for the pilot's director, Thomas Schlamme: "I would carry a spear for that guy.")

That's the kind of respect accorded Sorkin, who was one of TV's brightest lights before a particularly hard fall. With his longtime colleague Schlamme at his side, Sorkin returns with "Studio 60" (10 PM ET/PT Monday, NBC), the most anticipated new show of the season.

Sorkin, a former actor who scored his first hit with the play "A Few Good Men," garnered great reviews for the short-lived ABC dramedy "Sports Night," set in a fictitious all-sports network. His next series was another behind-the-scenes drama, on a bigger canvas: "The West Wing" ended up as the most-lauded drama in TV history.

For one season, Sorkin did both shows simultaneously, providing every script with his trademark rapid-fire dialogue. He and Schlamme perfected the "walk-and-talk," in which the camera tries to keep pace with actors trading barbed dialogue as they hurtle down narrow hallways.

Sorkin's shows were all Sorkin, and all too much. The workload piled up, and scripts started arriving late. A cocaine problem surfaced. Despite four Emmys in a row for best drama, Sorkin was pushed out.

"Studio 60" is a commanding return performance, set behind the scenes of fictitious late-night comedy show portrayed as a long-time rival to "Saturday Night Live." In the opening moments, the show's Lorne Michaels-esqe creator (Judd Hirsch) throws a "Network"-style on-air tirade against censorship and corporate greed. He's abruptly fired; in an attempt to save face, the newly installed entertainment chief (Amanda Peet) brings in the hotshot writing-directing tem of Danny Tripp (Bradley Whitford) and Matt Albie (Matthew Perry) -- both of whom were previously fired by National Broadcasting System honcho Jack Rudolph (Steven Weber, who gets many of the best one-liners).

If you picture Tripp and Albie as Schlamme and Sorkin, you're on target. (The inside joke: It's Whitford's character, ostensibly the Schlamme figure, who has a nagging drug problem.) Whitford and Perry -- who previously shared scenes in "The West Wing," where Perry was an occasional guest star -- may be the most compelling new couple on TV, even if they're playing a couple of straight guys.

"For whatever reason, we just have a good chemistry together," Perry said this summer. "We both really love working and then love making fun of working and, you know ... "

"Mocking other people," Whitford said.

"He's a really funny, really good actor," Perry said, "and I'm funnier and a little bit better."

That's something Sorkin would write.

The rest of the cast is stellar: Peet's character closely resembles former ABC boss Jamie Tarses. Comedian D.L. Hughley shows he's able to handle drama. The most intriguing character is Harriet Hayes (Sarah Paulson), one of the comedy show's "Big Three" actors, Albie's former girlfriend and a born-again Christian. Sorkin, criticized for his portrayals of the religious right on "The West Wing" (derided by conservatives as "The Left Wing"), promises the character will not be one-dimensional. It will be a difficult proposition to pull off -- one of the key plot points in the first two episodes is a planned skit titled "Crazy Christians," but Paulson's role is far from caricature.

Much of the cast are Sorkin veterans: Simply said, actors line up to work for him.

"The last thing I wanted to do was go into anything remotely similar to ('The West Wing),' said Whitford, who played White House staffer Josh Lyman on "Wing." "But I read the script and Aaron said, 'I want you to do it,' and I went (in a hesitating voice) 'Ah-ah-ah-ah ... .' This is what I do.

"Matthew doesn't need to be here. Aaron doesn't need to be here. Tommy doesn't need to be here. One thing I love about Aaron is he could be a gazillionaire feature writer-producer, but he's not interested. It's like his fingers start itching. He has to write."

Sorkin first gave Whitford a shot in the Broadway production of "A Few Good Men." There's a reason you see a lot of the same people pop up in Sorkin productions again and again.

"There's that loyalty that has been with those people who have been with Aaron," said Timothy Busfield, another veteran of the stage version of "A Few Good Men" and "The West Wing." "The more people that he touches, the more they're going to get (that) he's the real deal.

"And he is a thunderous writer."

"Studio 60" is very much like "The West Wing" in tonality and quality. As "Wing" was more about the people who work in the White House than politics, television is the setting but not the primary focus of the new drama. Still, Sorkin will use the show at times as a soapbox to dissect the ills he perceives in his industry and society.

"I do think that television is a terribly influential part of this country, and that when things that are very mean-spirited and voyeuristic go on TV, I think it's bad crack in the schoolyard," he told TV critics this summer.

Silence descended. A snicker. OK, give Sorkin credit: He realized that given his background, "crack" was a really bad choice of words.

"Why did I use that word?" Sorkin said.

"I have no clue," Whitford respond.

"Everything was fine," a dumbfounded Sorkin said.

Perry later dropped "bad Vicodin in the school yard," a reference to his own past problems with pain killers. (The pilot features Perry's character zonked on pain meds after surgery.) Others in the cast followed suit. In short, they had Sorkin's back.

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/storyprint.asp?StoryID=517182

fredfa

09-16-06, 04:31 PM

The New Season
'Studio 60' even better than the sum of its well-made parts
David Kronke Los Angeles Daily News

Eight years ago, Aaron Sorkin's "The West Wing" fairly towered over the rest of network TV's offerings, proffering compelling characters, memorably epigrammatic dialogue and addictive story lines from which viewers were forced to tear themselves.

Today, Sorkin's at it again, though perhaps mining more rarefied territory - rather than politics, he's casting a magnifying glass upon pop culture - but he's doing so with the same sense of urgency. His questions are just as important: How do passionate people prevent the stultified masses from tuning out of the day's issues?

I know, I know: I've made "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" sound like something medicinal. And, of course, it's not: It focuses, as "West Wing" did, on compellingly flawed but no less idealistic characters striving, no matter the means or the medium, to make the world a better place.

Sorkin's new drama is set against the backdrop of a show not unlike "Saturday Night Live," one that once encouraged cagey subversion but has since been lulled into complacency by success and fat paychecks. Its producer (Judd Hirsch), in a last gasp at relevance, delivers a wake-up call, which results in a minor scandal until an idealistic network executive (Amanda Peet) senses the time is right to exploit media cynicism and hires tyro/troubled writers Matt (Matthew Perry) and Danny (Bradley Whitford) to resurrect the show to its celebrated status.

Perry and Whitford, from the outset, convey a beleaguered camaraderie that's both moving and profound - forget heterosexual "it" couples like Ron Livingston and Rosemarie DeWitt; these obviously straight guys mesh and rely upon one another like no one else this season.

Matt's still aching to reunite with Harriet (Sarah Paulson), a born-again Christian cast member of the show he thoughtlessly alienated. Paulson has "Studio 60's" trickiest assignment - essaying a character the religious right can wholly embrace - and she manages a deft tightrope act equating piety with keen intelligence.

Whitford channels Josh, his soulfully acerbic character in "West Wing," while Perry essentially channels himself - an inspired, hilarious artist bedeviled by painkillers; both do so with obvious insight and astonishing wit.

This is to take nothing away from the rest of the cast, which does exemplary work. Nor does one wish to detract from the studied storytelling. "Studio 60" is, yes, about Hollywood, a subject the rest of the country doesn't seem to care about all that much, but it's also about so much more. Sorkin is also keen on examining what makes the rest of us tick. We should welcome his thumb on our pulse.

http://www.azcentral.com/ent/tv/articles/0916studio60.html

fredfa

09-16-06, 05:16 PM

The New Season
There are some potential hits among a variety of new series
By Scott D. Pierce (Salt Lake City) Deseret Morning News

I know, I know — it's easy, popular and fun to complain that there's nothing good on TV anymore. And some of us get paid to complain about what's on television.

But, as the networks roll out their fall schedules, there are a lot of shows that are, at the very least, worth checking out.
Oh, there are some stinkers, but there are also some genuine gems. Shows that demonstrate huge potential. A few that could well be with us for years to come.
And, with the exception of Saturday — which has no new shows — there's something that's at least worth checking out on every other night of the week.

(Please note: Before setting your DVR, please remember that all times in this story are Mountain)

SUNDAY

THE GAME (Sundays, 7:30 p.m., CW) is a spinoff of "Girlfriends," and the writers have confused "loud" with "funny." It's definitely the former and only occasionally the latter.
Tia Mowry stars as the live-in girlfriend of a professional football player (Aldis Hodge) who's the new third-string wide receiver for the San Diego Sabers. She reluctantly joins the unofficial wives club, where the competition is more fierce than what's happening on the field.
If you like "Girlfriends," you might like this. Otherwise, steer clear.
Premieres: Oct. 1

BROTHERS & SISTERS (Sundays, 9 p.m., ABC) is a family drama about a family with more than its share of problems.
Sara (Rachel Griffiths) gave up a corporate career to save her troubled marriage, Tommy (Balthazar Getty) is an ethically challenged womanizer, Kevin (Matthew Rhys) is a successful attorney who happens to be gay, Justin (Dave Annable) is a veteran who isn't dealing with the trauma of war very well, and Kitty (Calista Flockhart) is a right-wing radio host-turned-TV pundit who can't get along with their mother.
Oh, and the family patriarch (Tom Skerritt) dies at the end of Episode 1, leaving behind some big trouble at the family business, and a mistress (Patricia Wettig).
There's been a lot of trouble behind the scenes of this show — recasting, reshooting the pilot, replacing producers — but the first episode shows some promise. Whether it can match the ratings "Grey's Anatomy" had in this time slot last season is highly doubtful, however.
Premieres: Sept. 24

MONDAY

THE CLASS (Mondays, 7 p.m., CBS) shows every indication of being the best new sitcom to come along this season. And that's not faint praise, even though there aren't a lot of new comedies this fall (and even fewer good comedies). This could well be a show that's with us for years to come.
The premise is hokey and yet somehow works. Ethan (Jason Ritter) is a nice guy who's all set to propose to his girlfriend, who he met in third grade. So he gathers as many of those third-grade classmates as he can at a party where he pops the question — and is promptly dumped. But the third-grade classmates are off and running.
There's good-hearted, unlucky-at-love Lina (Heather Goldenhersh); her cynical twin sister, Kat (Lizzy Caplan); suicidal but sweet Richie (Jesse Tyler Ferguson); Duncan (Jon Bernthal), the guy who peaked in high school and still has a thing for Nicole (Andrea Anders), who's not-so-happily married to an older, former pro football star (David Keith); Kyle (Sean Maguire), the guy who turned out to be gay; and his prom date, Holly (Lucy Punch), who never quite got over it; and Holly's husband, Perry (Sam Harris), who seems sort of, well, flamingly gay.
The first episode of "The Class" is pretty funny; the second and third episodes are great. And that's the best possible sign for a new show.
This could end up being the "Friends" of the 21st century. If we're lucky.
Premieres: Sept. 18

HEROES (8 p.m., NBC) is a show about superheroes, but nobody is wearing tights and a cape. And it gets off to a super start in a pilot that's intriguing, engaging, amusing, dramatic and mysterious.

Something is causing a few people around the world to develop super powers. A nurse (Milo Ventimiglia) is convinced he can fly, although his politician brother (Adrian Pasdar) is skeptical. A high school cheerleader (Hayden Panettiere) is indestructible. A stripper (Ali Larter) seems to have a doppelganger who lives in her reflection. A drug-addicted artist (Santiago Cabrera) can see the future. A young Japanese misfit (Masi Oka) can bend time — and, possibly, teleport himself.
And, as the series progresses, we'll meet a fugitive (Leonard Roberts) who can't be caged and a cop (Greg Grunberg) who can hear people's thoughts.
There's a big mystery about what's causing these mutations, who or what is behind it — and some sort of apocalyptic event on the horizon.
The first episode is spellbinding. Let's just hope it can maintain that quality.

RUNAWAY (Mondays, 8 p.m., CW) is "The Fugitive" with a family. Donnie Wahlberg stars as a man accused of a crime he didn't commit, so he goes on the lam with his wife (Leslie Hope) and three children (Dustin Milligan, Sarah Ramos and Nathan Gamble).
They settle in a small town where they have to keep their identities a secret to avoid the police, protect themselves from the real killers, solve the crime and live with lots of teen angst.
It's intriguing, but it's going to take a lot of skill to make the concept work as a weekly series.
Premieres: Oct. 1

STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP (Mondays, 9 p.m., NBC) is a show that has the seemingly impossible task of living up to the lofty expectations NBC (and critics) are creating for it. And yet it does.
Aaron Sorkin, who created "The West Wing" and "Sports Night," combines the two in this new series set behind the scenes of a "Saturday Night Live"-esque show. It's full of smart people who talk fast, characters who quickly stand out (despite the sheer volume of them) and a fully realized, fully believable world.
When the producer of the fictional show-within-a-show has a meltdown, the network's new top programmer (Amanda Peete) turns to a successful writer (Matthew Perry) and director (Bradley Whitford) to save the show. Just one problem — they were fired from the show by the network president (Steven Weber) several years earlier. Oh, and Perry's character just went through a nasty break-up with one of the show's stars (Sarah Paulson).
This is set in Hollywood, but there's just as much political maneuvering as there was on "West Wing." It's smart television that's hugely entertaining.
Not that I want to set expectations too high or anything.

TUESDAY

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS (Tuesdays, 7 p.m., NBC) is closely patterned on the 2004 movie of the same name — the pilot is a virtual remake of the film, as a matter of fact. But that's a good thing.
This drama about a high school football coach (Kyle Chandler) and his team in rural Texas is brilliantly done. The show is populated by a lot of teen characters, but this is not "90210" — it's a show that's smart and emotional enough to engage everyone from teens to adults.
You don't have to like football to love 'Lights." It's a drama in which all the stakes are artificially high — just as they are in the real world where football is a religion in the state of Texas.
My only reservation is that the documentary, almost cinema-verite style of filmmaking — while extremely effective in the film and in the pilot — is going to wear on viewers after a while.
I'm just hoping we'll have a long time to get used to it. This is a show worth cheering for.
Premieres: Oct. 3

THE KNIGHTS OF PROSPERITY (Tuesdays, 8 p.m., ABC) has some funny bits in its pilot episode. They feature Mick Jagger, who, unfortunately, won't be on the show every week.
A group of lovable losers (Donal Logue, Sofia Vergara, Lenny Venito, Maz Jobrani, Kevin Michael Richardson and Josh Grisetti) decide to get rich quick by robbing Jagger's palatial New York apartment.
The funny moments are few and far between. The pilot drags in spots, and that's not good.
Premieres: Oct. 17

HELP ME HELP YOU (Tuesdays, 8:30 p.m., ABC) marks the fourth time Ted Danson has headlined a network sitcom. If this one doesn't kill his sitcom career, nothing will.
In this painfully unfunny show, Danson plays a therapist who's in the middle of a midlife crisis.
On 1970s "Bob Newhart Show," the patients were offbeat and lovable, but this group — played by Charlie Finn, Jim Rash, Suzy Nakamura, Darlene Hunt and Jere Burns — are, for the most part, just unpleasant and unlikable.
Cancel this session at once.
Premieres:Sept. 26

SMITH (Tuesdays, 9 p.m., CBS) is the third show this year about a gang of thieves. It's not as good as "Thief" nor as bad as "Heist."
Ray Liotta stars as Bobby Stevens, who's leading a double life. A devoted husband, father and working man, he's also a master thief who leads a team (Franky G, Simon Baker. Amy Smart and Johnny Lee Miller) that pulls off big-time heists.
And they're hardly good guys. In fact, Baker's character is a cold-blooded killer.
A job goes wrong in the pilot and people die. Now Bobby has an FBI agent (Chris Bauer) on his tail, a suspicious wife (Virginia Madsen) and a restless crew.
The bigger problem is that the pilot episode just isn't involving. Its prospects as a weekly series seem iffy.
Premieres: Sept. 19

WEDNESDAY

JERICHO (Wednesdays, 7 p.m., CBS) is sort of a landlocked "Lost" — a group of people cut off from the rest of the world, unsure about how they've gotten into this predicament or how to get out of it. With a touch of apocalypse thrown in.
Jericho is a small Kansas town full of mostly fine folk who see a mushroom cloud rising from Denver, off in the distance. They don't know if it's a single event or part of a global disaster, but they do know they're on their own. And the cast of characters (led by Skeet Ulrich, Gerald McRaney and Pamela Reed) have plenty of backstories for the writers to work with.
The first couple of episodes set up an intriguing, disturbing series. The challenge is to keep the story going — and to make such a dark concept work.
Premieres: Sept. 20

30 ROCK (Wednesdays, 7 p.m., NBC) is, like "Studio 60," a show set behind the scenes of a "Saturday Night Live"-esque show. But this is a half-hour comedy written, produced by and starring "SNL" alum Tina Fey.
Fey stars as the head writer of that fictional show, which is shot at NBC's New York headquarters (at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, hence the title). A network executive (Adam Baldwin) forces her to add an erratic comedian (Tracy Morgan, another "SNL" alum) as a star of the show — a move that, bizarrely enough, works.
Fey, Baldwin and Morgan are all excellent. The pilot is good — not great, but good. NBC needs to be patient and let the show grow and find an audience.
Premieres: Oct. 11

TWENTY GOOD YEARS (Wednesdays, 7:30 p.m., NBC) is the single worst new show on any of the broadcast networks this fall — a loud, obnoxious and unfunny "comedy" that could be used as a textbook example of why traditional sitcoms are in decline.
The big gag in the pilot is John Lithgow in a Speedo. 'Nuff said.
Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor stars as two buddies in their 60s who decide they've only got 20 good years left to them and vow to live life to the fullest. The result is painfully unfunny and downright embarrassing.
Perhaps we could file a class-action lawsuit against NBC for comedy malpractice.
Premieres: Oct. 11

THE NINE (Wednesdays, 9 p.m., ABC) is a drama about a group of people who meet under the most unusual of circumstances — they're held hostage during a bank robbery. We're not privy to what happened during the standoff, which ended with two people dead.
It's a disparate group — a police detective (Tim Daly), a family man (Chi McBride) and his teenage daughter (Dana Davis); an assistant district attorney (Kim Raver); a surgeon (Scott Wolf) and his girlfriend (Jessica Collins); a bank teller (Camile Guaty); a suicidal nerd (John Billingsley); and one of the bank robbers (Owain Yeoman).
The pilot episode is promising — good writing, good characters, a good cast and enough of a mystery to grab your interest.
Premieres: Oct. 4

KIDNAPPED (Wednesdays, 9 p.m., NBC) is the better of two serials about — that's right, kidnapping — on the networks this fall. (Fox's "Vanished" being the lesser show.) It's very much in the style of "24" or "Prison Break" — a seasonlong drama surrounding a high-stakes crime.
In the premiere, the teenage son (Will Denton) of wealthy parents (Timothy Hutton and Dana Delany) is kidnapped by a gang of armed men. Enter a professional investigator (Jeremy Sisto) whose relationship with the FBI agent (Delroy Lindo) in charge of the cast is more than a bit antagonistic.
As with all such shows, we'll have to wait and see how this one plays out. But the pilot does an excellent job of setting up the story, so there's reason to hope.
Premieres: Sept. 20

THURSDAY

UGLY BETTY (Thursdays, 7 p.m., ABC) is an unexpected delight — a warm, funny, almost magical series based on a Colombian telenovela.
Betty Suarez (America Ferrera) is an ugly duckling, what with her braces, bad glasses and complete lack of fashion sense. She's very bright, but she's a fish out of water when she goes to work at a fashion magazine as the assistant to the new editor, Daniel (Eric Mabius). He got the job because his father (Alan Dale) owns the publishing company. At home, she's got a loving family; at work, she's surrounded by superficial sharks (with Vanessa Williams as the chief shark). There's also a big mystery surrounding the death of Daniel's predecessor — if she's really dead, that is.
There are a lot of similarities to "Desperate Housewives" here — larger-than-life characters, over-the-top situations and that big mystery. Ferrera is so great as Betty that you almost can't help but be won over.
I love "Ugly Betty."
Premieres: Sept. 28

SHARK (Thursdays, 9 p.m., CBS) isn't anything new and different, but it's so well done it doesn't much matter. James Woods stars as super-successful defense attorney Sebastian Stark. But, after a guy he got off commits a heinous crime, Stark is talked into switching sides and joining the district attorney's office.
Stark has an uneasy relationship with his new boss/former foe (Jeri Ryan) and has a staff of young lawyers (Sam Page, Sophina Brown, Alexis Cruz and Sarah Carter). And he's got all the high-priced assets prosecutors generally lack — for instance, a mock-courtroom inside his fabulous home.
The personal side of the story — Stark has a teenage daughter (Danielle Panabaker) — is weak, but it's the legal cases and the towering ego of the character Woods plays that carries "Shark." And carries it very well.
Premieres: Sept. 21

SIX DEGREES (Thursday, 9 p.m., ABC) draws its title from the whole six-degrees-of-separation thing. Which is the conceit used to bring together a group of disparate individuals into an ensemble drama.
This group starts with a grieving single mother who's connected to a successful woman with boyfriend problems, who's connected to a struggling photographer, who's connected to a young man whose brother is a criminal, who's connected to a young woman who's hiding her past, who's connected to a good guy (Jay Hernandez) with a crush on mystery girl.
The characters are way too self-absorbed, but we'll have to wait and see where this goes.
Premieres: Sept. 21

FRIDAY

MEN IN TREES (Fridays, 8 p.m., ABC) is pretty much a remake of "Northern Exposure" with a female lead — Anne Heche stars as Marin, a life coach who thinks she has a handle on men and relationships. That is, until she finds out her fiance is cheating on her.
She discovers this on her way to a speaking engagement in Alaska, where she ends up staying to find out what the real world — and real men — are all about. She's a fish out of water in a town full of quirky characters. Most of them men.
Heche is personable and charming. The situation is contrived but cute, with the promise of romantic comedy to come. Could work.
Premieres: The pilot aired Tuesday; Episode 2 aired last night.

http://www.desnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,645201493,00.html

fredfa

09-16-06, 05:26 PM

The New Season
New CW network faces a hard task in attracting viewers
By Tom Dorsey Louisville Courier-Journal September 16, 2006

Last night marked the end of broadcasting for UPN, which went out with an unnoticed whimper after 11 years. WB, which was also launched in 1995, calls it quits tomorrow night.

The former WFTE, which used to air UPN programs in this area, has switched to a new network called My Network TV and had changed its call letters to WMYO. It's still seen on broadcast channel 58 or Insight cable channel 10 airing romantic soap operas from 8 to 10 six nights a week.

WB will turn out the lights tomorrow night when it broadcasts the original pilots for four of its biggest hits. "Felicity" is at 5 p.m., "Angel" at 6, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" from 7 to 9 and "Dawson's Creek" at 9.

Monday sees the birth of the CW network, which will combine the best but not all of the shows from UPN and WB. CW will be seen in prime time from 8 to 10 p.m. over WBKI on broadcast channel 34 and Insight cable channel 7. It also has afternoon and weekend programming. The C stands for CBS and the W for Warner Bros., the two owners of the newcomer network.

The most notable loss is WB's "Everwood," which had a loyal following. "One on One" is also gone, but Reba McEntire's show will return later in the season.

CW's schedule will be phased in over the next two weeks but officially kicks off Monday.

Unlike the other networks CW will only air two new series. "The Runaway," starring Donnie Wahlberg, is about a family on the run after the father is framed for murder. It is scheduled to make its debut Sept. 25. The other is "The Game," a sitcom about pro football players' wives and girlfriends. It will debut Oct. 1.

The small number of freshman series is a plus, according to Carol LaFever, CEO of Cascade Broadcasting, which operates WBKI. She says the familiar faces and shows "gives us good stuff every night that has a track record." She doesn't envy other networks such as ABC, which will introduced eight new shows.

"Look at the failure rate for new shows. It's 75 (percent) or 80 percent. Let's say we put on 75 percent new shows and they failed. At the end of the day I'd rather have a schedule of shows people are already watching."

But some media critics say that moving the UPN and WB shows under the same roof has created a crazy patchwork quilt. Do "7th Heaven" and "Friday Night Smackdown" wrestling make a good fit?

That argument is irrelevant, says LaFever. "Look at Fox's schedule or anybody else," she argued. "Nobody has the same kind of shows every night."

Viewers don't watch networks either. They watch programs. People who want wrestling will find their "Friday Night Smackdown" at 8 p.m. Those who like "Veronica Mars" and "Gilmore Girls" will find them paired on Tuesday nights as "Smallville" and "Supernatural" are on Thursdays.

Sunday nights CW will pick up UPN's comedies leading off with "Everybody Hates Chris" and add "The Game."

Although CW's target audience is 18-to-34-year-olds, the network may have different kinds of audiences tuning in each night with programs that will appeal to different groups.

"It's inventive, funny and different sometimes and maybe a little riskier than other networks," LaFever acknowledged.

The larger question is whether CW can merge two little networks with smaller audiences and turn them into a success with essentially the same programming as before.

CW executives optimistically look for an increased viewership, but some media critics ask why people would watch something they didn't before.

CW does have some strong shows such as "Everybody Hates Chris," "Veronica Mars" and "7th Heaven," but it has to figure out a way to entice more people into sampling them.

You really can't do that by promoting a network, especially when so many people don't even know what CW is. It has to be done one by one, program by program, and that takes money and time, which both CBS and Warner Bros have. But will they spend it?

CW may not be helping itself with the "Free to be …" slogan. The idea is that viewers are free to be scared by "Supernatural" or laugh with "Everybody Hates Chris." The concept says people are free to find a diversity of shows at the same address. Still I wonder if a lot of viewers don't know what to make of "Free to be."

CW's biggest problem is people don't know what CW is or where it is. Something simpler such as "CW -- The New Network in Town (on WBKI-34)" would have been better for openers.

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20060916&Category=COLUMNISTS15&ArtNo=609160315&SectionCat=FEATURES07&Template=printart

fredfa

09-16-06, 06:32 PM

The New Season
Prime time, prime season
Dramas outshine comedies with dark, but watchable, twists
By Joanne Weintraub Milwaukee Journal Sentinel TV critic

(Note: All times are Central)

Cancel your appointments. Hold all your calls. Get out your pencil or your BlackBerry, because you might want to take notes.

The best of the new network series are the sort that demand more than casual attention.

Miss an episode or two, and those little recaps that begin "Previously on . . . " probably won't help you.

Despite viewers who find keeping up with the labyrinthine "Lost" or the twisty "24" exhausting, the former is fantastically popular and the latter won this year's Emmy for best drama. Why wouldn't others follow in their tricky, teasing footsteps?

This fall, each of four serials - NBC's "Kidnapped," ABC's "The Nine," Fox's "Vanished" and the CW's "Runaway" - tells the tale of a single crime that echoes throughout the season.

ABC dramas "Six Degrees" and "Brothers & Sisters" and NBC's "Heroes," "Friday Night Lights" and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" aren't criminally inclined, but they're complicated enough to make you wish you had a flow chart - and good enough to be worth watching even without one.

The new comedies aren't as demanding as the dramas, but they aren't as interesting, either. From the evidence of the pilots, at least, there's nothing as endearingly weird or just plain hilarious as "The Office," "My Name Is Earl" or the late, great "Arrested Development."

Giving a few comedies the benefit of the doubt, turn to 5E for an even dozen of the fall's most promising network shows, in the order they debut. More complete reviews of all 12 - along with fall's other, not-so-promising shows - will run closer to their premiere dates.

'The Class' 7 p.m. Monday, (CBS)

Who’s in it: Jason Ritter, Andrea Anders, Lizzy Caplan, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Sean Maguire, David Keith

Why you should watch: A class reunion brings out the quirks, the dissatisfactions and the romantic yearnings - along with some pretty good one-liners - in a group of twentysomethings.

'Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip' 9 p.m. Monday, (NBC)

Who’s in it: Matthew Perry, Bradley Whitford, Amanda Peet, D.L. Hughley, Sarah Paulson

Why you should watch: Aaron Sorkin turns his observant eye and caustic wit from politics to showbiz, with a cast that's more than up to the challenge.

'Kidnapped' 9 p.m. Wednesday, (NBC)

Who’s in it: Dana Delany, Timothy Hutton, Jeremy Sisto, Mykelti Williamson, Delroy Lindo

Why you should watch: A top-notch cast adds depth to this story of a wealthy family whose secrets begin to emerge when a child is abducted.

'Six Degrees' 9 p.m. Sept. 21, (ABC)

Who’s in it: Hope Davis, Campbell Scott, Erika Christensen

Why you should watch: Six diverse New Yorkers whose lives become intertwined take us to unexpected places in this challenging, out-of-the-ordinary drama.

'Brothers & Sisters' 9 p.m. Sept. 24, (ABC)

Who’s in it: Sally Field, Calista Flockhart, Rachel Griffiths, Balthazar Getty, Ron Rifkin, Patricia Wettig

Why you should watch: Sibling rivalry takes many forms - all of them intriguing - in this story of a family business.

'Heroes' 8 p.m. Sept. 25, (NBC)

Who’s in it: Hayden Panettiere, Milo Ventimiglia, Greg Grunberg, Ali Larter, Adrian Pasdar, Masi Oka

Why you should watch: Improbably, this drama about ordinary people with superpowers is more sophisticated than silly, with humor, mystery and suspense skillfully intermingled.

'Runaway' 8 p.m. Sept. 25, (CW)

Who’s in it: Donnie Wahlberg, Leslie Hope, Sarah Ramos, Dustin Milligan

Why you should watch: Framed for a crime he didn't commit, Wahlberg's character goes on the run with his wife and kids, making for a surprisingly effective family drama.

'Ugly Betty' 7 p.m. Sept. 28, (ABC)

Who’s in it: America Ferrera, Eric Mabius, Vanessa L. Williams, Alan Dale

Why you should watch: America is beautiful as an ugly duckling in a pond full of preening, posing fashion swans - and producer Salma Hayek is a hoot in the show-within-the-show, a trashy telenovela.

'Friday Night Lights' 7 p.m. Oct. 3, (NBC)

Who’s in it: Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton

Why you should watch: You don't have to love football to get caught up in this drama, based on the book and movie about a small-town Texas high school team, with characters and a setting so real you can smell the barbecue.

'The Nine' 9 p.m. Oct. 4, (ABC)

Who’s in it: Tim Daly, Chi McBride, Scott Wolf, Kim Raver, John Billingsley

Why you should watch: The survivors of a bank robbery meet to mourn the hostage who didn't make it - and the more we learn about each of them, the more we want to know.

'30 Rock' 7:30 p.m. Oct. 11, (NBC)

Who’s in it: Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, Jane Krakowski, Rachel Dratch, Alec Baldwin

Why you should watch: At its best, this behind-the-scenes comedy really does make you feel like you're watching from the wings of "Saturday Night Live."

‘The Knights of Prosperity' 8 p.m. Oct. 17 (ABC)

Who’s in it: Donal Logue, Sofia Vergara, Maz Jobrani

Why you should watch: Like Logue himself, this comedy about a crew of crime virgins determined to rip off Mick Jagger hides its smarts behind a bumbling exterior.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=496710

fredfa

09-16-06, 06:48 PM

The New Season
Want to spoil the surprise?
Here's what's up with some of your favorite shows
By Neal Justin Minneapolis Star Tribune
(Note: All times are Central)

If you really love television, you won't read this column. It's packed with spoilers about favorite returning shows, the kind of inside scoop that can dampen your future viewing enjoyment.

You're now excused to turn directly to the business section.

Still here? You are a very, very weak person, but I'll forgive you, even as I satisfy your sick craving:

'Desperate Housewives'

• Where we left off: Bree (Marcia Cross) abandoned her conniving son on the side of the road and Mike Delfino (James Denton) got run over, leaving him in a coma. Perhaps he'll wake up and learn that dishwater-dull Season 2 was just a dream.
• Why we're excited: Creator Marc Cherry promises a lot more humor and outrageous fun, like a supermarket shootout that rubs out one recurring character.
• Why we're worried: We don't know what's in the other housewives' basements. (Season premiere, 8 p.m. Sept. 24, ABC.)

'CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'

• Where we left off: Gil Grissom (William Petersen) and Sara Siddle (Jorja Fox) were doing some in-depth investigations of each other under the sheets.
• Why we're excited: It's nice to know that Grissom is turned on by more than parasites.
• Why we're worried: Danny Bonaduce, John Mayer and Kevin Federline all make early appearances -- and only one of them is killed off. (8 p.m. Sept. 21, CBS.)

'Smallville'

• Where we left off: Clark (Tom Welling) finds himself trapped in the Phantom Zone. Our hero escapes, but inadvertently allows a few bad elements to follow.
• Why we're excited: Jimmy Olsen and Green Arrow pop into town.
• Why we're worried: All the hype about the Man of Steel this year has us super burned out. (7 p.m. Sept. 28, WUCW, CW.)

'ER'

• Where we left off: With bullets flying around them, Luka Kovac (Goran Visnjic) was handcuffed to a gurney while his pregnant girlfriend, Abby Lockhart (Maura Tierney) collapsed in the hallway. Abby's baby is apparently OK. Wish we could say the same thing about lovable Jerry (Abraham Benrubi).
• Why we're excited: We're finally over the departure of George What's-his-name.
• Why we're worried: After 12 years, the drama is likely to do something really silly, like admit a patient with a bomb in his chest or have the docs all dress up in prom outfits. (9 p.m. Sept. 21, KARE, NBC.)

'Everybody Hates Chris'

• Where we left off: Chris (Tyler James Williams) wasn't getting a break from his family, school, bullies, friends, crushes, the ice-cream truck driver, the postman. ...
• Why we're excited: Chris finds puppy love with a new girl, despite the fact that her grandmother is played by Whoopi Goldberg.
• Why we're worried: A 6 p.m. time slot doesn't bode well for viewers still tuned in to nailbiting football finales. (6 p.m. Oct. 1, WUCW, CW.)

'Law & Order: SVU'

• Where we left off: Detectives Elliot Stabler (Chris Meloni) and Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) realize they may be too close for comfort.
• Why we're excited: Hargitay's maternity leave means a temporary replacement in Connie Nielsen, but the mug we're most excited about is Jerry Lewis, who guests as a homeless man.
• Why we're worried: With a bunch of promising new serialized series on the way, there may no longer be time for three "L&Os" and three "CSIs." (9 p.m. Sept. 19, NBC.)

'The Office'

• Where we left off: Jim (John Krasinski) kissed both Pam (Jenna Fischer) and his job under Michael (Steve Carell) goodbye. He opens the new season at a new branch with a new love interest in guest star Rashida Jones.
• Why we're excited: Ricky Gervais is penning a script and Harold Ramis is slated to direct one episode.
• Why we're worried: With Michael in charge? What's to worry about? (7:30 p.m. Sept. 21, NBC.)

http://www.startribune.com/1706/story/662809.html

fredfa

09-16-06, 07:12 PM

The New Season
Behind The Scenes
Aaron Sorkin's 'Studio 60' brings the TV audience inside the world of television
By Dave Walker New Orleans Times-Picayune TV columnist

More than anyone else behind the camera at any other broadcast television series, writer-producer Aaron Sorkin is the star of his shows.

Starting with "Sports Night" and continuing on without a breath into "The West Wing," Sorkin has dependably written compelling, distinctive TV characters who recite, sometimes at breathtaking pace, TV's sharpest dialog.

Sorkin's first series, which aired for two seasons on ABC, looked behind the scenes at an all-sports TV network. On NBC, "The West Wing" took the same whirlwind walk-and-talk backstage tour of the White House.

In "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," debuting Monday at 10 PM ET/PT on NBC, Sorkin returns with a show about a show -- NBC's "Saturday Night Live," though not by that name -- and the people who put it on.

Who are, who? And why? Those are the "Studio 60" questions.

"Saturday Night Live" has a rich history of launching some of its players to wider stardom, but is the comedic drill press that gets that show on the air each week all that interesting to people who otherwise struggle each week to stay awake until "Weekend Update?"

The caveat that "Studio 60's" mostly positive preseason reviews uniformly mention is that its stories might be a bit too inside.

"Whenever I hear that question, I just think, 'Isn't "CSI" a little inside the coroner's office?' " said Bradley Whitford, a "West Wing" alum who with Matthew Perry ("Friends") play the writer-producer duo put in charge of the fictional show, and who, with Sorkin and several other cast members, met with TV critics in July in Los Angeles. "It's an advantage, because you're taking an audience to a place that is different, and you're humanizing the people who are dealing with that new place. I don't worry about it."

Director Thomas Schlamme, Sorkin's production partner on both "Sports Night" and "West Wing," recalled one "West Wing" story line that hinged on trouble at the Census Bureau.

"That's pretty inside," Schlamme said. "That's not what you would sort of pitch -- an episode about the census."

But the census story was actually a springboard to explore the interpersonal interaction between the show's characters. The episode was about the census the way "The Honeymooners" was about sewer workers and bus drivers.

Like the failing Continental Sports Channel and the White House, Studio 60 is a workplace.

"At its heart, 'Studio 60' is the same thing that 'The West Wing' was at its heart, and the same thing 'Sports Night' before that was at its heart: It's about a group of people committed to professionalism, committed to each other, committed to what they're doing, and hopefully, we enjoy watching them every week," said Sorkin, who before writing for TV, wrote plays ("A Few Good Men") and always-on-cable-somewhere feature films ("A Few Good Men," "The American President").

"As far as any inside baseball, I'm not concerned about that at all. Anything the audience needs to understand, they will. Anything they don't understand, what they'll understand is (that) these characters know what they're talking about, in the same way you'd do a medical drama or a legal drama or a cop show or anything like that. Or a White House show."

http://www.nola.com/living/t-p/walker/index.ssf?/base/living-0/1158302925125410.xml&coll=1

fredfa

09-16-06, 07:15 PM

The New Season
It's time to say goodbye to UPN and WB
By Rick Kushman Sacramento Bee TV Columnist

It's a TV event that will go mostly unseen -- and unfelt -- but by the end of this weekend, two television networks will be dead.

WB and UPN, both born in 1995, will be gone after Sunday, at least as separate entities. They merged into the new CW, and most of their best shows -- including "Gilmore Girls," "Everybody Hates Chris," "Veronica Mars," "Smallville" and "Supernatural" -- will live on (on Channel 31) when the TV season starts next week.

For the combined network, this might be a road to financial stability. For viewers, it could mean more stability in development and, ultimately, better shows.

If it matters, you can't blame their corporate parents, Warner Bros. for WB, CBS for UPN, for bailing out on businesses that have lost money for 11 years.

Over those years, both networks have had a few good shows. Beside the current crop moving to CW, WB created "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" -- which all by itself is a hall-of-fame achievement -- plus "Felicity," "Dawson's Creek" and "Angel." UPN supported the "Star Trek" franchise, and produced most of the shows on TV with predominantly African American casts.

They've also had their share of disasters. WB's list includes almost every comedy it made, from "Living With Fran" to "Commando Nanny," which never even made the air. UPN's dishonor role stretches from "Shasta McNasty" to "Homeboys in Outer Space."

But from one narrow viewpoint, here's one big regret, and it involves the WB.

Television critics gather every six months in Los Angeles to meet with network execs, producers and stars, and to talk about shows and the industry. Every time we met with the people from WB, two good things happened.

First, we always got a sense that they were happy to be in show business, and that it mattered to them, at least a little, that there was a grand tradition and a simple joy to uphold.

And when the executives talked to critics about their network or their industry, it was like a master class in television for many of us. The WB execs were smart people. Lots of execs in TV are smart. But they also were thoughtful and willing to share the genuine complexities of the business. It wasn't just hype, it was honest discussion.

So to some of the leaders of the WB who made those press conferences, meetings and otherwise long days valuable and fascinating, to founder Jamie Kellner, to former entertainment presidents Susanne Daniels and Jordan Levine, and to current CEO Garth Ancier, one of the nicest guys in TV and the man who's turning out the lights, know that you were appreciated, and that our readers and TV viewers were better off because of you.

________________________________________

On that subject -- and you probably won't get to watch this -- but as a goodbye, WB on Sunday (starting at 5 p.m.) is offering the pilots of Felicity," "Angel," "Buffy" and "Dawson's Creek." It won't be available in Sacramento because Channel 58, the former WB station here, has already moved on and switched affiliations. It's now part of MyNetworkTV.

And for every viewer who's bothered about missing the Sunday night farewell, you can feel better knowing Channel 58 is suffering more by being stuck with MyNetworkTV programming.

________________________________________

Fans of ABC's goofy and adorable "Dancing With the Stars" will be happy to know the show exploded in the ratings in its first week, drawing more than 20 million viewers for the first round of almost-dancing.

OK, not fair. Some of the people can dance, and I'm saying right here the highlight of the night was -- of all people -- former NFL star Emmitt Smith. Smith was both earnest and charming, traits you don't naturally associate with one of the toughest running backs in NFL history, but there you go.

The fun things about this show include how generally silly the whole notion is -- including that there's no prize for winning except a trophy -- and how seriously some of the celebrity dancers take it.

Not all of them, though. Jerry Springer put a lot in perspective when he told his partner, Kym Johnson, not to worry about how he might look.

"I've made a fool of myself so many times in my life," Springer said, "this will only be a footnote."

http://www.sacbee.com/127/v-print/story/22937.html

fredfa

09-16-06, 07:20 PM

Washington Notebook
Stevens Pushes Dish-DNS Legislation
By Ted Hearn MultiChannel News 9/18/2006

Washington— Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) said legislation might be necessary to ensure that a potential federal court injunction does not cost hundreds of thousands of EchoStar Communications Corp. subscribers their access to ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox broadcast programming.

“I think there has to be something done to assure that these satellite users in rural areas are not going to be left in limbo if EchoStar loses,” Stevens said in a brief exchange with a Multichannel News reporter last Tuesday.

EchoStar is in legal trouble after court rulings found that the direct-broadcast satellite company sold distant network signals to hundreds of thousands of ineligible customers.

According to a Stevens aide, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) two weeks ago quashed an attempt by Stevens and Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) to pass an amendment designed to protect EchoStar customers from a sudden cutoff.

Reid, the aide said, killed the plan because he didn’t want to aid the Walt Disney Co. and hundreds of ABC affiliates at a time when Democrats were angry over ABC’s docudrama The Path to 9/11, which former President Clinton blasted as unfair and inaccurate in depicting his fight against Islamic terrorists. Calls to Reid’s office were not returned.

In a court filing last Tuesday, EchoStar asked for at least 120 business days to comply if ordered by a federal judge to terminate Big Four network programming to more than 800,000 subscribers largely located in rural areas.

EchoStar is facing a sweeping injunction from a federal judge in south Florida that would bar it from selling ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox programming to a class of subscribers who qualify under federal law to purchase imported network signals because local affiliates can’t be viewed with off-air antennas.

News Corp. — which controls DirecTV, EchoStar’s main rival — is insisting that the scope of the injunction should include all four networks. But EchoStar claimed in the court filing that because 95% of network affiliates have settled, any injunction should be narrow, applying just to the delivery of Fox programming in the 25 markets where Fox owns TV stations.

EchoStar told the court it would need at least four months to help consumers find alternatives for receiving network programming, including purchase of a local TV-signal package in the 165 markets where EchoStar makes that option available.

http://www.multichannel.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleid=CA6372815

fredfa

09-16-06, 07:26 PM

The New Season
Networks turn to serials to keep viewers hooked

By Gail Pennington St. Louis Post-Dispatch Television Critic Sunday, Sep. 17 2006

The two most important words in prime time this fall? "Previously on ... ."

Conspiring to keep us glued to our sets, the broadcast networks are loading up
on serialized shows, many with a complex mythology intended to unfold over
years.

Fox's "Vanished" and NBC's "Kidnapped" will take a whole season to solve
abductions and their surrounding mysteries. The truth about the nuclear blast
that isolates tiny Jericho, Kan., will trickle out, week by week, in CBS'
"Jericho." And NBC's "Heroes" might need a lifetime to explain how ordinary
people's special powers could prove vital to the survival of civilization as we
know it.

The quest to come up with the next "Lost" or "24" has given the networks a new,
anything-goes attitude. The result is a fall season full of potential, with an
unusual number of exciting and challenging dramas on the broadcast networks'
schedules.

Many of the best of these new dramas are serialized, from ABC's "The Nine," in
which viewers will slowly learn what happened to hostages during a bank
robbery, to the CW's "Runaway," in which a man framed for murder fights to
clear his name.

More than just the usual copycat syndrome is at work. In part, all of these
continuing story lines reflect the networks' concern over viewers' changing
habits, fueled both by competition and new technologies.

Some people still settle in to watch shows in real time, and some record
multiple episodes on digital video recorders and save them up for marathons.
Others wait for the DVD set to come out and watch a whole season at one gulp.
Still others dip in and out of shows, catching up via Internet recaps or
downloads.

Viewers are likely to be more faithful to a show, the networks hope, if every
episode is an event, promising another piece of a puzzle.

ABC Entertainment president Steve McPherson talks about the need to create
appointment TV, shows that will make viewers with hundreds of choices feel
compelled to tune in every week.

Fox's Peter Liguori, mentioning "American Idol" and "24," aims to "create
eventlike shows, which are of the moment (for) appointment viewing."

He has turned Monday over to serials, calling it Fox's "appointment night."

But there's a catch, as the networks may soon find out.

Only extraordinary - and possibly unemployed - viewers may have enough hours in
a week to keep up with so many serialized shows.

Even more ominously, many members of the core audience for mystery-laden
serials say they feel betrayed by premature cancellations of shows like Fox's
"Reunion" and CBS' "Threshold," yanked from the schedule with no resolution to
the story.

"I think it's very hard to make an investment in serialized dramas," "Law &
Order" creator Dick Wolf told TV critics in July. "When there are this many of
them, most of them won't work."

Some programmers may be in denial about the problem, however. If "Jericho"
doesn't get to the end of the season, CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler
was asked, will the story somehow wrap up?

"Well, hopefully the show will get to the end of the season," she said, adding,
"I don't think audiences make a decision to commit to a show, one way or the
other, based on it being serialized or not. I think it's purely about the
quality of the programming."

"Invasion" on ABC and "Heist" on NBC also ended abruptly last season, their
mysteries unsolved. Only NBC's "Surface" managed to wrap up its story arc
before going down for the third time.

"We did air a final episode" of "Surface," NBC Entertainment president Kevin
Reilly pointed out. "We did not yank that prematurely. And in the case of
'Heist,' although I thought it was very promising, it didn't take, and we wrote
personal letters to the two viewers that were watching."

But seriously, the viewers "are our customers, OK? We take that very seriously,
particularly in this day and age of competition. We don't like (angering) the
customers."

ABC's McPherson acknowledged that the 10 million people who watched "Invasion"
regularly may be upset that they were left hanging when the show wasn't renewed.

"The difficult thing about serials is that a lot of times ... there is a loyal
fan base, however small," he said. "It would be great to be able to close up
all those mysteries when a show just isn't working."

Asked why viewers burned by the handling of "Reunion" should commit themselves
to a new, serialized Fox drama, Liguori said, "I think that's a legitimate
question.

"It's a question that not only we face with 'Vanished' but that the whole
industry is going to be facing this year. Given the proliferation of serialized
shows, I think all of us have to ask the question: What do we do if these shows
don't work? It's not an idea that we like to think about going into a season,
but frankly we do have to have some plans that say: If these shows don't work,
how do we wrap them up? How do we give the audience some satisfaction?"

Fox offered the creator of "Reunion" a chance to conclude the story, which was
intended to unfold in 20 episodes, each representing one year, Liguori said.

"Frankly, it was just too daunting for him," he said. "It was very complicated,
and we understand that."

In the future, "even if we did a conversation with the show runner and the
creator and put that out online and had text on it, I do think the audience
deserves some closure," Liguori said.

Programmers agree that shooting a finale to air online or offer for Internet
download would be too expensive, however.

And nobody selling a new show likes to consider the possibility that it will
fail.

"If the show is successful, it will continue to run, and people will continue
to watch," CBS' Tassler said. "I don't think you'll have those kinds of
questions if you're successful."

Liguori said, "I'm not having conversations at this point about wrap-up
strategy."

But creators of serialized shows for Fox "do understand that they owe their
viewers some kind of conclusion for their shows, and we're going to offer them
many opportunities to do that, be it online, be it other digital platforms."

Having so many serialized shows on the air "raises the bar for how good serials
have to be, because I think people are only going to make an appointment and a
commitment to a certain amount," Liguori said.

Paul T. Scheuring, who created the successful Fox serial "Prison Break," now in
its second season, was frank in offering advice for creators of serials.

"I think the new serialized shows that are coming online here are - they have a
tough row to hoe because it's the flavor of the week right now," he said.
"There's an oversaturation, in my opinion. So my advice would be to write a
serialized show that started filming last year."

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/emaf.nsf/Popup?ReadForm&db=stltoday%5Centertainment%5Ccolumnists.nsf&docid=A3C36F159E131590862571EA00321E57

fredfa

09-16-06, 07:29 PM

TV Notebook
Talk-show host Grace suggests guilt led mom to kill self
By Hal Boedeker The Orlando Sentinel

ORLANDO, Fla. — In her definite and opinionated way, Nancy Grace became part of the Trenton Duckett story again Friday. The CNN Headline News talk-show host defended her tough questioning of the boy's mother, Melinda, shortly before the Leesburg, Fla., woman killed herself Sept. 8.

"I think it happened because Melinda Duckett may very well know where her son was," Grace said in an interview with Chris Cuomo on ABC's "Good Morning America." "She even told her mother, just before she killed herself, 'Trenton's not coming home, Mom. He's not coming home.' How, Chris, would she have known that? If anything, I would suggest guilt caused her to commit suicide."

Jerry Eubank, Melinda's father, said Thursday that the Grace interview "destroyed" his daughter. Melinda was tricked into appearing on the show by producers who told her they just wanted to help find the child, he said. Her funeral was Friday.

"She disintegrated. The show absolutely destroyed her," Eubank said. "No question.

"You don't destroy somebody's life to get ratings."

On "Good Morning America," Grace told Cuomo:

"Today the family is blaming me. And I hate what they're going through, but I would suggest their efforts go toward finding this baby."

Trenton, a 2-year-old who was reported missing Aug. 27, has been a frequent topic for Grace. The former prosecutor first covered the story Aug. 30. Her show featuring Melinda Duckett, 21, was taped Sept. 7 and aired the next night, hours after the mother killed herself. Grace returned to the story every night this week.

Father interviewed

Grace spent the bulk of her show Friday on the case. She questioned the boy's father, Joshua Duckett, 21, who was attending a prayer vigil in Leesburg.

"She covers a case until it's solved," Headline News spokeswoman Janine Iamunno said.

And media attention? "It's not her focus," Iamunno said.

But Grace has drawn sharp criticism for her style.

"I call her insufferable," said Jeff Cohen, author of "Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media." "I don't want to point fingers, but she's quick to do it."

Cohen has appeared as a pundit on MSNBC, Fox News and CNN. He said Grace reflected broadcast news' troubling slide into entertainment.

"We don't know what role the interview played, if any," Cohen said of the suicide. "This isn't entertainment. These are two people [Trenton's parents] who lost a kid. Their lives aren't a TV show. Nancy Grace can't help by interviewing these distraught people. Police and counselors talking to this woman, and the people around her, can do it with sensitivity. Nancy Grace, by remote from TV land, can't see that."

Grace defended herself on "Good Morning America" with the fierceness she displays on her show.

"I did not go after Melinda Duckett," Grace said. "Correction, Melinda Duckett refused to answer questions to either myself or police about her child's whereabouts. It is highly likely he is dead now because of that."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2003261294&zsection_id=2002119662&slug=grace16&date=20060916

fredfa

09-16-06, 08:08 PM

The New Season
Hey, anything worth looking at?
Short answer: There's much to love amid the high-priced pilots.
But holding our attention for a season is a different matter.
By Kate Aurthur Los Angeles Times Staff Writer September 17, 2006

From all appearances, television fans have a lot to look forward to right now. With the start of the fall season, there are an unusual number of great-looking, well-acted, carefully plotted series to choose from. Even with the networks' steady improvement in quality in recent years, this crop seems superlative.

But, jaded speed daters that we are, we'll need to adopt a Buddhist stance and renounce attachment to lower our expectations. Inevitably, more than a few of those intricate plots will unravel, or that character who seemed so clever in Episode 1 will grate horribly four episodes later. Or there will be commitment issues — ours, or the network's.

Commitment is at the heart of the fuss that's been made over the seemingly unsustainable number of serialized action dramas pouring onto television these days. At the semiannual press tour in July, during which television journalists get to grill network executives and the shows' creators, critics were slitty-eyed about all of the serialized shows. Most viewers have only a finite amount of time to devote to watching TV, and it's asking a lot to expect them to tune in to new weekly thrillers when they're already in the thrall of "Lost," "Prison Break" and "24."

A second beef was that fans were burned last season by the unresolved mysteries on canceled series. In Fox's "Reunion," each episode unfurled clues to a murder. On ABC's "Invasion" and CBS' "Threshold," aliens seemed to be taking over the country. (And if memory serves, last we saw NBC's "Surface," sea creatures were getting comfortable in a flooded North Carolina.) How did it all turn out? Who knows?

We loved and we lost, was the message repeated ad nauseam. Why should we get involved again? Of course, there was no good answer to these questions, possibly because a good show is a good show, and attraction isn't always rational.

So the serial flirtation continues. In this trendy category, NBC offers "Kidnapped" and "Heroes"; CBS has "Smith" and "Jericho"; ABC has "The Nine" , "Six Degrees" and "Daybreak"; and the CW gives us "Runaway." Fox has already put out "Vanished" among its late-summer premieres, and the missing-person mystery (not to be confused with "Kidnapped") has done OK despite mixed reviews. Is the next "Lost" in this group? Let's hope.

But if you're looking for a new half-hour comedy, you'll have to look hard this season. With drama rising, the short-form sit-com has dwindled. CBS and the CW have one each, "The Class" and "The Game," respectively. "30 Rock" and "Twenty Good Years" fill out an hour on NBC, and "The Knights of Prosperity" and "Help Me Help You" will span another on ABC. (There were two more on ABC, "Big Day" and "Notes From the Underbelly," but they were pulled from the September premiere schedule: a mystery worthy of another serialized drama in fall 2007?)

And Fox's formulaic "'Til Death" and "Happy Hour" already premiered. Even the pilot episodes looked exhausted, and few people noticed.

Plenty of people noticed "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" (NBC) in the months before the season even began, and everyone will finally be able to see the high-stakes Aaron Sorkin drama Monday night. ABC's "Brothers & Sisters" has been the recipient of a different kind of buzz: the kind that sounds like, "Oh, no, what have we done?" amid cast changes and behind-the-scenes scuffles. ABC might have better luck with "Ugly Betty" , in which the appealing America Ferrera wins over everyone she encounters.

Beyond the new network shows, Showtime gives us the serial-killer-as-hero show "Dexter," Ric Burns looks at the life of Andy Warhol on PBS' "American Masters" this week, and our old prime-time favorites will be back soon. There's also an embarrassment of riches in the world of football as ESPN will broadcast "Monday Night Football" for the first time, and NBC is hoping its Sunday night games will lead it out of the ratings basement.

If none of this sounds appealing, then here's a Hail Mary pass, and if it doesn't work, nothing will: "Meerkat Manor," Season 2, Sept. 29 on Animal Planet.

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-ca-overview17sep17,0,4508255,print.story

humdinger70

09-16-06, 08:52 PM

Anyone notice in the schedule that NBC is NOT rerunning the final episode of last year's Law&Order? The one where Annie Parisse's character (ADA Alexandra Borgia) gets kidnapped and murdered and in the final scene, Jack McCoy gets relieved from a case.

Is NBC afraid of the consequences of that? Does anyone think there will be any mention of it in the upcoming season?

fredfa

09-16-06, 09:03 PM

You would think it would have to be mentioned somehow.

But you never know with these season-ending episodes.

For example: in the first-year finale a year ago of CSI:NY Det. Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise) met and appeared to be ready to go out with a lovely middle-aged woman (Penelope Ann Miller). The final scene left it up in the air if they would date or not. There never was a mention of that storyline -- a core element in the season one finale -- at any time this year.

fredfa

09-16-06, 09:06 PM

By the way humdinger70, CBS is approaching its season premieres very wisely, in my eyes. As best I can tell it ran all their season finales this week as a prelude to next week's premieres.

fredfa

09-16-06, 09:10 PM

And so, while we are on the topic of season finales and cliffhangers.....

The New Season
So, where were we?
For those of you who've been following along, here's a quick brush-up on last season's cliffhangers.
By Maria Elena Fernandez Los Angeles Times Staff Writer September 17, 2006

For those of you who've been following along, here's a quick brush-up on last season's cliffhangers. Missed a swath of a series? There's still time for a DVD binge. Or consider this the total-immersion course and wade right in.

Lost

Locke, why didn't you listen to Mr. Eko and press the button? Jack, Kate, Sawyer: Don't hate the player — hate the game. Michael had no choice but to serve you all up to the Others in exchange for his son, Walt. There's a mysterious woman in the real world looking for Desmond. Did their love affair cause the mayhem of the previous 67 days? And where did Sayid, Jin and Sun end up? As lost as we are? (ABC, 9 PM ET/PT Oct. 4)

Desperate Housewives

Carlos was doing the nasty with the surrogate mom, so it's single- mommy time for Gabrielle. Tom did the nasty a long time ago with a dancer who had his baby, and now Lynette must live with his second family moving into town. Susan moved into a trailer after Edie burned down her house and had planned to propose to Mike — who stood her up because he was busy being hit by a car. Bree escaped from the loony bin to save her daughter, Danielle, from the murdering Matthew. Andrew is still missing in action, after Bree abandoned him. Zach let his grandfather die and inherited his wealth but refuses to help his convict daddy get out of jail. Betty Applewhite … who cares? (ABC, 9 PM ET/PT next Sunday)

CSI

Capt. Jim Brass was shot and pulled through. When we last saw Grissom, he was in bed, wearing a nightshirt, talking to seemingly no one about how he would prefer to die. Sara (yes, Sara!) emerged from the bathroom wearing a robe and told him she wasn't ready to say goodbye. Need we say more? (CBS, 9 PM ET/PT Thursday)

The Office

Dunder-Mifflin converted its warehouse into a gambling hall for Casino Night, and Michael convinced everyone that the boozing and gambling would be in the name of charities such as the Boy Scouts (because they don't sell cookies) or Comic Relief (which doesn't exist) or Afghans with AIDS (which turns out to be Aid for Afghanistan). Michael juggled two women, but the real love triangle brewing involves Pam, her fiancé and Jim, who confused her by professing his love and kissing her. With his tongue. (NBC, 8:30 PM ET/PT Thursday)

My Name Is Earl

Turns out that the guy Earl stole $10 from to buy his winning lottery ticket had tried to steal Earl's lottery ticket a year ago when Earl had been hit by a car. As the man tried to flee the scene, the same car that had hit Earl hit him. His stolen ticket had flown away and landed back in Earl's hands. So Earl got to scratch off item No. 1 from his list: "Stole ten dollars from a guy at the Camden Market" and keep the loot. Karma, you're so sweet! (NBC, 8 PM ET/PT Thursday)

Grey's Anatomy

Seattle Grace had a prom (long story) and Meredith and Derek had a romp (finally!) while their dates waited outside. Cristina and Burke fretted over the possibility that he may not be able to operate again after being shot. Denny died, and so did Izzie's career. Callie said "I love you" and George didn't. (ABC, 9 PM ET/PT Thursday)

How I Met Your Mother

Lily and Marshall broke off their engagement so that she could enroll in a summer art program in San Francisco and find herself … on the same night that Ted and Robin, whom we were told in the pilot is not the One, were getting it on for the first time in her apartment. Nothing makes sense anymore! Say something, Barney! (CBS, 8:30 PM ET/PT Monday)

Battlestar Galactica

President Roslin should have stolen the election. Because when she decided to be all ethical and stuff, the corrupt and mad Gaius Baltar won the presidency and decided to colonize a gross planet, when he wasn't drinking and whoring. That left the remaining human population vulnerable to another Cylon invasion, which happened in the final moments of Season 2. (Sci Fi, 9 PM ET/PT Oct. 6)

Sleeper Cell

The FBI managed to thwart the cell's evil plan to gas Dodger Stadium, and the terrorists Christian and Tommy met their maker. Somehow in all of this brouhaha, Michael's identity as an FBI agent remained intact, so he'll be able to continue his undercover investigation. And Farik, the cell's mastermind, was taken into custody, but you know that's not going to stop him. (Showtime, tentatively beginning Dec. 10)

Rome

As many times as you tell these Caesars to beware the ides of March, they never do listen. All seemed well in the life of Julius C.; the Pompeyan rebellion was dust, his cozy dictatorship was dismantling the Roman republic and he had made his big, cool friend Lucius Vorenus a senator. But then those ides! Caesar's trusted little buddy Brutus joined forces with the sniveling Cassius to take down Caesar in the unkindest cut of all. (HBO, January)

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-ca-update17sep17,0,2817991,print.htmlstory?coll=cl-home-top-blurb-right

fredfa

09-16-06, 09:25 PM

The Business of TV
Now Streaming?
Digital deals

By Staff Broadcasting & Cable9/18/2006

With the fall season set to start, broadcast networks announced a slew of deals to digitally distribute their new shows, both on their Websites and through partners.

ABC reached a deal to allow affiliates to stream primetime shows on their own Websites. The network also has expanded to seven the number of shows it will stream on ABC.com the day after they air and will give away 1 million video downloads of last season’s Desperate Housewives, Lost and Grey’s Anatomy finales on iTunes.

Affiliates now can feature ABC’s newly redesigned broadband player on their own Websites and promote it on-air and online. They also will be able to sell local advertising against it and keep all revenues; this is the first time a network broadband player will carry local ads.

Joining ABC, CBS and Fox, NBC will stream free, ad-supported episodes of its fall shows. NBC is also launching live blogs tied to the premieres of all its new shows, with commentary by creators, producers and cast members.

The network also unveils a larger-screen broadband video player Oct. 1 on NBC.com. The first four episodes of new comedies 30 Rock and Twenty Good Years and the first eight episodes of dramas Kidnapped, Friday Night Lights, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and Heroes will stream on the player the day after they air.

CBS streamed the premieres of Smith, The Class and The New Adventures of Old Christine on Google Video last week, a week before their TV debuts.

Digital distribution of NBC’s Studio 60 and ABC’s The Nine was secured through agreements with Warner Bros., which produces the shows. NBC’s deal allows the network to stream Studio 60 on its sites and those of affiliates, as well as on third-party sites, on-demand and wireless platforms. Warner Bros. retains the rights to paid downloads.

ABC can stream The Nine on ABC.com and retain the advertising revenue, while Warner Bros. will offer paid downloads of the show the day after episodes air.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6372781

fredfa

09-16-06, 10:31 PM

The New Season
It's an all-out serial blitz?
Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends.
Except that sometimes it does.
By Robert Lloyd Los Angeles Times Staff Writer September 17, 2006

Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends. Except that sometimes it does.

The serial, you may have heard, is the order of the day, and, indeed, nearly every new series, drama and comedy alike is invested in the long arc. Careful viewers will have seen it creeping up for quite a while — "Felicity" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "ER," just as examples, were all continuing stories in their way. The difference with many of the new season's shows, in the world remade by "24," is that they posit a mystery whose solution won't be revealed until late in the season. Which means, given the casualty rate in network television, that you will never know how some of these stories were supposed to end.

The pandemic known as "Lost" is also key — its central idea of bringing together a crowd of people and cutting them off, physically or virtually, from the rest of society, is most clearly behind the post-apocalypse drama "Jericho," the post-traumatic-stress drama "The Nine" and the post-human drama "Heroes." But most of the dramas and some of the comedies employ large ensembles, and many deal specifically with the ways that people are thrown together and how they connect or don't. It's a relief from police procedurals, anyway.

As in years past, producers seem to be listening in on one another's lines — many series come with a twin.

A rundown of coming series, based on the look of their pilots:

MONDAY

The Class 8 PM ET/PT CBS

David Crane of "Friends" fame casts his net toward a new generation of urban, white twentysomethings with this fragmented ensemble comedy — all the characters had been in the same third-grade class but meet again at a reunion whose only purpose is to get them to meet again. Some are happy, some are sad, some are confused, some are less confused. Some are funny, some not.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip PM ET/PT NBC

The backstage-at-a-sketch-comedy show that isn't "30 Rock" from Aaron Sorkin, the man who brought you "Sports Night" and "The West Wing" and from whose house style this departs not at all. Big sets, fast talk and a fascination with the life of a workplace are again at the heart of things. Bradley Whitford, making the leap from "West Wing," is paired with Matthew Perry as a producer-writer team hired to adrenalize a moribund "SNL"-lookalike. Timothy Busfield, Amanda Peet and D.L. Hughley are here too, making themselves fun to watch.

TUESDAY

Smith PM ET/PT CBS

The heist series that isn't "Knights of Prosperity." Ray Liotta stars as a master thief with a family at home that includes Virginia Madsen and a gang on the road that includes Simon Baker (who was "The Guardian"), Jonny Lee Miller (from "Trainspotting") and Amy Smart ("Crank") The money's on the screen in the impressively cinematic, suspenseful pilot — and the question that inevitably follows is whether they can keep it up.

WEDNESDAY

Jericho PM ET/PT CBS

The people of a small town in Kansas find themselves cut off from the world when a mushroom cloud appears on the horizon and the radios go out. (That Emergency Broadcast System they've been testing your whole life? Not so good, apparently.) Gerald McRaney, who was "Major Dad," is now Mayor Dad, trying to keep the citizenry from going all Lord of the Flies. Skeet Ulrich is his prodigal son now stuck at home, though with a lot of good-looking women around to keep the apocalypse interesting.

Kidnapped PM ET/PT NBC

The missing person show that isn't "Vanished" (already underway on Fox), set in something that seems closer to the real world. (While there is undoubtedly more here than meets the eye, there is certainly less "more than meets eye" than in some of the season's other mysteries.) An excellent cast, including Timothy Hutton (the rich man whose son is abducted), Dana Delaney (his socialite philanthropist wife), Delroy Lindo (federal agent) and Mykelti Williamson (bodyguard), keeps things lively. Ricky Jay also shows his face.

THURSDAY

Shark PM ET/PT CBS

James Woods is a hot-shot, self-loving defense attorney who, for his sins — freeing the guilty — agrees to train and head a team of special prosecutors in the fictional city of Los Angeles. (Includes Latino mayor.) One could conceivably call it a cross between "My Name Is Earl," "House" and whatever other lawyer show you'd care to name. Woods is his usual self.

Six Degrees PM ET/PT ABC

That a stranger is just a friend (or an enemy) you haven't met yet is the theme of this ode to coincidence, in which half a dozen New Yorkers — including indie film stalwarts Campbell Scott and Hope Davis — go around and around in the big sleepless city intersecting with Dickensian frequency. The feeling is that things happened because they were meant to happen, because they happened. Love, danger and redemption are on the menu in equal parts.

SUNDAY, Sept. 24

Brothers & Sisters PM ET/PT ABC

Noted playwright Jon Robin Baitz created this semi-soapy family drama, whose deeper resemblances to "Knots Landing" and "Falcon Crest" and such are possibly not intentional. Sally Field and Calista Flockhart (as, of all things, a conservative radio show host) are ectomorphically apt as feuding mother and daughter, smiling through gritted teeth; Rachel Griffiths gets to be the plucky, sensible one. Balthazar Getty is one brother of three. Ron Rifkin plays a trusted family advisor not to be trusted.

MONDAY, Sept. 25

Heroes PM ET/PT NBC

A cleverly naturalistic approach to a superhero story, or "X-Men" (well executed) on a TV budget. Ordinary people suddenly find they have special powers — this one can fly, that one can warp space-time, this one sees the future, that one can read your thoughts — in a series Sci Fi Channel partisans might see as something of a retread of "The 4400." Our government appears to be involved, not necessarily in a good way.

Runaway PM ET/PT CW

"Everwood" meets "Prison Break" — a family drama in which everyone might be killed. Donnie Wahlberg, framed for a crime he did not commit, lights out for the territories with his wife and kids to live in a new town under a new name while he tries to crack the code that will save him. Created by Darren Star, far from his "Sex and the City" but a little closer to his "Beverly Hills, 90210" — this show comes with equipped with high school.

TUESDAY, Sept. 26

Help Me Help You PM ET/PT ABC

Ted Danson, hair ever whiter but jaw just as firmly sculpted, crosses two of his TV jobs (bartender, doctor) and comes out a psychiatrist in this one-camera comedy that will remind no one of "The Bob Newhart Show," or at least not for long. A kinder, gentler, wackier "Huff," perhaps? Group therapy takes up much of the half-hour, Danson's own problems (marriage over, daughter dating a man nearly his own age) the rest.

THURSDAY, Sept. 28

Ugly Betty PM ET/PT ABC

America Ferrera ("Real Women Have Curves") plays the title character in this colorful urban fairy tale adapted from a Colombian telenovela — already remade in Israel, Germany, India and Mexico — about an eager but, let's say, not conventionally attractive young woman who becomes assistant to the callow playboy editor of a fashion magazine. Ashley Jensen, from the Ricky Gervais series "Extras," is a fairy godmother figure, Vanessa Williams the evil queen and Eric Mabius the prince charming. Executive producer Salma Hayek has a repeating cameo, in a nurse's outfit.

SUNDAY, Oct. 1

The Game PM ET/PT CW

The gridiron series that isn't "Friday Night Lights." Personable Tia Mowry is spun off from "Girlfriends" into a three-camera American sitcom version of "Footballer's Wives," or if you prefer, a classic newlywed comedy set against the backdrop of sports — except for the being married part. In the traditional way of these things, Mowry can't cook (not even cold cereal). But she is going to medical school. Pooch Hall is her cohabiting football-player boyfriend (not husband).

TUESDAY, Oct. 3

Friday Night Lights PM ET/PT NBC

The gridiron series that isn't "The Game." Small-town Texas high school football gets a high-gloss glamour makeover in a show inspired by the book and movie of the same name. Likable Kyle Chandler is the new head coach under pressure to deliver wins. Connie Britton, quasi-reprising the role she played in the film, is his wife, and they are easy to like. But it's USC football announcers Pete Arbogast and Paul McDonald, delivering the color, who keep it real.

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 4

The Nine PM ET/PT ABC

Impressively mysterious yet staunchly realistic serial in which the unanswered question is: What happened to the eponymous main characters during the 52 hours they were held hostage during a bank robbery gone bad? Nobody's talking, everyone's bonded. Flashbacks and the fullness of time will tell their story, if enough of you watch. Tim Daly, Chi McBride and Scott Wolf are among those whose lives were forever changed.

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 11

30 Rock PM ET/PT NBC

The backstage-at-a-sketch-comedy series that isn't "Studio 60 etc.," written by and starring actual "Saturday Night Live" alumna Tina Fey and named for the actual New York address of actually named NBC. Produced by Lorne Michaels and featuring former "SNL" player Tracy Morgan (as not exactly himself) and frequent "SNL" guest host Alec Baldwin, brilliant as a network executive who gained his position by inventing an oven. Of the two shows, this is the avowed comedy and yet somehow the more lifelike.

Twenty Good Years PM ET/PT NBC

John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor star in an optimistically titled, geriatrically old-school, odd-couple sitcom about a pair of lifelong pals hitting 60 — Lithgow an impulsive surgeon bathed in self-regard, Tambor an indecisive judge — who vow to seize however many days they have left. (Twenty times 365 equals 7,300, and add four for leap years.) See them in their bathing suits!

TUESDAY, Oct. 17

The Knights of Prosperity PM ET/PT ABC

The heist show that isn't "Smith." In this bumptious redistribution-of-wealth comedy, Donal Logue ("Grounded for Life") plays a janitor gathering a pack of fellow tired-of-working stiffs to rob the Park Avenue apartment of Mick Jagger. (Jagger appears in the pilot as himself, showing off his hat collection and kicking soccer balls at his houseboy, though continued participation is in question.)

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 15

Day Break PM ET/PT ABC

Brett Hopper (Taye Diggs) is a detective who wakes up every morning inside the Bill Murray movie "Groundhog Day," reliving the day to get one step closer to preventing the murder of which he's been accused. Just why this should be happening is not in the least clear.

PREMIERES TBA

Big Day ABC

Applies the "24" more-or-less-real-time-strung-out-for-a-season formula to a traditional wedding comedy in which questions usually ironed out far in advance — from the catering to the choice of groom — are raised at the last minute. Object: hilarity, of course. Wendie Malick is the controlling mother of the bride, with Josh Cooke and Marla Sokoloff the potentially happy couple.

Notes from the Underbelly ABC

Yuppies having babies. Director Barry Sonnenfeld brings a modicum of sparkle to a subject one finds fascinating or dreadful, depending on one's own involvement with the process — which the show itself does acknowledge. Rachel Harris and Michael Weaver are the pregnant protagonists, wondering to just what degree their lives will be destroyed by their impending bundle of joy; Jennifer Westfeldt provides caustic correctives.

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-ca-tvlist17sep17,0,4438022,print.htmlstory?coll=cl-tv-features

fredfa

09-16-06, 11:40 PM

TV Notebook
The Whole World Is Watching, and Ben Silverman Is Watching Back
By Bill Carter The New York Times September 17, 2006

On a midsummer evening in 2001 Ben Silverman, an agent with the William Morris talent agency who was in the process of starting up his own television production company, was vacationing in London and staying with a friend. He switched on the television and starting flipping through the channels to an unusual looking show on BBC2.

“It was so outrageous and bizarre,” he said, he found himself laughing uncontrollably. He asked his friend, “What is this thing?”

She told him it was the second episode of a new series some of her friends were already talking about, something called “The Office.” Mr. Silverman made a decision right away: he wanted to bring the show to America. “I just thought that the marriage of the avant-garde with the mainstream produces hits,” he said in a recent interview in New York. “Look at Julie Taymor directing ‘The Lion King.’ Or ‘Batman’ directed by Tim Burton. I just thought this show could live in that space.” So he contacted Ricky Gervais, the comedian who created and starred in the series. Getting an American version of “The Office” on the air turned out to be a long and rocky journey, but when it collected the Emmy Award for best comedy last month, Mr. Silverman’s labors were more than validated. And so was his strategy to import television ideas from across the Atlantic.

“The Office” is really only the most prominent piece of a growing mini-empire of programming that Mr. Silverman, a tall, tanned, always expensively suited 36-year-old Manhattan native, has been building over the past five years. Under the aegis of his production company, Reveille, he has created, produced or packaged an eclectic mix of scripted and reality programs, spread across two broadcast networks, six cable networks and one Internet company.

As the new television season officially begins this week, he will be in charge not only of what is now the most prestigious half-hour sitcom on the air, but also one of the best-regarded new hourlong series, “Ugly Betty” on ABC. He will also produce a third network hour, the reality series “The Biggest Loser,” which anchors NBC’s schedule on Wednesday nights at 8.

Meanwhile Reveille’s expanding cable presence includes “Nashville Star,” the USA Network’s country version of “American Idol”; “30 Days,” the filmmaker Morgan Spurlock’s series of life experiments on F/X; “Blow Out” on Bravo, a “docu-soap” about a Beverly Hills salon; two teen-dating reality show for MTV, “Date My Mom” and “Parental Control”; “The Tudors,” a costume drama mini-series for Showtime; and “House of Boteng,” a new fashion-oriented reality show for the Sundance Channel.

And that’s just television. Mr. Silverman has struck a deal to develop at least 10 Web pilots for MSN, the Microsoft portal and search engine. They will range from specialty cooking shows to 10-minute episodes of sitcoms with titles like “Driving School” and “Airline.”

Those last two neatly fit Mr. Silverman’s vision of the future, one in which programming is marketed directly to advertisers. He plans to ask auto insurers to invest in “Driving School,” and do the same with an air carrier like JetBlue for “Airline.” They would cover production costs, which will be far short of conventional television budgets, in exchange for a percentage of future profits.

“We can offer advertisers exclusives all around the content,” Mr. Silverman said. He has already tried it on television. He said he never tells his writers to build episodes around the advertisers, but when one fits the story line he starts making calls.

So for an episode of “The Office” that featured a business lunch at Chili’s, he struck a special sponsorship deals with that restaurant chain. On another occasion the wireless company Cingular expressed interest in a special marketing campaign. Mr. Silverman noted that one of the show’s main characters, Jim, was going to be in a long-distance relationship with another character, Pam, so naturally “they’re going to be text-messaging each other.”

Mr. Silverman’s Web comedies also tie into the vision that has sustained Mr. Silverman in the past: both of them, along with “The Office,” “Ugly Betty” and numerous other Reveille projects originated in other countries. It has become the signature of his career: just as American television was getting ready to welcome ideas that did not come from offices in Hollywood, Mr. Silverman managed to be in the right place at the right time.

The place was London and the time was the mid-1990’s. Mr. Silverman, then in his mid-20’s, arrived at the British office of William Morris after working for Brandon Tartikoff, the onetime chief programmer for NBC (who died in 1997). He had sent Mr. Silverman, whose mother had worked for years in the New York offices of the BBC, to check out the international television marketplace.

William Morris executives approached him about joining the agency. “They felt there was value overseas is the packaging business, putting international money together with American projects,” Mr. Silverman said. But he felt the real opportunity was in buying up formats for British shows.

All the shows he liked seemed to be made by one production company, Grenada. So he went into action. “I called up the head of Grenada and said, ‘I’m Ben Silverman from William Morris, and I have a way for you to make more money from your shows.’ ”

He helped sell “Cracker,” a character-driven detective series, to ABC. It failed, but he had established his credentials. “This 25-year-old in the Armani suit, who was, like, preaching the devil of Hollywood was suddenly the guy who was leading them to the gold at the end of the rainbow,” Mr. Silverman recalled. “At that same moment, a new kind of television was taking off over there, reality TV.”

British programmers, looking to contain costs, were commissioning shows that did not need writers or actors. They tried prime-time game shows, dating shows and docu-soaps, including one about an airport and another about a driving school.

Mr. Silverman was convinced he had spotted a trend. He started negotiating to represent producers in deals with American television. And he started to ask about future ideas at various networks. That was how he heard about a show in development at the ITV network called “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” He was sold. “The title to me was so American,” he said. “How could that not play in our marketplace? That is our marketplace.”

He was only tangentially involved in bringing that show to ABC, but the move was critical. “That opened the floodgates,” he said. Soon “Survivor” was sold to CBS. NBC bought “The Weakest Link” and “Dog Eat Dog.” Mr. Silverman was in the middle of much of a British television invasion.

Around that time, as William Morris brought him to New York, a colleague asked him what he thought of telenovelas, the Spanish-language staple. Mr. Silverman was interested, especially after he heard the details of a telenovela in Colombia called “Yo Soy Betty la Fea” (“I Am Betty the Ugly”). He called NBC and soon had a deal. But when NBC tried developing the show as a sitcom, he said, “it lost all its heart.”

Two years later, after he started Reveille, Mr. Silverman learned that NBC no longer controlled the American rights, so he pounced. He invited the actress Salma Hayek to join as a producer, then brought in new writers to redo the show more in its original form, as a funny soap opera.

It was about the same time that Mr. Silverman began to try to sell the idea of “The Office” to American networks. He had made his first crucial move already, signing Greg Daniels, a writer with both “The Simpsons” and “King of the Hill” on his résumé, to be the creative head of the American adaptation. And Mr. Silverman had further secured Reveille’s reputation by securing the American rights to another British sitcom, “Coupling,” which NBC scheduled for Thursday nights at 9:30, just before “E.R.”

“Coupling” became one of the most conspicuous flops of the 2003 fall season. Fortunately for Mr. Silverman, he found a champion in Kevin Reilly, then a programmer at NBC. Mr. Reilly liked “The Office,” and had a strong opinion about who should star: Paul Giamatti. But he declined.

“We knew we had a formidable casting challenge,” Mr. Silverman said. Martin Short, Hank Azaria and Bob Odenkirk, who had co-starred in “Mr. Show” on HBO, all expressed interest. But Stacey Snider, chairwoman of Universal Pictures, urged Mr. Silverman to sign Steve Carell, who was coming off a successful stint on “The Daily Show.”

At first “The Office” made its debut with six episodes in the spring of 2005. Ratings were decidedly marginal, so much so that NBC ordered only six new episodes for the fall. But no one anticipated that Mr. Carell’s career was about to explode thanks to a movie he had written and starred in for Universal called “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.” Paired with a new hit, “My Name Is Earl,” and fueled by fans downloading episodes on the Internet, “The Office” eventually changed everyone’s minds.

“Now I say, ‘If you want to call anyone about how I work,’ ” Mr. Silverman says, “ ‘call Ricky Gervais.’ ”

Mr. Gervais, in an e-mail message from London, said: “I’d never heard of Ben Silverman before he tracked me down. His energy and knowledge about ‘The Office’ impressed me.” He and his partner in creating the show, Stephen Merchant, met with Mr. Silverman and Mr. Daniels in a conference room at the Groucho Club in London and together wrote what is known in television as the American adaptation’s “bible.” “Ben Silverman delivered, and I can’t recommend him enough. He is enthusiastic and honest and above all gets results.”

The American adaptation “just keeps getting better and bigger,” Mr. Gervais said. “Every one could’ve panicked and watered it down, but they didn’t.” His only complaint regards the main character: “I knew they’d choose a Brent with better teeth, though. But you can’t have everything.”

In any case you don’t really have to call Ricky Gervais: Mr. Silverman, who markets himself and his programs with the same energy, is happy to testify on his own behalf. “We have the best pilot-to-series ratio in television history,” he said, adding, “It’s spin, I know, but I’m all about pushing Ben right now.”

Part of his success lies in his intuition about which foreign series can play well here. As the television-addicted son of parents who worked in theater and avant-garde music, he says he views art as “a visceral thing.” So when he watches new programs, he explained, “for me it comes down to, do I feel it?”

That intuition has clearly paid off. “If you do a word association,” says Kevin Reilly, who now runs NBC’s entertainment division, “it would come out: Ben equals salesman. But he’s smart and energetic, and he’s proved he can deliver as a producer. There used to be a tradition of the scrappy independent producer in television. Now Ben is one of the few out there.”

Last spring ABC ordered up “Ugly Betty,” and after hearing the critics’ praise, moved the show to the high-profile slot of Thursday nights at 8. Which means that, to Mr. Silverman’s consternation, its second half hour will be squarely in competition with “The Office.”

It’s a nice problem to have of course and one he looks likely to encounter many more times. He recently acquired the rights to yet another unusual British comedy, “I’m With Stupid,” a tale of the strange partnership of a homeless man and a young guy with cerebral palsy. Mr. Silverman said he has begun discussions with the Farrelly brothers (“Dumb and Dumber,” “There’s Something About Mary”) to help create the American version.

But the next show to watch from Mr. Silverman is likely to be a comedy that he found in Australia, again thanks to the many contacts he made during his sojourn in England. A hit comedy about a blue-collar mother-daughter pair, currently on the Sundance Channel, it’s called “Kath & Kim,” and Mr. Silverman describes it as “ ‘Roseanne’ meets ‘Ab Fab.’ ”

Among other productions Mr. Silverman has already lined up is a mini-series about the young life of Henry VIII (“the sexy guy, no chicken drumsticks in sight,” Mr. Silverman said) starring Jonathan Rhys-Meyers. Then there is “Menudo,” a show he will produce next year for MTV about the effort to put together a new version of the famous Hispanic boy group.

He also has plans for an interactive game show. As for those 10-minute sitcoms on MSN, if any of them shows signs of life, Mr. Silverman may turn them into full-length TV shows. “We want to be a platform-agnostic, distribution-agnostic content engine.”

He sounds like someone well on the way to high-definition moguldom, though even that is not his ultimate destination. Given the right amount of success, and, yes, money, in the next decade or so, Mr. Silverman said, he would like to set his sights on a new career.

“I want to go into public service,” he said. “I want to do something where my skills would be useful, maybe chief marketing officer for America.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/17/arts/television/17cart.html?ref=television&pagewanted=print

fredfa

09-16-06, 11:43 PM

The New Season
Ugly Never Looked So Good
The international success of 'Ugly Betty,' a telenovela with an uncomely heroine, is driving interest in Colombia's TV industry.
By Chris Kraul Los Angeles Times Staff Writer September 16, 2006

BOGOTA, Colombia — Tip your sombrero, Juan Valdez, to Colombia's next cultural icon: Ugly Betty.

When the English-language telenovela about the fashion-challenged character premieres on ABC prime time this month, it will vault the Colombian broadcast industry into the middle of U.S. pop culture.

The global success of the Betty character, which first appeared here seven years ago, launched Colombia as a major force in telenovelas, as soap operas are called in Spanish.

"Yo Soy Betty, la Fea," or "I Am Betty, the Ugly," has been broadcast in 13 languages and 74 countries. It has led to the development of a Colombian genre of telenovela combining humor and offbeat plots that contrast with the dominant Mexican soaps, which rely more on a familiar set of plots with racial and class overtones, analysts say.

Colombian studios are now churning out a dozen telenovelas annually, most of which readily find audiences in countries as far away as Russia, South Africa, China and the Czech Republic.

"It's a reversal of U.S. cultural imperialism," said Felix Gutierrez, a professor at USC's Annenberg journalism school who specializes in Latino media.

In the 1990s, it was difficult for the few soaps produced here to reach foreign audiences. Now, the industry accounts for hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in export revenue. Much of the credit, industry executives say, goes to Betty, the irrepressibly romantic fashion house assistant, for making U.S. and other foreign broadcasters regard Colombian programming.

"Betty" is the story of an intelligent but painfully unattractive young Latina who struggles to fit in at a glamour magazine.

"Ugly Betty" will be seen in the U.S. on Sept. 28 in a series co-produced by actress Salma Hayek. Television executives here who have seen it say it is faithful to the original.

"It will be like my Oscar to see Betty shown on American TV, an industry with the highest standards in the world with programs like 'The Sopranos,' 'Lost' and 'Six Feet Under,' " said Betty's creator, Fernando Gaitan, 45, a former newspaper reporter. "It's the maximum recognition a writer can receive, for me and for my character."

Betty is no stranger to some viewers in the U.S. Sky-high ratings in Colombia led to her acquisition by Telemundo, the No. 2 U.S. Spanish-language network, where she had a spectacular run.

"She was our highest-rated program of the 2000-01 season," said James M. McNamara, then president of Telemundo and now chairman of Miami-based Panamax Films. "At the time, our network was getting killed every day and Betty helped put us on the map."

Shortly after, Telemundo signed a production agreement with Caracol, one of three main producers here, the first by a U.S. network with a Colombian studio. Similar deals signed afterward by the other main Colombian studios, RCN and RTI, jump-started the industry.

The Latino programming market is dominated by Mexico's broadcast giant Televisa, which supplies the majority of prime-time soaps to Univision, the No. 1 U.S. Spanish-language network. Televisa owns 13% of Univision and has a long-term deal to give Univision first call on all its programs.

But the Colombians are catching up. RTI, which formed a production partnership with Telemundo in 2003, may produce nine telenovelas this year in its Bogota, Mexico City and Miami studios, up from three programs in 2003, said Patricio Wills, president of RTI and head of production for Telemundo Studios.

"What we have going for us is that we are something different from Mexico, a different way, with a little more humor, of telling the same love story, of adding a little additional sauce to the recipe," Wills said in a telephone interview from Miami.

Univision, which controls about two-thirds of the Spanish-speaking U.S. TV audience, this year will broadcast five Colombian soaps, up from just two last year, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Colombia now is second to Mexico as a provider of prime-time telenovelas to U.S. networks, ahead of Brazil and Venezuela.

Colombia's television industry has been helped by the growth in prime-time Latino audiences and the U.S. media outlets that are geared to them. Total ad revenues in the top Spanish-language networks, Univision, Telemundo, TeleFutura and TV Azteca, are estimated at $1.8 billion a year, up 8% from last year.

That compares with "very flat, zero growth" in U.S. English-language networks, said Phil Remek, senior equity analyst with Miami-based Guzman & Co., a securities firm.

Although many viewers may be tired of the plots of Mexican soaps, those story lines still dominate the market, resonating with viewers of Mexican ancestry who account for 60% of all U.S. Latinos.

But Colombian programming has the advantage of costing as much as 20% less to produce than Mexican shows, according to Gaitan, who now writes and produces soaps. He sees Colombia becoming a "maquiladora," or a factory, for programming production for channels around the world.

The Colombian industry owes its growth partly to quotas against foreign programming. In 1998, Colombia's two state-owned TV stations were privatized.

The stations' new owners, RCN and Caracol, were immediately faced with the problem of filling a day's worth of broadcast time instead of the few hours of programming they supplied to the networks.

The channels had to ramp up production overnight because Colombian law forbade them from putting foreign-produced programming on prime time and allowed only 30% of it during the entire day.

In business since 1963, the production house RTI moved to Miami to supply stations throughout the Latin world. Now the Telemundo-RTI partnership produces shows that typically premiere first on Telemundo and then are exported to Colombia and other countries.

But some in the industry warn that Colombian television executives need to be cautious as the rapid growth in the U.S. Spanish-language broadcast market may have peaked.

Guzman & Co.'s Remek notes that although Latino TV ad revenues are growing at a healthy rate, they have fallen to single-digit growth from double digits a few years ago.

The leveling off is caused by the fact that luxury brands don't advertise on Latino channels because as their audience becomes more affluent, it migrates to English-language channels, Remek said.

"They may be close to saturation in the ad dollars they can attract," he said of Spanish-language channels. "Upscale-oriented advertisers like Merrill Lynch or Lexus don't go there."

Colombian studios are bracing for more competition on their home turf in 2008, when the 10-year government-supported duopoly of RCN and Caracol ends. A third station will be licensed to the highest bidder, and the rumor is that Televisa will build a station and studio, which could stiffen competition.

Terms of a free-trade agreement being negotiated by the U.S. and Colombia may call for the market here to open up even more.

Gaitan said that despite the changes, Colombia would thrive because of its talent and low costs.

"Colombia's constant innovation in often difficult circumstances is what always awakens interest from outside," he said.

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-fi-betty16sep16,0,1945293,print.story?coll=cl-tvent

fredfa

09-17-06, 01:55 AM

The New Season
Sunday Night’s Season Premiere

The Amazing Race 10 8:30 PM ET/PT CBS (90-minute premiere)

fredfa

09-17-06, 12:08 PM

The New Season
TV takes dramatic turn for fall season
Cinematic style, technical advances - out of 16 new dramas, not a loser in this dazzling broadcast lineup.
By Jonathan Storm Philadelphia Inquirer Television Critic Sun, Sep. 17, 2006

Television drama has reached a critical mass of excellence this fall. It has never looked so good.

For the first time ever, the five broadcast networks have introduced not a single unwatchable drama.

That's from a total of 16 new dramas, an amazing feat for broadcasters who have always thrown a handful of rotten tomatoes into the seasonal salad of new programming.

The new shows may not include a Lost, with its stylish, nonlinear storytelling, nor a CSI, with its scintillating micro-animation, nor a 24, with its rousing special effects and complex, multiscreen editing - though some come close.

But broadcast TV, which unlike cable channels can't scrape by with just two or three original programs a week, has built on the success of those series and others. It has created a dramatic lineup that dazzles the eyes throughout the week, even if it doesn't always get through to the brain.

How did the Wasteland get so beautiful?

Crews have become increasingly creative and sophisticated. New technology helps them accomplish previously unheard-of feats and changes in the industry have allowed studios and networks to pay for it all.

Some of the results:

On NBC's Heroes, viewers can see - and almost smell - a man will himself to move in an instant from Tokyo to New York, a researcher make his way through the teeming streets of a city in India, and a cheerleader plunge into a burning building in the wilds of West Texas and emerge unscathed.

On ABC's The Nine, SWAT officers extract a horde of hostages from a bank robbery in an extravagant street scene. For the rest of the series, their stories, and that of the robbery, are told through a complex combination of flashbacks.

On CBS's Smith, a crack team of thieves gathers from all over the country to pull off a caper that involves as much suspense, and as many crafty camera angles, as the 1995 Robert De Niro and Al Pacino thriller Heat.

"More and more, I hear from our creative teams, 'Doing this show is like doing a little feature [film] each week,' " said Barry Jossen, executive vice president of production for Touchstone Television, which produces such dramas as Lost and Desperate Housewives.

The most important aspects of any drama remain character and story. And they remain elusive, with perhaps three new series - ABC's The Nine and Ugly Betty, and NBC's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip - looking as if they could rival established top dramas.

Unlike first-rank shows such as CSI or the departed The West Wing, which combine striking visuals and sound with top-drawer scripts, Smith, Heroes and many other new shows this season don't look as if they have the writing to match their movie-production look. But they could get by, as ABC's Alias did for much of its five years, on style alone.

The creative bar has risen because of such series as The West Wing, Alias, CSI, Lost, CSI and 24, which TV executives describe as "game changers." If you don't come up with something that looks at least a little like them, you haven't got a prayer.

For moving the chains, different studios give credit to their boys and their shows, including Jerry Bruckheimer (CSI), Brian Grazer (24) - both of whom were big-time movie producers before going into TV - and director Thomas Schlamme (The West Wing).

Almost everybody mentions J.J. Abrams, creator, executive producer, director - and, occasionally, even music composer - whose credits include Felicity, Alias and Lost.

"Felicity and Alias really changed the landscape," said Eric Kripke, creator and executive producer of the CW's Supernatural. "There were not a lot of shows with an intensely cinematic feel before them. I'm not sure anyone considered it possible."

The leaders are important, but, across the board, they acknowledge the ever-growing expertise of cameramen, lighting technicians, editors and set designers. The first words out of the mouth of Gary Newman, president of 20th Century Fox Television, in a telephone interview: "Credit the people who are on the line... . The level of work that these incredibly skilled people have achieved is phenomenal."

Studios can afford to produce better shows, and networks buy them, for a variety of reasons, including changes in network schedules; cable-channel, international and DVD demand; more sophisticated budgeting and cost estimating; and improved technology.

Wages and just about all production costs have risen over the years, but the rise in on-screen quality has far outstripped TV prices, which start at about $2.3 million per episode for a first-year show on a big four network, compared with about $2 million five years ago.

Reality shows, to a small extent, have helped networks keep up with rising costs. Reality isn't as cheap as it used to be (see Survivor), but it's a safe bet that the savings on Deal or No Deal provided NBC a few extra dollars to pay for what is thought to be the season's most expensive new series, Aaron Sorkin's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, perhaps the only one topping $3 million per episode.

Like the networks these days, the studios seek to have what Newman called "a portfolio of shows. You need to have some that are built in the way that risks aren't quite as great."

TV's new Saturday night - rerun central - also underwrites more expensive shows. Networks can give procedural dramas, and even some serials such as Lost, extra play, and take in more ad money for no charge.

Studio 60 actually isn't NBC's. It belongs to Warner Bros., the studio that produces, among others, Without a Trace for CBS and The Nine, a new ABC drama this season whose buzz is almost equal to that of Studio 60.

Networks rent series from the studios that make them, paying 30 to 75 percent of the actual cost of the show.

Generally, studios gamble that they can not only make up the difference between the cost of a show and the network licensing fee, but also every now and then make a huge killing afterward.

It used to be that syndicating a second-run show, selling it individually to local TV stations, was the studios' only potential golden goose. The system favored comedies. But now, cable networks are eager buyers of dramas, and there are other ways studios can make money on them, ways that actually encourage more costly quality.

First came DVD sales, sometimes before a show's run on a TV network was barely finished. "We could never spend the kind of money we spend on Prison Break and 24 if we didn't have healthy home-entertainment sales," Newman said.

DVD sales have cooled, but the international market has heated up behind such shows as Lost, 24 and Desperate Housewives. To get noticed overseas, a new series may need a little more pop than normal.

"If it's a show that's going to have big international appeal, it's probably worth spending a little more money on your pilot," Newman said.

And that brings us to a little secret. First episodes almost always push the bottom line, but not every episode of a blockbuster series busts the block. Sometimes, Jack Bauer just hangs out.

Even within episodes, there are some big-money, big-impact scenes that set an overall tone, surrounded by small ones that save money and, if they are well-written, really help in those all-important areas of character and story.

"The best and most compelling storytelling in television is two people talking over tea cups," Touchstone's Jossen said. "If we provide good drama, it enables us to be very smart about how we spend our money with the big 'wow' moments that provide energy."

Technical advances, especially in special effects and editing, have also made a difference. Alias' secret agent Sydney Bristow circled the globe, but the production left Southern California only once, and frequently never even left the studio.

"Technology that was literally nonexistent seven to 10 years ago enables us to place a character or characters anywhere in the world, day or night," Jossen said.

The time allotted to edit a TV drama hasn't changed, but digital equipment allows editors to make a much greater number of choices in that time. Their creativity and refinements may have more impact on the look of a show than any other segment of production. They can now also work with multiple layers of sound, adding a feature-film feel to television - even if it does, sometimes maddeningly, obscure the actual dialogue.

Computers have helped on the money side, too.

"Software and historical data have helped us develop an enormous sophistication in our ability to estimate," Jossen said. "That helps us to make much more informed [financial] decisions on how to achieve what's called for creatively in the script."

The script remains the thing. "If it isn't on the page, it isn't on the stage," goes the adage. But on TV in 2006, so many things are piled up in the wings, the viewers may not notice.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/entertainment/television//15536053.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

RussTC3

09-17-06, 12:22 PM

fredfa

09-17-06, 12:31 PM

The New Season
Fall TV season full of twisty, serialized shows
By Kevin D. Thompson Palm Beach Post Television Writer Sunday, September 17, 2006

The message of the new TV season is clear: Pay attention.

With the fall season officially starting Monday, the networks might as well take out a full-page ad:

Wanted: Devoted TV watchers who love twisty mysteries that aren't solved in 60 minutes. Must be willing to commit to a show that won't be easy to follow. The ability to focus is essential.

Capitalizing on the success of 24 and Lost, the networks' biggest trend this fall is offering up even more complex serialized dramas that will demand your undivided attention and possibly force your TiVos into overdrive.

The upcoming season is one of the most promising in recent memory as the networks roll out an intriguing mix of serialized shows ranging from juicy murder mysteries to sharply-written dramas about the frantic backstage doings at a late-night sketch show.

Consider:

• A wealthy New York City kid is snatched and everyone's a suspect on NBC's Kidnapped.

• Nine strangers' lives are changed forever after a 52-hour bank robbery goes bad on ABC's The Nine.

• A group of ordinary people suddenly discover they have superpowers on NBC's Heroes.

• A small Kansas town is plunged into chaos when a nuclear mushroom cloud appears on the horizon on CBS' Jericho.

• A man framed for murder goes on the lam with his family on The CW's Runaway.

• A senator's wife is missing and could be the victim of a centuries-old conspiracy on Fox's Vanished.

• A Saturday Night Live-like variety show is run by two drug-addicted producers on NBC's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

• A group of strangers cross paths in mysterious ways on ABC's Six Degrees.

Even comedy is getting in on the action. ABC's Big Day and Notes from the Underbelly (both scheduled to debut in November) plan to follow a couple's wedding day and pregnancy over the course of a season.

It's no mystery why the networks are more eager to gamble on a genre that didn't totally succeed when they tried it last season.

The reason? The success of such densely plotted shows as 24, Lost, Prison Break, Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives. The networks now know enough viewers don't mind watching shows in which knotty stories aren't neatly tied up in an hour like they are on the Law & Orders and CSIs of the TV universe.

Network bean counters also learned that serialized shows sell well on DVD. Many 24 fans, for instance, got hooked on Fox's thrilling drama after watching the first season on DVD. The show's fifth season was 24's highest rated ever.

And when it comes to money, the industry takes notice.

Dramas that don't have season-long storylines are "a tough assignment right now," says Stephen McPherson, president of ABC Entertainment. "They've been played out."

Still, it's not a slam-dunk. Such eerie serialized dramas as Invasion, Threshold, Surface and The Night Stalker were handed premature cancellation notices last season because they couldn't scare up big ratings.

What annoys viewers and turns TV lovers into irate bloggers is when a serial drama is canceled before the mystery is solved. Viewers hate being left in the dark after forming an emotional bond with a show and its characters.

"We don't like (ticking) off the customers," admits Kevin Reilly, NBC's entertainment president. "I get the e-mails. I wake up in the morning and get, 'Dear Moron.' "

When Fox axed Reunion last year, fans were livid. The series was about a group of close-knit high school friends who reunited 20 years later after one of them was brutally murdered. But thanks to Fox's early pink slip, viewers never found out who killed Samantha or why.

"We did offer (the show's creator) the opportunity to wrap up Reunion," says Peter Liguori, Fox's entertainment president, "but, quite frankly, it was too daunting for him."

Well, that's Fox's side of the story. But viewers who have been burned too much in the past might not get attached to such shows in the future.

"I do think the audience deserves some closure," Liguori acknowledges. "As an industry, I think we all have to start thinking about that because if some of these serialized shows are canceled and there's no explanation, there's no satisfaction... will audiences be gun-shy about committing to these shows?"

Liguori points out there are other "digital platforms" where producers can wrap-up stories when a show is canceled. After NBC axed The Book of Daniel, its controversial drama about an unconventional Episcopalian priest, the network aired the remaining episodes on its Web site. And now there's such avenues as streaming video and iTunes.

But Nina Tassler, CBS' entertainment president, doesn't understand the fuss over serialized shows.

"I don't think audiences make a decision to commit to a show one way or the other based on it being serialized or not," she says. "I don't think the average viewer sits at home and says, 'Gee, this is a close-ended episode. I'll watch this' versus 'Oh, this is a serialized show. I'm going to watch that.' You watch a program because it's good, you're invested and you like it. That's it."

While the success of Lost is heavily influencing what's airing this fall, Donnie Wahlberg doesn't want anyone comparing his show Runaway, with ABC's monster hit.

"Our show is much more of a classic serialized show," says Wahlberg, who plays a defense attorney accused of murdering his mistress. "A lot of the new shows don't have answers. It's going into season three on Lost and nobody knows what's going on yet. I don't think this show really fits into that pocket."

Most TV writers and producers say they love writing serials because it gives them freedom that a just-the-facts-ma'am Law & Order episode simply doesn't.

"It's an excellent way to tell stories and to really explore characters," says Jason Smilovic, a Kidnapped executive producer.

It also takes planning.

Anyone who has watched 24 or Lost can tell when the writers are stumped or have written themselves into a corner or are, quite frankly, making up the stories as they go along.

Remember Kim's mountain lion sighting and Teri's amnesia on 24? Or the endless Lost flashbacks that took the story nowhere while the writers stalled for time?

"It's the impression one gets from watching other serialized shows that if you torture the writers, they couldn't really give away the final secret because they don't know what it is yet," says Ed Zuckerman, one of Runaway's executive producers. "We don't want to be in that position. I mean, the greatest historical example is Twin Peaks where they got lost after a season and half. We know where we're going."

But the actors don't.

"I know nothing," actress Dana Delany said when asked about her character on Kidnapped, who may or may not be up to no good. "I personally like not knowing. It makes it more fun for me because in life, we don't always know. I like being surprised."

One of the biggest drawbacks of serials is that viewers often feel lost when they miss a few episodes. Producers say while they want their shows to be complex, they also want them to be accessible to the casual fan who doesn't care when the aliens are going to land.

ABC's Six Degrees is about six Manhattanites who unknowingly affect each other's lives. But the producers stress that potential viewers shouldn't be intimidated by the Lost-like concept.

"You'll be able to check in every week and feel like you are very much a part of the show," says co-creator Stuart Zicherman. "There's not some greater mythology you need to follow."

Says John Wells, who's executive producing Smith, a promising new CBS drama starring Ray Liotta as a criminal mastermind: "You want to involve your frequent viewer and you don't want to push away your infrequent viewer. We spend a lot of time talking about it. We lay the entire season out on a big board."

But none of that really matters if viewers don't watch. And that goes for any show — serialized, standardized or homogenized.

"You want to be involved in something that's going to make people think," says Gerald McRaney, who plays a small town mayor in the nuclear holocaust drama Jericho, "as opposed to being in something that's going to make people go to sleep."

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/tv/content/entertainment/arts_entertainment/epaper/2006/09/17/a6j_featv_dramas_0917.html

fredfa

09-17-06, 12:42 PM

The New Season
Mondays Get a Boost From Classy Shows
By Susan Young Oakland Tribune

"Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" 10 PM ET/PT Monday NBC

I’ve already committed to a relationship with Danny, Matt and Harriet.

I can hardly wait to see how Cal, Jack and Simon will spice things up in the future.

And the jury is still out on Jordan.

Welcome to the behind-the-scenes world at a fictional network late-night sketch comedy show — a world I've chosen to inhabit for as long as it graces the airwaves.

Phenomenal scribe Aaron Sorkin ("Sports Night," "The West Wing," "A Few Good Men") has once again teamed with his directing partner Thomas Schlamme to produce a series that's almost too good to be believed.

Sorkin's dialogue is the smart, snappy stuff we always wish would come out of our own mouths, yet seldom does. Through his characters, he conveys to viewers he will never talk down to them as if they were a group of kindergarteners being coached about not sticking their fingers up their noses.

Sorkin's known for putting on more layers than a Southern

belle's ball gown. His rapid-fire dialogue allows him to pack a lot of lines in a limited amount of time. After watching this Sorkin show, we suddenly feel like we've gained several IQ points and could hang out with Dorothy Parker on her best day.

The ensemble series takes a thinly veiled look at the inside workings of "Saturday Night Live." But, just as Sorkin's series "The West Wing" was more about characters and issues than it was about life inside the Beltway, this clever show gives us a peek at creative people whose minds never get stuck in neutral.

The Hollywood insider stuff just sprinkles it with additional glitter.

The fetching Amanda Peet ("Syriana") plays new network entertainment chief Jordan McDeere (for real TV junkies, this character is based on former ABC honchette Jamie Tarses, who used to go by married surname McDermott). Her first day on the job has her dealing with a "Network"-style meltdown by the show's producer (Judd Hirsch), who takes over the live broadcast of the show to tell viewers how the networks are kowtowing to special interest groups. Now the once razor-sharp show is reduced to a dull toy.

We like Jordan and the way she stands up to the network heavyweight Jack, played impeccably by Steven Weber. We like control room editor Cal (the always amazing Timothy Busfield), and the way he puts his job on the line to do what is right. We like D.L. Hughley as the show's headliner and the way he takes his comedy seriously.

But the real love affair begins when we see main characters Danny (Bradley Whitford) and Matt (Matthew Perry), the returning producers of the show.

Danny is Schlamme and Matt is Sorkin.

Except in this screen version, Danny's the one with the drug problem.

Sorkin's battle with drugs has made front page news, especially his famous bust at the Burbank airport. He weaves his own personal demons into Danny and Matt in a way that's both hilarious and poignant. Don't expect Sorkin to shoot for the cheap below-the-belt shots. It's all on a much higher level.

Sarah Paulson blows the walls off the room with her portrayal of Matt's former girlfriend Harriet, a Christian with a wicked sense of humor who is a major star on the show. Harriet is loosely based on former "West Wing" star Kristin Chenoweth.

Sorkin loves the art of conversation. He loves writers — and writers, especially TV critics, usually have a strong fondness for Sorkin. He loves putting their names in his shows, giving a little nod to them. He loves chatting with them at parties, making them feel as if he's sharing stories only with them. And he's very good at making middle-age women feel like they rock his world.

But we especially like the fact that Sorkin never lets us down when it comes to delivering the best.

"The Class"

8 PM ET/PT Monday CBS

Just when we thought we could never laugh again — at least during a comedy pilot this fall — along comes one of the freshest breaths of comedy air we've felt in what seems like decades.

Although it's probably only since we started screening close to 30 new network shows this fall.

The idea came when writing/life partners Jeffrey Klarik and "Friends" co-creator David Crane were cleaning out their basement last year and came across some boxes.

"There were all these big huge boxes of crap from the past," Klarik says. "In one of the boxes there was a bunch of these pictures from David's third-grade class. We started looking at them, and I said, 'Who is that nerdy kid?'"

And Crane admitted it was him.

They started pondering what had become of all these smiling kids. How did their lives turn out. And the idea of "The Class" was born.

Jason Ritter plays Ethan, the too-attentive boyfriend who reconnects with a third-grade classmate and begins a relationship. He decides to throw her a party celebrating their time together with members of their third-grade class.

And that's when things go fantastically funny.

He phones Richie Velch (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) right before Richie is about to commit suicide. No, he has no plans and would love to go to the party. Then there's the delicious cynic Kat (Lizzy Caplan) and her sister Lina (Heather Goldenhersh). Lina just caught her boyfriend in bed with someone else and is ready to move on to another relationship. Perhaps with the gorgeous Kyle Lendo.

Holly Ellenbogen (Lucy Punch) also wants to connect with Kyle, to show him she's very happy and adjusted. And totally over the fact that she caught him having sex with a guy from his Spanish class on their prom night — when she believed the two would finally consummate their relationship.

Kyle (Sean Maguire) is now in a strong relationship with the impossibly beautiful Aaron (Cristian de la Fuente). He goes to make amends to Holly, and can't get over that she's married Perry Pearl (Sam Harris).

Perhaps the only two people in the world who believe Perry is a straight man are Holly and Perry. And perhaps their daughter Oprah, named after Perry's favorite show.

One of the weaker links in the show is the triangle of Duncan (Jon Bernthal), Nicole (Andrea Anders) and Yonk (David Keith). Duncan and Nicole were high school sweethearts who broke up. He's still living with his mother and she's married to Yonk, the self-absorbed former NFL star who is old enough to be her dad.

Ethan and Cat have cracking good chemistry, enough to make them the main focus of the show. And the relationship between Lina and Richie gave more laughs per half-hour than every other fall comedy combined.

"Amazing Race" 8:30 PM ET/PT tonight (90-minute special) CBS

"We may never see the likes of Tyler and B.J. again," jokes "Amazing Race" host Phil Keoghan of Woodside's Tyler MacNiven and B.J. Averell, his race partner from L.A. "But I think you'll like Erwin and Godwin Cho."

Erwin, who lives in Berkeley with significant other Ayumi Cox, teams up tonight with his brother Godwin of San Francisco in the new season of the Emmy-winning globe-trotting funfest known as "The Amazing Race."

Keoghan says that Godwin, 29, a financial analyst, tries to get out from under the shadow of his Harvard-educated brother Erwin, 32, an insurance company manager.

Cox says she and Erwin have been watching the show for years and have often talked about doing it together. Instead, it was Godwin and Erwin who got the call. But she isn't bitter.

"They have always been very close and this is an opportunity for them to be closer, even with the pressure and challenges," Cox says. "They worked out a lot, and they put a lot into their pack strategy."

Each contestant packs his own backpack. Since the two have traveled extensively, they knew how to pack to get the most coverage and the lightest weight.

"They are both very funny and charming and Erwin can talk to anybody," Cox says. "Godwin's fairly fearless, but Erwin's major weakness is his fear of heights. Heights are not his friend."

http://www.insidebayarea.com/portlet/article/html/fragments/print_article.jsp?article=4352606

fredfa

09-17-06, 01:30 PM

Pablo Santos, 19
Actor Had Role on WB's 'Greetings From Tucson'

From Los Angeles Times Staff and Wire Reports September 17, 2006

Pablos Santos, 19,, an actor who starred in the TV series "Greetings From Tucson," died Friday in a small-plane crash in central Mexico.

Santos and six friends were flying from Monterrey to Acapulco when their Piper Malibu crashed during an emergency landing at the airport in Toluca, about 35 miles west of Mexico City, the Mexico State Security Agency said. The plane was owned by Santos' father.

The crash also claimed the life of Santos' friend, Martel Fernandez, 19, who died early Saturday at a Toluca hospital.

Five others were hospitalized, said Irma Garcia, a spokeswoman for the Social Security Hospital, where Santos was taken.

In an interview with the newspaper El Norte, survivor Diego Marcos said the plane was only supposed to carry six people, but he and his friends convinced the pilot to take on an extra passenger. Officials were investigating the cause of the crash.

Santos played the son of a Mexican American family in "Greetings From Tucson," which ran on the WB network from 2002 to 2003.

He also appeared in numerous episodes of other programs, including "Boston Public," "Law & Order" and "American Family," as well as in the films "Sea of Dreams" (2005) and "Party Animalz" (2004).

Born in Monterrey, Santos moved with his family to Los Angeles when he was 12.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-passings17.2sep17,1,6088274,print.story?coll=la-news-obituaries

Gojhawks

09-17-06, 01:38 PM

Wow! I just caught the pilot of "Greetings from Tucson" again on HDNet this morning. How eriee to hear this news today.

fredfa

09-17-06, 02:12 PM

Yes, sad.

And thanks for joining us here -- I know you are about football and are a Mark Cuban fan -- we cover it all (shameless plug) so keeping checking the thread out.

fredfa

09-17-06, 02:25 PM

Preliminary Sept. 21-23 HD College Football Schedule
NOTE: Subject to change! (Rankings are from the Associated Press Poll. All times are Eastern)

Thursday, Sept. 21
Virginia at #33 Georgia Tech 7:30 PM ESPN-HD

Friday, Sept. 22
Northwestern at Nevada 8 PM ESPN2-HD

Saturday, Sept. 23
Wisconsin at #6 Michigan 12 Noon ESPN-HD
Minnesota at #36 Purdue 12 Noon ESPN2-HD
#24 Penn State at #1 Ohio State (Regional) 3:30 PM ABC-HD
#20 Arizona State at #22 California 3:30 PM FSN HD
#26 Alabama at #36 Arkansas 3:30 PM CBS-HD
#4 West Virginia at East Carolina 4:30 PM ESPN2-HD
Kentucky at #5 Florida 7:30 PM ESPN-HD
#20 Boston College at North Carolina State (Regional) 8:00 PM ESPN2-HD
#12 Notre Dame at #30 Michigan State (Regional) 8 PM ESPN2-HD
#12 Notre Dame at #30 Michigan State (Regional) (Regional) 8 PM ABC-HD
#3 U S C at Arizona (Regional) 8 PM ABC-HD

dad1153

09-17-06, 03:00 PM

The New Season
Sunday Night’s Season Premiere

The Amazing Race 10 8:30 PM ET/PT CBS

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition also has its season premiere tonight with a 2-hour special from 8 to 10PM ET/PT on ABC. I know it's a show nobody around here would have any reason to like but damn it fredfa, you're shooting for accuracy. Right? ;)

fredfa

09-17-06, 04:12 PM

According to the ABC-TV website, dad1153, the Extreme Makeover Home Edition...

"..New season premieres on Sunday, September 24 @ 7/6c"

Tonight is a repeat of two epsiodes. I think Marlee Matlin is in one...or both.

fredfa

09-17-06, 04:16 PM

The New Season
Turn on the television and observe . . . the television
'West Wing' creator Aaron Sorkin's latest work is must-see TV.

By Hal Boedeker Orlando Sentinel TV Columnist September 17, 2006

Here's a wonderful irony, the kind that television needs. NBC's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is about a late-night comedy show that's falling apart. But everything comes together for Studio 60, a superb comedy-drama from Aaron Sorkin, creator of The West Wing.

The series, which debuts at 10 p.m. Monday, showcases Sorkin's flair for appealing characters and sophisticated dialogue. Studio 60 enlists Matthew Perry as the main draw, then supports him with a large, first-rate cast.

Studio 60 has the plush trappings of The West Wing, and Thomas Schlamme directs the pilot with knock-your-socks-off style. The sets and cinematography reflect a heartening trend: Television has never looked better. NBC is treating the show with care, realizing this one could lead the network's comeback.

Yet the crucial element in Studio 60 is a love for the medium. Sorkin and his colleagues have it, share it and display it proudly.

The industry buzz is that Studio 60 might be too inside. But we're living in an era when the public closely follows Mel Gibson's drunken outburst and Tom Cruise's studio contract.

Studio 60 charts a show like Saturday Night Live, which has experienced upheavals and continues to titillate the public. And Studio 60 builds on a TV-depicts-TV tradition that enriched The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. In the Studio 60 premiere, even Ed Asner of Moore's show pops in to explain a character's rise.

Sorkin starts with a juicy crisis. The late-night show's executive producer (guest star Judd Hirsch of Numb3rs) goes into a rant about the medium's sorry state. He urges viewers to change the channel and complains that the network has lobotomized his show.

He loses his job for mouthing off on live television. News coverage compares his fiery speech to the anchor's meltdown in Network, the 1976 film written by Paddy Chayefsky. Sorkin wisely acknowledges his debt to Chayefsky. If you're going to mimic something, look to the best.

The furor doesn't faze Jordan McDeere (Amanda Peet), the new entertainment chief at NBS, the National Broadcasting System. "I say they've heard of Paddy Chayefsky, that's a step in the right direction," she says.

To save the late-night show, she woos a creative team, Matt Albie (Perry of Friends) and Danny Tripp (Bradley Whitford of The West Wing), to return to the program. She entices them in a secretive, compelling way that sets up Studio 60 for the long run.

Perry and Whitford are an excellent team. Perry is delightfully loopy in the showier role while Whitford charms with restraint and maturity. Peet plays the executive with likable optimism and mesmerizing calmness. She's an executive with integrity -- or so it seems.

Familiar faces populate the show. Peet tangles with Wings alum Steven Weber, who is sharp as the network's snide, macho boss. Timothy Busfield of thirtysomething frets convincingly as a director in turmoil.

Playing performers on the show-within-the-show are D.L. Hughley of The Hughleys, Nathan Corddry of The Daily Show With Jon Stewart and Sarah Paulson, who co-starred with Peet on Jack & Jill.

The Perry and Paulson characters were romantically involved, which creates more backstage intrigue. Studio 60 mixes the best of Sorkin's Sports Night and The West Wing. The Studio 60 characters walk and talk as well as the White House staffers.

Still, the crucial component is Sorkin's fierce fascination with television, from The 700 Club to Donald Trump to broadcast standards.

Persuasively, Studio 60 illustrates that when working in television, loving the medium matters. That affection also makes the viewing more thrilling.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/tv/orl-haltv091706sep17,0,409662,print.story?coll=orl-caltvtop

fredfa

09-17-06, 04:22 PM

The New Season
Networking With Sorkin
ALTHOUGH HE TAKES SWIPES AT NBC IN NEW SERIES, HIS OLD BOSSES WELCOME BACK THE FORCE BEHIND `THE WEST WING'

By Charlie McCollum San Jose Mercury News Sun, Sep. 17, 2006

BURBANK CA - In Monday's premiere episode of NBC's ``Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,'' Wes Mendell -- the executive producer of a long-running late-night comedy show not unlike ``Saturday Night Live'' -- is forced by a network executive to cut a skit that makes fun of the religious right.

He then hijacks the live telecast to launch into a rant not unlike Howard Beale's in Paddy Chayefsky's ``Network.''

``This isn't gonna be a very good show tonight, and I think you should change the channel,'' he tells an audience of millions. ``This show used to be cutting-edge political and social satire, but it's gotten lobotomized by a candy-ass broadcast network hell-bent on doing nothing that might challenge their audience. We were about to do a sketch you've already seen 500 times.

``We're all being lobotomized by the country's most influential industry, which has thrown in the towel on any endeavor that does not include the courting of 12-year-old boys. And not even the smart 12-year-olds; the stupid ones, the idiots, of which there are plenty thanks in no small part to this network.''

In the control room, the network executive goes ballistic and demands to know why director Cal Shanley hasn't cut off the rant.

``I'm waiting for him to say something that isn't true,'' Shanley replies.

It's a potent opening segment to one of the season's most anticipated new series. But creator Aaron Sorkin says the rant doesn't precisely reflect the tone of the show -- or his view of television.

``I will agree with you that the theme of Wes' rant is how TV has failed society,'' Sorkin says. ``But the show and the characters on the show are very aware of the great things that television can do, the great things that it's done in the past and its place in society.''

Which may help to explain why, after three years away, Sorkin, 45, has returned to network television.

In May 2003, he walked away from ``The West Wing,'' the White House drama he had created and largely wrote for its first four seasons. Drained by the pressures of producing a weekly series, conflicts with the studio that produced the show, a changing political landscape that altered the tone of the White House drama, a widely publicized drug bust at the Burbank Airport and marital problems, he simply called it a day.

Since then, he has written for film (Mike Nichols' upcoming ``Charlie Wilson's War'') and for the stage (``The Farnsworth Invention'' for San Diego's La Jolla Playhouse). But television kept pulling him back, and in October, he gave the first script for ``Studio 60'' to network executives, setting off a bidding war won by NBC.

Sorkin suggests he just couldn't stay away, saying, ``I love television and the people who make it.''

There may have been some hesitation on the part of his old studio, Warner Bros., and his old network, NBC, about the demons Sorkin battled in the past and the fact that ``Studio 60'' takes its share of potshots at the networks that control the medium.

But that didn't stop them from jumping at the chance to bring back the writer, one of the few in television who can attract an audience with his name alone.

``I made it very clear to him that this is the show we are going to let them do,'' says Kevin Reilly, president of NBC Entertainment. ``I don't feel any need to try to encourage it in a different direction.''

As for the cracks about the networks and corporate bosses -- the fictional network on ``Studio 60'' is called NBS -- Reilly says ``we didn't take it personally. He's looking at this backdrop as a broader context to make social commentary at the culture at large and pop culture in particular.''

In the end, ``Studio 60'' will be one of the most expensive first-year shows ever made, costing an estimated $3.1 million an episode. The set for the series -- a fully functional, art-deco theater where the show-within-a-show is performed -- is larger than the impressive White House one for ``West Wing.'' NBC has thrown $10 million into promotion, and it committed to 13 episodes before a single frame of film had been shot.

Also signing on for the show: Thomas Schlamme, the producer-director who worked with Sorkin on both ``West Wing'' and ``Sports Night,'' his brilliant but short-lived take on TV sports journalism, and who may know the complex writer best.

``I had a hesitation about getting back into a series,'' Schlamme says. ``I had no hesitation about getting back into a series with Aaron.

``The truth of it is there is no easy way to do a series. You make huge sacrifices to do it. That's what I've had to come to terms with -- and that's what Aaron had to come to terms with.''

``Studio 60'' is about just such a return to television.

When Mendell (guest star Judd Hirsch) is fired after his outburst, Jordan McDeere (Amanda Peet), the new president of the show's network, decides to bring back writer Matt Albie (Matthew Perry) and director Danny Tripp (Bradley Whitford), who ran ``Studio 60'' in its heyday -- over the objections of NBS chairman Jack Rudolph (Steven Weber), who had fired them four years earlier. Complicating things: Tripp's battle with cocaine and Albie's broken relationship with the show's star -- Harriet Hayes (Sarah Paulson), who is both a brilliant comedian and a devout Christian.

How much of the show is a roman à clef is open to debate. But it's fairly transparent that elements of Sorkin and Schlamme are in Albie and Tripp. McDeere bears more than a passing resemblance to former NBC and ABC executive Jamie Tarses, who worked with Sorkin on ``Sports Night.'' Hayes appears to be based on Kristin Chenoweth, the Broadway star (``Wicked'') who appeared on ``West Wing'' and who used to date Sorkin.

While admitting that the series is the ``most personal'' thing he's written, Sorkin warns against trying too hard to parse the characters to determine on whom they might be based.

``I think that looking at the show like it's the cover of `Sgt. Pepper,' and trying to figure out who's who, will actually distract from your enjoyment,'' he says.

In any case, the first two hours of ``Studio 60'' suggest that Sorkin has lost little of his snap.

The episodes are loaded with the crackling, rapid-fire dialogue that marked ``West Wing.'' The characters are intelligent, complex people you quickly care about, even if -- this being a show about television -- they can be egotistical and self-centered. Even the network ``suits,'' who could have been cardboard villains, are anything but simplistic stereotypes.

McDeere and even Rudolph are ``two of our heroes,'' says Sorkin, adding that ``Studio 60'' is as much a valentine to television as ``West Wing'' was to public service.

``I like to show people who are very committed to each other and what they're doing,'' he says. ``I like backstage drama, and I love the excitement of live television. And it gave me an opportunity to touch on the culture wars.''

All of which was, they say, what drew some high-octane, much-in-demand actors back to series television. Whitford wanted to take some time off after seven years on ``West Wing'' but came running when Sorkin called. Perry had stayed away from TV since ``Friends,'' and Peet had moved to New York to do theater after becoming frustrated with the quality of TV scripts she was being offered.

Timothy Busfield, who plays Cal Shanley, had been part of the ``West Wing'' ensemble but was concentrating on his career as a director. But he didn't hesitate either -- you just don't do that with Sorkin, he suggests.

``The way Mozart heard the music, that's how Aaron hears the writing,'' Busfield says. ``He was just born to do it.''

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/television/15542060.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

fredfa

09-17-06, 04:27 PM

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition also has its season premiere tonight with a 2-hour special from 8 to 10PM ET/PT on ABC. I know it's a show nobody around here would have any reason to like but damn it fredfa, you're shooting for accuracy. Right? ;)

(ABC Television Network PRESS RELEASE)

EXTREME MAKEOVER: HOME EDITION (9/24; SEASON PREMIERE)

"EXTREME MAKEOVER: HOME EDITION" KICKS OFF THEIR 50-STATE TOUR TO HELP FAMILIES ALL ACROSS AMERICA, STARTING IN NORTH POLE, ALASKA TO DELIVER AN EARLY CHRISTMAS TO A SINGLE MOTHER OF A THIRTEEN-MEMBER FAMILY

Seattle Seahawks' Matt Hasselbeck, Shaun Alexander and Lofa Tatupu Show Some Team Work on the Build

"Rogers Family," Parts 1 & 2 -- This season, "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" will be traveling all across America to build homes for families in the 50 states. Near or far, east or west, there's no place EM:HE won't go to help a family in need. On their first stop they're heading all the way up to North Pole, Alaska! Betsy Rogers, a single mother who has spent her life caring for her 13-member family and others, will receive a new and renovated home in a remarkable seven days in the special season premiere episodes of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 (7:00-8:00 & 8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.

The large Rogers family are well-known in their community for their selfless attitudes and strong morals. All the children excel in everything they do, whether it's sports or academics. Betsy was raised in a bi-racial family, and later married into a bi-racial marriage; as a result, she strives to teach her family and community about diversity and respect for others. A well known and much respected figure throughout the community, Betsy is a team mother for both the football and wrestling teams and a second mom to most of the kids in the area. She has passed her selfless values on to her children; her two eldest sons, Christopher and Jonathan, went on a two-week mission trip in Honduras to help build homes for those who live in worse conditions than even they could imagine.

But the Rogers family has recently fallen on hard times. Shortly after Betsy's marriage ended, leaving the family in a difficult financial situation, her brother had kidney failure and began dialysis treatments. Despite her family's already difficult living conditions, Betsy immediately invited her brother and his three children to move in with her family.

The newly-increased family of thirteen is crammed into the Rogers' current two-bedroom home. The tiny house is literally falling apart around them: Walls are separating from each other, windows are cracked and broken, the house has no foundation and the front door doesn't lock and can't even stay shut. Worst of all, the water heater only supplies enough heat for one warm shower and the house is without insulation - these problems can create major health threats when the temperature gets as low as minus sixty degrees in the Alaskan winter.

In this episode of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," Ty and the gang travels to the North Pole to deliver an early Christmas gift for Betsy and her incredible family - a new home and a new sense of security.

While the "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" design team, local builder Landmark, Inc, and hundreds of workers and volunteers are transforming the Rogers' house into a dream home, the family goes on vacation to Disneyland, CA. In addition, the Seattle Seahawks' Matt Hasselbeck, Shaun Alexander and Lofa Tutupu bring their game and show some teamwork on the build.

The design team for this episode of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" will feature team leader Ty Pennington, as well as Paul DiMeo, Ed Sanders, Michael Moloney, Paige Hemmis and Preston Sharp.

"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," which has won back-to-back Emmy Awards as Best Reality Program (non-competitive), is entering its fourth season on ABC. The program is produced by Endemol USA, a division of Endemol Holding. Denise Cramsey is the executive producer, and David Goldberg is the president of Endemol USA.

"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" is broadcast with Spanish subtitles via secondary closed captioning. This program carries a TV-PG parental guideline.

fredfa

09-17-06, 04:29 PM

Dad1153 you are right on a couple of counts.

I do strive for accuracy. And you -- along with many readers of the forum -- help me out time after time. And I thank you for your wary, careful eyes.

(And EM:HE is certainly one show which consistently flies under my radar!)

fredfa

09-17-06, 04:37 PM

The New Season
The good, the bad and the ugly
James Woods, Alec Baldwin and 'Ugly Betty' look mighty pretty among this season's mostly been-there, done-that new crop
By Diane Werts Newsday Staff Writer September 17, 2006

Everything old is new again. Or maybe everything new suddenly seems old.

Single-camera comedy with no laugh track? Been there.

Ensemble drama unfolding its character back stories in serialized fashion? Done that.

When everybody decides some alternative approach to TV storytelling couldn't be more fresh and cool, guess what? It's not anymore.

Besides, bandwagon-jumpers rarely have the savvy of the original trend drivers. "Lost," "24," "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office" - to name some recent cult faves/Emmy darlings - tell their stories in their distinctive manner because it's the best way to convey those particular tales. Not because some previous hit made it look chic.

Same with the best new fall shows. Each fresh gem is its own animal, not a cynical ratings grab gussied up in trendy technique.

That doesn't mean the most appealing newbies of 2006-07 have suddenly stumbled on hidden secrets of tube innovation. These shows just know what they are, and why they are, and they follow through with conviction on their own identities.

Take CBS' Thursday 10 p.m. drama "Shark," with which the eye network clearly aims to take that last bite out of NBC's dwindling "ER" dominion. James Woods lords his own dominance over this nail-the-baddies legal drama like some single-lead star in his very own 1970s vehicle, where the supporting players are so much wallpaper. Woods hits the screen with look-at-me elan and steps on the gas, simply trailing babe boss Jeri Ryan and their cute young assistant prosecutors in his wake. Woods is a galvanizing guy, with enough emotive meat to pull that entire train at warp speed. The show's structure might be eons old, yet "Shark" feels original. The cases explore today's topical legal and moral equivocations under the light of star-power fireworks we haven't seen for awhile.

"Ugly" Spanish translation

A similar sort of freshened-up flashback fuels ABC's "Ugly Betty." This one's a mutt of an underdog saga, both in its story - mousy but earnest brainiac gets the better of slick but shallow "sophisticates" - and in the Thursday 8 p.m. time period, where its network hasn't had traction with scripted series since the Carter administration. This show overpowers us, too, with the utter sincerity of its fairy-tale heart. Young heroine America Ferrera plucks that go-get-'em chord beautifully (or should we say effectively?) as a put-upon style magazine assistant, while evil queen Vanessa Williams leads sashaying fashionistas out to stomp on Betty's integrity. The concept is so not-original: It's an American adaptation of a hit Spanish-language telenovela. The series' power radiates from its core outward, its simple concept delivered with directness, affection, assurance and not a little gumption.

You can take anything to heart if the people dispensing it do. That's also true on what are less clear-cut favorites this fall. CBS' "Jericho" treads on plain territory with its Kansas small-town folk caught in the wake of nuclear disaster. They're everyday people in crisis mode, a la "Touched by an Angel." But they're also dealing with big-picture issues of the kind TV normally tends to address in a high-toned fashion. Even with a mystery/thriller element beneath the tale, it's unfussily focused on how the fundamental human spirit reacts when push comes to shove, either with or against its better instincts.

NBC's "Heroes" uses further flights of fancy to get inside the soul. Its varied characters discover they can fly, or time travel, or heal instantly, or foretell the future. Yet the story is much less about that specialty than how it affects the person so gifted. Suppose you could conjure the magic you always wished for. Would you really want it? What would it do to you? These people seem grounded, and that's the way this whimsy stays down to earth.

Tapping into humanity

A fundamental passion behind these shows sets them apart from the new pack of dramas that demand viewer attention weekly to follow an intricate, ongoing narrative. The better fall projects tap a well of relatable humanity in addition to well-executed eventfulness. There's a lot of just the latter around, too - smooth series that look sharp and move snappily, leaving you satisfied 'til you stop to wonder: what precisely was the point of all that? (Yes, "Vanished" on Fox, we mean you.)

Perhaps it's because so many of this fall's pilot episodes are so frantically setting up characters, relationships and situations that it's hard to tell how subsequent installments might behave.

At least with NBC's much-awaited "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," we can see this Aaron Sorkin show of smart cultural reflection will act much like that last Aaron Sorkin show of smart cultural reflection, "The West Wing," substituting TV network bees for those busy White House workers. But will the shaping of entertainment seem as stirring to viewers as conducting their government?

Abundant outlining also pervades the debut outings of CBS' heist hour "Smith," ABC's crime-hostage hangover "The Nine" and The CW's family-on-the-lam tale "Runaway," among others. Many of these narratives keep jumping back and forth in time, for reasons that come off less helpfully revelatory than simply copycat showoff-ish. (You loved "Lost"! Look at us!)

It's hard to instill a real feel when flashy construction reminds you every few seconds how the experience is being manipulated. Authenticity of place and people triumphs in NBC's "Friday Night Lights," with its small-town football-is-life scenario shot on Texas locations amid the actual pageantry and pressure of high school sports. Even though this drama telescopes a sprawling environment into weekly slices, it's done with organic ingredients whose pungent flavors easily survive the cook-down.

Danson ...again?

And then there's comedy, land of the artificial preservative. The flavor of the day here is the filmed single-camera study. But the people behind such frantic muddles as ABC's Ted Danson shrinkcom "Help Me Help You" are no more skilled at this "fresh" format than the supposedly "tired" live-audience formula. Having something worth saying about the subject is always a good place to start, yet many shows don't. Would you believe flashbacks are abundant even here? "The Class" kicks off CBS' Monday lineup with third-grade recollections from students reuniting 20 years later to sort out their long and winding roads.

At least this show tries to study its characters instead of misusing them as punchline patsies. The situation seems to be the thing in a couple of off-kilter concoctions. ABC's "The Knights of Prosperity" collects a bunch of losers for high-concept heists played out in a way either strange enough to succeed or too weird to watch. NBC's Tina Fey half-hour "30 Rock" goes backstage at a network sketchfest - not the most original idea - but it boasts the season's most unique character in Alec Baldwin's impeccable network honcho lording forth semideranged in his executive suit and suite.

Baldwin provides proof that sometimes all it takes is one terrific touch of inspiration to make a project soar. Oops, I almost typed "sour." But then again - that can happen, too.

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/ny-fftv4890333sep17,0,1806538,print.story?coll=ny-television-headlines

dad1153

09-17-06, 04:47 PM

Sorry fredfa, I looked at my online TWC guide and it lists tonight's 'EM:HE' two-hour episode as an all-new episode (which it is). Guess ABC is just doing a new episode tonight and "officially" debuting the season next week because they have enough new shows in the can and want to get something to counter the 1-2 punch of NFL football and 'TAR' debuting on Sunday. Thanks for bitch-slapping me back into sense and not pointing at me with mocking histerical laughter for admitting in public that I'm an 'EM:HE' fan! :(

fredfa

09-17-06, 04:52 PM

Considering all the errors (not even counting typos!) I make here, dad, it would be pretty hypocritical of me to make fun of anyone who made a well-intentioned mistake.
Thanks again for the input.

fredfa

09-17-06, 05:02 PM

The New Season
Finish your serial -- or else ...
By Virgina Rohan Bergen Record Staff Writer Sunday, September 17, 2006

That's my parental-like advisory to the broadcast networks this fall.

Last season, one of you -- listening up, Fox? -- made us especially angry by launching a murder-mystery serial drama, then killing it before the case had been solved. After that aborted "Reunion," we'll be watching closely to make sure that "Vanished" or any other newcomer won't get banished before its payoff.

The potential for viewer frustration in that regard is high this season, because ongoing story lines are hugely popular. Of the 24 new series that will have debuted by mid-October, half are, to varying degrees, serialized. Several dramas that fully embrace this format -- NBC's "Kidnapped," the aforementioned "Vanished" and the CW's "Runaway" -- have similar dark premises: FBI agents and other law-enforcement officials are on the trail of a missing or elusive person -- respectively, a kidnapped teen, the apparently abducted wife of a U.S. senator and a lawyer who's on the lam with his family after being (wrongly) accused of murder.

Progressive storytelling can also be found in NBC's supernatural "Heroes," CBS' apocalyptic "Jericho" and ABC's intriguing "The Nine" -- a drama about survivors of a 52-hour hostage drama that uses time-shift elements as well. So does ABC's "Day Break," scheduled to bow in November, in which Taye Diggs plays a police detective framed for a DA's murder who keeps reliving the same fateful day, trying to avert the disaster. Think "Groundhog Day" meets "The Twilight Zone."

There are even some serialized comedies -- including ABC's "The Knights of Prosperity," which, over the course of the season, will follow a bumbling crew plotting the robbery of Mick Jagger's posh Manhattan apartment. And one new TV network is entirely devoted to English-language telenovelas -- "television novels," or limited-run serials.

It's no mystery why this form is so hot. In Hollywood, imitation is the sincerest form of ratings envy, and in recent seasons, TV's most buzzed-about shows have been serialized ones. Though "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" usually get the credit, it was really "24" that set the wave in motion. And let's not forget that "Prison Break" continues to do well, even now that the convicts have broken out.

Of course, there are still more traditional efforts to be found. One of this fall's best new ventures is NBC's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," Aaron Sorkin's fast-faced and stunningly beautiful-looking dramedy about what goes on behind the scenes of a live late-night comedy series.

The best thing about this fall is that a good number of the new shows look promising. In fact, if you add them to the long list of returning favorites -- some of which are changing time slots or sporting new faces -- it will be a challenge to keep up with everything.

DVRs, webcasts and iPods make the mechanics of that task easier, but there's still the time factor. Other than the idle rich, how do people find enough hours to watch it all?

http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkyNzImZmdiZWw3Zjd2cW VlRUV5eTY5OTI4MjQmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk3

fredfa

09-17-06, 05:19 PM

The New Season
It's all good
... or at least much of it. And some of the new fall shows are great

Dallas Morning News Television critic Ed Bark and staff critic Manuel Mendoza have powered through pilots for 28 new fall shows. Now they take a crack at rating the new broadcast offerings – and get in a few shots at each other in the process.

ED BARK: For once there's no need to hold our applause. This is the best and brightest fall season in many a year, with NBC finally regaining its stride and leading the way.

Of course, that's just one opinion. But I'm genuinely impressed with the promise and quality of three new NBC dramas – the Texas football-themed Friday Night Lights, the X-Men-esque Heroes and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which goes deep behind the scenes of a late-night comedy show.

Will they be commercially successful? Maybe not. But this is why NBC lured Kevin Reilly from the FX network three years ago. He had The Shield and Nip/Tuck under his belt at the time. But what was he thinking the past two falls with offal such as LAX, Joey and The Apprentice: Martha Stewart? As fictional network entertainment president Jordan McDeere says in Studio 60, "I raised the bar high? Sorry. Clear it."

Serial dramas dominate the new prime-time terrain. Realistically, viewers likely won't embrace more than a small handful of all these look-or-be-lost series. I like two of ABC's string-alongs, the fashion-world soap Ugly Betty and the dysfunctional family drama Brothers & Sisters. But I probably won't make any long-term investments in the network's Six Degrees or The Nine, which respectively uncover the secrets of intertwined strangers and bank robbery survivors.

Self-contained hours have their pluses, including two built around brash attorneys. Fox's Justice looks like a very good bet to go the distance. And James Woods deliciously chews scenery in CBS' aptly named Shark.

An embarrassment of riches? Every season should be so fortunate. And we haven't even gotten to comedy yet.

MANUEL MENDOZA: I'm not quite as excited. True, flat-out dogs are rare among the new shows, and there are several flat-out winners: Heroes, Ugly Betty and Studio 60, as you mentioned. And I'll add the charming Anne Heche-in-Alaska vehicle, Men in Trees. But so-so fare, as usual, dominates. I put your recommendations for Friday Night Lights and Brothers & Sisters in that category, along with most of the new comedies.

What's fascinating to me about the new season is all the high concept, sci-fi, action programming, some of it soapy or serialized. Lost and 24 are the greatest influences, as producers aim for the kind of breathless, head-spinning stories you used to have to go to the movies to see. Hybrids are rampant, led by Lost creator J.J. Abrams' Six Degrees, a fantastical relationship show. But nonstop action is the predominant through line, from the ridiculous, post-nuclear Jericho to two abduction series (Vanished and Kidnapped). And then there's the hostage negotiators of Standoff, the crime plotters of Smith and Groundhog Day-derived Day Break. In a post 9/11 world, our fears of the bogeymen and the guys who protect us from them get quite a workout.

ED BARK: : Frankly, I don't see a lot of new sci-fi, which indeed was rampant last fall. "Nonstop action" isn't prevalent either. And I couldn't disagree more on Friday Night Lights, which to me has the best sports-themed pilot episode ever made. It's in a very tough 7 p.m. Tuesday slot, but to me the execution is virtually flawless. Dramatic disagreements are nothing new to us, though, so let's move on to the thinner soup of comedy.

For me, Tina Fey's 30 Rock has great promise, even though its pilot is being recast and reworked some. It's NBC's second look at the infected innards of the TV world – a topic that may be an acquired taste. Loved it, though, when Alec Baldwin's character proclaimed himself GE-owned NBC's "new vice president of East Coast television and microwave-oven programming."

ABC's Help Me Help You looks like a decent new vehicle for Ted Danson as a needy psychotherapist. And the network's Mick Jagger-flavored The Knights of Prosperity (bumbling heisters) just might be bizarro enough to gain at least a cult following. Notably, neither of ABC's new fall comedies has a laugh track, a sharp detour from the likes of loud, long-running sitcoms such as According to Jim and George Lopez. For that reason alone, I'm pulling for them to gain a little traction.

MANUEL MENDOZA: I listed the action shows. As for sci-fi, I'm using a loose definition to include Six Degrees, Jericho, Heroes and Day Break. Moving on, as Stephen Colbert would say, none of the new comedies is a knockout. I liked the pilot to The Class (third-graders reunited as adults), but the second episode is a letdown. 'Til Death (old couple-young couple neighbors) and 20 Good Years (Jeffrey Tambor and John Lithgow as an Odd Couple) have winning casts, but the premises are so well-worn they lead only to obvious jokes. I thought Knights plainly stunk: interesting premise, flat execution.

The only one I'll watch again is the Happy Hour, about struggling singles. It's just loopy enough to have potential. I love the guy who drinks martinis and lip-syncs Dino at 4 p.m. sharp every day, and the nervously angry woman who's his best friend. 30 Rock had a solid pilot – better than the other behind-the-scenes NBC series – but I fear Tracy Morgan taking it over the way he's threatening to take over the show within the show.

More notable than the direction of our thumbs is the nature of the overall prime-time schedule. Including returning programs, it continues to be dominated by procedurals and reality TV. Yes, reality TV. News of reality's death was greatly exaggerated a while back. The data: Including the Saturday reruns, procedurals – the dominant genre – take up 24 hours of the 94-hour week on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and the CW. Including game shows, America's Funniest Home Videos and summer programming that slops well over into fall, reality takes up 19 hours of real estate. It's here to stay, and as other series fail, the networks will make and air more.

ED BARK: What's this? You think 30 Rock is superior to Studio 60? And that Happy Hour is better than 30 Rock? Yikes!

Reality indeed is still a reality, but it's not nearly the hot commodity it once was. Last fall, for instance, NBC banked heavily on two new reality hours, Martha Stewart's version of The Apprentice and Amy Grant's tear-jerking Three Wishes. Not so this September. NBC will sink or swim after answering to a higher calling with a mostly exemplary batch of new scripted series.

And among all the reality hours you've cited, only NBC's holdover Deal or No Deal and ABC's returning Dancing With the Stars still might have ratings upsides. All the rest are past their primes and some are just filler material. Name one new fall reality series on any of the major networks. There isn't one, for which we all should give thanks. I know it only takes one new breakout "unscripted series" to breathe new momentum into the genre. But the pedal's not to the metal right now.

MANUEL MENDOZA: You misquote me. I liked the 30 Rock pilot better than the Studio 60 pilot. I liked Happy Hour, but never said it was better than 30 Rock. Moving on again: So you're saying that 19 hours of reality isn't significant, that filler doesn't count? I say it doesn't matter if there are a bunch of new reality titles or not when the returning shows are so plentiful. Hits or not, they are cheap and will continue to be a prevalent force.

ED BARK: OK, guess I misunderstood when you said that Happy Hour is the only comedy you'd watch again. And we don't have much to go on, with few exceptions, other than the pilots. In that realm, Studio 60's is the best I've seen, even though Heroes could be the season's big sleeper hit. What a pleasant surprise!

So "at the end of the day," in classic network-speak, I'll rate this fall season as bracingly ambitious and nutritious. It's got spunk.

http://www.guidelive.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/television/stories/DN-fallpreview_0917gl.State.Bulldog.20f7c39.html

fredfa

09-17-06, 05:48 PM

The New Season
Primetime talk show
By Doug Elfman Chicago Sun-Times Television Critic September 17, 2006

In "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," a comedy writer snaps at a TV executive: "I have no reason to trust you and every reason not to -- you work in television."

Many actors may cheer this line. But will viewers be willing to follow such inside baseball and behind-the-scenes machinations?

I think they will. Hollywood is Topic A for many Americans. I have been puzzled by some TV critics who question whether people will sign up to watch interoffice struggles in this new NBC drama, debuting on Monday. It details relationships between actors, writers and suits at a "Saturday Night Live"-type show named "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip."

In July, co-star Bradley Whitford suggested viewers are addicted to workplace shows.

"Whenever I hear that question, I just think, 'Isn't "CSI" a little inside-the-coroner's-office?' "

Viewers get glimpses of the daily lives of Matt (Matthew Perry) and Danny (Whitford), two comedy writers who take over the reins of "Studio 60." Matt and Danny's champion is network executive Jordan (Amanda Peet). It's a sticky situation for Matt because his most recent ex, Harriet (Sarah Paulson), is an actress on "Studio 60." His buddy Danny is a recovering drug addict.

There are many more plot points. The show was created by Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme, the chatty guys from "The West Wing." So, characteristic of Sorkin and Schlamme, "Studio" unfolds with a large ensemble cast talking in Sorkin-esque dialogue, crisply defining themselves as three-dimensional men and women rushing around in a rough-and-tumble industry.

Schlamme's direction is strong and steady. The actors make him look even smarter. Perry and Whitford are a compelling team. Peet is fantastic. She plays Jordan as an unflappable executive in a role not often seen in TV or films. She is not a bitch. She is not a crybaby.

Peet's Jordan is a confident woman who stands toe-to-toe with her mean boss Jack (Steven Weber, at right) as a matter of calm self-belief. It would be understandable if some viewers believe Peet is merely smiling and staring rather than acting. But take a close look. She is creating Jordan with a casual intensity that implies Jordan is so genuinely sure, she is unconcerned by people who don't believe in her abilities and decisions.

And Weber (at left) is remarkable. Other actors may have turned Jack into a cardboard cutout of a crank. Weber sees Jack as a man who has gotten his way so long, he's flying in heed-my-wisdom autopilot. When Jordan says something he doesn't like, he pauses then comically sucks air in between his teeth. It's the slightest behavior that quietly broadcasts power.

Despite its multitude of personalities and conflicting motivations, "Studio 60" is easy to follow. Fans of Sorkin's years on "The West Wing" will likely enjoy "Studio 60." And there should be enough mature viewers who crave bright writing to make the show a sudden mainstay. I hope so.

TV's gutsy goods

'Studio 60" begins with a frustrated producer complaining on live TV that the medium caters to 12-year-old boys and has become "lobotomized by a candy-ass broadcast network." There is some validity to this point. TV is crammed with copycats (how many "CSIs" are there, now, 14?) and copycraps ("Nanny 911," "Supernanny").

But networks also deserve credit. Healthy competition between cable and broadcasters has motivated executives to support a good number of high-quality series, and some chancy ones. What's more, some critics believe this year's new shows comprise the best fall season, collectively, in years or even decades.

If you think about it, prime-time TV does have some guts:

• NBC honchos are propelling shows that lampoon them and "Saturday Night Live." The anti-TV executive speech in "Studio 60" will air on NBC, which is heavily promoting the provocative show. And in NBC's "30 Rock," Alec Baldwin plays a meddlesome goof who works for General Electric, NBC's parent company.

• This fall, ABC isn't launching any conventional sitcoms, turning instead to new single-camera comedies. That's mildly risky. Broadcasters have ramped up the number of comedies that are single camera (no studio audience), despite the cancellation of Fox's little-watched "Arrested Development" and the long time it took for "The Office" to get big viewer numbers. This proves they're dedicated to a fresher format that defies easy ratings.

• Instead of presenting only happy, friendly characters, several new shows center around unlikable, frumpy or villainous protagonists. Showtime's "Dexter" stars a creepy charmer, a serial murderer. The thieves of CBS' "Smith" are portrayed almost objectively as sociopaths and murderers. All the lawyers in Fox's new "Justice" are jerky. The young, violent hoodlums of NBC's "The Black Donnellys" (coming in January) do very bad things. These series join a landscape already peopled with grumps on Fox's "House," and HBO's biggest hits.

• One Fox cable station, FX, is dedicated to original series that are offbeat and don't pander to common denominators. "Nip/Tuck" and "Rescue Me" are brilliant, funny and touching, and written for mature audiences. "The Shield" dares viewers to follow the evil exploits of bad cops. And "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" boldly deals with storylines about men trying to score women at abortion-clinic protests and such.

• Fox continues to champion the funny and smart "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy," even as both cartoons mock Fox and TV culture. "Arrested Development" poked fun at Fox, too, and the network kept the great comedy airing for three seasons despite very poor ratings.

• HBO's "The Wire" is the opposite of a dumbed-down show. It's packed with dozens of characters, many with their own multipart story lines. It's so intricate in tone and conversations that some critics compare it to literature, rather than TV.

• In the past week, CBS and ABC took big gambles. CBS aired a 9/11 special that included curse words, even though it would invite clamoring for FCC fines. ABC ran a fictionalized, commercial-free 9/11 movie, despite a protest campaign by liberals and progressives. Whether or not you agree with the decisions -- or even if you judge them as arrogant -- they illustrate networks' refusal to back from viewer and critical backlash, or potential financial losses.

• And Comedy Central is TV's treasure chest of grown-up political and social comedy, with "South Park," "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report." Its upcoming "Freak Show" is a fantastical cartoon satire co-starring a premature baby. That doesn't sound candy-ass to me.

http://www.suntimes.com/cgi-bin/print.cgi?getReferrer=http://www.suntimes.com/output/television/sho-sunday-elf17.html

fredfa

09-17-06, 06:06 PM

The New Season
Dramas resume; Many happy returns
Shows kick off new season with bells, whistles and answers to last season’s cliffhangers.
By Aaron Barnhart The Kansas City Star Sun, Sep. 17, 2006
(Note: All times are Central)

This is the week when the TV season begins in earnest, with a slew of new shows and an even slewier slew of returning series. We covered the new ones last week in these pages; today we’ll look at the most notable returning dramas and next week, the comedy and reality shows.

This week gets off to a colorful start when “CSI: Miami” becomes “CSI: Rio” for a day, as CBS counters the debut of NBC’s “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” with some razzmatazz of its own (9 p.m. Monday, CBS). Filming in the Brazilian hotspot will give viewers, especially those with high-definition TVs, as much eye candy as “Studio 60” will ear candy.

CBS rolls ahead on Tuesdays, as “NCIS” (7 p.m. Tuesday, CBS) resolves perhaps the most intriguing cliffhanger of last season: why Gibbs (Mark Harmon) packed it in to build boats in Mexico. And how the NCIS is going to reel him back in. That’s followed by the action-packed “The Unit” at 8, where we last saw President Palmer … uh, I mean Jonas … taking a bullet when Yugoslavs kidnapped Jack Bauer … I mean, broke up a dinner party among Unit families. Boy, it is getting harder to keep these international thrillers straight, especially when they use the same good guys and bad guys.

The biggest news out of the “Law & Order” factory this summer wasn’t the addition of Eric Bogosian to “Criminal Intent.” It was the schedule shuffle. Two of the three “L&Os” will be scheduled back-to-back, as “Criminal Intent” — where Bogosian plays a captain of the “my way or the highway” variety — is at 8 Tuesdays followed by “SVU” at 9.

Original recipe “L&O” is now at 9 p.m. Fridays all on NBC. In other crime news, “Cold Case” moved to 8 p.m. Sundays, followed by “Without a Trace” at 9 on CBS.

It’s a sign of how far “Desperate Housewives” fell from grace in its second season that ABC felt the need to send out screeners of the third season premiere to critics, something it’s apparently not doing with the season premiere of “Grey’s Anatomy.”

But then, “Housewives” generates only a fraction of the buzz as “Grey’s Anatomy,” a show ABC moved to Thursday nights at 8 in the hopes of finally competing with NBC and CBS that night.

If you’re one of those who enjoyed the sparkling first season of “Housewives” and was turned off by the aimless second season (frankly, since the show has never worked for me, it was hard to tell the difference), you’re probably curious to see what changes were made in the off-season.

Yes, Bree (Marcia Cross) is still being hit on by the diabolical neatnik Orson (Kyle MacLachlan), but show creator Marc Cherry has added a story even creepier than that: Susan (Teri Hatcher) falls in love in the coma ward.

Looking ahead, more dramas will return in the next few weeks, including “Lost” on Oct. 4, though only for six weeks. Acknowledging fans’ complaints that there were too many weeks when “Lost” was in reruns, ABC made the smart decision to take the show off the air, try something different in its place (Taye Diggs in “Day Break,” starting Nov. 15), then bring it back in time for February sweeps.

Also making late starts are “Crossing Jordan” and “Las Vegas,” now comprising two-thirds of NBC’s Friday lineup, on Oct. 20, and “What About Brian,” which returns Oct. 9 to ABC.

“The Gilmore Girls” return at 7 p.m. Sept. 26 on the new CW network. Creator Amy Sherman-Palladino is gone, but sadly the implausible storylines have stayed behind.

In the first 10 minutes Lorelai (Lauren Graham) throws up yet another pointless wall between herself and the obvious love of her life, the drippy café owner Luke (Scott Patterson).

The third season premiere of “Veronica Mars” is a week later, at 8 p.m. Oct. 3, on the CW. I haven’t seen it, but surely it has more gas in the tank than the Gilmores do.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/entertainment/columnists/aaron_barnhart/15520516.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

fredfa

09-17-06, 06:36 PM

CBS has announced its HD games, so here's an update:

Preliminary Sept 21-25 HD Football Schedule
NOTE: Subject to change! (Rankings are from the Associated Press Poll. All times are Eastern)

Thursday, Sept. 21
Virginia at #33 Georgia Tech 7:30 PM ESPN-HD

Friday, Sept. 22
Northwestern at Nevada 8 PM ESPN2-HD

Saturday, Sept. 23
Wisconsin at #6 Michigan 12 Noon ESPN-HD
Minnesota at #36 Purdue 12 Noon ESPN2-HD
#24 Penn State at #1 Ohio State (Regional) 3:30 PM ABC-HD
#22 Arizona State at #21 California 3:30 PM FSN-HD (InHD2)
#26 Alabama at #36 Arkansas 3:30 PM CBS-HD
#4 West Virginia at East Carolina 4:30 PM ESPN2-HD
Kentucky at #5 Florida 7:30 PM ESPN-HD
#20 Boston College at North Carolina State (Regional) 8:00 PM ESPN2-HD
#12 Notre Dame at #30 Michigan State (Regional) 8 PM ESPN2-HD
#12 Notre Dame at #30 Michigan State (Regional) (Regional) 8 PM ABC-HD
#3 U S C at Arizona (Regional) 8 PM ABC-HD

Sunday, Sept. 24
Carolina at Tampa Bay 1 PM Fox-HD
Chicago at Minnesota 1 PM Fox-HD
Cincinnati at Pittsburgh 1 PM CBS-HD
Green Bay at Detroit 1 PM Fox-HD
Jacksonville at Indianapolis 1 PM CBS-HD
New York Jets at Buffalo 1 PM CBS-HD
Washington at Houston 1 PM Fox-HD
New York Giants at Seattle 4:15 PM Fox HD
Philadelphia at San Francisco 4:15 PM Fox-HD
Denver at New England 8:15 PM NBC-HD

Monday, Sept. 25
Atlanta at New Orleans 8:30 PM ESPN-HD

fredfa

09-17-06, 06:58 PM

The New Season
Handicapping the network ratings race, night by night
By Mark Dawidziak Cleveland Plain Dealer Television Critic Sunday, September 17, 2006

It was a two-network race last season, with CBS and Fox sprinting way out in front of their four broadcast competitors. Expect a rerun in the ratings this season, with CBS again having the most overall viewers and Fox again finishing No. 1 in the demographic most prized by advertisers, the 18-to-49-year-old crowd.

It's the television equivalent of boxing's heavyweight championship. Both CBS and Fox can claim a version of the TV title. Each has a championship belt, depending on how you define dominance.

The 2006-2007 season starts at 8 p.m. Monday, according to the numbers keepers at Nielsen Media Research. Let the ratings race begin.

Same old same old? Well, not quite. What has changed is the configuration of networks waiting at the starting line for Monday's opening gun.

That's because, when the dust settled on the 2005-06 television season, we emerged from the prime-time fray short one network. The merger of UPN and the WB into one programming entity, the CW, puts us in a five-network universe.

What impact, if any, will the CW have on the overall TV picture? That's one of the great unknowns about this star-studded universe.

It's one of the biggest questions hanging over these five networks as they prepare to battle for ratings in the fall campaign.

It's certainly worth noting that the blending of the UPN and WB schedules turned out smoother than the gleaming runway surfaces on "America's Next Top Model." It was once joked that UPN stood for the Used Parts Network, but the CW schedule is much more than just a patched-together collection of used parts. This is a decent lineup, with the teaming of former UPN and WB shows making for formidable one-two combinations.

On the CW's Tuesday schedule, for instance, "Gilmore Girls" (a WB show) is an ideal lead-in for "Veronica Mars" (a UPN show). Those are not just compatible programs; they're high-quality compatible programs.

On the CW's Thursday schedule, "Smallville" (a WB show) at 8 p.m. figures to be a nifty opening act for the second season of "Supernatural" (a UPN show) at 9 p.m. The CW, which launches in this area at 8 p.m. Wednesday on WBNX Channel 55, also has assembled a noteworthy Sunday comedy block, led by executive producer Chris Rock's second season of "Everybody Hates Chris."

None of this means that the CW, a partnership between CBS and Warner Bros., will be a viable fifth network. It will take more than one season to decide that little question. What we do know is that CW programmers are playing a surprisingly strong hand at a time when daunting challenges face NBC and ABC.

This is a pivotal moment for ABC, which emerged from years of also-ran failure to immediate contender status during its remarkable 2004-05 season. That was the season that saw the red-hot debuts of "Lost," "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy."

Everything was going ABC's way until last fall, when the Alphabet Network failed to capitalize on the previous season's amazing comeback. ABC programmers introduced five new shows at the start of the 2005-06 season: "Freddie," "Hot Properties," "Invasion," "Night Stalker" and "Commander in Chief." Not one is back for a second season.

The high-flying ABC crashed back to earth, and things did not improve as fall gave way to a winter of discontent for the suddenly struggling network. Indeed, ABC executives seemed intent on sabotaging all of the gains made during the previous season.

There was the disastrous mishandling of "Commander in Chief," which seemed to be on the road to success. There was the wasting of the post-"Lost" time period, 10-11 p.m. Wednesday, one of the most desirable spots in prime-time television.

ABC could have used that time slot to launch new series or give struggling shows a chance. Instead, 10-11 p.m. Wednesday was occupied for most of the season by "Invasion," which, despite strong reviews, consistently lost about 40 percent of the "Lost" audience. That alarming trend never changed, yet ABC wouldn't budge.

Admirable to demonstrate that much faith in a quality show? It would have been, if "Invasion" was back this fall for a second season. It all went for nothing when ABC canceled "Invasion." Talk about a "Lost" opportunity.

Despite all these horrendous moves, ABC posted healthy ratings last season, thanks to five series finishing in the top 15: "Desperate Housewives," "Grey's Anatomy," "Dancing With the Stars," "Monday Night Football" and "Lost." And it was the only network to make gains in the 18-to-49 category.

So this isn't so much a rebuilding year for ABC as it is refocusing year. The network has much to prove: that it can adjust to prime-time life without "Monday Night Football," that the comeback of the 2004-05 season wasn't a fluke, that it can develop new hits as buzzworthy and quality-driven as "Lost" and "Grey's Anatomy."

Give stumbling ABC points for making a solid effort to regain its footing. The network is introducing seven new shows this fall, and three of them are exceptional: the hour comedy "Ugly Betty," the half-hour comedy "The Knights of Prosperity" and the ambitious 10-11 p.m. Wednesday drama "The Nine," which should find success in that post-"Lost" time period.

For hard-luck NBC, however, this definitely is a rebuilding year -- or, that's what network executives hope. Here's the deal: The Peacock Network must prove it can field a new hit not named "Deal or No Deal."

There were steps in the right direction last season, both with the game-show success of Howie Mandel's "Deal or No Deal" and the Thursday teaming of "The Office" and "My Name Is Earl." But coming off a season when it placed no shows in the top 10, NBC has trouble on most nights.

It's not merely a case of how the mighty have fallen. It's also a case of how far. A decade ago, NBC had 10 of the nation's 20 highest-rated shows, including all of the top six. Last season, NBC tumbled to fourth place in total viewers and in the so-called primary demographic. These executives seemed intent on marching under the title of another of their reality shows: "The Biggest Loser."

Indeed, the only show NBC placed in the top 20 last season was (you guessed it) "Deal or No Deal." Its highest-rated drama or comedy, "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," just made the top 25.

NBC, therefore, also has a great deal to prove. Still, the Peacock doesn't need to soar all that high to have a good year. A little bit of good news will mean a great deal at NBC, which, just three short seasons ago, was the No. 1 network with viewers 18 to 49 years old.

And like ABC, NBC has three of the new season's finest rookie shows: writer-executive producer Aaron Sorkin's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," a behind-the-scenes drama about a network sketch-comedy show; writer-executive-producer-star Tina Fey's "30 Rock," a behind-the-scenes comedy about a network sketch-comedy show; and "Kidnapped," a drama about the abduction of a wealthy Manhattan couple's son.

Yet CBS and Fox aren't resting on their ratings laurels, and each has a high-quality Monday newcomer. "The Class" should strengthen the already muscular CBS Monday lineup. And Fox's missing-person drama, "Vanished," like its lead-in, "Prison Break," is long on style and suspense.

With the CW schedule, it all should make for some intriguing night-by-night choices. Here's what to look for over the next few months:

SUNDAY (two new shows)

The two newcomers are the CW's "The Game," a football comedy with Tia Mowry as a medical student whose boyfriend is the new third-string wide receiver for the San Diego Sabers, and "Brothers & Sisters," the much recast and rewritten family drama starring Calista Flockhart ("Ally McBeal"), Sally Field, Ron Rifkin, Patricia Wettig and Balthazar Getty. The gamble here is that "Brothers & Sisters" will thrive in the post-"Desperate Housewives" slot being vacated by "Grey's Anatomy." The CBS roll of the dice is jettisoning its long-running 9 p.m. Sunday movie package in favor of the crime dramas "Cold Case" and "Without a Trace." Meanwhile, Fox's comedy lineup will try to keep smiling against the CW's new comedy schedule. But the night's big impact player, at least until January, should be NBC's new "Sunday Night Football" package. This not only could give NBC a badly needed ratings winner, it should give the network strong field position for the rest of the week. The prime-time game is a powerful promotional platform for upcoming shows. So even if ABC and CBS hold the line on this night, football could get NBC back in the game.

MONDAY (five new shows)

And if football scores a ratings touchdown for NBC on Sunday night, it could clear the field for the network's Monday lineup, which starts with the returning reality hit "Deal or No Deal" at 8 p.m., setting up two stellar new dramas: "Heroes," about ordinary people discovering they have extraordinary powers, at 9 p.m., and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" at 10 p.m. It's good night for NBC to make a move, particularly with ABC's loss of "Monday Night Football." But the competition is considerable, led by CBS with its comedies (adding Jason Ritter's "The Class") and top-10 powerhouse "CSI: Miami." Fox has last season's breakout hit, "Prison Break," at 8 p.m., followed by another exceptional newcomer, "Vanished." And the CW has the night's other new drama, "Runaway," with Donnie Wahlberg as an unjustly accused man going on the run with his family. It gets the 9-10 p.m. time slot, airing after the 11th season of "7th Heaven." This isn't the night with the most new shows, but it does boast the most number of classy new shows: "The Class," "Vanished," "Heroes" and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip." The toughest choice is between "Heroes" and "Vanished" at 9 p.m. Sadly, you have to figure one of them vanishes before the season runs its course.

TUESDAY (five new shows)

NBC takes another chance on football, this time in a drama, "Friday Night Lights," which kicks off the night at 8. Kyle Chandler plays the new head coach of small-town team in Texas. It goes up against three top-20 shows returning for other networks: "House" on Fox, "Dancing With the Stars" on ABC and "NCIS" on CBS. What will you do at 9 p.m., however? It's a four-way quality battle, with ABC's terrific new comedy, "The Knights of Prosperity," trying to prosper against the imposing likes of CBS' "The Unit," NBC's "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" and the CW's "Veronica Mars." This time slot -- which also includes a rare Fox misfire in the drama department, "Standoff" -- will be one of prime-time television's most hotly contested spots. At 10 p.m., NBC's "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" goes against ABC's "Boston Legal" and the new CBS drama "Smith," with Ray Liotta as a master criminal. "Smith" doesn't look to steal too many hearts, so NBC could start the night light and finish strong.

WEDNESDAY (six new shows)

This is the night with the most new shows, and three of them are sensational. NBC's 8 p.m. comedy, "30 Rock," is a scathingly funny look at the inner workings of a sketch-comedy show. And nobody knows those inner workings better than the show's creator, executive producer and star, Tina Fey, the former head writer and "Weekend Update" anchor on "Saturday Night Live." But there's nothing funny about following "30 Rock" with "Twenty Good Years," a comedy that makes shockingly little out of the seemingly can't-miss teaming of John Lithgow ("3rd Rock From the Sun") and Jeffrey Tambor ("Arrested Development"). The two new NBC comedies are up against a nuclear option, "Jericho," the CBS rookie drama about a small Kansas community cut off after mushroom clouds appear on horizons. It's not bad, and the same can be said for Fox's new legal drama, "Justice," which is up against ABC's third season of "Lost." But the big showdown is at 10 p.m., when the returning CBS drama, "CSI: NY" goes against two of the best new shows of the fall: NBC's "Kidnapped" and ABC's "The Nine." The best option? "The Nine" gets a very, very close call.

THURSDAY (five new shows)

The best newcomer of the night? Sitting pretty at 8 p.m. is ABC's "Ugly Betty," loaded with wit, energy and charm. The competition is fierce, though, with "Survivor" still a top-10 player and NBC's comedy block of "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office." But Fox won't help its cause in the 8-9 p.m. race with two new comedies, "'Til Death" and "Happy Hour," both suffering under the weight of lackluster scripts. Two new 10-11 p.m. dramas, ABC's "Six Degrees" and CBS' "Shark" (with James Woods as a defense lawyer turned prosecutor) will try to operate against NBC's aging "ER." But the night's heavyweight confrontation is at 9, with ABC moving top-10 drama "Grey's Anatomy" against top-10 CBS drama "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." History says that the hot newer show goes down when moved against an established veteran (ABC's "Mork and Mindy" was trounced by the CBS comedy "Archie Bunker's Place"), but these are two dramas with loyal followings. This is the clash to watch. If the maneuver works, ABC executives are geniuses. If "Grey's" hits the critical list, so will some careers.

FRIDAY (one new show)

A year ago, the networks tried seven new shows on this night. Six of them failed. Remember "Hot Properties," "Three Wishes," "Inconceivable," "Killer Instinct," "Twins" and "Threshold"? Well, they weren't around very long. The only one back for a second season is Jennifer Love Hewitt's "Ghost Whisperer," inspired by North Royalton paranormal investigator Mary Ann Winkowski. This fall, there is only one new series, and it, too, has a Northeast Ohio connection: Aurora native Anne Heche's ABC drama "Men in Trees." It's a difficult night, obviously, and "Men in Trees," with Heche as a relationship expert in Alaska, isn't exactly the next "Northern Exposure." So odds favor the CBS drama lineup of "Ghost Whisperer," "Close to Home" and "Numb3rs." Is NBC burying the original "Law & Order" at 10 p.m., behind "Crossing Jordan" at 8 p.m. and "Las Vegas" at 9 p.m.? It's not looking good for the granddaddy of crime-time police procedurals.

SATURDAY (1 new show)

Fox returns the "Cops" and "America's Most Wanted" lineup. NBC and CBS serve up repeats of dramas. The only new programming element to the night is a college football package from ABC. At least it's something fresh on a night smelling mighty stale for network television.

http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/plaindealer/mark_dawidziak/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/1158413716136710.xml&coll=2

fredfa

09-17-06, 07:36 PM

The New Season
Dramas dominate and pilots look promising
By Tom Dorsey Louisville Courier-Journal TV and Radio Critic

Here's a pleasant surprise.

The new TV season may be one of the best in years, judging by previews of opening episodes, which is always risky.

There are 24 new shows on the big broadcast networks on the autumn lineup. Once again dramas dominate.

NBC's "Kidnapped," about hunting down the abductors of a teenage boy, and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," about a "Saturday Night Live"-type show, are strong contenders.

So are CBS' "Smith" and "Shark," which are more crime-time shows from the "CSI" network. ABC has "Six Degrees," about a half-dozen strangers' lives intersecting in New York, and "The Nine" concerns what happens to people held hostage after a bank robbery.

Crime still pays handsomely for the networks, with 28 versions of some kind of cops and robbers on the lineups, representing more than half of all the dramas on the air.

Comedies, which used to be television's bread and butter, continue a slow decline, but there are three possible bright newcomers this season.

Fox's " 'Til Death," with Brad Garrett, is funny. So is "Help Me Help You," Ted Danson's new ABC comedy in which he plays a psychotherapist. NBC's "30 Rockefeller," another "Saturday Night Live"-type show, has possibilities.

There are no new reality shows on the schedule, but 10 return, with "Survivor" and "Dancing With the Stars" leading the way. "American Idol" is back in January.

In the end it will be the familiar veteran shows such as "CSI," "Grey's Anatomy," "Desperate Housewives" and "Without a Trace" that will attract the most viewers while the newcomers struggle to stay afloat.

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20060917&Category=FEATURES07&ArtNo=609170301&SectionCat=&Template=printart

fredfa

09-17-06, 07:47 PM

The New Season
Networks try serial monogamy
By Glenn Garvin The Miami Herald Sun, Sep. 17, 2006

Who launched the devastating nuclear attack on America in Jericho? What dark thing happened inside the bank during that 52-hour hostage standoff in The Nine? Will the teenager abducted on Kidnapped be rescued? How about the senator's missing wife on Vanished -- in fact, was she even kidnapped at all? Will the family on the lam in Runaway ever find out who framed its patriarch for murder? What's the real story of that mysterious young woman living under a false identity in Six Degrees?

Those are just a few of the questions posed by this season's crop of new television shows. Some of them will be answered -- and a lot won't. With TV introducing an unprecedent number of serialized shows built around mysteries and will-they-or-won't-they storylines -- a bunch of them are bound to be canceled long before their payoffs.

''When there are this many, most of them won't work,'' says Dick Wolf, the longtime producer of NBC's Law & Order shows, who speaks from experience: Conviction, his first attempt at serialized drama, died a quick and ignominious death last spring.

Conviction left the air with no dangling threads more significant than an unconsummated romance or two. But other cancellations of serialized shows left fans wondering everything from who murdered one of the characters (Fox's Reunion) to why a mysterious boyfriend faked his own death (UPN's Sex, Love & Secrets) to whether the human race survived no less than three sets of voracious space aliens (ABC's Invasion, NBC's Surface and CBS' Threshold).

Some network executives are worried about an eventual backlash if serialized dramas keep getting quick hooks.

''If, in fact, some of these serialized shows are canceled and there's no explanation, there's no satisfaction, I'd have fear for next year when a bunch of serialized shows come out,'' says Fox programming chief Peter Liguori. ``Will audiences now be really gun-shy about committing to these shows?''

There any number of engaging and quirky aspects to the 2006-07 TV season. Two networks (UPN and the WB) have merged into one (The CW) with a schedule cobbled together from fragments of the old. There's also a brand-new net, MyNetworkTV, with a brand-new programming concept: English-language versions of telenovelas, the big-ticket soap operas that have always dominated Spanish-language television. What seems to be yet another new network devoted completely to Saturday Night Live is really just NBC, which is airing not only SNL but a drama and a sitcom set on thinly disguised versions of the show.

Nothing, however, is likely to be as significant as the ubiquitous presence of serialized shows all over the network dial. The booming ratings success of ABC's Desperate Housewives and Lost and Fox's 24 has triggered an explosion of serials -- more than a dozen debut this fall. They're forcing the networks to reconsider their scheduling strategies, their financing and their relationship with viewers.

The most immediate impact of the serials: fewer reruns, which do poorly in the ratings and lose many viewers for good. More and more, networks are redrawing their schedules to run serialized shows in long stretches uninterrupted by reruns. For instance, ABC plans to run six new episodes of the veteran serial Lost, break for 13 episodes of the new serial Daybreak, then return for 16 Losts in a row. ''If we could run 22 straight [Losts] in the fall, we probably would,'' says ABC programming boss Stephen McPherson. ``But we just can't get the shows done in that amount of time.''

Hazier, but ultimately even more important, is the effect that the weak ratings of serial-show reruns will have on television economics. TV shows make their real money when they're sold into syndication after they've aired on the networks. If serials can't be syndicated as profitably, producers will have to ''find other revenue streams,'' admits chief CBS programmer Nina Tassler.

That may not be necessary if viewers, stung by premature cancellations, start turning away from serialized shows. Not everyone thinks they will. NBC's chief programmer Kevin Reilly, who yanked his network's Heist after just a couple of episodes last season, hoots at the idea that anybody cared whether the show's bandit gang actually pulled off the elaborate set of robberies they were planning. ''We wrote personal notes to the two viewers that were watching,'' he laughs.

But Fox's Liguori is less sanguine. He took a beating on Internet fan sites last year over the cancellation of Reunion, a show built around the mystery of which of six high school friends murdered one of the others. When fans demanded the identity of the killer, Liguori had to admit he didn't know -- the show's producers hadn't decided yet.

This fall Fox has an even more intricately plotted serial mystery, Vanished, about the disappearance of a politician's wife. Asked point-blank why anybody would invest the time to watch it after what happened with Reunion, Liguori murmured ''legitimate question'' as he nodded in agreement.

''I think it's a question that not only we face with Vanished, but frankly the whole industry is going to be facing this year,'' he says. ``Given the proliferation of serialized shows, I think all of us have to ask the question: What do we do if these shows don't work? It's not an idea that we like to think about going into a season, but frankly we do have to have some plans that say: If these shows don't work, how do we wrap them up? How did we give the audience some satisfaction?''

The ideal answer is to shoot a final episode wrapping up the plot. But even when a producer is willing to do that (which the producer of Reunion wasn't), networks are reluctant to sink more money into a show that's about to die. Jonathan Prince, the producer of the canceled 1960s family drama American Dreams, shot a series finale that showed what happened to his characters, only to see it shelved because NBC wouldn't spend the money necessary for musical rights.

Timing can be a problem, too. Invasion, ABC's aliens-in-Homestead drama, spent most of last season on the ratings bubble, and the network didn't decide to cancel it until after production was over. ''We felt like the work was really good and stuck with it till the end,'' says McPherson, rather than throwing in the towel early.

No network has more serialized programming than ABC, where at least 13 programs make heavy use of continuing story lines. That's not by design, says McPherson -- the form is so popular right now he had trouble finding shows that weren't serials when he was shopping for new pilots last spring.

He even wound up with three serialized sitcoms: The Knights Of Prosperity (inept bandit wannabes plotting to rob Mick Jagger's apartment), Big Day (the whole season takes place on the day of a single disastrous wedding) and Notes From The Underbelly (which follows a young married couple through their first pregnancy).

''I think it raises the bar for how good serials have to be, because I think people are only going to make an appointment and a commitment to a certain amount'' of serialized shows, McPherson says.

That represents a major swing of the programming pendulum. Just a couple of years ago, the common wisdom was that so-called closed-ended shows like the various CSIs and Law & Orders, which begin and end their story lines with a single episode, were the perfect form of TV drama. But when audiences responded to shows like Lost and Desperate Housewives, network executives began to see serials as ''appointment television'' that would keep viewers from straying to DVDs, the Internet or all the other entertainment options. And producers discovered that stretching plots across a season of 22 episodes gave them a broad canvas on which to paint.

''It's an excellent way to tell stories,'' says Jason Smilovic, one of the producers of NBC's Kidnapped. ``You get to really explore characters. You get to really explore storylines, plotlines. You get to live and invest in one story for a season. I think that there's an amazing amount of latitude afforded in that kind of storytelling.''

But, says Smilovic, if viewers don't agree, he's prepared with a quick resolution of his show about the hunt for a teenage kidnap victim: ``He's behind the couch.''

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/entertainment/television/15530961.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

fredfa

09-17-06, 07:58 PM

The New Season
Entertaining prospects
Television wises up -- mostly -- to the appeal of quality shows
By Rick KushmanSacramento Bee TV Columnist Sunday, September 17, 2006

See, this is what happens when we watch good TV. We get more good TV.

The 2006 fall TV season may have the biggest cluster of creative, well-written, well-made shows since, you know, ever. Or at least in a long time, and that's on top of the good stuff already out there. Vast wasteland, my flat screen.

This season may not produce a big list of major hits -- probably won't; hits take special magic -- but there are some seriously good standouts, and top to bottom, the average grade is high.

You won't even see the usual hideous train wrecks, those hold-your-head-and-moan awful shows. Well, except the lame-o soaps on MyNetworkTV, but those don't really count. They're getting a 1 rating. The "Puppy Bowl" does better.

That doesn't mean, however, that this new season doesn't come with some problems and a peek at the future of television, which may be the same thing.

But first, it helps to know that a lot of this is because you people watched "Lost" and "24" and "Grey's Ana- tomy." And maybe "Prison Break." For reasons of pure quality, shows like "House," "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office" play in, too.

Those are all very good shows, but that's only some of the point. That first bunch is also serialized, and they're the kind of shows fans need to watch every week and watch right away. They're addicting because they're good, and they're appointment TV because you'd better see them before some fool at school or work tells you what happened.

So the networks may have found a new kind of must-see TV: shows that stand above the chaotic mass of entertainment choices, and that people talk about, and -- here's a future-of-television moment -- that viewers will watch and not tape or TiVo.

Of them all, "Lost" and "24" are the real prototypes, because they're running thrillers or mysteries. They set up a natural week-to-week cliffhanger that, in theory, keeps viewers coming back. But none of that works if the shows aren't good.

That part about shows being good seems to be the sudden new network strategy to get people watching TV instead of going online, playing games, watching streaming videos or movies, messing with their blogs or whatever else they're doing. Make the shows good. Wow. How did they think of that?

Anyway, those are our themes this year: quality, mystery and to be continued.

There are nine new one-hour serials that have some level of secret/mystery/thriller elements, another three with ongoing narratives, two comedies with continuing plot lines. Even NBC's high-profile -- and gold-plated -- "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" tells one big story, though it's more traditional in the way of "The West Wing" (which is no shock, since it was created by the same people).

That's 15 out of 25 new shows. A few of those -- including "Studio 60" and another excellent new series, NBC's "Friday Night Lights" -- also function like self-contained hours (translation: no weekly cliffhanger) that let viewers miss an episode or two and not get befuddled. But still.

So let's add another theme to this season: risk.

The networks are taking a gamble on serials. Life is busy. People are booked. You can only go on so many dates, and picking up most of these shows is like starting a new relationship. Viewers will have commitment issues.

But viewers are throwing the dice, too. They could fall for a new show, then have it get canceled. It feels like getting dumped without knowing why, which sounds a lot like my dating life, though it was usually something I said.

Last season, viewers had "Threshold," "Invasion," "Surface," "Heist" and "Reunion" canceled out from under them before the shows got near to closing a story. The bet here is not even half of the new serials will get to the finish line. So chose your new TV relationships wisely.

And that is where a public-spirited TV critic comes in. I live to serve. Here are the best of the season's new offerings.

Rick's picks

"Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" (NBC, Mondays at 10 PM ET/PT): The behind-the-scenes story of a live TV show is from "The West Wing" creators Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme, has a dazzling cast and is energetic, witty and smart. Like everything from Sorkin.

"Friday Night Lights" (NBC, Tuesdays at 8 PM ET/PT): Just like the movie, the football-in-a-small-town semi-serial is about much more than football.

"The Nine" (ABC, Wednesdays at 10 PM ET/PT): A well-written, character-based serial about nine people who survive a hostage situation and find their lives have changed.

"Ugly Betty" (ABC, Thursdays at 8 PM ET/PT): Adorable Cinderella story about a decidedly unstylish young woman who goes to work for a high-fashion magazine.

"The Knights of Prosperity" (ABC, Tuesdays at 9 PM ET/PT): A goofy pack of blue-collar folk decide to rob Mick Jagger in a witty new comedy with a continuing story.

"Heroes" (NBC, Mondays at 9 PM ET/PT): In another serial, people around the world discover they have super powers.

"Men in Trees" (ABC, Fridays at 9 PM ET/PT): A light "Northern Exposure"-style hour with Anne Heche as a relationship expert whose own relationship goes south. She goes north to man-heavy Alaska.

"Jericho" (CBS, Wednesdays at 7 PM ET/PT): A small town. A nuclear explosion on the horizon. They're cut off in every way. It's "Lost" in Kansas.

All of those are worth the time, though "Jericho" looks like it will take the most energy staying with it.

As for the other new shows, a lot will depend on how the series play out, but the serials "Kidnapped" (NBC), "Smith" (CBS) and "Brothers & Sisters" (ABC) are worth a look; legal dramas "Justice" (Fox) and "Shark" (CBS) have potential; and comedies "30 Rock" (NBC) and "Help Me Help You" (ABC) look like they could be solid half hours.

That's 15 new shows worth checking out. Maybe 16 if CBS' comedy "The Class" gets a little more steady. Speaking as a professional, let me say if you try to watch them all, the headaches will come back.

A couple of other things about this season:

• WB and UPN are gone. Ten years and poof. They merged into the CW (on Channel 31 in Sacramento) and have most of the best shows from both networks, which makes for some strong pairings.

For instance, on Tuesday nights, the CW teams "Gilmore Girls" and "Veronica Mars" back-to-back, and on Thursdays it airs "Smallville," then "Supernatural." UPN's comedy block moves to Sundays on the CW and features the stellar, terribly underappreciated "Everybody Hates Chris." Tragically, the CW will still have "Friday Night SmackDown!" on Fridays.

Channel 58, which was the WB station, has taken up with MyNetworkTV and the world's most dreadful soaps. They're kinda fun for a couple of minutes, just to revel in the horrible, horrible acting, but then they start to cause brain damage.

• A few of the biggest series on TV shifted days, mostly because the networks are trying to annoy you. It starts with ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," TV's hottest drama at the end of last season, which moves from Sunday to Thursday at 9 PM ET/PT.

CBS went in the other direction with "Without a Trace." It goes from Thursday to Sunday at 9 PM ET/PT.

NBC moved the mothership "Law & Order" to Friday at 10 PM ET/PT. and "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" to Tuesday at 9 PM ET/PT.

• Speaking of moves, "Monday Night Football" jumped from ABC to sister cable network ESPN. ABC couldn't afford the rights, but ESPN can, which tells you something about the profit lines of network TV vs. cable. NBC, however, took over the "Sunday Night Football" franchise that ESPN once owned.

The Monday night announcers are ESPN vets Mike Tirico and Joe Theisman, plus Tony Kornheiser from the Washington Post and "Pardon the Interruption." "MNF" stalwarts Al Michaels and John Madden went to NBC and Sunday nights. However, Hank Williams Jr. and all his rowdy friends stayed with "MNF." Because that's why you watch football. For the song.

• After ABC ran and reran repeat episodes of "Lost" last season, the network says there will be zero repeats this year (at 9 PM ET/PT Wednesday -- reruns may show up in other time slots).

Instead, "Lost" will start its season Oct. 4, run for six weeks, then give the time slot to "Day Break," an OK thriller about a cop framed for murder who has to relive the same day, "Groundhog Day"-style. Then "Lost" will come back, probably in mid-February, and run straight through to May with fresh episodes.

This, by the way, is another future-of-television item. If networks are going to hook viewers with serials, they won't be able to force-feed repeats on anyone.

• If you're looking for traditional January starters such as "American Idol" and "24," they start in January. I know, it seems simple. Still, you wouldn't believe the phone calls and e-mail asking about them.

"Scrubs" and "Medium" are also planned for season starts in January or later. Unless too many of NBC's shows tank, and it needs pinch hitters.

• Finally, there is no real new season for cable anymore. Most of the channels drop in new shows throughout the year, where they see an opening. If anything, late spring or summer is the start of cable's biggest push.

One exception, however, is HBO, which almost always starts one big drama Sundays in September, and this year HBO is back with the fourth season of TV's most underappreciated show -- the riveting, powerful and nimble "The Wire," which kicked off its season Sept. 10.

Also, Showtime has its best drama in years starting Oct. 1. It's a slightly twisted, odd-but-slick series called "Dexter," starring Michael C. Hall as a Miami forensics cop who also happens to be a serial killer. But he channels his sociopathic tendencies toward really bad criminals. Give Showtime -- and all of TV -- points this year for taking risks.

http://pubsys.sacbee.com/172/v-print/story/23505.html

fredfa

09-17-06, 10:31 PM

The New Season
NBC shows some muscle this fall with ambitious, entertaining dramas
By Melanie McFarland Seattle Post-Intelligencer TV Critic Monday, September 18, 2006

When you cover television it's easy to kick the losers when they're down because, hey -- it's television. The beaten-to-death industry quip is, "We're not curing cancer here, people."

Sometimes, though, it sure does look like a network is suffering from it. Creatively speaking, of course. Look at NBC. For three or four seasons in a row, the rotten bouquet surrounding its series provides a reliable source of material for scornful jokes and bitter reviews. Terrible series after terrible series make it look less like a Peacock than a bloated turkey. See, there's one of those jokes now.

You can only imagine our pleasant surprise at seeing NBC's new dramas, all ambitious, each entertaining in its own right. Can't say the same of the new sitcoms; that said, no network has a great comedy this season.

But those new hours are a slate viewers can look forward to, and even if some of them fail -- an inevitability, regardless of how the premieres look -- you can't say NBC sloughed off as the 2006-2007 season began. NBC: In remission!

"Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" is the prime example, a terrifically written series that reminds viewers why NBC was the 800-pound gorilla of network television for so many years. The Monday night drama (premiering at 10 p.m. on KING/5) is smart, almost noble in its aim, much in the way "West Wing" was in its early days. "Studio's" main characters are classically appealing as well, which isn't something that can be said of most new dramas coming our way this fall.

But why don't you see for yourself? Our review is below, along with rundowns of the rest of NBC's fall series that get briefer treatments today. We'll review them in greater depth as each premieres.

'Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip' 10 PM ET/PT Mondays, starting Sept. 18.

Executive producers Thomas Schlamme and Aaron Sorkin are trying to do for Hollywood what they did for D.C. politics with "The West Wing," taking us backstage with a late-night comedy show on the brink, where censorship crackdowns have led to uninspired scripts and flagging ratings. When the producer (Judd Hirsch) has an on-air meltdown about the declining quality of television, he's fired -- and immediately replaced by a previously fired writer-director team of Matt Albie (Matthew Perry) and Danny Tripp (Bradley Whitford).

Now, if you know the tale of Sorkin's ouster from "West Wing," and his general disdain for much of the garbage that passes for television these days, you'll realize these characters are his thinly veiled stand-ins. One of them even has a substance abuse problem.

But the agile humor and light, sharp intelligence permeating the script make "Studio 60" far and away one of the season's best new dramas, if not the top entry. And you have to hand it to Sorkin -- he loses his job under Jeff Zucker's reign as entertainment head, and how does he get back into the network's good graces? By conjuring up a gutsy, smart network executive named Jordan McDeere. Only instead of finding a Zucker doppelganger for the role (i.e. a pudgy, bald and short man) he casts the lithe, beautiful Amanda Peet. Flattery will get you everywhere in this business. Well played, Mr. Sorkin. Well played. The cast also includes Steven Weber, Timothy Busfield, Nathan Corddry, D.L. Hughley and Sarah Paulson.

SO, WHAT'S THE PROBLEM? The assumption with "Studio 60" is that viewers will be just as interested in the network television industry sausage-making process as they were in seeing what goes on behind the scenes at the White House and on Capitol Hill. But there's a major difference in that people have a vested interest and play a part in shaping national politics. With entertainment industry politics, how much say do we have? None.

ON THE OTHER HAND: People are fairly savvy about the entertainment industry these days, and perhaps it won't matter in the end. A certain segment of the audience loves Sorkin's work, and this pilot proves he's still at the top of his game. More importantly, Perry and Whitford click marvelously, giving this series the strong center it needs.

‘Heroes' 9 PM ET/PT Mondays, starting Sept. 25

In this new series from Tim Kring ("Crossing Jordan"), a genetics professor from India (Sendhil Ramamurthy) discovers a number of average people have developed superpowers. Among them: A man with vivid dreams that he can fly (Milo Ventimiglia), who is dismissed by his politician brother (Adrian Pasdar); an indestructible high school cheerleader (Hayden Panettiere); a stripper with a mirror identity (Ali Larter); a junkie artist (Santiago Cabrera); and a Japanese salaryman (Masi Oka) who discovers he can stop time. Greg Grunberg and Leonard Roberts also star.

SO, WHAT'S THE PROBLEM? Assuming that the superhero genre's theatrical success will translate to "Heroes" forgets one important factor: branding. Batman, Superman, Spider-Man and the X-Men are all franchises familiar to people who have never picked up a comic book in their lives, whereas these characters don't even have zippy names. Will anyone care?

ON THE OTHER HAND: There's an element of "X-Files"-style appeal to the stories here that might get enough viewers hooked to make "Heroes" this year's cult-television treat. We'll take a closer look when the show premieres.

'Kidnapped' 10 PM ET/PT Wednesdays, starting Sept. 20.

Millionaire Conrad and Ellie Cain (Timothy Hutton and Dana Delany) nearly fall apart when their highly intelligent 15-year-old son, Leopold (Will Denton), is violently kidnapped on his way to school and his bodyguard (Mykelti Williamson) shot down. To find his son, he hires a mysterious professional named Knapp (Jeremy Sisto) and his assistant Turner (Carmen Ejogo). But soon the FBI catches wind of what's going on, pitting Special Agent Latimer King (Delroy Lindo) and his team against the Knapp's efforts.

SO, WHAT'S THE PROBLEM? You've seen this show before, and I'm not talking about Fox's "Vanished." No one will blame you for screaming out, "Hello! 'Man on Fire!' " while watching the pilot, since one scene is lifted straight out of that flick.

ON THE OTHER HAND: In spite of that, the pilot is riveting. We're interested to see where it goes, and we'll write more about it when it premieres.

'Friday Night Lights 8 PM ET/PT Tuesdays, starting Oct. 3

As a new high school football season kicks off in Dillon, Texas, its team, the 2006 state champs, practices hard and yearns to repeat the glory of the previous season. Kyle Chandler stars as the team's new head coach Eric Taylor.

SO, WHAT'S THE PROBLEM? MTV's "Two-A-Days," a documentary-style series about an Alabama football team, already is up and running. That's just as intriguing as "Friday Night Lights" was in the theaters; plus it's real and, to be honest, much more exciting to watch than this drama.

ON THE OTHER HAND: "Friday Night Lights" has everything a great series needs in place in the pilot: a talented cast, interesting camerawork, an appealing script, wonderful production values. And television isn't exactly exploding with series that are both family-friendly and smart. Having said that, one of the few other choices targeting that audience, "Gilmore Girls," is on in the same timeslot.

'30 Rock' 8 PM ET/PT Wednesdays, starting Oct. 11

The head writer of a chaotic TV variety show (Tina Fey) has to juggle the demands of her new, inordinately meddling network overlord (Alec Baldwin), who bullies her into bringing on mercurial and mentally unbalanced movie star Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan). Lorne Michaels executive produces. The cast includes Scott Adsit, Rachel Dratch and Jack McBrayer.

SO, WHAT'S THE PROBLEM? Baldwin was by far the best thing about this hit-or-miss pilot, which blinked between hysterical and dull like a kitchen light attached to faulty wiring. Not only is the pilot being completely reshot, but recast as well, with Jane Krakowski joining the cast, bumping Dratch to a vastly diminished role.

ON THE OTHER HAND: Fey wrote "Mean Girls," and her success with that movie gives me a touch of faith that she can pull this show off. (Her work on "Saturday Night Live's" "Weekend Update," sadly, does not.)

'Twenty Good Years' 8:30 PM ET/PT Wednesdays, Oct. 11.

Selfish and multiply divorced surgeon John Mason (John Lithgow) is forced into retirement and has an epiphany: He only has about 20 good years left in his life. So he tries to recruit his uptight worrywart of a best friend, Judge Jeffrey Pyne (Jeffrey Tambor), on his quest to make the most of each day ahead of them. First up: exposing saggy parts to the world.

SO, WHAT'S THE PROBLEM? Other than the fact that this might be the worst sitcom to premiere this fall? Oh, why don't we talk about that closer to the premiere?

ON THE OTHER HAND: You get to see Lithgow and Tambor in swimwear. That has to be worth something to someone somewhere.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/printer2/index.asp?ploc=t&refer=http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/tv/285311_tv18.html

fredfa

09-17-06, 10:37 PM

The New Season
Monday’s Premieres

8 PM ET/PT The Class - CBS (New Show) HD
8 PM ET/PT Deal or No Deal NBC
8 PM ET/PT Wife Swap ABC
8:30 PM ET/PT How I Met Your Mother - CBS HD
9 PM ET/PT Two And A Half Men - CBS HD
9:30 PM ET/PT The New Adventures of Old Christine - CBS HD
10 PM ET/PT CSI: Miami - CBS HD
10 PM ET/PT Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip – NBC (New Show)

fredfa

09-17-06, 10:58 PM

The New Season
Fast-paced, big-talent 'Class' gets a passing grade and more
By Robert Bianco USA Today
If you're throwing a big party, it helps to have a lot of friends.

Size matters when it comes to The Class, a fresh, talent-stocked twist on the standard sitcom from Friends creator David Crane and Mad About You producer Jeffrey Klarik. Having noticed that viewers in this Lost age are able to keep track of big ensembles and split stories, the team has filled Class with an exceptionally large core of regulars, including eight main stars and a host of satellites.

How do you keep so many characters tied together? You don't. In three episodes provided for review, the writers quickly splinter the cast into separate groupings, cutting back and forth among them. It's almost like watching a set of one-act plays jammed together, which allows the show to quicken its pace and race past some conventional exposition. And as a bonus, it means no one has to come up with some sitcommy reason to gather everyone together every week.

Still, there does have to be some central link, and it's admittedly an odd one: They're all third-grade classmates reunited by Ethan (Jason Ritter) for a surprise party to celebrate the day he met his fiancée. Yes, it's silly, as the show acknowledges, but don't let the goofiness of the gimmick distract you. Once you got past the opening episode, did it really matter much how the Friends became friends?

At the party, Richie (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) bonds with Lina (Heather Goldenhersh), much to the dismay of Lina's sister Kat (Lizzy Caplan). Holly (Lucy Punch) is there to confront her prom date, Kyle (Sean Maguire), who came out of the closet at the after-prom — a pattern Holly may have repeated with her ambiguously gay husband Perry (Sam Harris). Finally, there's Duncan (Jon Bernthal), who lives with his mother (Julie Halston) and still yearns for his now-married girlfriend, Nicole (Andrea Anders).

Don't worry: You're not expected to memorize all the connections or keep track of all the characters. The show provides a handy recap at the start of each episode.

Ritter is completely charming tonight, and even more so later when he gets to show a little backbone. Halston gets a laugh with every line, and Anders and Bernthal bring a nice, light touch to their romantic quandary. But in the early going, the comic standouts of the show and the season are Ferguson and Goldenhersh, two Broadway stars who seem instantly and joyously at home on TV.

Juggling such a large ensemble won't be easy, and the producers have to guard against crowding too many stories together at the cost of depth and development. (The Holly/Perry dynamic is already growing stale, though Holly's upcoming stint in a hurricane does give the show one of its best sight gags.) If they can get the balance right, though, Class should be an ideal fit for CBS' successful Monday lineup.

You can feel the network partying already.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/reviews/2006-09-17-review-the-class_x.htm

fredfa

09-17-06, 11:04 PM

Cable TV Notebook
Returnees have USA psyched
By Nellie Andreeva The Hollywood Reporter Sept. 18, 2006

USA Network loves its TV psychics.

The network has picked up its oldest series, drama "The Dead Zone," and its latest entry, the dramedy "Psych," for another season.

After lengthy negotiations, USA has closed a deal to bring the veteran "Dead Zone" back for a 13-episode, sixth season in summer 2007, with star Anthony Michael Hall set to return as Johnny Smith, a man who wakes up from a six-year coma with psychic powers.

USA also has acquired the cable strip rights to the series, produced by Lionsgate and CBS Paramount International TV in association with Piller-Segan.

USA executive vp original programming Jeff Wachtel credited "Dead Zone's" rating resurgence since it was paired with "The 4400" last year for the network's decision to continue the show's run.

The network aims to reinvent the series following the November death of co-creator/executive producer Michael Piller.

"We're looking at the sixth season as the first season," Wachtel said.

"Dead Zone" co-creator Shawn Piller continues to executive produce the show with Lloyd Segan.

"Psych" has received a 16-episode order for a second season to launch in summer 2007 as well. The pickup was a no-brainer given the show's strong rating performance behind the network's hit "Monk" on Friday night.

"It was a hit out of the box," Wachtel said of "Psych." " 'Monk' has been the game-changer for us, and 'Psych' is as close to a perfect match as you can get."

"Psych," from NBC Universal TV, stars James Roday as a perceptive man who helps police solve crimes by pretending he is a psychic.

Steve Franks, Kelly Kulchak and Chris Henze are executive producing.

With the pickups of "Dead Zone" and "Psych," USA has ensured that its two successful programming blocks -- the sci-fi themed "4400" and "Dead Zone" and the quirky detective dramedies "Monk" and "Psych" -- will remain intact for another year.

In addition to the four returning series, USA plans to launch at least one new series next year, Wachtel said.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003123319

fredfa

09-17-06, 11:17 PM

The New Season
'Studio 60': Work never looked so fun
By Robert Bianco USA Today

Sometimes, where you're going is less important than who's taking you there.

So it doesn't matter if you have only limited interest in what goes on behind the scenes at a TV show. What matters with Studio 60 is that it stars Matthew Perry, Bradley Whitford and Amanda Peet; it's directed by Thomas Schlamme; and it's written by Aaron Sorkin. And they're all at the top of their games.

Teeming with rich characters and terrific actors, brimming with wit, drama and unexpected urgency, Studio 60 brings its workplace to full, immensely entertaining life. But then, what else would you expect from the team that gave us Sports Night and The West Wing?

Their latest series is set at an SNL-type sketch show (though you may well feel you're actually backstage at Wing). Already in decline, the fictional Studio 60 is pushed over the edge by the live Network-like rant of the show's founder (Judd Hirsch).

In rushes the new president of "NBS" entertainment, Jordan McDeere (Peet), who was brought in by network head Jack Rudolph (Steven Weber) to right the ratings ship. Her idea: Bring back the brilliant writer/director team Jack forced out, Matt Albie (Perry) and Danny Tripp (Whitford).

Almost instantly, the news that Matt and Danny might return leaks to the show's director (Timothy Busfield) and its three stars: Simon (D.L. Hughley), Tommy (Nathan Corddry) and Matt's ex-girlfriend Harriet (Sarah Paulson). Their reactions are mixed, for reasons that become clearer next Monday.

As is usual with Sorkin, information about these characters and their relationships is parceled out in fits and starts so that we discover things piecemeal, as we might in real life. And, as usual, the lines sparkle even when the writer indulges his fondness for big set speeches.

There are times when Studio 60 is a little too self-important and self-referential. (It's impossible not to read Sorkin into Perry's character.) But while it is interested in the issues that are faced and stirred up by TV, it is definitely not a show about show business. This is a beautifully acted drama about the conflicts, pressures and joys that arise when people come together at work. In short, it's about life.

Who can't identify with that?

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/reviews/2006-09-17-studio-60_x.htm

fredfa

09-17-06, 11:22 PM

The New Season
Battle brewing on Thursdays
Fox's "American Idol" could be moving to a night already stuffed with "Grey's Anatomy" and "CSI."
By Scott Collins Los Angeles Times Staff Writer in the Channel Island TV Column September 18, 2006

If you think the television lineup is already peppered with too many can't-miss shows scheduled at the same time this fall, don't finish programming your TiVo just yet. With tonight's official start of the new TV season, Fox is openly dangling the possibility of moving "American Idol" to Thursdays.

Wasn't this season already insanely competitive enough? Starting this week, ABC's gutsy move of "Grey's Anatomy" to 9 p.m. Thursday will set off a fierce ratings battle with CBS' seventh-season whodunit, "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."

But Fox Entertainment President Peter Liguori said he believes that the top three networks could still profit with their respective No. 1 series airing on the same crucial night — maybe even at the same time.

"When you have a number of great shows on the same night, the audience expands," Liguori said last week, openly broaching the possibility of a regular Thursday slot for "Idol" when it returns in January.

Fox isn't ready to commit, and in fact, it may not nail down plans until Christmas rolls around. Is it all just "Idol" speculation? Maybe. After all, Fox made similar rumblings about moving its singing contest to Thursdays last year and never did it, although the gossip helped knock NBC off stride: The network waited to move "Earl" to Thursdays last season until it was sure Fox would not put "Idol" on that night.

But that Fox is openly mulling a risky move for TV's most-watched program highlights how crazily competitive the network business is becoming, with no firmly entrenched leader among the adults aged 18-49 demographic group that advertisers covet (CBS has for years been No. 1 in total viewers, a distinction that means little on Madison Avenue). By moving "Idol," Fox could conceivably control some of the most lucrative ad time in prime time — and also foil rivals' efforts to dominate that night with top shows.

"It's certainly shaping up to a much more competitive season than we've seen in a while," said CBS scheduling chief Kelly Kahl. "Everyone's making aggressive moves."

Starting in the mid-1980s, NBC had a lock on the lucrative "demo" for nearly 20 years with fare such as "Cheers," "ER" and "The West Wing" — series with sophisticated writing and characters and plenty of appeal for young-adult viewers who were affluent and well educated. But with the fade-out of "Friends" in 2004, NBC went into a free fall, and Fox swept in with "Idol" and took those trophies, albeit by narrow margins.

This fall, NBC's fortunes are almost certain to perk up with the addition of Sunday NFL football. "The great games on Sunday provide us with a chance to get back in the game," said NBC scheduling chief Mitch Metcalf. He added, though, that football "is not going to solve every problem; we need our new shows to break out." Among those contenders: Aaron Sorkin's heavily promoted "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," Tina Fey's backstage spoof "30 Rock" and a football-themed youth soap, "Friday Night Lights."

Any substantial improvement for NBC could mean that either ABC or CBS winds up in fourth place in 18 to 49 — an outcome both networks will work hard to avoid.

The closeness of the four-network race, and the lack of an undisputed leader, explains why executives are battling so furiously for Thursday — where some of the most expensive advertising time is bought and sold.

When ABC announced "Grey's" move in May, for example, NBC quickly backed away from a Thursday slot for "Studio 60," which landed on Mondays instead. More recently, ABC displaced two new Thursday comedies to import its buzz-worthy drama "Ugly Betty" from Fridays to a high-traffic spot opposite CBS' "Survivor."

All the shuffling could wreak havoc with well-established viewing patterns. For example, when NBC decided to hustle "Studio 60" out of the 9 p.m. Thursday slot, it replaced it with "Deal or No Deal," the game show with Howie Mandel that draws a less upscale audience than the network typically attracts. That could end up hurting "ER," the network's 10 p.m. hospital drama entering its 13th season.

"Deal" will give "ER" "a significantly lower lead-in than it's had, probably ever," said ABC Entertainment Executive Vice President Jeff Bader. (NBC's Metcalf defended the move, saying that "Deal" is "a different kind of show than the competition will be offering.")

Rivals agree that Fox probably wants to see how this all shakes out before making a decision on "Idol," which since its inception has consisted of a Tuesday performance show followed by a Wednesday results show.But don't expect Liguori and his Fox compatriots to make things easy on you and your TiVo any time soon.

"We will debate our schedule and what we're doing," he said, "right until the last moment."

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/cl-et-channel18sep18,1,6665516,print.story?coll=la-headlines-entnews

fredfa

09-18-06, 12:43 AM

The New Season
'CSI: Miami' Goes Global
The 'CSI' spinoff is now ranked No. 1 on the planet, and after a trip to Rio, the makers feel it travels well.
By Maria Elena Fernandez Los Angeles Times Staff Writer September 18, 2006

"Look, this is no longer a Miami matter now. You have to think global."

When Agent Park uttered those words to Miami-Dade Crime Lab Lt. Horatio Caine in the last minutes of the fourth-season finale of "CSI: Miami" in May, he might as well have been counseling star David Caruso himself, the rest of the cast and crew, and CBS on how to handle their newfound status as the world's No. 1 U.S. television show.

With 50 million viewers around the globe (including 18.1 million Americans who tuned in last year), "CSI: Miami" toppled "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives," which ranked second and third, respectively, and even the mother ship, "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," which finished in sixth place, according to a survey by business research firm Informa Telecoms & Media.

Some spinoff, huh?

"For me, the exciting part of hearing that is that it opened some doors for us to go and embrace the audience around the world, literally, and physically be there," Caruso said recently in his spiffy trailer at Raleigh Studios in Manhattan Beach. "And Brazil was just the beginning."

That's where the show travels for tonight's season opener. It was a journey that Horatio vowed to take at the end of last season when his bride of just a few weeks was gunned down by a gangster who was seeking revenge against Horatio. When Agent Park informs Horatio that Marisol's killer will be extradited to Brazil, he and her brother, Eric Delko (Adam Rodriguez), vow to seek their own justice in Rio de Janeiro.

When "CSI: Miami" begins this season, (tonight at 10 PM ET/PT) Horatio is standing above the clouds at the top of Rio's famed Corcovado mountain, where the statue of Christ the Redeemer is visible from every corner of the metropolis. Two months after he shot that sequence, Caruso's head was still in the clouds over his week in Rio, the fans who chanted "Horacio, Horacio" everywhere he went, and what he hopes might become a standing feature of the series.

"It is my fervent wish — knock on wood — that we continue to travel foreign because it was great for us and a comfortable fit and appropriate to who we are," he said. "I feel it is the key to who we are, which is why we've been embraced. In a funny way, 'CSI: Miami' is 'CSI: Rio' and 'CSI: Dubai' and 'CSI: Berlin.' Miami itself is a very international place, and one of the things we've been able to do is capture the international flair of the world of Miami."

Caruso and co-creator Ann Donahue, who also runs the show, came face to face with the international power of the middle "CSI" child — "CSI: Miami" premiered two years after "CSI" and helped spin off "CSI: NY" in 2004 — in April when they were invited to a reception in Cannes, France, hosted by Alliance Atlantis International Television, which distributes the franchise globally.

Part of the largest international trade show for TV programming, the event introduced Caruso and Donahue to buyers who were champing at the bit to take pictures with the star and persuade Donahue to film in their countries. That enthusiasm gave Donahue and Caruso the impetus for going global with their storytelling.

To their surprise, CBS and Paramount, which produces the show, approved it immediately. The writers selected Brazil because the show already had established a story there: At the end of the third season, Horatio put his own brother, sister-in-law and nephew on a plane to Rio.

"I really think Horatio Caine has become iconic," Donahue said. "Wherever David goes now, he'll go to Cannes or overseas in the summer, he's like one of the Beatles."

OK, probably not quite a Beatle in status, but definitely very popular. "CSI: Miami" is the No. 9 show in the U.S. But it's the top-rated U.S. show in France, Italy and Germany and ranks second in Portugal and the Netherlands. Among dramas, it is No. 2 in Spain, No. 3 in Canada and Britain, and No. 7 in Australia. The three "CSI" shows air in 180 countries.

"This is the biggest international show that's come out of the States in years," said Ted Riley, managing director of Alliance Atlantis, who runs "the international exploitation of 'CSI' " from Dublin, Ireland. "From the Far East in Malaysia and Singapore to Germany and Spain and Italy to the States and into Latin America, people love this show. Television is an international business now. The purchasing power is so strong, and these shows can make a lot of money out of the foreign market, combined with the American after-market." (The first seasonof "CSI: Miami" began run-ning nightly on A&E two weeks ago.)

Around the world, fans love the mysteries and the forensics approach to problem-solving that envelop all of the "CSI" shows, but "CSI: Miami" stands out, Riley said, because of its exotic allure. And then there's Caruso, whose campy, melodramatic crime-fighting Horatio makes viewers feel like he's personally taking care of them.

"Horatio is drawn to situations that need his help," Caruso said, explaining why "H" fell in love with the drug-addicted Marisol. "I see Horatio as the ultimate civil servant, a man that is designed to respond to distress signals."

In Australia, Caruso had a strong fan base from his days on "NYPD Blue," said Michael Healy, director of programming for the Nine, the top-rated network there. But now Caruso and company's popularity — not to mention the other "CSI" shows' — is off the charts among 25- to 54-year-olds.

"Based on the fact that the 'CSI' franchise has been incredibly successful in Australia, Miami has a point of difference that obviously resonates with Australian audiences," Healy said. "The location of Miami is sexy and bright and a beachside location, and that's similar to Australian lifestyles."

Could a "CSI: Sydney" be coming down the pike? "There's a lot of interest, but it's not just something we're pursuing right now," Riley said. That's fine with Caruso, who wants to be the one to bring his "CSI: Miami" to the world and is hoping the higher-ups feel the same way.

"I can't imagine the network allowing us to travel more than once a year because what people are in love with is Horatio in Miami and the city of Miami," Donahue said.

Given what the Rio trip produced, CBS President of Entertainment Nina Tassler said, the network would consider letting "H" hit the road again: "The footage they brought back is just gorgeous. It just took your breath away."

Caruso has a photograph of the opening shot in Rio de Janeiro on his trailer's refrigerator next to a mock-up logo of a spinoff idea sent by a fan for "Christ Scene Investigation: Palestine."

"The fans have embraced us on their own terms," he said. "You can't ask for anything better than that."

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-et-csimiami18sep18,0,5631549,print.story?coll=cl-tvent

fredfa

09-18-06, 02:07 AM

Monday’s New Shows
The Class 8 PM ET/PT CBS

What: Eight former third-grade classmates reunite a couple of decades later and get reacquainted comedically.
Who: Jason Ritter, Heather Goldenhersh, Jon Bernthal, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Lizzy Caplan, Sean Maguire, Lucy Punch, Andrea Anders.
Why: Coming from "Friends" writer-producer David Crane, maybe this sitcom will turn out to be "Friends"-Plus-Two.
How: Reconnecting thanks to Ethan Haas (Ritter), these grade-school alumni are in wildly different places in life when he calls to invite them to his reunion party: Lina Warbler (Goldenhersh) is getting dumped by her boyfriend; working-class lug Duncan Carmello (Bernthal) is playing a video game and arguing with his mother, with whom he still lives; Richie Velch (Ferguson) is about to swallow a bottle of pills, but willingly scribbles down the party address on the back of his suicide note.
Turns out Ethan has his problems too: His fiancée breaks up with him in the middle of the party he threw for her. She says he's too nice and takes her leave. But the eight people (and then some) she leaves behind are fated to be congregating for laughs and romance. Judging from its pilot, "The Class" could make the grade.
• By Tom Dorsey Louisville Courier-Journal TV and Radio Critic

David Crane of "Friends" fame casts his net toward a new generation of urban, white twentysomethings with this fragmented ensemble comedy — all the characters had been in the same third-grade class but meet again at a reunion whose only purpose is to get them to meet again. Some are happy, some are sad, some are confused, some are less confused. Some are funny, some not.
•By Robert Lloyd Los Angeles Times

People who avoid high school and college reunions with a near-religious devotion will be especially baffled by "The Class," a cockamamie drama in which presumably sane individuals just can't get on with their lives until they return to third grade at Woodman Elementary School and see dear old Mrs. Klinger again -- or is she dead? It's hard to recall, so many ancient and arcane crises, neuroses and anxieties are dredged up again. Characters include two token gay men, a sexy blonde married to a brain-damaged football star, and a fellow who's spending adulthood with his shrewish mother. "It's all good," one of them says. She must be talking about some other show. (Mondays, 8 p.m.; premieres tomorrow night.)
•By Tom Shales Washington Post

Jason Ritter stars in this sitcom about a group of former grade schoolers now in their 20s who are brought together for an impromptu reunion. The pilot for this show is no home run, which is a shame - the terrific “How I Met Your Mother” could use a strong lead-in, but it remains to be seen if “The Class” can muster up sufficient enthusiasm to help create a solidly rated one-hour block of comedy.
• By Maureen Ryan Chicago Tribune

Just when we thought we could never laugh again — at least during a comedy pilot this fall — along comes one of the freshest breaths of comedy air we've felt in what seems like decades.
Although it's probably only since we started screening close to 30 new network shows this fall.
The idea came when writing/life partners Jeffrey Klarik and "Friends" co-creator David Crane were cleaning out their basement last year and came across some boxes.
"There were all these big huge boxes of crap from the past," Klarik says. "In one of the boxes there was a bunch of these pictures from David's third-grade class. We started looking at them, and I said, 'Who is that nerdy kid?'"
And Crane admitted it was him.
They started pondering what had become of all these smiling kids. How did their lives turn out. And the idea of "The Class" was born.
Jason Ritter plays Ethan, the too-attentive boyfriend who reconnects with a third-grade classmate and begins a relationship. He decides to throw her a party celebrating their time together with members of their third-grade class.
And that's when things go fantastically funny.
He phones Richie Velch (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) right before Richie is about to commit suicide. No, he has no plans and would love to go to the party. Then there's the delicious cynic Kat (Lizzy Caplan) and her sister Lina (Heather Goldenhersh). Lina just caught her boyfriend in bed with someone else and is ready to move on to another relationship. Perhaps with the gorgeous Kyle Lendo.
Holly Ellenbogen (Lucy Punch) also wants to connect with Kyle, to show him she's very happy and adjusted. And totally over the fact that she caught him having sex with a guy from his Spanish class on their prom night — when she believed the two would finally consummate their relationship.
Kyle (Sean Maguire) is now in a strong relationship with the impossibly beautiful Aaron (Cristian de la Fuente). He goes to make amends to Holly, and can't get over that she's married Perry Pearl (Sam Harris).
Perhaps the only two people in the world who believe Perry is a straight man are Holly and Perry. And perhaps their daughter Oprah, named after Perry's favorite show.
One of the weaker links in the show is the triangle of Duncan (Jon Bernthal), Nicole (Andrea Anders) and Yonk (David Keith). Duncan and Nicole were high school sweethearts who broke up. He's still living with his mother and she's married to Yonk, the self-absorbed former NFL star who is old enough to be her dad.
Ethan and Cat have cracking good chemistry, enough to make them the main focus of the show. And the relationship between Lina and Richie gave more laughs per half-hour than every other fall comedy combined.
•By Susan Young Oakland Tribune

Jason Ritter plays an unabashed romantic who decides to surprise his fiancee by throwing her a surprise party, inviting their third-grade classmates to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the day they met. The plan backfires. She leaves him. But his erstwhile classmates stick around to torment him.
• By Marisa Guthrie The New York Daily News

Premise: Former third-grade classmates re-enter each other's lives at a party, sparking new relationships.
Have I seen a final pilot yet?: Yes, and episodes two and three.
Why I like it: Because I've seen episodes two and three. The pilot was too broad and not funny enough, but I liked the later episodes much better. In particular, there's good stuff involving Jesse Tyler Ferguson as a semi-suicidal loser, Jason Ritter's uptight doctor dealing with Lizzie Caplan's abrasive photographer, and Jon Bernthal as the failure to launch case who still lives with his mom. In particular, Bernthal's delivery of the line "This place is not well built!" in episode two has replaced "Is that something you might be interested in?" as the reigning non seuitur quote in my house. After the pilot, I was ready to skip it; after the next two episodes, it's Season Pass material.
Why I’m worried: There's a lame running joke about a character who doesn't realize her husband is gay, even though he's so over-the-top flaming that the top is no longer visible without an observatory-size telescope, and it puts a major drag on any scenes involving that character and her sub-group. (For now, the show seems to have split the eight regulars and their hangers-on into three separate groupings, and one of those groupings is unwatchable.) Has all the setup/joke rhythms of a three-camera sitcom, and even though co-creator David Crane ("Friends") is one of the better setup/joke men in the business, if you're sick of the form this won't change your mind.
• By Alan Sepinwall Newark Star-Ledger

One of the most high-profile half-hours of the season, because it is the first new effort from David Crane, one of the creators of “Friends,” and is directed by James Burrows (“Will & Grace”). This is a traditional “gang sitcom,” based on a reunion of a group of 20-somethings who went to third grade together. Love, friendship and mishaps bloom. The large cast includes Jason Ritter (“Joan of Arcadia”), Lizzy Caplan (“Mean Girls”) and Jesse Tyler Ferguson (“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”).
• By Bill Carter The New York Times

fredfa

09-18-06, 02:08 AM

Monday’s New Shows
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip 10 PM ET/PT NBC

What: A buddy dramedy in the posh trappings of a big-time network TV show.
Who: For starters, creator Aaron Sorkin in this follow-up to his presidential masterpiece "The West Wing." Plus "West Wing" alum Bradley Whitford co-starring with Matthew Perry as comedy writers hired to be replacement producers for a late-night sketch-comedy series. Amanda Peet is the network exec whose future depends on their success.
Why: Sorkin wanted to write about network TV, and NBC wanted him to write whatever he wanted.
How: A richly produced hour with a large ensemble cast on the order of "The West Wing," this series risks paling in comparison to Sorkin's prior effort. The issues of the White House are inherently more dramatic than a live late-night series, one that differs from "SNL" principally in that it airs from Hollywood (not New York), on Fridays (not Saturdays) and on the National Broadcasting System (not the National Broadcasting Company).
The pilot episode is preoccupied with establishing how this pair of brilliant bad boys get lured back to run the show they had been fired from years earlier. But what next, when Nielsen ratings, rather than the fate of the world, are what's at stake each week? Will the audience care?
On the other hand, never underestimate the brilliantly literate, inventive Sorkin. Besides, the chemistry between Perry and Whitford is obvious. This combination might suffice -- even without the Oval Office.
• By Tom Dorsey Louisville Courier-Journal TV and Radio Critic

The backstage-at-a-sketch-comedy show that isn't "30 Rock" from Aaron Sorkin, the man who brought you "Sports Night" and "The West Wing" and from whose house style this departs not at all. Big sets, fast talk and a fascination with the life of a workplace are again at the heart of things. Bradley Whitford, making the leap from "West Wing," is paired with Matthew Perry as a producer-writer team hired to adrenalize a moribund "SNL"-lookalike. Timothy Busfield, Amanda Peet and D.L. Hughley are here too, making themselves fun to watch.
•By Robert Lloyd Los Angeles Times

Nutshell: New network boss (Amanda Peet) wants to revive venerable but unfunny late-night variety show, hires two troubled ex-writers (Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford) and promises them creative freedom.
Aaron’s take: Talented ensemble (D.L. Hughley, Evan Handler, Sarah Paulson) should feast on whatever comes out of writer-producer Aaron Sorkin’s (“The West Wing”) computer. But America switched off Sorkin’s last TV-show-within-a-show, “Sports Night,” and if he’s serious about “weighing in on the culture wars,” as he promised critics this summer, he could drive a lot of potential viewers over to ESPN or “CSI: Miami.”
Verdict: Appointment TV.
•By Aaron Barnhart Kansas City Star

The most buzzed-about pilot for fall actually, in this writer’s opinion, lives up to the hype. Set behind the scenes at a show very much like “Saturday Night Live,” the latest drama from the pen of Aaron Sorkin is not just a showcase for the scribe’s natural TV-writing gifts, but it provides Matthew Perry with the opportunity to give an absolutely stellar performance. Even if the rest of the season is only 80 percent as good as the pilot, I’ll be glued to this show each week.
• By Maureen Ryan Chicago Tribune

Aaron Sorkin satirizes broadcast television, a milieu he is intimately acquainted with as the creator of "The West Wing" and "SportsNight." This time, late-night TV is the conduit for Sorkin's social commentary. Bradley Whitford and Matthew Perry play writing partners brought in to save a ratings-challenged "Saturday Night Live"-type show. Amanda Peet, Timothy Busfield, Steve Weber, D.L. Hughley and Sarah Paulson co-star.
• By Marisa Guthrie The New York Daily News

One of the most eagerly awaited of the new dramas, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" is Aaron "West Wing" Sorkin's attempt to dramatize what might go on backstage at a sketch comedy show like NBC's own "Saturday Night Live" (also the setting, of course, for another new NBC series, "30 Rock"). Sorkin's drama takes place in Los Angeles -- one of the superficial ways to tell it from the other show -- and gets off to a fairly compelling start: Judd Hirsch, as the aging grump of a producer, tells viewers, "It's not going to be a very good show tonight; change the channel." He's obviously been inspired by Peter Finch's immortal Howard Beale in Paddy Chayefsky's "Network," and as part of his rant, he tells viewers they've all been "lobotomized" by television. Speak for yourself, pal. A very iffy beginning, but hopes for "Studio 60" remain high.
•By Tom Shales Washington Post

I had problems with the pilot of this drama about the doings at a network comedy show. I also had problems with the pilot of The West Wing, which came from the same writing-directing team, and it turned out OK. And this has a stellar performance by Matthew Perry.
• By R.D. Heldenfels Akron Beacon Journal

I’ve already committed to a relationship with Danny, Matt and Harriet.
I can hardly wait to see how Cal, Jack and Simon will spice things up in the future.
And the jury is still out on Jordan.
Welcome to the behind-the-scenes world at a fictional network late-night sketch comedy show — a world I've chosen to inhabit for as long as it graces the airwaves.
Phenomenal scribe Aaron Sorkin ("Sports Night," "The West Wing," "A Few Good Men") has once again teamed with his directing partner Thomas Schlamme to produce a series that's almost too good to be believed.
Sorkin's dialogue is the smart, snappy stuff we always wish would come out of our own mouths, yet seldom does. Through his characters, he conveys to viewers he will never talk down to them as if they were a group of kindergarteners being coached about not sticking their fingers up their noses.
Sorkin's known for putting on more layers than a Southern
belle's ball gown. His rapid-fire dialogue allows him to pack a lot of lines in a limited amount of time. After watching this Sorkin show, we suddenly feel like we've gained several IQ points and could hang out with Dorothy Parker on her best day.
The ensemble series takes a thinly veiled look at the inside workings of "Saturday Night Live." But, just as Sorkin's series "The West Wing" was more about characters and issues than it was about life inside the Beltway, this clever show gives us a peek at creative people whose minds never get stuck in neutral.
The Hollywood insider stuff just sprinkles it with additional glitter.
The fetching Amanda Peet ("Syriana") plays new network entertainment chief Jordan McDeere (for real TV junkies, this character is based on former ABC honchette Jamie Tarses, who used to go by married surname McDermott). Her first day on the job has her dealing with a "Network"-style meltdown by the show's producer (Judd Hirsch), who takes over the live broadcast of the show to tell viewers how the networks are kowtowing to special interest groups. Now the once razor-sharp show is reduced to a dull toy.
We like Jordan and the way she stands up to the network heavyweight Jack, played impeccably by Steven Weber. We like control room editor Cal (the always amazing Timothy Busfield), and the way he puts his job on the line to do what is right. We like D.L. Hughley as the show's headliner and the way he takes his comedy seriously.
But the real love affair begins when we see main characters Danny (Bradley Whitford) and Matt (Matthew Perry), the returning producers of the show.
Danny is Schlamme and Matt is Sorkin.
Except in this screen version, Danny's the one with the drug problem.
Sorkin's battle with drugs has made front page news, especially his famous bust at the Burbank airport. He weaves his own personal demons into Danny and Matt in a way that's both hilarious and poignant. Don't expect Sorkin to shoot for the cheap below-the-belt shots. It's all on a much higher level.
Sarah Paulson blows the walls off the room with her portrayal of Matt's former girlfriend Harriet, a Christian with a wicked sense of humor who is a major star on the show. Harriet is loosely based on former "West Wing" star Kristin Chenoweth.
Sorkin loves the art of conversation. He loves writers — and writers, especially TV critics, usually have a strong fondness for Sorkin. He loves putting their names in his shows, giving a little nod to them. He loves chatting with them at parties, making them feel as if he's sharing stories only with them. And he's very good at making middle-age women feel like they rock his world.
But we especially like the fact that Sorkin never lets us down when it comes to delivering the best.
•By Susan Young Oakland Tribune

Premise: The behind-the-scenes at "SNL" show with Aaron Sorkin, Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford.
Have I seen a final pilot yet?: No.
Why I like it: Sorkin is writing, Tommy Schlamme is directing, Perry and Whitford play off each other nicely, and there's a good supporting cast (notably Amanda Peet as the most likable TV exec of all time, Tim Busfield as a loyal director, and, in a cameo, Judd Hirsch as Lorne Michaels having a meltdown).
Why I’m worried: I love the talent involved and their track record a lot more than the pilot itself, which felt too self-congratulatory and too much like fanfiction. Maybe if I had seen the pilot without having read the script months earlier, or if I didn't know the TV business well enough to recognize that Perry's playing Sorkin, Peet's Jamie Tarses, Sarah Paulson is Kristin Chenoweth, etc., I might have felt more engaged by it. But because it is Sorkin and Schlamme -- and because certain moments in the pilot work so well -- I'm not ready to dismiss it quite yet.
• By Alan Sepinwall Newark Star-Ledger

Perhaps the most anticipated series of the season, not because it marks the return of Matthew Perry to weekly television or the introduction of Amanda Peet to the same, but because the show was created by Aaron Sorkin, arguably the most avidly followed writer in the business. It is his first effort since “The West Wing,” but this time around the familiar articulate and voluble Sorkin characters are not saving the world but saving a troubled sketch-comedy television show. Mr. Perry plays a creative genius called in by the network, along with his partner, played by Bradley Whitford, straight from “The West Wing.” The two are surrogates for Mr. Sorkin and his collaborator, Tommy Schlamme. Ms. Peet plays a network programmer.
• By Bill Carter The New York Times

fredfa

09-18-06, 03:01 AM

The New Season
TV Review: “The Class”
Love, Despair and Laugh Tracks on the Far Side of Third Grade
By Alessandra Stanley The New York Times September 18, 2006

There are two kinds of alumni, those who want to share their happiness by talking about it and those who can’t get away from their happy classmates fast enough.

On CBS’s new sitcom “The Class,” (8 PM ET/PT tonight, CBS) Ethan Haas (Jason Ritter) decides to surprise his fiancée, Joanne, with a reunion of their third-grade classmates to mark the 20th anniversary of the day the two met, and starts cold-calling people he has not seen since then. He tells Kat (Lizzy Caplan) that he and his beloved are both pediatricians, both have golden retrievers and have birthdays one day apart.

“It is funny, I have no recollection of either you or Joanne,” Kat sweetly says, “but you really sound like people I would hate.”

Her sweeter, dizzier sister, Lina (Heather Goldenhersh), persuades Kat to go to the reunion with her, hoping to meet single men. She and all the other guests who barely remember one another are rewarded by the sight of Joanne dumping Ethan in front of everyone.

“This is the best party ever,” Kat exclaims.

“The Class,” which begins tonight on CBS, is an old-fashioned sitcom with one-two punch lines and a laugh track, but it holds more promise than that: it is a collaboration of David Crane, one of the creators of “Friends,” and Jeffrey Klarik, whose credits include “Mad About You” and “The Naked Truth.” James Burrows, the television director whose career spans “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “Will & Grace,” is also on the team. Mr. Ritter is the son of John Ritter, who died in 2003, and has some of his father’s comic bent, though not his antic energy.

“The Class” has appealing characters and funny lines, but it has some problems. The jokes move along slowly, and at times the acting turns very broad and very loud, as if it were dinner theater and the performers had to make themselves heard over the din of scraping knives and sizzling platters.

The show is supposed to be a more misanthropic version of “Friends,” an ensemble of sad sacks and discontents in their late 20’s. Lina can’t find a nice boyfriend and her sexy, slinky sister Kat is too mean-spirited even to try. Another classmate, Duncan (Jon Bernthal), lives at home with his mother; his first love, Nicole (Andrea Anders) is unhappily married to an older former football star, Yonk Allen (David Keith).

None of the classmates have perfect lives, but Richie (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) is the most miserable: he is so depressed he keeps a bottle of pills at the ready for suicide. He is about to swallow them when Ethan invites him to the party.

Richie is one of the more endearing characters. When Duncan points out Yonk and says, “He used to play for the Eagles,” Richie mumbles, “I never followed music.”

CBS has had some success with conventional sitcoms. “The Class” is followed tonight by “How I Met Your Mother,” “Two and a Half Men” and “The New Adventures of Old Christine,” for which Julia Louis-Dreyfus just won an Emmy Award. “The Class” fits easily into that lineup but surprisingly, given its pedigree, it doesn’t really stand out.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/18/arts/television/18clas.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=television&pagewanted=print

fredfa

09-18-06, 03:02 AM

The New Season
TV Review: 'Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip'
Pitting Their Idealism Against Show Business
By Alessandra Stanley The New York Times September 18, 2006

When Aaron Sorkin’s “West Wing” started, it was unlike any other show on television. Now “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” his new drama on NBC, stands out. Not visually, because even though it looks as lush and cinematic as “The West Wing,” so do many other new network series. “Kidnapped,” “The Nine,” “Smith” and still others have adopted the same washed-out palette, pewter shadows and amber light. Even dramas set in Los Angeles have the brooding, smoky look of a February afternoon in Glasgow.

“Studio 60” (premiering tonight at 10 PM ET/PT, NBC) looks at what goes on behind the scenes at a skit comedy show like “Saturday Night Live,” and that alone is a big difference: practically every other drama in prime time is a spooky mystery in which things are never as they seem and nobody can be trusted.

But what most distinguishes “Studio 60” is that it is as romantic about television as “The West Wing” was about politics. Mr. Sorkin has created a world where some things actually are as they seem, and even untrustworthy people have hidden valor. And he has taken two of the most easily caricatured female archetypes, an evangelical Christian entertainer and a sexy network executive, and made them as richly textured and captivating as the two male leads, maybe a little more so.

Harriet Hayes (Sarah Paulson) is a star of a late-night satiric show, but she has also promoted her spiritual music on Pat Robertson’s “700 Club.” She has sultry grace and a sense of humor, even about religion.

Amanda Peet is luminous as Jordan McDeere, who on her first day as president of the National Broadcasting System is faced with a Howard Beale-like live meltdown by the executive producer of “Studio 60.” The chairman of NBS is livid watching news reports about the screed; she is not. “At least they’ve heard of Paddy Chayefsky, and that’s a step in the right direction,” she says with a smile.

Jordan is partly modeled on Jamie Tarses, a former president of ABC who in the 1990’s rose and fell from grace fast, and was often unflatteringly portrayed in the press. Mr. Sorkin’s version of a young, pretty network boss has an amused yet otherworldly quality even when scheming or snowing her bosses: her skin glows, and her eyes shine like Gene Tierney’s in “Laura” or Jennifer Jones’s in “The Song of Bernadette.” Jordan seems lighted from within, only it’s not religious fervor; it’s the undiluted love of making good television.

“Studio 60” has funny moments, but it’s a serious, at times sanctimonious look at show business, not at all like Tina Fey’s new NBC sitcom, “30 Rock,” which takes a farcical look at the same subject. The wisecracking heroes of “Studio 60,” Matt Albie (Matthew Perry) and Danny Tripp (Bradley Whitford), are brought back to run the show they left in high dudgeon four years earlier; under Jordan’s coaxing, they accept the job, determined to fight back against the mediocrity of television and the soulless hacks who run it.

“I have no reason to trust you and every reason not to,” Danny warns Jordan at their first meeting. When she asks why, he waits a beat, then replies, “You work in television.”

Mr. Whitford is one of several “West Wing” alumni also in the cast of “Studio 60.” It’s a bit jarring to see the same faces that applied a passionate zeal for political change crusading for better programming.

And it is all the odder for being out of date. “Studio 60” is a polemic about television as a cultural wasteland at the very moment the industry is entering a new golden age.

There is a lot more television than ever before, much of it bad, but it is hard to remember a time when there were so many good shows pushing up against the worst. Dramas especially, whether on cable or on broadcast networks, have never been as beautifully or thoughtfully made; few Hollywood movies come close. And “Studio 60” serves as exhibit A: it is gorgeously filmed, with the kind of long, sweeping tracking shots that used to be associated with Martin Scorsese and are now more often cited as a trademark of Thomas Schlamme, an award-winning director of “The West Wing.”

When “The West Wing” began in 1999, it was notable for its sparkling repartee, dense dialogue and erudite references. Now there are other shows that aim as high. On a recent episode of “House,” a doctor argues that titanium can’t break into pieces, and Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) mutters, “Tell that to the guys on the Kursk,” referring to the Russian submarine with a titanium hull that sank in 2000.

The dialogue on “Studio 60” has a slower, more stately pace than the “West Wing” banter, which is also surprising: the best comedy writers in Hollywood turn out to be not nearly as quick-witted and screwball as campaign managers and policy advisers in Washington.

It doesn’t matter. The characters fill and lift the show, and even the more villainous figures, like Jack Rudolph, the chairman of NBS (wonderfully played by Steven Weber of “Wings”), cannot remain one-dimensionally crass for long. By the second episode, Jack displays an understated sense of humor and starts to steal every scene. “You have spunk,” he says to Jordan, quoting Lou Grant’s famous line from “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” “I hate spunk.”

Matt and Danny share the kind of unswerving loyalty viewers have come to expect from the creators of “The West Wing.” And those creators can expect viewers to become just as devoted to “Studio 60.” There is nothing else quite like it on television, and that is actually saying a lot.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/18/arts/television/18stan.html?ref=television&pagewanted=print

fredfa

09-18-06, 03:07 AM

The New Season
TV Review: “The Class”, “Studio 60”
2 new series show 2 sides of comedy
By Ellen Gray Philadelphia Daily News Mon, Sep. 18, 2006

TV comedy can be serious business.

Especially when fewer people than usual seem to be laughing.

That may be one reason "The Class," the only new sitcom CBS picked up for this fall, comes from seasoned pros, Bala's David Crane, who co-created "Friends," and "Mad About You" veteran Jeffrey Klarik.

Two not-so-wild-and-crazy guys who've proven their ability to connect with an audience, they've written a show about even more twentysomethings than usual, members of a former third-grade class brought together for a reunion by a young doctor played by Jason Ritter.

And though there are a few clunkers along the way - including a belabored joke about a woman married to a guy everyone but she and he seems to think is gay - the largely theater-trained cast is as solid as the writing, which only grows stronger in two subsequent episodes, earning "The Class," which premieres tonight, its place on the network's only remaining evening of comedy.

It's also the serious side of the comedy business that makes NBC's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," which premieres tonight, a drama.

An hour long and filmed in the semi-darkness that director Thomas Schlamme occasionally favored in his "West Wing" collaboration with "Studio 60" creator Aaron Sorkin, the show has less than you might think in common with NBC's "30 Rock," even if both shows take place behind the scenes of a sketch comedy show not unlike "Saturday Night Live," where "30 Rock" creator - and Upper Darby native - Tina Fey got her start in TV.

Both shows deal with the struggle to be funny in a world ruled by suits. But Sorkin, a past master at creating characters we care about in jobs whose occupants we generally don't, actually leads the cheers for a newly minted network entertainment president, Jordan McDeere (Amanda Peet) and, more predictably, for a writer-director team played by Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford.

The pair's relationship might be construed as the one between Sorkin and Schlamme, though Sorkin's bestowed some of his own well-publicized issues on each.

But then just about everything and everyone in "Studio 60's" pilot could be tied to Sorkin, and while pinpointing the inspirations may provide hours of fun for a few, most viewers, I suspect, will be too busy watching Perry to care.

Perry, the "Friends" star I'd most hoped to see liberated in that show's final seasons, is pitch-perfect as Matt Albie, the writer half of the pair Jordan recruits to run "Studio 60" after their onetime mentor (Judd Hirsch) has a Howard Beal-like meltdown on live television.

Hirsch's performance turns out to be less an homage to "Network" than an opportunity for one of Sorkin's trademark riffs, this one about what's wrong with the medium that made him very nearly a household name.

The real drama, though, occurs in the boardroom of Jordan's fictional NBS, where her new boss, Jack Rudolph (Steven Weber) isn't too happy with the goings-on at "Studio 60," and backstage at the show-within-a-show, where Matt's dealing with an angry ex-girlfriend, Harriet Hayes (Sarah Paulson), he's clearly still crazy about.

Office politics and complicated relationships are, of course, two more of Sorkin's strong points.

But though ABC's "Sports Night" proved he can write comedy - if not necessarily comedy with mass appeal - sketch comedy is a different animal.

There's a longing, as Matt and the rest of the "Studio 60" visionaries talk about a particularly controversial sketch - titled "Crazy Christians" - to see just what this comedy bit so many people are willing to risk their jobs for looks like. But get too close and Sorkin's the one likely to get burned.

Because while he knows what's not funny - providing a glimpse of a monologue for Felicity Huffman (playing herself) that's clearly in that category - and knows how to write funny - feeding Huffman a line backstage that's funnier than anything in that monologue - what he doesn't necessarily know how to do is to write funny for "Studio 60" itself, as a piece at the end of the second episode makes painfully clear.

What's also made clear is that Paulson, whose character is both a comedian and a Christian recording artist, doesn't possess anything approaching the voice of "The West Wing's" Kristin Chenoweth, on whom Harriet's rather obviously based.

As long as "Studio 60" stays backstage, though - while finding something a little more interesting for the genuinely funny D.L. Hughley to do - I'm likely to keep tuning in.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/entertainment/television//15546279.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

randosel

09-18-06, 03:11 AM

a fantastic new show season it is. I just finished watching a majority of new shows and not disappointed all too much... well maybe fox's happy hour. What a boring without laugh comedy. I cant help it and watched all of this season THE WIRE. With all these new serials this season I don't think I have any time for it. Since there seem to be so many neutral and positive post on the new shows here's some negatives. These are just personal preferences and I can see a lot to like for other viewers.

Smith did not enjoy it enough. I didn't have any attachment or interest to any of the characters. Yes you're bad asses... I want to know more backstory.
Runaway, I enjoyed the pilot and think it could be great, but not sure how the rest of the episodes will work out.
Studio60, I liked quite a bit, but pilot didn't have enough time with the sketch cast, but that will likely change.
Vanished, (2 eepisodes a lot of good things some bad, decided to bail on the show. It feels like I've seen many of the scenarios on other shows.
kidnapped, much better than Vanished and feels more refined. But seemed a bit like the movie Ransom which I did not like.
the nine and jericho. Enjoyed the pilot but thought it was left open way too much and too many questions that need to be answer like LOST style serial. I'm no longer a fan of LOST, because of almost zero questions aswered.
20 good years. 20 minutes wasted watching this show. needs better writing like a recycled unfunny odd couple script.
Standoff(2 episodes). I wanted the show to go in a different direction, but seems like a basic procedural.
The Knights of Prosperity. feels a bit odd. How long does it take to rip off a rolling stone?
30rock(not sure which pilot version). Baldwin RULES!! Lots of burts of comedy with not much in between.
friday night lights. don't know how well a tv ver of sports movie will do. and may have to change the pacing. If you like the movie check this out. remember it's not just about football.
heroes. not sure it's the right network. seemed like a better fit for USA/SCI-FI.
men in trees(2 episodes) Badly reworked version of Northern Exposure. Loved the music.
Justice. Was hoping for more of "Murder One" style show. Seemed like the remaked Runaway Jury movie.
The Class(2 episodes)was disappointed in the pilot, but the addit episode made me like the show much more. similar to "how I met your mother" improved with more episodes.

have yet to see ugly betty (but saw the original), brother and sisters, Six Degrees, help me help you and shark. maybe some others i forgot to borrow.

fredfa

09-18-06, 04:45 AM

Marcus Carr

09-18-06, 09:25 AM

Animal Planet to Air Irwin Service

By Mike Reynolds 9/17/2006 12:22:00 PM

Animal Planet will air Steve Irwin’s memorial service Tuesday from 9 p.m.-10 p.m. (EST/PST), with an encore Wednesday from midnight-1 a.m.

Running commercial-free and exclusively here in the United States, Steve Irwin: He Changed Our World will be a same-day rebroadcast of the event at the Crocoseum, a 5,500-seat stadium at Irwin's zoo in Beerwah, Australia.

Animal Planet International is scheduled to run the memorial service across Asia, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Members of the Irwin family; his friend and producer, John Stainton; and celebrities and dignitaries are expected to attend the ceremony. Discovery Networks U.S. production president Clark Bunting and two executive producers will represent Discovery Communications at the memorial, according to a spokesman for the programmer.

Irwin, the naturalist and TV star renowned as The Crocodile Hunter in the Animal Planet series, died Sept. 4 from the barb of a stingray. A private funeral was held last week.

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6372852.html?display=Breaking+News

keenan

09-18-06, 10:09 AM

Thanks, randosel.

Interesting thoughts. I agree that the serials will probably face a very tough road.

Personally, I thought Men In Trees showed promise -- especially now that she has that fiancee out of the picture. But I am not sure how many story lines can develop in that tiny, cut-off Alaskan town.

As for Fox, all its shows have, to me, been disappointing. The comedies, as you noted, are dreadful, Vanished is just mediocre at best, Standoff and Justice maybe just a hair better (and maybe not). Its like the Fox execs just don't care, figuring they will win the 18-49 ratings race no matter what they do since they have "House" and "American Idol". In my mind, screwing around with the delicate chemistry between the leads on "Bones" was a stupid move. The new boss does nothing to help the story.

Anyhow, thanks again for your thoughts and keep posting!

I agree with with you thoughts on the 3 new FOX shows, I think by Jan all 3 will be gone, and I strongly agree with your remarks about Bones. What were they thinking? The lead character has become more or less just another one of the "squints", last year's Jonathan Adams as the facility's leader felt much more right than this new character who would seem much more suited to a law enforcement setting, not to mention I think she gets too much screen time compared to Bones.

This show was supposed to be the FBI occasionally using the skill and knowledge of a Smithsonian type institute, now it's like CSI: Washington DC.

fredfa

09-18-06, 10:40 AM

The New Season
Monday puzzle: Can NBC rise to No. 1?
By Kevin Downey MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Sep 18, 2006

The broadcast season kicks off tonight with this year’s first shakeup.

ABC will tank, with “Monday Night Football” now airing on sister network ESPN, falling from its longtime No. 1 ranking among adults 18-49 and likely skidding to No. 4. CBS will rise to No. 1.

The surprise star, this fall at least, may well be NBC.

As ABC tumbles, NBC looks sure to rise to No. 2 and could even challenge CBS for No. 1 through the fall.
That will depend on two things: CBS’s “CSI: Miami” continuing to slide and NBC’s “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” debuting tonight, pulling better-than-expected numbers. Researchers believe the much-hyped show will do well among the sorts of affluent viewers who watched creator Aaron Sorkin’s “West Wing.” To top expectations, it must also build viewership among the larger mass television audience.

As it stands now, Shari Anne Brill, vice president and director of programming at Carat, projects a 4.7 rating for CBS in 18-49s on Monday nights for the fourth quarter.

Brill puts NBC at a 4.1, followed by Fox with a 4. She is forecasting a 3.6 for ABC and a 1.6 for the CW, which will not be competitive among 18-49s with the former WB hit “Seventh Heaven” and the new “Runaway” leading its Monday lineup.

“I have CBS taking first in homes, total viewers and adults 18-49,” she says. “NBC will be second in the same exact demos. We have Fox in third and ABC fourth.”

Brad Adgate, senior vice president and corporate research director at Horizon Media, agrees with Brill’s ranking of networks. But he expects ratings to be closer, with each of the Big Four networks except ABC hovering near No. 1.

“I think CBS, NBC and Fox will be strong, particularly CBS with ‘CSI: Miami’ and ‘Two and a Half Men,’” he says. “But NBC and Fox are going to be strong on that night. You have to assume [NBC’s] ‘Deal or No Deal’ will do well. It was so popular last year, and they didn’t run it during the summer.”

ABC will struggle as it shifts to a female-focused reality block, with returning shows “Wife Swap” and “Bachelor,” followed by the low-rated drama “What About Brian.”

CBS will be largely unchanged from last season with a four-sitcom block and “CSI: Miami.” The variable with be “Miami,” which tumbled 10 percent in 18-49s on a year-to-year basis last season.

NBC will do well with game show “Deal” at 8 p.m., followed by new drama “Heroes,” about ordinary people with special powers, and “Studio 60” at 10 p.m.

“'Studio 60' will not rank No. 1 at 10, although it has a shot at having the most upscale audience,” says Brill. “I think ‘CSI’ will lose some viewers but ‘Studio 60’ requires a certain amount of intellect to be appreciated. The affluent and well-educated will appreciate it but I’m not sure that mass America will.”

Meanwhile, cable network ESPN, now with football, will become a serious Monday night competitor.

Jordan Breslow, director of broadcast research at MediaCom, notes that ESPN may even outrank most of the broadcast networks. Nearly 13 million people watched the first of two games on Monday Night Football last week.

“On an average network basis, ESPN will probably come in either No. 1 or No. 2 in 18-49s,” he says. “‘CSI: Miami’ will do better. ‘Deal or No Deal’ will do better and so will ‘Two and a Half Men.” But that is right up there with the broadcast networks.”

Still, whatever happens on Mondays in fourth quarter will change in first quarter.

Fox’s “24” was the third-highest rated show on Mondays last season, close behind “CSI: Miami” and football. It will return in first quarter and Fox will almost certainly prop up ratings with a few “American Idol” specials.

“’24’ will definitely change everything,” says Breslow. “Fox could move into No. 2 ahead of NBC. They are also [reportedly] moving ‘Standoff’ from Tuesdays to Mondays. That show is doing okay, and it’s doing better than ‘Vanished,’ which is there now.”

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_7356.asp

fredfa

09-18-06, 11:00 AM

TV Sports
Johnson, Bradshaw, Long to give Fox's college bowl coverage NFL flavor
By Michael Hiestand USA Today 9/18/2006

Fox's college bowl coverage is shaping up to look something like its NFL coverage. The network will announce today that Jimmy Johnson will be the lead analyst on its Bowl Championship Series studio shows.

Those BCS shows, like Fox's new traveling NFL show, won't technically be studio shows because they'll be based at the sites of the four bowls it will carry for the first time. A fifth BCS bowl — the Rose — will remain on ABC. Because Fox is inheriting BCS action without carrying any regular-season college games, it has to cobble together a lineup. The network will add college coaches who aren't in BCS games to work with Johnson and use ex-Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez and TBS analyst Charles Davis as analysts on the BCS title game. But it will also use NFL analysts Terry Bradshaw and Howie Long to call either the Orange or Sugar Bowl. Johnson said Sunday that the Fox NFL guys stay in touch with the college game. "Usually on Saturdays, Terry and Howie and I have three TVs set up for college football from noon until late at night."

Johnson, who was 52-9 as coach of the University of Miami before he moved on to the Dallas Cowboys, says he's "really impressed" by Ohio State and "USC might have taken a step back but they're real, real good." And what about Miami? It lost to Louisville on Saturday — prompting ESPN's Lou Holtz to say the Hurricanes "don't have the swagger" they used to. Johnson doesn't want to pile on: "They're going through some tough times, and I feel for them."

•Johnson P.S. Fox's NFL pregame show Sunday was in Philadelphia — meaning (ex-Dallas coach) Johnson was booed incessantly. Host Joe Buck knew how to play to the crowd, noting how Eagles fans once booed an on-field Santa Claus — but "that wasn't the real Santa, and he deserved it anyway."

Whither Favre:

It looks like the Green Bay Packers' Brett Favre is going to be chewed over on TV for weeks. Even before the Packers lost to the New Orleans Saints, Fox's Johnson said "the best thing" would be for Favre to be traded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Fox's Bradshaw said Favre "should have retired," but CBS' Charley Casserly said he "can still play." ESPN's Tom Jackson even said that if the Packers lost Sunday, "They might not win any games." CBS' Boomer Esiason sensed all this TV yak might get old. "I just wish Favre was in Tampa Bay so we could stop all of this."

Insider:

CBS' Casserly, the Houston Texans general manager when they passed on drafting Reggie Bush, said Sunday, "All the things that came out this week (about alleged recruiting violations) we knew before the draft. ... But it did not affect our decision."

Spice rack:

Colorado lost Saturday night to Arizona State on TBS. But TBS' Ron Thulin, speaking about Colorado coach Dan Hawkins, said, "Everyone on our crew was ready to put on a football helmet after talking to him." Added TBS' Charles Davis, "I was looking to get tape and get out to practice." ... ABC's Craig James was concise Saturday on the controversy in college football: "Instant replay is supposed to work, and it is not working." ... Jim Kaat has retired after a long TV career that included being an analyst on CBS as well as working New York Yankees local TV games since 1995. Interviewed Saturday on Fox, he admitted quitting isn't totally rational: "Legalized robbery is hard to give up, but I'm going to do it anyway."

Update:

NBC/TNT's Benny Parsons, getting treatment for lung cancer, missed TNT's NASCAR race Sunday. TNT's Bill Weber before the race said Parsons "called an hour ago and told me the hospital kicked him out so he could go home and watch the race."

Say what?

CBS studio analyst Shannon Sharpe, on the pregame show, didn't do much to help his brother Sterling, an NBC studio analyst for its Washington Redskins-Dallas Cowboys game Sunday night. Shannon twice said the Cowboys were playing Sunday afternoon. ... Curt Menefee, posing questions to Fox analysts in subbing for Buck at the end of Fox's pregame show, was candid about his limited role — "I don't write the questions."

Running numbers:

NBC drew a 4.9 overnight, or 4.9% of TV households in the markets used for overnights, for Michigan's win Saturday vs. Notre Dame — a big rating but down 38% from the comparable Southern California-Notre Dame game in 2005. ... CBS' Florida-Tennessee got a 4.1. But remember, betting on overnights can get dangerously addictive.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2006-09-17-hiestand-tv-column_x.htm

fredfa

09-18-06, 11:11 AM

Washington Notebook
FCC's Martin Backs Away From Loose Ownership Rule
Todd Shields MediaWeek Sept 18, 2006

A top federal regulator is signaling retreat from a proposal to let a single owner hold a broad swath of a city’s media, including its newspaper, its cable system and multiple TV and radio stations.

The stance by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin comes as the agency prepares to rewrite ownership rules, which are back before the FCC following a court rebuke.

The far-reaching cross-ownership proposal for the largest markets “gives me pause,” Martin said last week in reply to questions at his reconfirmation hearing from Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-S.D.). Martin said he was uncomfortable with the decision even as he voted for it in 2003. He pledged “an open mind” as the FCC—with a hearing set for Los Angeles on Oct. 3—launches in earnest into refashioning the rules.

Critics greeted Martin’s comments guardedly. “I think the chairman is sending some signals he could be more open-minded than his predecessors,” said Craig Aaron, spokesman for Free Press, a group critical of media consolidation. Late in the week, Martin told investors he still favors lifting the ban on daily newspapers owning broadcast stations, and could seek to do that separately.

The ownership debate already is bringing Martin under pressure, with Democratic lawmakers pressing him to find out why the agency did not publish a 2004 study that said local ownership boosts the amount of local news shown on TV stations.

The report remained hidden until revealed by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who wrote to Martin to say she was “dismayed” that the document “was shoved in a drawer.” Martin in reply said he had never seen the report, which was produced before he was chairman. Some people knowledgeable about the FCC in 2004 said the report was shelved because it was of poor quality.

But former FCC lawyer Adam Candeub, who now teaches at Michigan State University’s law school, said in an interview the report was stopped because “the management didn’t like the result.” Candeub said he didn’t know who stopped the report. The report was drafted after the FCC’s decisive 2003 votes, as the agency conducted a follow-up study on localism and the media.
There were no signs the matter would derail Martin’s confirmation, which could pass out of the Commerce Committee as early as Sept. 19 for expected approval by the full Senate.

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003123107

fredfa

09-18-06, 11:35 AM

TV Reviews
Not Live! Not From New York! It's 'Studio 60' . .
By Tom Shales Washington Post Columnist Monday, September 18, 2006; C01

Less than some of its parts, and a little long on shortcomings, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" nevertheless arrives with so much credible fanfare and such a hefty cadre of talent that even skeptics can reasonably expect future episodes to improve on tonight's more ho-hum than ho-ho premiere, which airs at 10 ET/PT on NBC.

NBC executives obviously think a series about backstage life at a sketch-comedy show like its own "Saturday Night Live" -- one of the all-time great television institutions -- is a good idea, such a good idea that they have two of them on the fall bill. The other, Tina Fey's "30 Rock," a half-hour comedy, will arrive later. That means "West Wing" producer Aaron Sorkin's hour-long comedy-drama gets the jump on it, though Sorkin hasn't exactly seized the reins and run wild.

Sorkin is "about to do to TV what he did to the White House," promises the NBC Web site. And what is that, exactly? "The West Wing" remained essentially respectful of its setting, and so does "Studio 60," even though it begins with the producer and founder of the show within the show, Judd Hirsch in a guest-star bit, taking to the airwaves to tell viewers that the program has been "lobotomized" by a "candy-ass broadcast network hellbent on doing nothing that might challenge their audience."

But that's not all the brain surgery going on: "We're all being lobotomized by this country's most influential industry" because it is caught in a "struggle between art and commerce," he rants. Sorry, but the whole speech comes off as if Hirsch were speaking on Sorkin's behalf and wreaking some kind of revenge on muck-a-mucks and higher-ups who wronged him during his career -- or maybe he's chastising the audience for drifting away from "The West Wing" when the show grew tiresome.

The notion that TV turns us all into numb, lumbering zombies is almost as old as the medium itself.

Lest the audience find Hirsch's speech a tad too similar to the kind made by Peter Finch as Howard Beale in Paddy Chayefsky's bicentennial prank "Network" 30 years ago, Sorkin includes a reference to "Network" in his show, though the 1976 film is called a 1977 one. And in a disingenuous attempt to say, "This isn't really about 'Saturday Night Live' the way '30 Rock' is," the title and various bits of exposition inform us that the faux show emanates from Los Angeles, not New York, and airs not on Saturday nights but -- hold onto your cats -- on Fridays, which of course is completely different, night-wise.

The cast is formidable and seems to be using the premiere mainly as a warm-up, waiting for the really good scripts to come in. Matthew Perry of "Friends" and Bradley Whitford of "The West Wing" play Matt and Danny, two friends and writing partners who formerly produced the show, were fired four years ago and now are entreated to return after Hirsch's meltdown. Amanda Peet plays Jordan, the new network entertainment boss who does the entreating, which leads to this already widely quoted exchange:

Danny: "I have no reason to trust you and every reason not to."

Jordan: "Why?"

Danny: "You work in television."

The various complications and relationships (one producer just broke up with one of the cast members, for instance) are plausible enough if insufficiently scintillating. Sorkin, again teamed with fellow executive producer Thomas Schlamme, doesn't seem to have decided yet how mean he wants to be to television -- how deeply he wants to bite the hand that feeds him. Wouldn't it be funny if in the real backstage behind the fake backstage, NBC executives were urging Sorkin to be meaner? The fictional "Studio 60," by the way, doesn't air on NBC but on NBS, the "National Broadcasting System."

Though it may not yet have achieved the level of devastating lampoonery, there is something electric in the air just because a network television show is taking both a sardonic and serious look at television as a medium and how it affects the people who work in it and, to a lesser degree, the millions of faithful who man their couches and clickers hoping for something that will stimulate them, one way or another.

Maybe "Studio 60" deserves a break partly because one is inclined to root for underdogs -- in this case, low-rated NBC. CBS has become the Cocky Broadcasting System with its marching robotic army of slick crime shows; ABC became the Arrogant Broadcasting Co. when it aired the recent and deplorable docudrama about the 9/11 tragedy, seen in some circles as a favor to George W. Bush.

Sorkin aspires to "importance," which can sometimes curdle into pretentiousness. The setting and characters of "Studio 60" promise to work against that because, after all, they aren't deciding the fate of the world. Unless things have taken a truly absurdist turn, they aren't capable of launching nuclear missiles or invading countries, either.

For now, the show isn't "must-see TV" but more like "might-see TV." Can "Studio 60" coexist on the same network with "30 Rock"? Why, good heavens, they're as different as night and -- uhh -- evening.

'The Class'

"The Class" has very little. Considerably worse than being classless, however, is being laughless, at least if you happen to be a sitcom, and "The Class" does, albeit one that's about as rib-tickling as a migraine.

Of course, the show might ring true and strike all kinds of responsive chords with some viewers -- but only those who feel that their lives peaked in the third grade and it's been all downhill from there. The third grade? Some folks long for carefree college capers, some may still be sentimentally stuck at their high school's senior prom, but how many people sit around mooning over prepubescent days of dodge ball, jump-rope and simple addition?

A very simple addition to the CBS Monday night comedy schedule, "Class" premieres tonight at 8 ET/PT on CBS with a pilot episode that struggles clumsily to establish the premise. Ethan Haas, played by Jason Ritter -- John's son-- wants to give his girlfriend an extra special wonderful splendid surprise party to announce their engagement. He comes up with a ridiculous scheme: reassemble their third-grade class at Woodman Elementary School near Philadelphia and let the fur fly where it may.

Some of these people haven't seen one another since 1986, and you have to wonder how many would really hop on a plane, train or even a crosstown bus to renew acquaintances that old. Basically the colorful quirky characters march in and announce their various neuroses and idiosyncrasies, and then the show's writers try to find reasons to pair them off and keep them together for 22 weeks, should the series last that long.

"Class" will answer one question that may have been perplexing some of the folks out here in television land: Whatever became of Sam Harris? Harris was a big winner on "Star Search," the "American Idol" of its day -- a syndicated talent hunt hosted by Ed McMahon. Harris had an especially melodramatic, over-the-top style of singing that people either loved or loathed. He was very big in the '80s. Then he went away. Now he's come back as Perry Pearl, one of the third-graders who hated to grow up.

Andrea Anders co-stars with Ritter as Nicole Allen, a young woman who seems not all that thrilled to have married a brain-damaged former pro football star named Yonk Allen. Yonk is played by David Keith, perhaps best remembered as the guy who hanged himself in the shower in "An Officer and a Gentlemen." One assumes there'll be no hangings in the shower in "The Class," although, wait just a minute, one member of the group, in a future episode, does try to commit suicide by taking too many sleeping pills.

He calls 911, but puts 911 on hold when he sees another call coming in. Funny, or just dumb? Some of the dialogue is laugh-worthy, or at least chortle-worthy, as when one of the female classmates notes, "I'm married to a man I love -- a good percentage of the time." But only for a small percentage of its time is "The Class" comically compelling.

Herewith a tiny confession: After watching the pilot for "The Class," I was certain I'd seen an hour-long show. Imagine my surprise to find out it was only half that length. It's definitely not a good sign, and "The Class" seems an awfully wobbly cornerstone on which to rest the CBS Monday night comedy lineup.

Apparently CBS executives are hoping the show will seem reminiscent enough of "Friends" to keep viewers -- at least those in the 18-to-34 demographic -- quietly appeased. Only the most appeasable people in the universe, however, are likely to fall for that one.

'Mr. Conservative'

A beautiful and illuminating job of setting the record straight -- though without ever claiming to be anything but subjective -- "Mr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater" recounts the life and times of a politician who died not knowing how influential or revered he would eventually become.

The 90-minute HBO documentary, premiering tonight at 9 ET/PT, was co-produced, and is narrated, by CC Goldwater, granddaughter of the film's subject, Barry M. Goldwater, who served 30 years in the Senate and made a run for the presidency in 1964 that he may have regretted for all the unseemly vilification he endured. We see some of it: posters that said "Bury Goldwater" and vicious caricatures of him brandishing a Hitler mustache or a swastika. It was no way to treat a patriot.

Goldwater, who died in 1998, was the man who defined conservatism for more than one generation and who essentially split with the conservative movement when it became allied with pseudo-religious extremists. To Goldwater, the essence of conservatism was that government should stay out of people's lives as much as possible, and he was "appalled," his granddaughter says, by the "social agenda" of the far-right-wingers who seek to control the Republican Party now.

He was a feminist without labeling himself one, declaring that "abortion is not a conservative issue" and that what a woman did with her body was her own business. When he learned that a grandson, Ty, was gay -- "I was never in the closet," Ty says -- he raised no alarm or objection: "He was just concerned that I be myself."

Fiercely and bravely independent, Goldwater parted company with fellow Republican Richard Nixon when it became clear Nixon was guilty as hell of the Watergate coverup. John Dean recalls discussing Nixon with Goldwater prior to Dean's testimony before Congress and remembers Goldwater saying, "That s.o.b. was always a liar. Go nail him."

The film's title is somewhat unfortunate. For one thing, it implies this is a purely political portrait, when actually it's at its most affecting when it describes Goldwater the man -- a man of the land, a photographer who favored nature and native Americans as his subjects, an adventurer who shot the Colorado rapids in 1940 and had the expedition filmed in color (later carrying prints of the film around to theaters in Arizona, where it drew boffo crowds), and for most of his life a pilot who loved buzzing around Arizona in a small plane or getting behind the controls of the latest state-of-the-art jet that the Air Force had acquired.

Also, this isn't Goldwater talking about himself but an impressive parade of Goldwater's friends, associates and admirers who attest colorfully to his character, integrity and rugged charm (no one compares him to Teddy Roosevelt, but there seem to be notable similarities).

Among those commenting on-camera: Justice Sandra Day O'Connor ("He was amazing"); Sen. John Warner, who worked as an aide to Goldwater during Goldwater's early Senate days ("I loved being in his presence"); columnist George F. Will, who speaks for true conservatism today as Goldwater did in his prime; Sally Quinn, who got to know Goldwater when he "moved in" with her parents; and Quinn's husband, Ben Bradlee, former executive editor of The Washington Post, who says Goldwater was a help to the paper during its historic Watergate reporting.

Maybe the first Goldwater in the "Goldwater on Goldwater" is meant to be filmmaker CC, for whom the documentary was obviously the definitive labor of love. She doesn't claim Goldwater was perfect, however, and Goldwater offspring and relatives speak with sadness about his inability to express his love for them.

Goldwater also erred, clearly, when he opposed Lyndon Johnson's Voting Rights Act, which earned Goldwater the enmity of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Even so, Roy Wilkins says Goldwater was "not a racist" but that he felt states, even Southern states, would solve their civil rights problems themselves. In retrospect, this seems incredibly naive.

The producers are obliged, of course, to cover classic and iconic Goldwater moments, landmarks in his career, as when he said "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice" at a Republican convention or wrote "The Conscience of a Conservative." Also replayed is the most famous and infamous political commercial ever made, the "daisy" spot run -- only once, then withdrawn -- by the Johnson campaign in 1964. The commercial clearly implied Goldwater was too dangerous and trigger-happy to have access to the nuclear button during the Cold War.

I wish that, just once, producers who make reference to the daisy commercial (a little girl picks petals off a daisy, followed by a countdown and the explosion of an atomic bomb) would mention the advertising wizard who created it: Tony Schwartz, author of an influential book called "The Responsive Chord."

Many responsive chords are struck by "Goldwater on Goldwater." It whets one's appetite to learn more about this unfairly maligned man, this giant figure from a time of giants, and it seems bound to have a significant salutary effect on his reputation.

Not that Goldwater himself would be likely to give a damn one way or the other.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/17/AR2006091700826_pf.html

fredfa

09-18-06, 11:40 AM

TV Reviews
'Studio 60' has the Sorkin touch; 'Class' has character
By Jonathan Storm Philadelphia Inquirer Columnist Mon, Sep. 18, 2006

Experts return to TV tonight, and the results are what you'd expect: solid efforts that millions of people should wind up watching every week.

Friends co-creator David Crane teams with Jeffrey Klarik to produce The Class (8 PM ET/PT on CBS), a show with 33 percent more stars than Friends, and about the same number of laughs. That makes it the best sitcom this year, and one of the best in a lot of years.

It's hard to count the stars on NBC's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (10 PM ET/PT on NBC), overflowing with guest stars, supporting actors and extras, but some of them are Steven Webber (Wings), Amanda Peet (The Whole Nine Yards), Bradley Whitford (The West Wing), and former Friend Matthew Perry.

With scripts from The West Wing's Aaron Sorkin, and under the direction of his longtime collaborator Thomas Schlamme, this crew provides exceptional work in a show the TV critics love - partly because it's about TV.

Always popular with an upscale audience, The West Wing was never a huge TV hit. Studio 60 has most of West Wing's elements: plenty of smart words, a swirling camera, high emotion elegantly portrayed. But it's set in a TV studio, not the White House. The question is: Will people care as much about an executive producer as they did about the chief executive?

If Whitford, and, especially, Perry, have anything to do with it, they might. These two are foils for Sorkin and Schlamme, slightly shuffled, but containing most of their ingredients, and a few more.

In a finely drawn first-episode performance, Perry plays award-winning writer Matthew Albie, high as a kite on painkillers after back surgery. Perry avoids the slapstick so many actors can't resist, and continues in next week's episode to unfold a character, tormented genius overflowing with humanity, that could become a TV classic.

Sorkin must be having fun creating such an intriguing alter-ego, who, with director Danny Tripp (Whitford), is hired to lead a Saturday Night Live-style show they left four years ago.

It has run into problems, most notably the catastrophic on-air meltdown of its longtime boss. Chalk up an Emmy nomination for guest star Judd Hirsch. And while you're at it, chalk up a boatload more for this show, which is sure to occupy a special place in Emmy voters' hearts.

Hey, they work in TV, too.

• • • • • • • • • • •

Heart may be the main ingredient in The Class, a straight-ahead sitcom, but with more sets than you expect in a TV comedy, partly because it has more stars.

And if eight isn't enough, there are crackerjack supporting actors, too, especially Julie Halston as the mother of an overgrown kid who hasn't left the house, and Sam Harris as the prissy husband of a self-involved woman.

Crane grew up in Bala Cynwyd, and the class in question is a third-grade one from the fictitious Woodman Elementary School in the non-fictitious town of Narberth.

Some of the characters in this show, which starts with a disastrous class get-together 20 years out, have yet to grow up. All are endearing. My favorites are the lovable losers who find romance at the reunion, Lina and Richie.

She's played by Heather Goldenhersh, who debuted on Broadway last year in Doubt, as the conflicted innocent Sister James. He's played by Jesse Tyler Ferguson, at 28 a New York theater veteran (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, On the Town, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told). That stage training helps a lot in a sitcom shot before a live audience.

The ditzy Lina turns Richie away from thoughts of suicide, and the deal is sealed when they learn they even have the same take on fashion, both finding Lina's ridiculous hat "jaunty." A show that uses "jaunty" is already ahead of the pack.

One of the classmates sports a push-up bra and has a daughter named Oprah. Two others, the aforementioned homeboy and a now-married woman, have a more serious problem, when an old - really old - flame rekindles.

The best situation comedies find humor in character and not situations or contrived jokes. This one would never resort to a line as corny as what follows:

The Class is one of the classiest new series this season.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/entertainment/television//15544917.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

fredfa

09-18-06, 11:51 AM

TV Notebook
New season of television starts today in earnest
`Studio 60,' `Rachel Ray' among debuting shows
By R.D. Heldenfels Akron Beacon Journal TV Writer Mon, Sep. 18, 2006

The dribs and drabs of the new television season turn into a stream tonight, with new shows and returning series in abundance.

What's new: The highly anticipated Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (10 p.m., NBC) brings the West Wing brain trust of Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme back, this time with a look behind the scenes at a late-night variety show.

I've seen two episodes and it has good things, including the performance by Matthew Perry and some of that smart-with-heart Sorkin writing. Other times, it is unrealistic, including in some of the ways it portrays the business it is about. But I have liked it enough to know I'll be back for more.

No such optimism is attached to The Class (8 p.m., CBS), a sitcom about a group of young adults who went to third grade together -- and are seeing their lives intersect again.

I wanted to like the show, but it felt contrived, desperate for laughs and unskilled in its occasional outrageousness.

Rachael Ray introduces her self-titled new daytime show today, locally at 3 p.m. on WKYC (Channel 3).

``On the Food Network, we had an enormous amount of fun,'' Ray said in July. ``And I did travel shows and Inside Dish with the celebrities and the 30 Minute Meals. So this show is like all of that smushed together into one show. And then you add in the live audience and the participation of the home viewer, and that's sort of the hybrid that built this.''

And the CW network -- formed from the merger of UPN and The WB -- officially starts today. At 8 p.m. it will air what was supposed to have been 7th Heaven's farewell episode last spring, when The WB planned to end the show -- before the CW made a deal for another year. A promotional special about the network follows at 9.

What's back: Deal or No Deal (8 p.m., NBC) has a two-hour special promising bigger prizes and even more excitement as people try to guess how much money is in a briefcase.

You'll find new episodes of all of CBS's returning shows: How I Met Your Mother (8:30), Two and a Half Men (9), The New Adventures of Old Christine (9:30)and CSI: Miami (10).

How I Met co-creator Carter Bays, a Shaker Heights native, said he learned quite a bit during the show's first season. ``Get sleep on weekends,'' he said. ``Comfortable shoes.... . . But I think the big thing I learned is I love doing this.'' And as many turns as the first season had, he said, ``this is the season where it gets exciting.''

ABC resumes Wife Swap with a two-part, two-hour telecast beginning at 8 p.m., followed by a new Supernanny at 10.

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/entertainment/television/15548954.htm

fredfa

09-18-06, 12:23 PM

The Friday, Saturday and Sunday prime-time ratings – and Media Week Analyst Marc Berman’s view of what they mean -- have been posted just under the HD Football listings near the top of Ratings News the first post in this thread.

fredfa

09-18-06, 12:32 PM

The Business of TV
Satellite TV’s 3-Headed Rival: Cable Plus Internet Plus Phone
By Saul Hansell The New York Times September 18, 2006

For two decades, Rupert Murdoch worked to become king of the cosmos, launching a ring of satellites that hover over five continents. He wanted to make sure he could beam his movies, networks and sports programming directly to viewers without being beholden to cable television operators.

But Mr. Murdoch has apparently decided that 22,240 miles — the altitude of a communications satellite — is too great a distance from his customers, at least in the United States. Mr. Murdoch, who controls the News Corporation, has been discussing trading his shares in DirectTV to John C. Malone’s company, Liberty Media, in return for Liberty’s stock in Mr. Murdoch’s company.

The deal is about control: Mr. Malone has been accumulating an ever-larger stake in the News Corporation, raising concerns about a potential takeover, and Mr. Murdoch wants to buy back the shares. And, of course, Mr. Murdoch, like most media executives, is eager to invest available capital in Internet properties, like the News Corporation’s social networking site MySpace.com, to develop the hottest advertising vehicles possible.

But the idea that Mr. Murdoch would be willing to surrender his stake in DirecTV, the largest American satellite broadcaster, also says a lot about the competitive pressures on the satellite business.

“Rupert is nothing if not a pragmatist,” said Craig E. Moffett, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Company. “Satellite has a tough road ahead and he has, for all intents and purposes, bet the company on an alternative vision, with Internet acquisitions like MySpace.”

During the last decade, DirecTV and its main domestic rival, EchoStar Communications, grabbed 27 million subscribers, a bit more than a quarter of the pay television market in the United States. While their growth is slowing, they are still doing well financially. In the second quarter, DirecTV earned $459 million, up 182 percent from a year earlier. Its revenue grew 12 percent, to $3.5 billion.

For many customers, however, there are better ways to get connected. Lowly wires, snaked across utility poles and buried under sidewalks, now can give people more viewing choices than satellites. And they can carry data into homes and back out, providing the Internet and voice services that cannot come from the sky.

The cable companies are finally reaping the benefit of the huge investments they made to rebuild their networks with fiber optic cables, capable of delivering hundreds of digital channels as well as two-way data traffic. And they are having great success in selling what they call triple-play bundles that combine television, Web access and Internet-based telephone service.

“Historically, satellite has had three advantages versus cable: it had better picture quality, more channels and a better price-value equation,” Mr. Moffett said. But digital systems have allowed the cable companies to improve quality and selection, and inexpensive Internet phone service has given them the edge on price as well.

To stay competitive, the satellite companies have to spend many billions of dollars to match those capabilities. They are even behind in the television market, which is rapidly shifting to high-definition signals. Retrofitting a satellite customer for HD requires both a new set-top box and a new rooftop dish, costing (according to Mr. Moffett) more than $500. Cable companies have to supply only a new box.

Comcast and other cable companies have started to attract a loyal audience for their video-on-demand services, which offer hundreds of pay movies and free television programs at the push of a button — far more choice than can be broadcast from a satellite.

It will be even more expensive for satellite companies to offer broadband data service, something Mr. Murdoch has acknowledged. His British affiliate, BSkyB, spent $374 million to buy Easynet Group, a high-speed Internet access provider, and it will spend $729 million to market the service. BSkyB is even offering basic broadband service free to subscribers. DirecTV has been talking about a similar offering in the United States, but it has not released details.

“It was always a quixotic vision to take a one-way platform like satellite and try to make interactivity to compete against a two-way plant like cable,” Mr. Moffett said. “They are left with the task of creating the illusion of interactivity.”

It might seem that satellite companies are natural allies with telephone companies, which offer voice and data services. And indeed DirecTV has a marketing partnership with Verizon. Yet both Verizon and AT&T have decided instead to become significant players in the pay television business, spending billions to wire neighborhoods with fiber optic lines that potentially can have more capacity than current cable systems.

It is yet to be shown whether the phone companies will see a return on these investments, but simply by trying they will make the competition harder for both the satellite and cable systems.

At the same time, ubiquitous broadband Internet service has started to remake the television business. During the last year, the networks, including News Corporation’s Fox channels, have started experimenting with selling downloaded versions of their programs through services like iTunes from Apple and offering some shows free over the Internet, along with advertising.

If these methods prove to be an effective way of distributing programming to a large number of viewers, then the fundamental reason Mr. Murdoch launched his ring of satellites — to provide unimpeded access to his programming — may no longer exist.

Indeed, Mr. Murdoch acknowledged as much in the News Corporation’s new annual report.

Broad distribution of its content “was the strategic imperative behind our entry into the satellite business, and that same imperative now propels us into the digital world,” he wrote in the chairman’s letter, suggesting that his postspace-age ambition may be even grander. “For the first time in media history,” he wrote, “complete access to a truly global audience is within our grasp.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/18/business/media/18marketplace.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&ref=business&pagewanted=print

fredfa

09-18-06, 12:39 PM

Overnights in the 18-49 Demo
NBC's Sunday football gives up yards
Second week declines by 16 percent in 18-49s
By Toni Fitzgerald MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Sep 18, 2006

With the Washington Redskins falling behind early and the game marred by ugly plays and penalties, last night’s “Sunday Night Football” contest was nowhere near as exciting as the previous week’s brother-faces-brother kickoff between the Indianapolis Colts and New York Giants. It delivered lower ratings, too, though NBC still dominated the night.

“SNF” averaged a 6.6 adults 18-49 rating from 8 to 11 p.m., according to Nielsen overnights. That data measures time period data, not actual program data, and the game started at 8:15 and ended after 11.

But compared with the same timeslot last week, “SNF” was definitely down, off 16 percent from a 7.9. It also dipped in total viewers and households.

Yet even with a Cowboys blowout, NBC still dominated the night, averaging a 5.7 rating and 15 share, down 14 percent from the previous week’s 6.6/17 but two points ahead of No. 2 CBS. And that came against more originals than last week, as every network had something new.

It sets up an interesting showdown next Sunday, when ABC juggernaut “Desperate Housewives” returns and CBS debuts “Without a Trace” in its new 10 p.m. timeslot.

Last night, CBS, boosted by NFL overrun, was second with a 3.7/10, followed by Fox at 3.3/9, ABC at 3.1/8, Univision at 1.0/2, and the WB, in its final night, at a 0.5/1.

At 8 p.m., CBS led with NFL overrun and the first part of “60 Minutes” at 4.5, followed by NBC at 3.0 for “Football Night in America,” up slightly over last week. Fox was third at 2.2 for reruns of “The Simpsons” and “’Til Death,” followed by ABC at 2.0 for “America’s Funniest Home Videos” rerun, Univision at 0.8 for “Hora Pico,” and the WB at 0.5 for a rerun of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

At 8 p.m., NBC jumped to the lead with a 5.9 for “SNF,” followed by Fox at 3.9 for “Simpsons” (4.2) and “American Dad” (3.7), CBS and ABC tied at 3.4 for “60 Minutes”/premiere of “Amazing Race” and “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” “Cantando Por Un Sueno” on Univision at 0.8, and more “Buffy” on the WB at 0.6.

At 9 p.m., “SNF” peaked at 7.1, followed by a 4.4 for “Home Edition” on ABC, a 4.0 for CBS’s “Race,” a 3.9 for Fox’s “Family Guy” (4.5) and “War at Home” (3.3), a 1.1 for Univision’s “Cantando” and a 0.5 for the WB’s “Dawson’s Creek.”

At 10 p.m., NBC led again with a 6.9, followed by a 2.8 for CBS’s “Without a Trace” rerun, a 2.7 for ABC’s “Desperate Housewives” rerun and a 1.2 for Univision’s “Cantando.”

NBC dominated in households with a 9.4/15, followed by CBS at 7.5/12, ABC at 5.7/9, Fox at 4.3/7, Univision at 1.4/2, and the WB at 1.0/2.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_7358.asp

fredfa

09-18-06, 01:08 PM

(Adding Deal and Swap)
The New Season
Monday’s Premieres

8 PM ET/PT The Class - CBS (New Show) HD
8 PM ET/PT Deal or No Deal NBC
8 PM ET/PT Wife Swap ABC
8:30 PM ET/PT How I Met Your Mother - CBS HD
9 PM ET/PT Two And A Half Men - CBS HD
9:30 PM ET/PT The New Adventures of Old Christine - CBS HD
10 PM ET/PT CSI: Miami - CBS HD
10 PM ET/PT Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip – NBC (New Show) HD

keenan

09-18-06, 01:23 PM

(Adding Deal and Swap)
The New Season
Monday’s Premieres

[/COLOR][/FONT]
10 PM ET/PT Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip – NBC (New Show)
This is in HD isn't it?

fredfa

09-18-06, 01:36 PM

yes forgot to copy over the HD...fixed.

Thanks

fredfa

09-18-06, 01:41 PM

Next Season
Nets Prep Scripts for 2007-08 Season
A.J. Frutkin Media Week Sept. 18, 2006

As broadcasters prepare to launch their prime-time slates for the 2006-07 season, development for ’07-’08 also has begun. And while it is still early in that process, enough scripts have been picked up—at least on the drama side—to spot a few trends.

First and foremost, world events continue to impact TV programming. Among the scripts to have been ordered for next season are ABC’s Class 11, about students in the first CIA class following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. NBC, meanwhile, is developing a multicultural ensemble drama with filmmaker Spike Lee called NoLa, set in post-Katrina New Orleans.

In contrast—and perhaps to balance out a crime-heavy schedule—CBS is exploring the supernatural route, having ordered an untitled drama from Joan of Arcadia creator Barbara Hall, about exorcists, and another from Medium creator Glenn Gordon Caron, about a woman who dies, but must help people still alive before her soul is set free.

The CW, formed out of pieces from UPN and The WB, enters its first full development cycle this fall. The CW entertainment president Dawn Ostroff may continue to look to the strengths of those defunct networks for future success. To wit: The network’s first announced project, Gossip Girl—about privileged New York teens, and exec produced by The O.C. creator Josh Schwartz—has been likened to The WB’s signature teen soap Dawson’s Creek. “I don’t think the schedule will be made up solely by those types of shows,” Ostroff said. “But there’s a lot of room for them on the network.”

Advertisers have urged Fox to balance out its male-skewed schedule with more female-friendly shows. And the network is developing a romance drama from Becky Hartman Edwards (American Dreams), about an orthopedic surgeon rebuilding her personal life. Yet Fox execs stress broad appeal over demos. “The goal is not just to get a female audience,” said Craig Erwich, executive vp of programming at Fox. “It’s about finding interesting female characters that both men and women can watch.”

Perhaps most importantly—and following all the hype this season surrounding serialized dramas—next season could see a return to close-ended dramas. “A lot of the serialized dramas this fall have huge casts with massive expenses tied to them, and the cable money from syndicating them just isn’t that great,” said Laura Caraccioli-Davis, executive vp of Starcom Entertainment. “So the accounting departments at the networks may see there’s a great luxury in having a CSI or Law & Order on their schedule. And that may not be revenue they’re willing to walk away from.”

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003123104

humdinger70

09-18-06, 01:47 PM

The New Season
Entertaining prospects
Television wises up -- mostly -- to the appeal of quality shows
By Rick KushmanSacramento Bee TV Columnist Sunday, September 17, 2006

See, this is what happens when we watch good TV. We get more good TV.

• Finally, there is no real new season for cable anymore.

http://pubsys.sacbee.com/172/v-print/story/23505.html

Oh Really? Two words...

Battlestar. Galactica. :cool:

Two more words...

SciFi. Channel. :cool:

It's nice to be able to say the first two words with a straight face and no one laughs at you for mentioning those words. :D

fredfa

09-18-06, 01:48 PM

Cable TV Notebook
Clock Expires on Time Warner, NFL Network
By Mike Reynolds MultiChannel News 9/18/2006

Time Warner Cable dropped NFL Network from several of its recently acquired Adelphia Communications and Comcast systems at midnight Saturday.

More than 1 million former Adelphia and Comcast subscribers who received the channel under pacts the two operators previously inked with the National Football League lost the feed.

Time Warner hasn’t reached a carriage deal with league-owned channel, which will distribute eight regular-season NFL contests on Thursday and Saturday nights beginning on Thanksgiving.

Neither Time Warner nor NFL Network would comment on the matter.

Meanwhile, NFL Network and Comcast continued to talk about extending their current carriage deal. Comcast currently carries the service, but neither side would confirm reports that the MSO has the rights to distribute the NFL games -- a package valued at some $400 million -- through the life of the network’s six-year deal.

Sources said Comcast may carry NFL Network as part of a newly created sports and information tier it is considering launching as early as January.

http://www.multichannel.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleid=CA6372775

fredfa

09-18-06, 01:50 PM

Oh Really? Two words...

Battlestar. Galactica. :cool:

Two more words...

SciFi. Channel. :cool:

It's nice to be able to say the first two words with a straight face and no one laughs at you anymore for mentioning those words. :D

He said no real NEW season for cable anymore...in the sense that cable now introduces proigras year-round.

fredfa

09-18-06, 02:53 PM

TV Review
'Studio 60':
How Matthew Perry makes fall's best new network show even better
From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher”

The opening set piece that begins the sensational new NBC drama “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” (10 PM ET/PT Monday, NBC) does exactly what it’s intended to do: set tongues wagging.

The top producer of the fading sketch-comedy show “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” stuns the show’s live audience by launching into an on-air tirade about creative gutlessness, censorship and the general state of greed and cynicism at the broadcast networks.

“That remote in your hand is a crack pipe,” he sputters, pausing only long enough to insult “The Apprentice.”

In the battle between art and commerce, “art is getting its ass kicked,” the producer concludes, just before network pulls the plug on this latter-day “Network” rant.

Even if more than half of what the character, who’s played by Judd Hirsch, says is patently, even laughably wrong, (TV is aimed at 12-year-olds? Uh, maybe he’s thinking of the film industry), the monologue is a bravura performance, not just from Hirsch but from “Studio 60” writer/creator Aaron Sorkin (“Sports Night,” “The West Wing”), who in the first 15 minutes expertly sets the stage for a look at the entertainment industry that’s both serious-minded and filled with the juicy naming of names.

But just as the audience settles in for a good, old-fashioned backstage drama, peppered with rants and quips and sparky dialogue rattled off by very attractive people, something happens. Matthew Perry’s face appears on the screen. And then the show becomes something else.

If Perry was worried about leaving his “Friends” history behind, mission accomplished. As Matt Albie, one of the two “Studio 60” golden boys who were fired from the show only to be brought back when the show’s producer had his meltdown, Perry has found a character who taps into his breathtaking ability to convey pathos and self-deprecating pain -- in the same line.

Perry’s face, not the fresh, preppie visage of “Friends,” but a more lined, haggard, weary face -- one that has seen perhaps too much of what Hollywood success has to offer -- tells us everything we needed to know about Albie, “Studio 60’s” new head writer. He’s first glimpsed at an awards banquet, where he’s up for a top screenwriting honor; he amuses the table with his witty banter, then whispers to his directing partner, Danny Tripp (Bradley Whitford), “I’m dying inside, man.”

Albie is is a funny, fiercely intelligent creative genius who’s just one bender away from total self-destruction; he recognizes his weaknesses but his intellect is powerless to tame his appetites. It’s not hard to imagine where Sorkin, a golden boy who has had his own tangos with substance abuse, gets this deeply felt material.

Albie’s dying inside because he has broken up with his girlfriend, an actress on “Studio 60.” This makes it intensely awkward when Albie and Tripp are enlisted by smooth-talking, iron-spined National Broadcasting System executive Jordan McTeere (Amanda Peete) to take the reins of “Studio 60” and return it to its former glory (the show is currently dependent on predictable political gags and a recurring character called “Peripheral Vision Man”).

Even a tiny taste of the addictive 2002 “Saturday Night Live” oral history, “Live From New York,” tells you that Sorkin and his fellow executive producer, “West Wing” director Thomas Schlamme, will never want for fodder for “Studio 60’s” backstage drama and network politics.

But in spite of the smart, inspired writing and all-around excellent performances, what makes “Studio 60” the best new show of the fall season is the fact that Sorkin is clearly after something deeper than just a showbiz chronicle.

Once you get past the backstage gossip, past the kinetic activity on the buzzing hive of the “Studio 60” set and past the gleeful rants -- against a snarky TV blogger sitting at home “with her freezer full of Jennie Craig … surrounded by her five cats,” against anyone who shoots in Vancouver (“It doesn’t look like anything!” Tripp shouts at one point) -- what you have is a very simple story.

The story of Albie and Tripp is that of two friends who want to succeed without losing their souls, or their ability to tell each other the truth.

That sounds heavy, but Sorkin’s drama wears its ambitions lightly. In fact, in a fall TV season with no shortage of fine offerings, it’s the only show that made me positively giddy with excitement. “Studio 60” is not just good, it has the potential to be a small-screen classic.

So much for that rant about network TV lobotomizing the masses. “Studio 60” is proof that at least NBC’s no longer guilty in that department.

http://tempo.typepad.com/entertainment_tv/

fredfa

09-18-06, 02:54 PM

TV Review
'How I Met Your Mother' has a few things to teach 'The Class'
From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher”

You might be expecting the new CBS sitcom "The Class" (8 PM ET/PT Monday, WCBS) to be the same sort of show as “How I Met Your Mother,” another half-hour comedy that immediately follows on the same network and also concerns the day-to-day lives of good-looking young people.

But the similarities end there.

“How I Met Your Mother” belongs in another league. Since its debut a year ago, it has been one of TV’s most consistent pleasures, and as it continues to improve, it promises to be mentioned one day in the same breath as classic, character-driven comedies such as “Cheers” and “Taxi.”

It’s mystifying that “Mother,” which concerns four relatively normal young singletons and the entertainingly caddish Barney, hasn’t gotten more attention. But then, despite the moderate success of CBS’ other returning Monday comedies, “The New Adventures of Old Christine” and “Two and a Half Men,” the conventional wisdom is that traditional sitcoms are on the decline.

Last year, comedies not filmed on soundstages before live audiences -- so called “single-camera” comedies such as “The Office,” “Everybody Hates Chris” and “My Name Is Earl” -- understandably captured the fancy of critics, and then viewers.

The half-hour comedy, which had been on life support for some time, was decreed to have finally broken free of its tired laugh-track shackles and gotten a much-needed infusion of creativity. That’s what kept Fox’s “Arrested Development” alive longer than ratings would ordinarily allow.

That show was canceled, but single-camera comedies became the flavor of the season -- many of the new network comedies for fall are single-camera shows. Note, however, “How I Met Your Mother” -- shot on a soundstage with many cameras -- is far better than all of them.

Most of Season 2’s first episode concerns the gang trying to comfort Marshall (Jason Segel) after a rough breakup with his fiance, Lily (Alyson Hannigan), with whom he had had a nine-year relationship. There are no stupid plot devices, no farcical situations, just friends humoring a guy who doesn’t want get out of bed or do anything but obsess about the smell of his ex’s shampoo.

Segel doesn’t get enough credit for his sly humor. The show’s writing makes sure that Marshall isn’t the stereotypical not-bright guy, but Segel’s considerable talent with line reading has been overshadowed by the (justified) praise of Neil Patrick Harris as the hilariously inappropriate Barney. But some actors can make even hangdog sadness enjoyable, and Segel’s one of the few.

Even Barney’s not a stereotypical boor. He’s really just all talk. We rarely see him actually score with women, and his would-be alpha-male persona unsuccessfully hides the fact that he’s really just a laser tag-loving nerd (and a formerly sensitive coffee-house singer as well).

We’re supposed to meet Barney’s brother this year, but personally, I can’t wait ’til he meets his female equivalent. He will no doubt be unable to deal -- at all.

“How I Met Your Mother” even makes the requisite celebrity cameo in its season-opener work as a piece of comedy. George Clinton’s guest appearance is not just an extraneous bit of stunt-casting; it’s actually quite funny and doesn’t overstay its welcome.

Contrast that with the desperate-to-please elements of “The Class,” which comes from former “Mad About You” and “Friends” producers. The premise is strained from the start -- a young doctor, Ethan (Jason Ritter), reunites his 3rd-grade classmates for an impromptu reunion, thinking his significant other will find that charming. She promptly breaks up with him, thinking his overly elaborate party ideas and gifts are a bit creepy (and she’s not wrong).

By the third episode Ritter and Lizzy Caplan, a cast standout who plays the entertainingly cynical Kat, have an intriguing chemistry. He’s the well-scrubbed, wholesome guy with a slightly pervy side; she’s the dark, acerbic Goth girl with perfectly deadpan comic timing.

He pours his heart out to her about his breakup; she waits a beat and responds, “I’ve totally forgotten your name.”

Still, the crass elements of “The Class” threaten to drag the whole show down. There’s a “quirky” character with a voice like a chipmunk on helium, and there’s a tiresome subplot about a classmate named Holly who’s still obsessed by the fact that she found out her prom date, another of the reunited classmates, is gay. On prom night. Ten years ago.

Holly is now married to a guy who demonstrates every stereotypically “gay” behavior ever. We’re supposed to find that funny, but such “Three’s Company” antics are just kind of pathetic. Oh, and Holly has a daughter named Oprah.

There’s a germ of an interesting idea in “The Class,” which has characters meditating on whether they’re as happy in the present day as the kids in that 3rd-grade group picture were. Ritter, Caplan and Jesse Tyler Ferguson, as a suicidal guy, show that they have the chops to pull off interesting, deeper material.

Let’s hope that “The Class” improves; taking lessons from “How I Met Your Mother” would be a good place to start.

http://tempo.typepad.com/entertainment_tv/

Gaiwan

09-18-06, 03:23 PM

Glad to see some critics writing about "How I Met Your Mother". It's a great show, and like the writer above, I cant believe it doesnt get more buzz.

henry296

09-18-06, 04:01 PM

fredfa

09-18-06, 04:05 PM

The New Season
“Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip”
By Aaron Barnhart Kansas City Star in his blog “TV Barn” Sept. 18, 2006

When I previewed “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” for attendees of “Watch the Pilots with Aaron” at Screenland Theatre earlier this month, they burst into applause. And that was before I showed it to them.

Such has been the anticipation for “Studio 60,” the latest project from “West Wing” creator Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme. They left “The West Wing” three years ago, Sorkin to write a political movie, Schlamme to create a high-concept drama series called “Jack and Bobby” that died in obscurity on the WB network.

If you like prime-time television, then you can only hope that some order has been restored to the universe with “Studio 60,” a fast-paced hour that takes place behind the scenes of a venerable but creatively troubled late-night variety show that is meant to invite comparisons to the real “Saturday Night Live.”

Yet after watching two episodes, which were quite enjoyable, I'm afraid Sorkin and Schlamme haven't recaptured the magic. The world has changed since “West Wing” signed on, not just because of those fateful numbers 9-11 but another number, “24,” and three letters, “CSI.”

“The West Wing” spanned two presidencies and was always able to project itself as a pleasant fantasy against the backdrop of real life. The Bartlet White House was a place where men and women of integrity briskly and efficiently conducted business while never seeming to lose grasp of the public's interest, even (gasp) at times putting it above their own.

“At its heart, 'Studio 60' is the same thing that 'The West Wing' was at its heart and the same thing 'Sports Night' before that was at its heart,” Sorkin told TV critics this summer. “It's about a group of people committed to professionalism, committed to each other, committed to what they're doing.”

But “Studio 60” is about more than that, and if you'll allow me to mildly spoil the first 15 minutes of tonight's episode, I'll explain how, and why it doesn't work for me.

Minutes before a taping of “Studio 60” (the show within this show), longtime executive producer Wes Mendell (Judd Hirsch) is fighting a battle with the network censor over a sketch that ridicules “crazy Christians.” Wes loses; the sketch is cut. Creatively, he knows his show is on the skids, and the funniest thing that's come out of his writers' room in years just got spiked. Frustrated at his impotence with the network, aware his days are numbered, Wes exits in a blaze of glory, interrupting his own show to deliver a Howard Beale-styled tirade while backstage, everyone goes crazy.

“There's always been a struggle between art and commerce, and now, I'm telling you, art is getting its (keister) kicked,” he rages into the camera. “We're all being lobotomized by this country's most influential industry. It's just thrown in the towel on any endeavor that doesn't include the courting of 12-year-old boys, and not even the smart ones. … We're pornographers! And it's not even good pornography!”

I've watched this speech half a dozen times, and Hirsch should, if nothing else, get a guest-star Emmy out of it. But it rings false. Sorkin is writing about TV that, if it ever existed, predates the rise TiVo, DVDs and the Internet and the decline of the movie business.

“Studio 60” is not just a drama about Wes's replacements, Matt and Danny, the hotshot tandem played by Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford, and how they're going to save the show. Their network boss (Amanda Peet) makes it clear to them that she wants “Studio 60” to save the mythical National Broadcasting System as well.

NBS isn't a “classy” network anymore. Jokes fly about how bad NBS programs are (alas, I can't quote the best line, which refers to onanism). “Studio 60,” the NBS show, will change that, and the inference is that “Studio 60” — the NBC show — is the kind of class act that will make people feel good about TV again, the way “The West Wing” once did.

No doubt there are viewers out there who will buy into this. But how many? I guess Sorkin doesn't watch a lot of TV, other than HBO, so he may not be aware that each of the four big networks have amazing, well-written, well-performed shows on their schedules. Or that all reality TV doesn't stink. Or that viewers aren't a bunch of lobotomy patients waiting to be brought back to their senses by Aaron Sorkin.

He used to have a knack for boiling down the culture into a two-minute sermon. I know people who still quote President Bartlet's tirade against the Dr. Laura stand-in from an early “West Wing” episode. But Sorkin's grasp may be slipping. There's a line in the second episode where one of the writers is obsessed by what “Bernadette's Blog” is writing about their show.

“The New York Times is going to quote Bernadette to demonstrate that they're not the media elite,” the character says. “I preferred when they were the media elite.” What is Sorkin smoking? The Times has more people writing about TV than we have writing about the Chiefs.

If Sorkin intends to preach off-key sermons like this every week, “Studio 60” is going to get old fast. I say that with regret. Whitford, Perry, Peet, Steven Weber, D.L. Hughley, Tim Busfield and others turn in great work in service of this uncertain return of one of TV's most honored creative teams.

http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/

fredfa

09-18-06, 04:07 PM

Gaiwan,

I agree. My wife and I really enjoy the show.

Interesting Rob Owen's review this morning for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette which I don't think Fred has posted is almost the exact opposite. He decries the background story of How I met your Mother and really enjoyed The Class. I'll be checking out The Class this week. Monday Night Football takes precedent tonight.

I think you'll need to give it a couple of episodes to see how it turns out.

The first episode has a lot of background it needs to tell and so, for me, didn't really hit its target.

But now that al the back story has been filled in (or at least the essential basic back story) maybe the laughs can start coming a bit faster.

fredfa

09-18-06, 04:10 PM

The New Season
CBS's 'Mother,' 'Christine' premiere second seasons

By Rob Owen Pittsburgh Post-Gazette TV Editor in his blog “Tuned In”

After a downer of a season finale -- Lily (Alyson Hannigan) left fiance Marshall (Jason Segel) -- CBS's "How I Met Your Mother" (8:30 PM ET/PT tonight) returns with an opening scene that is meant to be jokey, but also expresses the frustration of some viewers.

"Dad, can't you skip ahead to the part where you meet mom?" complains one of Future Ted's children. "It feels like you've been talking for a year."

Indeed, it does feel that way as Ted in 2030 recounts to his kids at the outset of each episode how he met their mother, whose identity still has yet to be revealed to viewers. It just makes it hard to invest much in Ted (Josh Radnor) and his newfound relationship with Robin (Cobie Smulders) knowing that they won't end up together in the end.

Ah well, at least there's Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) to distract us. Before he realizes Ted and Robin hooked up, he's excited for Ted and Marshall to join him as a single guy on the prowl.

"I've dreamed about this day, boys, and it's going to be legendary," Barney proclaims. "Anytime a girl wants to get back at her ex-boyfriend, we will be there. Anytime a girl wants to solve her father issues through promiscuity and binge drinking, We. Will. Be. There."

Most of the episode Ted tries to keep Marshall from calling Lily and Marshall mopes around for 67 days through at least two premature ejaculation jokes.

"Mother" was one of those shows I enjoyed last season even though I knew it was slight. With superior "The Class" as a lead-in, "Mother" looks all the more tattered. Bring on the funny and lay off the drama and maybe viewers will get past the show's frustrating premise.

• • • • • • • • • • •

Vastly improved since its pilot episode earlier this year, CBS's "The New Adventures of Old Christine" (9:30 PM ET/PT tonight) picks up from its season finale in which Christine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and ex-husband Richard (Clark Gregg) appeared to be getting back together. The summer has past and they're still trying to figure out if that's what's best for them both.

Written by series creator Kari Lizer, "Christine" brings back the blond, pitying PTA moms who were the funniest characters in the pilot episode. This time they take notice of a new teacher at their kids' school, Mr. Harris (recurring guest star and Carnegie Mellon Univeristy grad Blair Underwood). One of the blonds comments, "Wow, I didn't know diversity could be so gorgeous!"

Christine notices Mr. Harris, too, but she's too busy dealing with Richard and how that impacts their son, Ritchie (Trevor Gagnon), to give it much more thought, though that seems likely to change in future episodes. With improvements in the writing and characterization, that's something I'll look forward to seeing.

http://www.post-gazette.com/tv/tunedin/

fredfa

09-18-06, 04:14 PM

The New Season
Attempt to soar doesn't take 'Wing'
By Rob Owen Pittsburgh Post-Gazette TV Editor Monday, September 18, 2006

In "The West Wing," creator/writer Aaron Sorkin made working in the White House noble. Can he perform a similar water-into-wine miracle when it comes to the TV industry on NBC's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" (10 PM ET/PT tonight)?

Don't hold your breath.

Sorkin has, perhaps inadvertently, made it his professional cause to rehabilitate the image of industries Americans have grown cynical about, whether it's governance or Hollywood. But the White House had a storied romantic history of solid leadership; there's no such sentiment accorded the American entertainment industry, which is viewed, both at home and abroad, as frivolous at best and a cesspool destroying the culture at worst. Just as Sorkin's first television foray, ABC's "Sports Night," failed to sustain an audience beyond two seasons, I fear "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" will face a similarly rocky path. (In Pittsburgh, everyone will be watching the Steelers tonight, so Sorkin fans are advised to set their VCRs/DVRs.)

Although tonight's pilot, set behind-the-scenes of a fictional sketch comedy show called "Studio 60," offers much promise, next week's episode is a letdown.

Sorkin makes it easy to sympathize with "Studio 60" executive producers (a k a "show runners") Matt Albie (Matthew Perry, "Friends") and Danny Tripp (Bradley Whitford, "The West Wing"), who are brought back to the show after its current boss (guest star Judd Hirsch) delivers a Howard Beale-style rant on live TV. Matt and Danny are driven, dedicated professionals whose desire to succeed is only outpaced by their desire to deliver a smart weekly TV show.

It's the supporting characters, barely there in the pilot but more prominent next week, who are unlikely to register with many viewers. Unlike the supporting "West Wing" characters, who shared the same goals as their bosses, the actors in "Studio 60" behave like, well, actors, throwing fits and in need of much coddling and care. It's entirely realistic, but that doesn't make it enjoyable to watch.

The presence of what is so far a mustache-twirling villain -- Steven Weber as a top executive at fictional TV network NBS -- doesn't help matters, even when Sorkin tries to balance him against principled (almost heroically so) NBS Entertainment president Jordan McDeere (Amanda Peet).

"I believe the people who watch television shows are not dumber than the people who make television shows," McDeere says at a press conference announcing the hiring of Matt and Danny. "I believe quality is not anathema to profit."

In July, Sorkin said his latest show is, at its heart, about the same things as "West Wing" and "Sports Night."

"It's about a group of people committed to professionalism, committed to each other, committed to what they're doing, and hopefully we enjoy watching them every week," Sorkin said.

The TV graveyard is littered with the corpses of failed shows set backstage in Hollywood ("Action" on Fox in 1999, "Wednesday 9:30 (8:30 Central)" on ABC in 2002), but before "West Wing," no one thought a political drama set in the White House would work either. Whitford said he's not concerned despite the track record for the Hollywood insider theme.

"I just think, isn't 'CSI' a little inside the coroner's office?" he said at an NBC press conference in July. "I think it's an advantage because you're taking an audience to a place that is different, and you're humanizing the people who are dealing with that place."

If nothing else, viewers will likely sympathize with the rant in tonight's premiere.

"This show used to be cutting-edge political and social satire, but it's gotten lobotomized by a candy-assed broadcast network hellbent on doing nothing that might challenge their audience," says Hirsch's Wes, before he's fired. "We're all being lobotomized by this country's most influential industry. It's just thrown in the towel on any endeavor to do anything that doesn't include the courting of 12-year-old boys, not even the smart 12-year-olds, the idiots!"

Sorkin said he's not intending to lambaste "Saturday Night Live" with that rant, which also contains jabs at "The Apprentice" and "Fear Factor," all three NBC shows.

"It's not about 'TV is bad and TV is killing us,'" he said. "It's mostly about these people, but when it gets into issues of the network and art versus commerce and dumbing things down, we do have a full-throated discussion about it."

The second episode lives up to another Sorkin promise that the characters, aware of the great promise of television, try their best to live up to the responsibility of creating quality entertainment. That idealism worked on "West Wing," but in "Studio 60," it feels a little phony.

Like his previous series, "Studio 60" features intelligent, quickly spoken dialogue, smart arguments and terrific performances (Perry and Whitford have instant chemistry as longtime co-workers), and it's not a bad show by any means, but it doesn't soar to the heights "West Wing" did, even in its earliest episodes.

It's not necessary to know the autobiographical nature of some of the characters in NBC's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" (10 tonight) to enjoy the show, but it can make it that much more fun. Here's a who's (inspired by) who:

Matt Albie (Matthew Perry): "Studio 60's" senior writer shares some traits with series creator Aaron Sorkin and also director Thomas Schlamme.

Danny Tripp (Bradley Whitford): Perhaps the closer Sorkin stand-in, as both Tripp and Sorkin are recovering drug addicts, although Tripp is a producer/director, not a writer.

"I'm writing more personally than I have before," Sorkin acknowledged in July, adding that the characters are inspired by real people but "by page four it becomes fiction."

Jordan McDeere (Amanda Peet): The Entertainment president at a fictional TV network, McDeere was inspired by Jamie Tarses, ABC's Entertainment president in the late 1990s, when Sorkin's "Sports Night" aired on ABC. Though Tarses was the recipient of scads of bad press -- for incidents like making out with one of the stars of "Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place" at a network press party -- Sorkin evidently liked her. McDeere is one of the heroines of "Studio 60," and Tarses is a consultant on the series.

Harriet Hayes (Sarah Paulson): The star of the sketch series that's the show featured within "Studio 60," Hayes is a conservative Christian in a largely Godless industry. Her character was inspired by actress/singer Kristin Chenoweth, a devout Christian and one of the stars of Sorkin's "The West Wing" in its latter years. She and Sorkin also dated.

In an upcoming episode, Harriet says, "You're just going to have to believe me that in other parts of the country that aren't New York or Los Angeles, the fact that I believe in God isn't noteworthy."

"I had seen [Kristin] in so many unusual situations in Hollywood that make her not only a minority, but a bit of a pariah," Sorkin said. "I want [Harriet] to be a heroine on this show, and I want her to be loved by a guy who is the opposite of all that and let that be the test case to see if we can all get along."

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06261/722687-237.stm

fredfa

09-18-06, 04:17 PM

The New Season
Aaron Sorkin makes dazzling comeback calling on 'West Wing'-like sophistication
By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle Monday, September 18, 2006

As the new fall television season begins -- a handful of shows have already been sneaked, but tonight is the official start -- it's only fitting that Aaron Sorkin, whose reverence for intelligence and fast-paced action has already given TV two quality offerings in "The West Wing" and "Sports- Night" -- returns with the most talked about new freshman series.

"Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" lives up to the advance hype, easily qualifying as one of the best new broadcast series of the fall. What's most impressive, however, is how "Studio 60" seems so ripe for knocking down -- couple the hype and the all-star cast with one of the least successful genres, the inside-baseball show-within-a-TV-show -- and you have all the markings of failure. And yet, "Studio 60" not only hits one out of the park for 60 full minutes, it instantly makes you realize just how damned good Sorkin was in the first place and how much he's been missed in the television landscape.

"Studio 60" -- in case you've been under that proverbial rock -- is a behind-the-scenes look at a late-night sketch comedy series that appears awfully similar to "Saturday Night Live" (and yes, this series airs on NBC). If Sorkin captured all the frantic action and lower-budget hipness of a place like ESPN when he did "Sports- Night" -- a series that showed great love not only for the profession of live television but of sports and scrappy cable channels -- he turns here to the darker side of broadcast television, where all the networks are owned by huge corporations and money matters more than art (or even the love of the game, as we witnessed in "SportsNight").

There's a real logic to this jump, even though Sorkin has been deftly deflecting comparisons to real life (his -- both personal and professional). His departure from NBC and the helm of "The West Wing" was uglier and more complicated than is generally understood. While it's true that Sorkin was busted with a number of illegal drugs as he tried to pass through Burbank airport, his real woes began when he essentially wrote every "West Wing" episode and couldn't delegate. His alleged tardiness on scripts cost NBC money and was reportedly the center of his conflict with NBC. You can guess who won that.

If time really does heal all wounds then, well, welcome back Aaron Sorkin, to the Peacock. This, too, makes a weird kind of sense. NBC is struggling. What it needs most is a hit, but also a real classy, smart offering. Who better to deliver those goods? And yet what Sorkin has given NBC is a series that unflinchingly looks at how the sausage gets made not only on a weekly television series, but how corporate bosses -- many of them with no working knowledge of the artistic side of the industry -- are put in charge of entertaining the country. (This theme is repeated more blatantly in Tina Fey's comedy "30 Rock," also on NBC, and featuring Alec Baldwin as a cutthroat corporate no-man sent to slash costs on the entertainment side of the business).

In "Studio 60," Sorkin starts with the audaciously close-to-home notion that a staple series (in this case, the fictional "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip") is no longer funny. Never mind that this has been said with some frequency in past years about "Saturday Night Live." We see Judd Hirsch playing Wes Mendell, the beaten down creator and producer of the series trying to get funny material on the air while a network drone from standards and practices tells him he can't run a particular sketch. The alternative is to run a not-very-funny sketch that offends no one but people with a sense of humor and sophistication. A massive "Network"-like meltdown occurs, live on television, and the network finds itself boxed into a corner. Jack Rudolph (Steven Weber), the head of the fictional National Broadcasting System, immediately fires Mendell and thus looks like the humorless corporate bean counter he is.

But he's already hired a new entertainment president, Jordan McDeere (Amanda Peet) that day, and drops the mess in her lap. Or, more accurately, Jordan rises to the occasion to put things right (and make a name for herself), and insists the network and "Studio 60" immediately rehire Matthew Albie (Matthew Perry) and Daniel Tripp (Bradley Whitford), the writer-producer combo who ran the show in its heyday but were unceremoniously fired by Rudolph.

Here's where the drama in a comedy begins.

"Studio 60" is smart -- immediately smarter than most broadcast dramas in the room -- and it's passionate. Matt and Danny represent all that's good about creative freedom on television and Rudolph is the Big Bad of corporate bottom lines. This allows Sorkin to pontificate and lecture about the clash of art and commerce -- a subject he's intimate with -- and he nails it with vigor and glory. Though there's some merit in accusing Sorkin of a propensity to lecture, to write grandiose, overly dramatic speeches that are either heart-rending or fiery and political, that has always been a dubious accusation when you consider that, hell, he does it like nobody else. Television could use a lot more soapbox lectures in place of predictable (and hacky) dialogue, provided they're done right.

The worrisome aspect about "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" is not Sorkin bleating on about television like he did the politics of "The West Wing." The man is talented enough to ramble on about postage stamps and make it goose-bump great. No, the worry is that shining a light backstage and onto the inner workings of television will bore those people who just want to watch the bastard machine, not dissect it. But this is the same kind of inside-baseball knock Sorkin got for "SportsNight" and "The West Wing," and history says he did just fine with those.

With Perry and Whitford providing superb acting (Perry will no doubt surprise a lot of people) and a deep and talented cast, there's much to like about "Studio 60." (For those who will quibble with young and beautiful Peet playing an idealistic and powerful network president, it's wise to remember that the TV industry is filled with women just like her in real life and the Jordan McDeere character is allegedly based on Jamie Tarses, who ran ABC and was younger then than Peet is now.)

There are a plethora of really wonderful new dramas in the coming fall season, but only one or two look to rise to the lofty heights that "Studio 60" and Sorkin establish right out of the gate. So, on the first official night of the new fall season, you might just see the best it has to offer.

Less exciting is”The Class” a new CBS comedy from two producers (David Crane, "Friends," and Jeffrey Klarik, "Mad About You") that ought to be a whole lot funnier given that pedigree. It's not. Part of the problem comes from the premise -- a group of onetime third-graders, now twentysomethings (go figure) are randomly pulled back together. Yes, third grade. That's where Ethan (Jason Ritter) first met his fiancee 20 years ago. Cute, no? Anyway, he calls everyone in the class and they, in turn, prove to be a predictably disparate bunch. But they all show up anyway to surprise Ethan's fiancee, who promptly dumps Ethan, leaving him alone with a bunch of strangers from third grade.

And yet -- you guessed it -- there's something about the reunion that sparks new relationships. The laugh track here would have you believe that everything these former third-graders say is outrageously funny. It's not.

The best that "The Class" can muster is a kind of cookie-cutter familiarity (also known as lameness) that gets prodded by the laugh track to make everyone at home feel like a good time is being had. It's not.

Skip this class and learn a bigger truth about the TV industry by watching "Studio 60" instead.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/09/18/DDG2VL68U51.DTL&type=printable

fredfa

09-18-06, 04:26 PM

Critic’s Notebook
Fuzzy sitcom math
By Alan Sepinwall Newark Star-Ledger Monday, September 18, 2006

Comdey math time, boys and girls. If the cast of "Friends" divided by 6 equals "Joey," what do you get when you take a third of the original "Friends" creative team, half of John Ritter's DNA, a quarter of the original "Joey" cast and a ninth of Broadway's "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" cast?

Pens and pencils down, everybody. The correct answer: "The Class" (8 p.m., Ch. 2), a sometimes-promising, sometimes-frustrating, always-overpopulated new sitcom that kicks off this season's odd new trend of shows about relative strangers who become best pals in a hurry.

In this case, our heroes are eight former third-grade classmates, now in their 20s, brought back together by uptight pediatrician Ethan Haas (Jason Ritter, John's son), who orchestrates a reunion to celebrate his engagement to a woman he first met in their class. Nobody much remembers Ethan or his fiancée, but they show up for other reasons: Live-at-home loser Duncan (Jon Bernthal) hopes to see ex-girlfriend Nicole (Andrea Anders from "Joey"), who's now the trophy wife of an aging ex-football star; local newscaster Holly (Lucy Punch) wants a showdown with ex-boyfriend Kyle (Sean Maguire), who came out of the closet on prom night; sarcastic Kat (Lizzy Caplan) is dragged along because her chipper twin Lina (Heather Goldenhersh) had a crush on Kyle and didn't get the memo about him being gay; and depressed Richie (Jesse Tyler Ferguson from "Spelling Bee") because Ethan's phone call interrupts a half-hearted suicide attempt.

Add in the significant others and assorted hangers-on of the eight, and that's a lot of characters to squeeze into 21 minutes or so of screen time, especially since, after the pilot, writers (and real-life couple) David Crane (one of the "Friends" co-creators) and Jeffrey Klarik (a "Mad About You" veteran) don't plan to put all of them in the same room again for a long time. (Probably for the best, since the actors range in age from their early 20s to early 30s and look it, ruining the illusion that they all went to school together.)

To get across who everybody is, Crane and Klarik have to paint in very broad strokes. Sometimes it works, like the way Duncan and his mother continually get into shouting matches until they realize they're not arguing about the same thing. More often, it doesn't, like any scene involving Holly and her husband Perry (Sam Harris), who she doesn't realize is gay -- even though he's so flamboyantly effeminate that, as Kyle puts it, "Astronauts look down from space and go, 'Wow, that guy is gay!'"

The gay husband subplot is so over-the-top, so dumb that it ruins any scene involving him or Holly or Kyle. (Of the three episodes sent out for review, the only one in which a Holly storyline is funny is the husband-less third show, where, during a hurricane, she's one of those poor saps you see on TV who have to stand at the Jersey Shore getting pummeled by rain while the warm and dry anchorman tells her to stay dry.)

"Friends" didn't start off like gangbusters, either, as it took Crane and company at least half a season (or, in the case of Matt LeBlanc, years) to figure out how best to write for each actor. Crane and Klarik have some promising actors to work with here. Ritter inherited his dad's immense likability (Ethan would be as unbearable as latter-era Ross otherwise), Ferguson makes Richie's suicidal tendencies non-creepy, and Bernthal has the same kind of naive enthusiasm LeBlanc had, without making Duncan into a Joey clone. (All the more impressive given that they share an on-screen love interest.) In the second episode, Duncan gets a look at the mansion Nicole's husband owns and realizes he helped put up the drywall, then smiles and declares, "This place is not well built!" It's an unexpected line, delivered perfectly.

The good news is "The Class" gets a little better with each successive episode, but CBS isn't doing the show any favors by having it lead off the network's Monday comedy lineup instead of letting it grow behind a returning show like "How I Met Your Mother."

("HIMYM," by the way, starts off year two in style, highlighted by Neil Patrick Harris' Barney delivering his own sleazy version of Tom Joad's "I'll be there" speech from "The Grapes of Wrath," with lines like, "Wherever there are drunk girls leaning out of limo moon roofs...")

Again, "Friends" wasn't a classic right out of the gate, and no matter how you work the numbers for "The Class," putting that much pressure on it just doesn't add up.

Slow start for these races

As both a social experiment and a publicity stunt, "Survivor: Eugenics Wars" (or whatever CBS is calling this season) didn't get off to an incredible start.

After Mark Burnett and Jeff Probst defended the concept of dividing "Survivor: Cook Island" teams by ethnicity by insisting the new season would shatter stereotypes, they and their editors sure went out of their way to include as many stereotypes or discussion of same in the premiere. Not so much offensive as lazy, the premiere included sights like: the African-American team struggling to build a boat, the Asian-American team excelling at puzzle-solving, a member of the white team stealing property (a chicken) that rightfully belonged to one of the minority groups, and Vietnamese refugee Cao Boi treating a teammate's migraine headache with quasi-mystical discussion of "the bad wind."

And despite the weeks of journalistic hand-wringing, judgmental invective and other publicity for the race twist -- the most press the show has gotten since the second season -- the audience for the premiere was... slightly less than it was for the last several, controversy-free premieres. An average of 17.7 million people watched the first episode on Thursday, compared with 18.4 million for last fall's "Survivor: Guatemala" and 19.2 million for last spring's "Survivor: Exile Island."

If the goal was to get the nation involved in some interesting racial discourse, upcoming episodes need to get a lot more complex -- not likely since this is, after all, "Survivor," and X amount of time in every hour has to go to the challenges, scheming and voting off. (Maybe things will improve when the teams inevitably merge.) If the goal was to breathe new life into the solid but fading franchise, well... maybe there's something worse than bad publicity: publicity that doesn't move the needle one way or the other.

http://sepinwall.blogspot.com/

fredfa

09-18-06, 04:29 PM

Critic’s Notebook
"The Class" and Grade Inflation
By James Poniewozik Time Magazine television critic in Time’s Tuned In blog Monday, Sep. 18, 2006

The consensus among TV critics is that this is an unusually strong new season of shows. A good half of the fall's new shows are potential keepers, with attention-getting premises and cinematic looks. Spurred by challenging hits like Lost and itching for their debuts to get attention, the networks have fallen back on their most desperate, last-resort measure: quality.

Of course it's one thing to get critics to agree it's a season of high-quality shows. It's another matter to get them to agree which shows those are. In this week's issue of Time I single out five new dramas, and there were a few others that could well have made the cut (including CBS' nuclear-apocalypse drama Jericho and Fox's brilliantly cynical law drama Justice). It's been a weaker year for sitcoms, but there are a couple top prospects, ABC's The Knights of Prosperity and NBC's 30 Rock.

There are a few cases where I think my fellow critics have gotten carried away, though, and two of these shows debut tonight. I won't repeat my takedown of Aaron Sorkin's overrated, scintillating-but-sanctimonious Studio 60 (which you can read in the same article that praises 30 Rock, also about the behind-the-scenes of a sketch-comedy show).

The other is CBS's The Class, which like Studio 60 may have given reviewers a case of pedigree-itis. It comes from the makers of Friends, and it seems to indicate that they haven't had an original idea since. Here again, is a group of whitebread late-20somethings, reunited when one of them throws a party for the members of the third grade class where he and his fiancee met. The fiancee dumps him, but the other classmates begin a new set of relationships. In the three episodes CBS sent, almost none of them shows signs of becoming an actual person rather than a high-concept joke: not the introverted nebbish who repeatedly tries to kill himself (hi-larious!), not the requisite Goth-y sarcastic girl, not the woman with the flamboyant, obviously closeted husband, a joke that would have been considered sophisticated in 1994, when the character was probably rejected for the original Friends pilot.

CBS already has a Friends rip-off: The Class' timeslot-mate How I Met Your Mother, which nonetheless has fully developed characters and a voice of its own. I'll be TiVoing that tonight to learn what happened after Ted and Robin's hookup and Marshall and Lily's breakup, but The Class? Dismissed!

http://time.blogs.com/tuned_in/

fredfa

09-18-06, 04:32 PM

The New Season
5 New Fall Dramas To Put On Your Schedule
By James Poniewozik Time Magazine television critic

What's worth catching this season? If you like ambitious serials, try these

THE NINE ABC, WEDNESDAYS, 10 P.M. E.T.; PREMIERES OCT. 4 Late one fine afternoon, nine innocents are caught in a bank robbery. The hostages are rescued after a bloody 52-hr. ordeal. In between, life-changing things happen, some noble, some regrettable. But what, exactly? We don't see, and the answer is the key to this whydunit. It's a high-wire premise--how long can the series keep us in the dark about a riddle the characters all know the answer to? The tense pilot suggests the series has a few twists up its sleeve and a cast up to the challenge: as suicidal nerd turned hero Egan Foote, John Billingsley looks like the season's breakout character. Not only for how it teases out the brutal events inside the bank but also for how it shows the bonds among the survivors rebuilding their lives, this post-hostage drama is, well, captivating.

SIX DEGREES ABC, THURSDAYS, 10 P.M. E.T.; PREMIERES SEPT. 21 Was Kevin Bacon unavailable? Beats me, but this serial about connected strangers still has dramatic muscle. Steven (Campbell Scott) is a great photographer in a slump ... who is hired by ad exec Whitney (Bridget Moynahan) ... who befriends recent widow Laura (Hope Davis) ... who hires as her nanny mystery girl Mae (Erika Christensen) ... who attracts the attention of cop Carlos (Jay Hernandez, above, with Christensen) ... who forms an alliance with Damian (Dorian Missick), a gambler struggling to go straight. It's a drama of chance with enough charm to roll the dice on.

DEXTER SHOWTIME, SUNDAYS, 10 P.M. E.T.; PREMIERES OCT. 1 The aaying "It Takes A Thief to catch a thief" apparently goes double for serial killers. Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) is a suave psychopath whose cop father taught him to channel his murderous impulses--by killing only other murderers. Hall, an undertaker on Six Feet Under, makes a seamless transition to the supply side of the death business, helping cops sleuth out killers to pay the bills while coolly meting out justice on the side. Or is it justice? The morals of this provocative show are as intriguing as its cases.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS NBC, TUESDAYS, 8 P.M. E.T.; PREMIERES OCT. 3 You don't need to know a quarterback from a halfback--I'm told those are football terms--to appreciate this drama about a high school team in gridiron-obsessed Texas. The fictionalized version of the based-on-a-nonfiction-best-seller movie (directed by Peter Berg, who co-produces and directs here) has the same quick-cut look, crisp dialogue and bone-crunching game scenes. And the series promises to get deeper into the lives of the players, who are treated like gods and movie stars--as long as they win. Kyle Chandler is cool and cagey as the new coach who receives the subtly menacing good wishes of the townsfolk, while a strong young cast ably inhabits the pressured lives of kids whose futures ride on a sport that is far more than a game.

HEROES NBC, MONDAYS, 9 P.M. E.T.; PREMIERES SEPT. 25 Forget bird flu; in this thriller, there's a pandemic of superpowers. A cheerleader who can't be injured, a drug addict whose visions come true and many others discover their abilities in separate stories that promise to converge. The eerie mood of mystery recalls Lost, as does the big cast of characters (so many that the extra-long pilot does not introduce all of them). The writing is uneven--a plot about a Japanese geek who can teleport is engaging; others are flat or clichéd--but the idea is audacious enough to keep you following the loose threads. They just might lead to a cape.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,1535845,00.html

fredfa

09-18-06, 04:35 PM

The New Season
Do Not Adjust Your Set
NBC really is probing the perils of late-night sketch-comedy shows--twice
By James Poniewozik Time Magazine television critic Monday, Sep. 18, 2006

Tina Fey, formerly of Saturday Night Live, is in the midst of a major career change, one that has taken her from a late-night writers' room to, um, a late-night writers' room. On her sitcom 30 Rock, she plays Liz Lemon, head writer of The Girlie Show, a decently rated, woman-oriented sketch show. Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin), an executive at NBC's corporate parent General Electric who made his career selling GE ovens, decides it needs more male viewers. So he forces Liz to hire Tracy Jordan (SNL alum Tracy Morgan), a wild and (literally) crazy comic who has starred in such Wayansesque hit movies as Who Dat Ninja? and Black Cop, White Cop ("One does the duty. One gets the booty"). Soon the show has been retitled TGS with Tracy Jordan, and Liz is left running a hit show that she's not sure is really hers.

On the sitcom, Liz is at odds with her boss. In real life, Fey agrees with what NBC says about 30 Rock, which she also writes and produces. First, even though the network has a second fall debut--Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, from The West Wing's creator, Aaron Sorkin--about a sketch-comedy show, neither series is about that other marquee NBC property, SNL. (Of course not. I'll assume they're about Mad TV.) Second, neither is in competition with the other. "I'm pretty sure we can never be on at the same time," Fey says dryly. "They're a drama. We're a comedy. We're different."

Well, kind of. The pilot of 30 Rock (Wednesdays, 8 p.m. E.T.; debuts Oct. 11) has a scene in which the writers challenge an actor to do impressions--Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, Ray Romano. "There's a new promo [for Studio 60] that NBC showed me," Fey says, "and someone in it was saying, 'Show me your Tom Cruise.' I said, 'Oh! I guess there is a little overlap.'"

Radio humorist Fred Allen famously said that imitation is the sincerest form of television. But usually it's different networks doing the imitating. How did NBC get two shows in the same unusual milieu in the same season? Apparently by coincidence. Fey, who had a four-year development deal with NBC, first pitched the network a sitcom about cable news. Kevin Reilly, president of NBC Entertainment, felt Fey was using the news setting as a fig leaf for her own experience and encouraged her to write what she knew. Sorkin, meanwhile, was shopping his return to TV with a show about TV--a topic that earned him high praise, if not high ratings, with ABC's Sports Night. SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels, a co--executive producer of 30 Rock, says Fey's sitcom was in the works when Sorkin asked to tour the SNL set for research. "I honestly believe he came to his decision separately," Michaels says.

NBC and both series' makers don't like the shows to be compared--the producers of Studio 60 refused to be interviewed for this article for that reason. And on the one hand, they have a point. The shows have different formats. (Helpful mnemonic: the one with 30 in the title is half an hour; the one with 60, an hour.) They have different tones: 30 Rock lampoons all its characters, even Liz, while Sorkin, as Michaels says with understatement, "tends to write in a more heroic mode." It's not a zero-sum game; as Reilly notes, "If these were two cop shows, we wouldn't even be having this conversation." On the other hand, come on. Any person not employed by GE is reasonably going to ask whether he or she wants to watch both shows.

In fact, looking at how two smart writers approach similar settings and conflicts is a study in how to deal with ideas on TV. Start with Studio 60 (Mondays, 10 p.m. E.T.), which is all about Big Important Subjects. Whither television? Whither social discourse? Whither this red-blue divided nation? The producer (Judd Hirsch) of Studio 60--the long-running sketch-show-within-a-show--is forced to kill a controversial sketch about Christians. He goes all Network on his network, launching an on-air tirade about how gutless corporations are "lobotomizing" America. (If there's no two-minute-plus speech, it ain't a Sorkin show.) After he is fired, the new network president (Amanda Peet) persuades former Studio 60 writers Matt Albie (Matthew Perry) and Danny Tripp (Bradley Whitford) to take over and revitalize the show. Complicating their job are a meddling corporate boss (Steven Weber), Danny's announcement that he tested positive for cocaine and Matt's history with star Harriet Hayes (Sarah Paulson), a born-again Christian he broke up with because she appeared on The 700 Club. (Sorkin, who has had drug run-ins and dated devout Christian and West Wing actress Kristin Chenoweth, is also writing what he knows.)

As always, Sorkin proves he can make dialogue skip rope. When a detractor calls Matt and Danny "Barbra Streisand--loving," Matt asks, "Was she calling us Hollywood liberals, or was she calling us gay?" Danny: "It's a fine distinction." Perry and Whitford have fantastic chemistry; squabbling but loyal, Matt and Danny are like a long-married couple but with more passion. (The women characters are much weaker: Harriet is a pretty billboard who serves as the token religious voice, while Peet drifts through with weird detachment, as if she were playing the princess of a small country.) And some details are spot-on: one invented sketch, "Peripheral Vision Man," is a dead ringer for the kind of lame skits that have long plagued SNL. I mean Mad TV.

In terms of craft, Studio 60 is very good. Sorkin is probably incapable of writing a bad show. But self-satisfied, self-serious and self-congratulatory--that he can do. From the mood lighting and stirring music to the hot-button story lines to the characters' arias on the august legacy of their show, Sorkin makes running a comedy program seem like negotiating an arms treaty. Is your beef with sketch shows that they used to be daring social critiques--("Chizzburger! Chizzburger!")--or that they used to make you laugh? Worse, Studio 60 fails to show us that Matt and Danny are actually funny. (Witty, yes, but so was President Bartlet.) In Episode 2, Matt has to come up with a knock-'em-dead opening sketch for his first show. His idea is--wait for it--a Pirates of Penzance parody. Studio 60 treats it like comic genius.

You might assume that 30 Rock, the sitcom, is the more lightweight show. But Fey began comedy writing with Chicago's Second City troupe, where, she says, "your starting place was always current events and social issues." Her hit movie Mean Girls was a mainstream feminist entertainment that was steeped in ideas but not overwhelmed by them. And 30 Rock is at heart about the race-class-gender triangle among its three leads: Liz, a talented but headstrong woman; Jack, a conservative suit who's not as dumb as Liz wishes he were; and Tracy, a loony--but cannily so--black celebrity who came from nothing.

But it's socially conscious second. First, it's funny. In the pilot (being reshot in parts for recasting), Jack sizes up Liz instantly, with creepy accuracy: "New York, third-wave feminist, college educated, single and pretending to be happy about it, overscheduled, undersexed, you buy any magazine that has 'Healthy Body Image' on the cover, and every two years you take up knitting for--a week." In a brilliant bonding scene, Tracy takes Liz to a strip club and says she could learn from the dancers: "They know the window of opportunity's only open for a moment." Liz stuffs a bill into a persistent stripper's stocking, protesting, "This is for computer classes."

30 Rock is willing to let each of its characters be right and wrong; it's confident that we don't need to worship them to like them. And for all the show's cartooniness, its gender-conscious take on the TV business is actually more sophisticated. Sure, networks occasionally interfere with shows for political reasons. But more often, they do so for demographic reasons. Or for no reason. "Sometimes," Jack boasts, "you have to change things that are perfectly good just to make them your own."

Which is not to say 30 Rock is cynical. But where Studio 60 reveres television, 30 Rock loves TV, and that makes the difference. At one point in Studio 60, the show's director cracks a joke that a stressed-out Danny fails to appreciate. Says the director: "It's a comedy show, dude." Good thing somebody remembers that.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,1535853,00.html

fredfa

09-18-06, 04:50 PM

The New Season
Favorable returns
Billy Goodykoontz The Arizona Republic Sept. 18, 2006

Every fall, there's a big fuss made over all the new television shows - and with good reason.

There's always some wheat among the chaff, and this year is no different. Shows like The Nine and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip are outstanding and deserve every accolade thrown their way.

But let's not forget that the schedule is also home to some returning shows that merit equal enthusiasm, if not more. Here's a look at five relative oldies but goodies worth getting excited about all over again.

1--'Lost' 9 PM ET/PT. Wednesdays on ABC; third season premieres Oct. 4.

The first five minutes of last season, when we thought we were back in flashback territory but were instead being shown the world inside the hatch, were pure TV genius - set to Mama Cass singing Make Your Own Kind of Music, no less, making that song cooler than it'll ever be again - and things never slowed down from there.

Forget this year's lack of an Emmy nomination for the 2005 winner for best drama. The second season was better than the first. And with lots of new unresolved questions - lots - there's no reason to think the third season won't be better than the third.

Where we left off: Jack, Kate and Sawyer had been handed over to the Others by Michael in exchange for his son, Walt; man and boy sailed away toward civilization, presumably, but on this show, who really knows? Locke prevented Eko from punching the computer key, which set off a huge electromagnetic disturbance, which Desmond seemed to stop, but not before an explosion. Are any of them dead? Can you ever really tell?

And the biggie: Research types called Penny, Desmond's former squeeze, to report strange doings. She seemed to be tracking Desmond's whereabouts. What does that mean? And will we ever find out? Does any sentence involving this show ever end in anything other than a question mark?

How to keep it interesting: More Desmond, please. He quickly became one of the show's most compelling characters. And if he is dead, hey, there's always flashbacks.

The wild card: A new scheduling pattern that means no repeats - but means big stretches of time with no show at all. Not the perfect solution to last season's bizarre rerun strategy, but it's something.

2--'Gilmore Girls' 8 PM ET/PT Tuesday on the CW; seventh season premieres Sept. 26.

If ever a show was the product of a singular vision - and voice - it's Gilmore Girls. The characters speak in rapid-fire, pop-culture-laden patter that was a clear reflection of its creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino. But she left the show last season after not getting the contract she wanted, so how will things hold up?

Depends. The first episode of the new season manages to make the relationship between Lorelai and Luke even more off-putting than it was last season, and it was plenty off-putting then.

"It wasn't my favorite stuff to play," said Lauren Graham, who plays Lorelai.

It wasn't my favorite stuff to watch, but things are supposed to get better this season. And, in fact, something further happens at the end of the first new episode that at least offers some hope for the future of the quality of the show, if not for Luke and Lorelai.

Where we left off: Lorelai gave Luke an ultimatum: Let's get married or else. He balked and she wound up in the arms and bed of Rory's dad, Christopher. Meanwhile, Rory's boyfriend, media-empire heir Logan, left for London. But, really, whatever. The most important relationship in this show is between Lorelai and Rory, and after that bizarro separation, it's still intact.

How to keep it interesting: Have Kelly Bishop appear as Lorelai's mom as often as possible. Give her plenty of meaty scenes, get her an Emmy and make the world a better place.

The wild card: Graham's contract is up after this season, as is Alexis Bledel's. They've both given lip service to not having made up their mind whether to sign up for more, but you're probably safe to assume this is the show's swan song.

3--'Veronica Mars' 9 PM ET/PT Tuesday on the CW; third season premieres Oct. 3.

This is a great show criminally overlooked by a mass audience, along the same lines as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with which it shares a sort of kindred spirit. The shorthand to describe high-school private eye Veronica when it began was a hipper Nancy Drew. But that sells woefully short Kristen Bell's portrayal. Instead, Veronica is more a teenage Nora Charles from The Thin Man films, though she spends an awful lot of time looking for a suitable Nick.

The problem in the second season was a plot that went all over the place, which made the middle part of the year hard to follow.

"It's something we're looking to correct in Season 3," Rob Thomas, the show's creator, said.

Instead, this time there will be three shorter mysteries that play out over the course of the season - assuming the season lasts that long. Ratings have never been particularly good for Veronica. Its dream pairing with Gilmore Girls better pay dividends, and fast - the CW ordered only 13 episodes, about half a season, of Veronica.

"I think we're actually in a make-or-break time now," Thomas said. "I think we need to come on in this new time slot and do well."

Where we left off: Veronica manages to fit solving the mystery of the bus crash - seriously, Beaver? Really? - into her high-school graduation schedule. Her dad survived being killed on a doomed plane. Veronica seems happy with Logan, but her graduation trip to New York with her dad never happens; he's waylaid by a business proposition, the details of which we will presumably learn about soon.

How to keep it interesting: Let Veronica and Logan be - gasp - happy, at least for a while. And don't let college take Veronica away from her dad.

The wild card: Don't let Veronica's first year of college be as downbeat as Buffy's.

4--'The Office' 8:30 PM ET/PT Thursday on NBC.; third season debuts Thursday.

It seemed as if there were no way an American remake of the British original, truly one of the best television shows, ever, could amount to much. It still seemed that way after the first few episodes. But the second season found a much-improved show that is as funny as anything on television, an interoffice romance that bests the British version and star Steve Carell in the midst of a white-hot Hollywood streak. It's now a TiVo staple.

NBC has used The Office, whose popularity as an iTunes download helped keep it afloat, as a kind of test case for non-traditional viewing, offering "Webisodes" during the summer starring some of the supporting cast. (We'll know the Webisode has truly arrived when Carell stars in them.) You haven't really missed anything if you didn't see them, but it's an interesting idea, and a decent way to get through the summer for fanatics, who do exist .

Where we left off: The usual craziness, with Michael throwing a casino night in the warehouse that found him in the awkward position of having two dates. But then, at the end: Jim tells Pam he loves her; later, when she's talking to her mother on the phone, he kisses her. And she kisses him back. Fade to black and wait for the new season. Dang.

How to keep it interesting: Don't let anyone in this office succeed at anything, ever. In other words, stay with the status quo.

The wild card: Jim and Pam's romance, obviously. What does this mean for her wedding plans - and for the twisted, fractured humor in the most dysfunctional workplace since the funeral home in Six Feet Under?

5--'Desperate Housewives' 9 PM ET/PT. Sunday on ABC; third season debuts Sunday.

Maybe one day, through the magic of DVD collections and the passage of time, we'll look back on the second season and not consider it such a disappointment. Seems unlikely, though. The humor was off, the drama wasn't compelling and the housewives too often went their separate ways. The less said about Alfre Woodard's story line - what a waste of a good actress - the better. But creator Marc Cherry is back on board running the show this season, and he has been promising big things. If the new season's first episode, a big improvement over last year, is any indication, he might deliver.

"The early scripts and the story lines and the arcs and the mystery, I think, are a lot stronger from the get-go," Stephen McPherson, ABC's entertainment president, said.

Then again, what else would he say?

Where we left off: Mike got run over by a car while on his way to propose to Susan - a car driven by Bree's new love interest. Joy. Gabrielle caught her husband fooling around with the maid, who is having a baby for them. Lynette learns of Tom's other child and finds out the child's mom is going to be their neighbor. It was all as ridiculous as it sounds.

How to keep it interesting: It's meant to be an over-the-top soap opera, but maybe not so far over the top it sprouts wings this season. Bring the housewives back together more often, and make them desperate again - not absurd. There's a decent little mystery kicked off in the first new episode.

The wild card: Marcia Cross' real-life pregnancy. Producers say it'll be written into the story. If this season is anything like the last, the mind boggles at the possibilities.

http://www.azcentral.com/ent/tv/articles/0918returning0918.html

fredfa

09-18-06, 04:56 PM

Cable Tv Notebook
Time Warner Still in Talks With NFL Net
By John Eggerton Broadcasting & Cable 9/18/2006

Cable system owner Time Warner Cable says it is still in talks with the NFL Network about carriage of the 24-hour sports channel on the systems Time Warner purchased in divvying up bankrupt Adelphia with Comcast.

Time Warner Friday "deleted" the NFL Network from those systems as promised. It has not struck a carriage deal with the NFL Network for any of its systems, saying the sticking point is its desire to put the channel on a separate sports tier and the network's desire to see it on expanded basic.

When the company took over the Adelphia systems Aug. 1, it pulled the network, but had to reinstate it after the FCC ruled it had not provided the requisite 30-day warning. Time Warner then began giving notice, and last week pulled the channel again.

Time Warner spokesman Mark Harrad says the two sides are still talking, reports otherwise notwithstanding.

"Fred Dressler, our lead negotiator, reports having had conversations last week. We continue to talk to the NFL," says Harrad, who added that he was surprised that the NFL Network described the talks as having broken off. He called that characterization "inaccurate."

An NFL Network spokesman had not returned a call at press time.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6373182

fredfa

09-18-06, 05:00 PM

The Business of TV
Changing Viewer Demands Lure Nets to Web t
By Mike Shields and John Consoli MediaWeek Sept. 18, 2006

Less than six months ago, ABC’s decision to stream episodes of Lost and Desperate Housewives on the Web was treated as landmark and revolutionary. But these days it would be bigger news if a network decided not to preview a new show on the Web, given last week’s slew of streaming announcements from the broadcast networks.

Network and media agency executives said the recent moves by Fox, CBS, ABC and NBC to stream significant portions of their prime-time lineups are being driven by several factors: the increasingly difficult task of getting viewers to notice a new show in a 500-channel, 50 million-MySpace user-universe; broadband users’ rapidly changing media expectations; and a growing ad market for online video.

First off, with media fragmentation near overload, networks can no longer rely on just putting their shows on TV and hoping viewers find them. Dave Poltrack, exec vp and chief research officer for CBS Corp., offered an interesting stat: in the mid-1980s, half the TV audience had already sampled a network’s shows by November [six weeks into the season]. Now that number is around 15 percent.

Thus, networks are employing the “try it you’ll like it” strategy. “It’s like the consumer packaged goods sampling market,” observed David Hallerman, analyst at eMarketer.
Poltrack added that given the highly serialized nature of many network shows these days, alternative viewing options are key to reaching fans that might not want to miss an episode, or non-fans who want in on water-cooler buzz. In fact, ABC’s research found that sampling and catching up were among the top reasons users streamed its shows last spring, according to Albert Cheng, executive vp, digital media, Disney-ABC Television Group.

Beyond sampling, the nets are also simply reacting to their audience’s demand for on-demand viewing. “It’s about what people want and where people are going,” said Vivi Zigler, exec vp, NBC Digital Entertainment, New Media, of her network’s decision to stream all its new fall shows. Surely, the networks are also being motivated by the hot Web video ad market, where “interest among advertisers is outstripping inventory,” said Hallerman.

ABC said it will stick with the formula of running three national ad spots for a single advertiser within each streamed show, plus one local spot as part of a new affiliate pact. While no advertisers have been announced for this season, during last spring’s test ABC tapped both Ford and Toyota for discounted runs.

All the networks are looking to land new dollars for online video inventory, though just how they’ll charge buyers is still evolving. “ABC isn’t exactly sure of their model,” said Peggy Green, president, Broadcast & EntertainmentZenith Media Services, whose client Toyota participated in the test buy.

CBS is similarly tweaking its pricing options. “No one knows right now what the ultimate currency will be and what the industry standard will be,” he said. “The agencies are encouraging us to be as creative as possible,” Poltrack said.

NBC just began its sales process last week, so it’s possible that some shows will initially stream without ads. But according to Zigler, NBC’s sitcoms will soon carry two to three ads per stream, while its dramas will carry four to five spots. Like ABC, NBC will approach its top TV advertisers first, considering that buyers who are drawn to specific shows are likely to be interested in reaching those viewers elsewhere.

“They’re about getting those engaged users,” said Zigler. “An online user is extremely engaged.” Craig Woerz, managing partner, Media Storm, agreed that ad inventory within full-length network shows is more compelling that other broadband fare. “We’re buying as much as we can get of it and we’re willing to pay a premium.”

Steve Grubbs, CEO of PHD, said that TV advertisers who decide to buy into corresponding online inventory will want to know how streaming impacts their total audience. “As long as they can prove how much of an additional audience they are reaching, we will come to an agreement on how much more to pay for that audience,” he said.

One concern that no one seems to have is TV ratings. “I don’t believe it will eat into live TV viewership,” said. Added ABC’s Cheng: “This is purely additive,” he said. He says that research showed that even the since-cancelled Commander In Chief gained viewers during last season’s streaming experiment.

While research like encouraged ABC to expand the of shows available for viewing online this time around, Cheng said ABC won’t just put its whole fall lineup on the Web.

“We ask ourselves, ‘do we think the show benefits from additional exposure?’” For example, ABC feels that the young skewing Ugly Betty will likely benefit from being on the Web, while an older skewing drama like Brothers & Sisters might not.

Still, streaming prime-time shows is not without pitfalls. While studios are far more inclined to play ball than they were even a few months ago, rights negotiations require a “Herculean effort,” said Cheng. Plus, streaming technology can be pricey. “There is a significant cost to do this,” said Zigler.

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003123108

fredfa

09-18-06, 06:06 PM

Tv Notebook
Couric Maintains the Lead
By Allison Romano Broadcasting & Cable 9/18/2006

For the second straight week, The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric finished as the most-watched network newscast, but Couric's margin of victory over her NBC and ABC rivals is razor-thin.

For the week of Sept. 11 to Sept. 15, less than 400,000 viewers separated first-placed CBS from no. 3 ABC. Couric's newscast averaged 7.9 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research, followed by The NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams' 7.83 million viewers and ABC World News with Charles Gibson's 7.53 million viewers.

In the key news demo, adults 25 to 54, Couric was no. 1 with a 2.1 rating, followed by ABC and NBC with 2.0 ratings.

With Couric in the anchor chair, CBS's ratings jumped 15% over the same week last year. But Couric's audience has settled considerably from her debut week. In the shortened Labor Day week, Evening News averaged 10.2 million viewers and a 2.8 in the demo.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6373202

fredfa

09-18-06, 06:10 PM

C able TV Notebook
'Louie's' Luck Runs Out
By James Hibberd TVWeek September 18, 2006

HBO has canceled "Lucky Louie," its first attempt at a traditional three-camera sitcom.
The series, starring comedian Louis C.K. as a working-class husband and father, premiered in June to a weak 1.5 million viewers. The season finale was seen by 1.3 million viewers, about on par with its 13-episode season average. By comparison, the third season finale of "Entourage" was seen by 2.5 million viewers.

"Louis is an incredible talent and a wonderful partner," said Carolyn Strauss, president of HBO Entertainment, in a statement. "We loved trying our first multicamera show with him, and we look forward to other projects with Louis in the future."

An HBO spokesperson said the network has no specific projects currently planned with Louis C.K.

http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=10769

archiguy

09-18-06, 06:53 PM

fredfa

09-18-06, 06:55 PM

The guy who approved production of "Lucky Louie" should go out with the good/bad, too.

keenan

09-18-06, 07:11 PM

Wow. HBO cancelling 'Luckie Louis'. Now there's a shocker!

At least Louie knows he's got pretty good company this year. HBO is an equal opportunity canceler: out with the good; out with the bad; off with all their heads!
Don't take this to the bank yet, we have yet to hear from the showrunner, and then there will a statement about a misunderstanding, then there will be some blame for the press running away with the story, then it will be the showrunner himself who wanted to cancel the show, then it will be HBO and the showrunner announcing that there will be 2 hr movie to conclude the storylines.

Isn't that how they do things at HBO...? Making a media event out of canceling a show..? It's not TV, it's HBO....

fredfa

09-18-06, 07:34 PM

I think the "Lucky Louie" storyline concluded about five minutes into the first episode.

keenan

09-18-06, 08:19 PM

I think the "Lucky Louie" storyline concluded about five minutes into the first episode.
No doubt. Can't wait to see what dreck HBO is going to foist upon us next.

fredfa

09-18-06, 09:22 PM

TV Q&A
Ask Matt
(from the Ask (TV Critic) Matt (Roush) column at TVGuide.com
By Matt Roush TVGuide.com TV Critic Monday, September 18, 2006

Question: With the end of the WB era approaching and with Sunday night's rebroadcast of the pilots of its biggest shows, I was just wondering what you think that network's biggest or most influential show was.

I know that Buffy was tops in quality and really brought about a renewed interest in vampires and horror/fantasy TV shows, but I think Dawson's Creek is the seminal WB show. I mean, it's a big part of our pop-culture lexicon, and how many imitators came out after that one? I was in college when these shows premiered, and, while no one I knew watched Buffy, pretty much everyone was at least familiar with Dawson's Creek.— Kristi

Matt Roush: Purely in terms of the WB brand, Dawson's is tops, no doubt about it. The show established the tone for a network that was still struggling for an identity, and became hugely influential in what followed. While 7th Heaven was more popular in terms of sheer numbers (because of its cross-generational appeal), it couldn't match Dawson's place in the zeitgeist. And Dawson's gave us half of TomKat; who'd have seen that coming? In cult terms, Buffy and Angel weren't merely WB's best series of all time, they're in the top tier of genre series ever. Right behind them I'd put Felicity, which had the sex appeal of Dawson's Creek but also a much deeper emotional resonance. It went far beyond the realm of guilty pleasure.

Question: What do you think about the promos NBC is using for The Office? To me they do not show what that series is about at all! The ads make it look like it's just a love story, which it is not. They don't show one bit of humor, and worse yet, they show only two characters, Jim and Pam, and in one ad they also called them the stars, which is either false advertising or they have changed the format of the show. Isn't NBC afraid that they are going to alienate a lot of potential viewers with this kind of advertising? Those who tune in because they like the appeal of the love story will be disappointed. Those who would be interested in The Office as it was (and hopefully still is) wouldn't tune in at all if they had only these ads to go by — I know I wouldn't have. What is NBC thinking? Are they trying to get rid of The Office when it's just getting started?— Valerie M.

Matt Roush: Judging a show by its promos is always dangerous, and I'll admit I haven't been paying attention to many of the fall campaigns (DVRs tend to keep you at a distance from commercials). But from this question, I'm assuming the emphasis in the Office promos is on the Jim and Pam relationship, and, given how the season ended, that's hardly a surprise to me. They are by no means the only assets of what is essentially an ensemble comedy, but they are key assets, and the way the season left their relationship, it's a hugely promotable story line, something you can't always say about this offbeat series. If they were selling the show on the shoulders of Dwight, that would be another (horrible) matter. But Jim and Pam? I'm cool with that. While my understanding is that as the new season begins we will be let in on the status of their relationship right away, I don't imagine The Office is going to become "The Jim and Pam Show." If that means the promos are misleading, what's new about that? Especially on NBC. At least it's a very solid hook. It's not like different promos are suddenly going to catapult The Office into a Friends-caliber megahit.

Question: Funny, but I could've sworn that at the beginning of this year, NBC was hyping the fact that they were going back to a two-hour comedy block on Thursday night. They made a big stink about how they were going to stick with it, even if it didn't work in the beginning. But this season they've totally dumped the two-hour comedy block and scheduled Deal or No Deal at 9 pm/ET. What's up with NBC's sudden and unexpected about-face? (Not that I really care, anyway, since I'll be watching Survivor and CSI.)— Craig W.

Matt Roush: So they lost you already, right? Hardly seems fair, especially since the one hour of comedy NBC is scheduling on Thursdays is so strong: My Name Is Earl and the ever-improving The Office, coming off its Emmy win. Last mid-season's experiment of returning to NBC's comedy roots was hobbled by the usual reality: NBC didn't have enough good comedies to fill the two hours (especially since the network stubbornly refuses to give Scrubs a berth on the night). When the fall season was announced, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip was originally scheduled for the 9 pm/ET hour — not a traditional comedy, to be sure, but with plenty of humor in its writing, performances and overall tone.

But then when ABC aggressively scheduled Grey's Anatomy for the same time period, NBC quickly regrouped, and might have done so even if comedies had originally been scheduled there. NBC's decision to place an edition of Deal or No Deal against the CSI and Grey's juggernauts is the very definition of a no-brainer (and not just because the show itself is so mind-numbing). The days of NBC calling all the programming shots on Thursdays are long over, and aren't likely to return unless or until the network develops several new megahits.

Question: I know you are a big Project Runway fan. I like the show a lot, too. I'm always posting in the Project Runway Watercooler blog, and I wonder if you agree that in a lot of ways Season 3 has been jumping the shark. The whole Keith incident, the insane (even for PR) challenges. The manufactured drama with the mothers and sisters, the trip to Paris just to promote Parsons and embarrass Angela. The eliminations and winners that rarely make sense. I mean, the judges may be experts, but we the audience are the ones who buy and wear clothes. Rarely this year have the judges been in sync with the viewers. I mean, inevitably the majority of blog posters feel the judges have been making the wrong calls all season.— Matthew

Matt Roush: You hit it on the head when you wrote, "inevitably, the majority of posters feel..." If you had followed that with anything but a disagreement, I would have been shocked. The fact that Project Runway still inspires any kind of reaction, positive or negative, is a sure sign it hasn't jumped the shark and isn't about to. I still find it one of the most enjoyable, unpredictable and creative of reality shows. I think you're confusing jumping the shark with going over the top. If they didn't do that from time to time in the world of fashion, they would be "out." Project Runway is now Bravo's signature show (sorry, Queer Eye), and it is far from having peaked.

Question: I'm coming to you with this because you're one of the few TV critics who still likes Prison Break. Episode 3 was refreshing and very good, but why does everything that Michael does have to be preplanned? It would've been a lot better if he just decided to fake his death to lose Mahone, but the whole thing where he had a tattoo of the exact railing on the highway was a little stupid. Please pass on to Paul Scheuring that now that Mike's out of prison, his well-thought-out stunts should be well thought on the spot.— Frazier

Matt Roush: Yes, how about those tattooes for all situations? What nonsense. You want to talk about jumping the shark? Though it's not quite as ludicrous as Vanished has quickly become, Prison Break is getting less credible by the mile. Melodrama is like that. Which doesn't mean it can't still be entertaining from time to time (having a decent cast helps get us through the rough spots), but the show is beginning to feel more like a chore than a gripping adventure, and part of that has to do with details like this.

About the same show, this from Dan: "I just read the idea about Scofield switching sides on a possible Season 3 of Prison Break. I just wanted to throw out there that I was reading an article with (I believe) series creator Paul Scheuring, who said that with his twisted sense of humor, the show would probably end after a few years with Michael 'winding up back in jail, because after all, he did rob a bank.' Can't argue with that."

No, but how stupid would we feel if that's how it all ended? There's ironic, and then there's a waste of time.

Question: When is the next season of Meerkat Manor? So far I've read from Animal Planet that Season 2 started Sept. 4, but another website has the first showing on Sept. 29. TV Guide indicated that there would be two episodes on Friday, Sept. 8, but the synopsis of the two 30-minute shows talked about Season 1! Can you please help us figure this out? Thank you!— Luis

Matt Roush: Cable is so confusing, isn't it? Animal Planet is running episodes from Season 1 right now. The second season, with fresh episodes continuing the fascinating saga of the Whiskers tribe of meerkats, begins Sept. 29.

Question: When Lost ended its second season, there was a lot of talk about how fans wanted answers to some lingering questions. This is the first time that I have ever gone completely mad over a TV show, and I have to say that people should just chill out and let the story unfold without all of the complaints. I'm no TV critic, but isn't the beauty of the show the fact that it keeps you on your toes and makes you think (sometimes outside the box) about subjects that are usually whitewashed on other shows (morality, redemption, what you're willing to do for the love of your child). Would it be too much to ask if we could have people enjoy the ride, because how often does something this inventive come along?— Tanya

Matt Roush: Apparently, it is too much to ask of some people. I thought the finale gave a fair number of answers (why the plane went down, why the numbers had to be regularly typed into the computer) while continuing to spin out the mesmerizing mysteries that drew us in to begin with. The very appeal of the show lies in its mysteries, and of course in how they affect the terrific cast of characters. Fan frustration comes with the Lost territory, and that will probably become even more pronounced when ABC takes the show off the air from mid-November to February, in part to avoid the repeats that drive fans mad. There's really no winning when a show has a following this obsessed and demanding.

Question: I know you're not a ratings fan, but I hope you can answer this: Now that the WB and UPN are a single network, how much can the CW expect in the ratings? I mean, what will be the ratings scale to decide the fate of a show on the new network? The same as on WB and UPN, or the same as on the Big 4?— Emmanuel

Matt Roush: Somewhere in between, I'd imagine. Now that we have one less network cannibalizing the target audience (MyNetworkTV barely counts), I think the expectation is that the core shows, especially in the lead-off positions (7th Heaven, Gilmore Girls, Top Model most notably), should show an uptick, though not dramatically on par with the major networks. Demographically, though, some CW shows may be able to give the big boys a run for the ad money. Just don't expect any Idol or House-size breakthroughs.

Question: Is it me or is Two and a Half Men getting carried away with sex? We really used to enjoy the antics of Charlie and Alan, but last season was only about sex, with a little child humor thrown in the mix. I'm no prude, but come on, it's getting so we can't hack a full episode anymore. Let's see more of Angus! Maybe that's why Emmy eluded them.— Joan

Matt Roush: Seems to me this show has always been on the gamey side, but in catching up with some of last season's episodes over the last few weeks (when they first aired, I was probably obsessed with 24), it does seem even more "blue" than I remembered. I wish the show didn't feel it had to stoop to such crude levels so often, but even so, it's still a pretty funny show, especially when Berta is on the scene. And from the start, the kid's presence has been a little misleading. This has never been a "family" sitcom, in part because Angus plays Jake as anything but cute and precocious.

Question: Having picked up the Fall Preview issue of TV Guide, I'm pleased to see the extended coverage but puzzled by one glaring omission: your sidebar discussing the notable mid-season shows we should watch out for. Are they not any good, was there not enough space, or can we look forward to your assessment in the near future?— Ryan

Matt Roush: Truth is, it didn't come up this year, as we were so busy reformatting Fall Preview for the first time since the magazine went full-size. But the underlying fact is that last year when I wrote that roundup, I had three very different shows from three networks to work with: The Book of Daniel, Sons & Daughters and Love Monkey, and what do they have in common? None of them made it. This year, there wasn't as great a variety in the mid-season product I had available to me, and frankly, I didn't get to screen as many mid-season shows as I did a year ago. Which isn't to say there won't be more great, though possibly endangered, mid-season programming around the corner. I just can't tell you when I'll get to it. Things are pretty busy with what's on right now.

http://tvguide.com/News-Views/Columnists/Ask-Matt/default.aspx

fredfa

09-18-06, 10:04 PM

The New Season
The CW: A tag-team Tuesday
The new network hopes the established `Gilmore Girls' from the defunct WB will help ex-UPN laggard `Veronica Mars' find its audience.
By Kate Aurthur Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Cute sci-fi boys on Thursdays, African American comedies on Sundays, wrestling on Fridays: The CW's schedule is Frankenstein's monster, with salvaged parts from the WB and UPN contributing to the mishmash of a body.

On Tuesdays, the combination of "Gilmore Girls," formerly of the WB, and "Veronica Mars," born of UPN, is designed to provide the new CW network with both brain and heart. The shows are similarly smart and snappy with a dark streak and present sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking insights on coming of age with a single parent. And in a television landscape that is either fueled by testosterone ("24," "Two and a Half Men") or winkingly post-feminist ("Grey's Anatomy," "Desperate Housewives"), the spirited, independent-minded female leads of "Gilmore Girls" and "Veronica Mars" offer a rare alternative.

Measured in business terms, the shows are at opposite ends of the success spectrum. And whether one show can help the other find a wider audience is a yardstick by which the success of the CW will be judged.

On Sept. 26, "Gilmore Girls" will begin its seventh — and perhaps final — season, having finished Season 6 with an average of 4.4 million viewers. As the second-most-popular show on the WB, there was no question that the mother-daughter fan favorite would be a key asset in the CW's quest to corner the advertising market among 18-to-34-year-olds.

By contrast, "Veronica Mars," entering its third season Oct. 3, has been nothing short of a ratings flop. The girl-detective series was renewed by the skin of its teeth after its first season, during which it attracted a small, fiercely loyal audience that included many television critics. But last year the show performed even worse than it had in its first: It ended Season 2 with an average of 2.3 million viewers.

What went wrong for "Veronica Mars" on UPN? Dawn Ostroff, the network's former entertainment president who now runs the CW, sighed when asked that question in her West L.A. office. "So many things," she said. Its incompatibility with its lead-in show, the reality catfight "America's Next Top Model," was one problem, Ostroff said. Another was that it competed with "Lost," ABC's popular island mystery that appeals to a similar fan base.

Rob Thomas, the creator of "Veronica Mars," suggested a third reason for the show's ratings woes: "I felt like 'Veronica Mars' was asking people who'd never tuned into UPN to tune into UPN," he said in his North Hollywood office recently. "The WB had the corner on that young, and particularly young and female, market."

The glib and boisterous Thomas added with a laugh, "This will either vindicate that theory or shoot it down, being on the CW."

Life on 'Mars'

In the planning meetings before the CW announced its lineup in May, Ostroff said "Veronica Mars" had been very much on the bubble. "It could have been canceled," she said. "It's not like we walked into that scheduling room and it was a lock, it just wasn't."

Ostroff has associated herself closely with the show. When asked why he thought that might be, Thomas said: "Here's an unscripted answer that makes me nervous: Dawn loves the show for the cachet it gives the network. I think she understands from the buzz of all her employees that it's a quality show. And I think there are elements of our show that she loves. At her core, I don't think she quite gets — or I don't know if 'gets' is the right word but enjoys — the dark moments of the show."

He was referring to the fact that the character of Veronica was raped, her best friend was murdered, and that in Season 2, a school bus with kids on it went off a cliff. When Thomas told Ostroff about that last plot development, he recalled that she clutched her head, as if in pain. He said: "She was like, 'Oh, my God, Rob, I can't believe you're in here telling me this! You can't be serious!' But to Dawn's credit, she can be convinced. We wouldn't be on the air if it weren't for Dawn's passion for the show. Which I truly appreciate."

When Ostroff not only renewed "Veronica Mars" but gave it the plum spot behind "Gilmore Girls," she asked Thomas to simplify the show's structure. In its two previous years, Veronica (Kristen Bell) pursued a seasonlong mystery, which prevented new viewers from understanding the plot. This year there will be three mysteries. "Rob has done an amazing job at still making the mystery a big part of the show but not making it so complex that it becomes insular, that you can't get in," Ostroff said.

Thomas agreed to the change and wants to do what he can to stay on the air. "I tried to start the season with no previous knowledge required," he said. "The first episode is consciously a plea to the 'Gilmore Girls' audience to join in."

On the Warner Bros. lot, the mood at "Gilmore Girls" appears to be one of calm, even though it too has undergone a major change in the past few months. Last April, Amy Sherman-Palladino, the show's creator and force majeure, was unable to come to an agreement with the studio and left. In departing, she and her husband, Daniel, a "Gilmore Girls" executive producer, handed the series over to David Rosenthal, whom they had groomed as a successor, knowing that their relationship with Warner Bros. was tenuous.

The changeover has been smooth, Ostroff said: "I think the viewers will be thrilled to see what David's done. He really does have that voice."

That "voice" — fast-talking and incessantly referential, emanating from the characters of Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and her college-age daughter, Rory (Alexis Bledel) — was thought to be the creation of Sherman-Palladino alone. But Rosenthal, who joined the show last season as an executive producer, said: "It's like learning a new language. At a certain point, you just find yourself fluent in that language. I just kind of learned to speak 'Gilmore.' "

The show's hard-core fans, the ones who analyze every word and plot twist on Internet message boards and spoiler sites, for the most part welcome Rosenthal rather than regard him as an interloper. His transition has been made smoother because of viewers' discontent with the show last year, during which Lorelai acted uncharacteristically reticent in her romantic life.

"Independent of whether people were responsive to last season, I had to come up with my ideas for this season," Rosenthal said. "The arcs, the storylines. That's what I focused on."

He said he is not thinking about whether "Gilmore Girls" will end its run this season. Bledel and Graham do not have contracts after the year is over, and the speculation is that they won't want to continue. On this topic, the circumspect Rosenthal said: "It is their show, they are the heart and soul of the show. It is up to the two of them. If the two of them want to do one more season, we will absolutely do one more season. If the two of them don't, we won't."

Ostroff said, "Obviously, internally we've started to talk about that." Does she think there is a chance "Gilmore Girls" could continue? "I hope so, I hope so."

As for the even less certain fate of "Veronica Mars," Thomas offered a prediction.

"Here's what's going to happen," he said. "We're either going to retain most of the 'Gilmore Girls' audience, which will keep us on all year. Or we drop precipitously and we're going to get canceled."

Later, he said of his constant reality checks, "There's a whole lot of that that happens on our show that I don't think they're worrying about over at 'Lost.' "

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-ca-cwtuesdays17sep17,0,5261353,print.story?coll=cl-tv-features

fredfa

09-18-06, 11:23 PM

The New Season
'Smith' does crime drama a terrible injustice
By Robert Bianco USA Today

There's bad, and then there's criminally bad.

Hands down the worst new show of the season, Smith is CBS' attempt to break out of its crime-show rut by turning the crooks into the heroes.

Or anti-heroes. Or something. It's hard to say exactly what Smith has on its tiny criminal mind, other than a misguided urge to pass inert writing and indifferent acting off as edgy art.

All flash and no fire, this high-profile effort from ER producer John Wells stars Ray Liotta as the leader of a gang of thieves who manage the not-easy feat of being both psychopathic and dull. For their first job, the crooks-for-hire steal some priceless works of art from a Pittsburgh museum, killing an innocent guard in the process.

And we're supposed to care what happens to them because ...?

There's a line between "morally ambiguous" and "morally repugnant," and Smith treads over it.

Yes, some great works of dramatic fiction have focused on flawed characters, including, as CBS is quick to point out, The Sopranos. But aside from boasting a level of writing and acting Smith can't even begin to approach, HBO's classic is designed to use our rooting interest against us: sucking us into Tony's story, then slamming home a reminder that he's a homicidal thug.

Smith, on the other hand, wants us to embrace Liotta's Bobby as a good husband and father — a bemused nice guy — with a bad job and a bit of a temper. He even plays the piano for his loving wife, played by Virginia Madsen, the show's one saving grace. It's the banal approach to the banality of evil.

Like so many shows these days, Smith tries to mask the emptiness of its script by chopping it into time-traveling pieces, from the present to an hour earlier to three weeks earlier and back.

In between, Bobby gathers a crew of questionable skill, which includes a gunman (Simon Baker) with such a hair-trigger temper, he kills two men just for hassling him on the beach. Of course, later he just frets and fumes when the team's con artist (Amy Smart) and ex-con (Jonny Lee Miller) don't see things his way, so maybe there's just something about surfing that sets him off.

It's possible these characters may somehow catch our interest in the weeks ahead, but even as a caper, the show can't be bothered to make sense. Their big plan is to fool the cops by dumping a car for a getaway boat, which they then blow up across the river in full view of the city?

Even if the Pittsburgh police didn't have boats of their own (and they do), they do have cars that are capable of crossing bridges. So you'd have to think they'd be able to catch this crew, unless they just didn't care enough to bother.

Which, considering Smith, is perfectly understandable.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/reviews/2006-09-18-smith-review_x.htm

fredfa

09-18-06, 11:45 PM

Tuesday’s Premieres
Tuesday, Sept. 19
8 PM ET/PT NCIS - CBS HD
9 PM ET/PT Law & Order: Criminal Intent - NBC HD
9 PM ET/PT The Unit - CBS HD
10 PM ET/PT Smith - CBS HD
10 PM ET/PT Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - NBC HD
10 PM ET/PT Boston Legal – ABC HD

fredfa

09-18-06, 11:49 PM

The New Season
Wanting a quick score
With a movie-star cast and heavy stylization, CBS' 'Smith' tries for a fast start.
By Robert Lloyd Los Angeles Times Staff Writer September 19, 2006

"Smith," a new series about a master criminal and the crimes he masterfully commits (overlooking a dead body or two), opens big. We have entered the age of the blockbuster pilot, a natural enough product of a time when a TV show, like any movie or Broadway play, has to generate heat immediately to survive, and "Smith" is blockbustier than most, with a cast of actors who are not only "from the movies" but also still make them; impressive stunt and pyrotechnic work; and real Pittsburgh locations, including a thrilling escape by water down the Allegheny River so nice they use it twice. (There's a shot of the getaway boat passing PNC Park — where the Pirates play — all lighted up for a night game, that's as poetic and exciting a two seconds as series TV will offer you all year.)

It is also long, this pilot — close to an actual hour, and not the 45-some minutes that pass for one in current TV math. That added time alone is enough to give the viewer the impression he's seeing something substantial. (CBS will air tonight's pilot with limited commercials, all for Martin Scorsese's "The Departed" — a Warner Bros. picture, while "Smith," possibly not coincidentally, comes from Warner Bros. Television. And "Smith" lead Ray Liotta also starred in Scorsese's "GoodFellas.") This heft is real, but it's also something of an illusion: There is less here than meets the eye, one might say, just more of it than usual.

Liotta also helps elevate the tone: He's an actor who seems complicated just saying hello — I think maybe it's his eyes, which are sad, even when they twinkle — and he distracts you from the fact that much of it is old cheese. Though "Smith" seems to aim for something akin to naturalism, it's in fact highly stylized and choreographed, and although it is just these qualities that keep tonight's centerpiece art-museum robbery consistently nerve-racking, some of the choices are surprisingly trite: You get the low shot of a car door opening and a high heel hitting the pavement (with a foot in it, I mean, attached to a sexy leg), the long-lens shot of a man walking in the desert (in this case leaving a prison). The characters speak in the language of pulp novels: "She's trouble, you know she is," and "The word on the street is he's into Jackson pretty heavy" and "So what happened in Pittsburgh?" "Stuff." Some things happen because they look good, not because they make any sense.

Of course, the series itself, from producer-writer John Wells ("ER," "The West Wing," the poor and short-lived "The Evidence"), is hardly original. Indeed, it's the fourth team-of-crooks show this year — after AMC's "Hustle," NBC's "Heist" and the FX series "Thief," which it resembles in a few respects, including the counterposing of domestic and criminal-business affairs and making the operation's éminence grise an elegant, older woman. (I'm not calling you old, Shoreh Aghdashloo, just mature, in a good way.)

Once again, we have a "Mission: Impossible"-type team of specialists, any one of whom could model underwear for a living if this crime thing doesn't pan out. There are Simon Baker, who was TV's "The Guardian," as the gun guy; Franky G (TV's "Jonny Zero," briefly) as the getaway guy; Jonny Lee Miller ("Trainspotting," "Melinda and Melinda") as ... the British guy; and Amy Smart ("Crank") as the sexy girl guy. (There is also the traditional expendable guy, who is duly expended.) Liotta is the boss who wants to lead a normal life, as we call it, after a few last good scores — presumably so he won't have to, you know, work in his normal life. Bigger Boss Aghdashloo ("House of Sand and Fog") is called Charlie, possibly in tribute to the late Aaron Spelling. Chris Bauer is an FBI agent on their trail.

In contrast to the insistent glamour that surrounds his gang, Liotta's domestic world, though it is filled with Virginia Madsen and two lovely children, has been given a slightly bleached look, possibly to suggest aridity. They live in one of those tree-starved, cookie-cutter McMiniMansions that are eating up the hills north of Los Angeles, but they do have a grand piano, on which Liotta noodles consonant jazz — he had a trio, we're told — and a couple of paintings, to indicate soul.

If anything is liable to make "Smith" above the well-made caper show it already is, it's what might be done with the relationship between Liotta and Madsen, who is the closest thing to a character the pilot offers and, like, Liotta, suggests depths doing the simplest stuff. It isn't clear how much she knows about her husband's work, but there is some tension there, and she has her own baggage I will not deny you the pleasure of learning about yourself.

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-et-smith19sep19,0,3705576,print.story?coll=cl-tvent

fredfa

09-18-06, 11:56 PM

The New Season
Hybrid network, The CW, is ready to fly
By Melanie McFarland Seattle Post-Intelligencer TV Critic Tuesday, September 19, 2006

When UPN launched on Jan. 16, 1995, only a few days after The WB made its debut, it premiered on the wings of "Star Trek: Voyager," another chapter in the franchise, this time with a woman at the helm.

In a way, Captain Janeway was a harbinger. Back then the question was whether viewers would buy a female captain. A year after that The WB would find success with "Dawson's Creek," "Felicity" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," all series targeting young women. It took a little longer for UPN to realize it needed to vaporize its sci-fi bent and get a share of that 12-34 female market, which it finally managed to do with "America's Next Top Model" and "Veronica Mars."

Problem was, the two networks were fighting over the same small pool of viewers and barely making a dent in the ratings. So you know the old chestnut about what to do when you can't beat 'em. In the case of The WB and UPN, it meant merging into The CW, a move announced last January. (The C is for CBS Corp., UPN's parent company, and the W stands for Warner Bros.)

And when The CW officially launches Wednesday night, it'll be on the strength of another female captain of sorts, fashion mogul Tyra Banks. A two-hour episode of "America's Next Top Model" leads off The CW's fall schedule, granting the new network as much of a blockbuster kickoff as it can get. Unlike the two channels' first time out a decade ago, The CW has a clear vision of what it is and whom it wants to attract. The CW's first year will be all about branding and innovative marketing concepts, maybe even more so than getting viewers used to seeing The WB series "Gilmore Girls" next to UPN's "Veronica Mars" on the same channel Tuesday nights.

That's why you may have seen green CW signs jammed into the grass next to yard signs for congressional candidates or, if you were really lucky, jumped out of the way of herds of screaming girls stampeding their way toward the network's mall tour. The CW has a $50 million branding push to elevate awareness of its existence, and an "up with people" motto stemming from the "Free To Be" idea.

Youth is always the target on television, but The CW feels free to coddle and corner 18- to 34-year-olds like no other network. You want multimedia options, kids? That's covered with the CW Lounge, a Web site hangout complete with chat rooms and downloadable items, including ringtones.

There's even a video-sharing section -- think of it as YouTube with training wheels --where viewers are invited to create homemade CW-themed content such as personal videos and mash-ups. In other words, Free To Be Creative -- and if they're lucky, Free To Be Famous.

Only two fall shows are true CW originals, a drama called "Runaway" and the comedy "The Game." Should they not make it, that's OK -- The CW can still count on Tyra and "7th Heaven" viewers. "Smallville" and "Supernatural" fans will find their series, no matter where they go. Same is true for wrestling and, network suits are hoping, the black comedy block anchored by "Girlfriends" and "Everybody Hates Chris," which has been bumped off Monday nights to Sundays.

But a person can't help asking if combining two networks in one lime-green recycling machine will mean twice the viewers. None of these series ever came close to matching ratings on the big four, and on many nights basic cable channels were beating The WB and UPN.

Putting them in one destination doesn't mean that'll change -- especially given the number of 18- to 34-year-olds stuck on MTV, Comedy Central and every other cable channel that courts that demographic.

That remains to be seen, and we'll have to wait a day to even begin to gauge it. Turn on (your) local CW affiliate this evening and you'll find a repeat of the "Gilmore Girls" finale in the same time slot on a new and, CBS Corp. and Warner Bros. executives hope, improved, network.

'Runaway' 9 PM ET/PT Mondays, starting Sept. 25

To outsiders, the Raders appear to be a normal family. In fact, they have assumed fictitious identities and are hiding from the law -- as well as from the criminals who are really responsible for the violent crime for which Paul (Donnie Wahlberg) was accused. Leslie Hope ("24") stars as Lily Rader, and with Wahlberg holds together a show trying to win the "7th Heaven" crowd with a hybrid of mystery thrills and family drama.

SO, WHAT'S THE PROBLEM? For a network so bent on appealing to younger viewers, "Runaway" looks out of place. And it may be too dark and mature for "7th Heaven" viewers.

ON THE OTHER HAND: Executive producers Darren Star and Ed Zuckerman put as much focus on the good-looking teenage kids (Dustin Milligan and Sarah Ramos) and their various dramas, so it could work out in the end.

'The Game' 8:30 PM ET/PT Sundays, starting Oct. 1

In this new comedy from the executive producers of "Girlfriends," Melanie Barnett (Tia Mowry), the girlfriend of professional football player Derwin Davis (Pooch Hall), finds out about the power moves and politics going on behind the scenes with the San Diego Sabers. She soon forges a friendship with the maternal Tasha Mack (Wendy Raquel Robinson) and Kelly Pitts (Brittany Daniel), the resident white girl. This is the latest drama from "Girlfriends" creator Mara Brock Akil, who executive produces along with Kelsey Grammer.

SO, WHAT'S THE PROBLEM? Lacking snap and consistent humor, "Girlfriends" this isn't, and it sure isn't "Footballer$ Wives."

ON THE OTHER HAND: When the pilot aired as a "Girlfriends" episode, fans seemed to receive it well. As long as it can keep that comedy's audience, it might get the room it needs to liven up the dead spots.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/printer2/index.asp?ploc=t&refer=http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/tv/285519_tv19.html

fredfa

09-19-06, 12:39 AM

The New Season
“Smith”
By Kevin D. Thompson Palm Beach Post Television Writer Tuesday, September 19, 2006

On the surface, Bobby Stevens looks like your average suburban, middle-class guy.

He lives in a nice house on a street where the lawns are meticulously manicured. He has a beautiful wife who adores him. He has two picture-perfect kids. He drives a trusty Ford and works in sales.

Even the name Bobby Stevens sounds so middle-class suburban.

But dig deeper, and you'll learn that Bobby (Ray Liotta) has a secret. Quite a few of them, actually. Like, when he's not selling paper cups, he's off being a cool criminal who orchestrates the elaborate heists of pricey Rembrandts. Like, he keeps a secret stash of guns, cash and clothes for those flashy heists with his slick band of robbers. Like, he drives a really cool sports car when he's stealing things.

Smith, CBS' promising new drama, is one of many complex serialized shows you'll see this fall. It's also one of the better ones. As the double-life-leading crook (the feds know him as "Smith"), Liotta is perfectly cast.
The Goodfellas star brings a big-screen gravitas that fits the character like a comfortable pair of old slippers. In fact, Smith's well-produced pilot often feels more like a movie than a TV show.

Liotta, however, isn't the only standout. You won't be able to take your eyes off Virginia Madsen (Sideways), Smith's devoted wife, Hope, who has a few secrets of her own. Madsen's wonderfully expressive eyes say more than 10 pages of dialogue ever could. Clearly, she's a wife who knows more than she's letting on.

Simon Baker (The Guardian) also is chillingly effective as a coldblooded, morally bankrupt assassin who doesn't treat cats — and people who touch his surfboard — with much kindness.

Then there's Shohreh Aghdashloo, so memorable as a conflicted terrorist on 24, playing Charlie, the crew's deep-voiced leader.

Smith is teeming with interesting, shades-of-gray characters you'll want to get to know better. You're not quite sure, at least in the beginning, just what their motives are. And that's a great place for a drama to start.

But the last two heist dramas (FX's Thief and NBC's Heist) didn't work. Smith is vastly superior to both of those shows and should be able to steal more attention from viewers.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/tv/content/accent/epaper/2006/09/19/a4e_smith_0919.html

fredfa

09-19-06, 03:56 AM

The New Season
The bad guys aren't very good in 'Smith'
By Ellen Gray Philadelphia Daily News Tue, Sep. 19, 2006

SMITH 10 ET/PT tonight, CBS.

If there’s one thing that can be said about CBS in the Age of Bruckheimer, it's that it's the last place on television you'd expect to find sympathy for the devil.

FBI and other federal agents? Legions.

Forensic scientists? More than you can shake a Q-Tip at.

Crime-busting mathematicians? OK, just one.

But thieves and murderers who last more than an episode or two?

Doesn't happen.

Until now.

The most generic-sounding show in a network lineup that expends just five words on four new series - "Smith," "Jericho," "Shark" and "The Class" - "Smith" stars Ray Liotta as Bobby Stevens, the leader of a not-so-merry band of thieves for hire.

Who's Smith?

That's what the FBI agents tracking Bobby and his gang's activities use for the not-yet-identified Bobby.

You just knew there would be FBI agents somewhere.

Based on tonight's opener, which deals with an art museum heist that runs into a few problems, the feds are, if not the least, not yet the greatest of Bobby's problems.

There's a trigger-happy associate, Jeff (Simon Baker), who shows his colors in an early scene no doubt meant to signal that we're not in Kansas anymore, and another with a gambling problem.

Bobby's wife, Hope (Virginia Madsen), the mainstay of his suburban life and mother of his two children, is a recovering drug addict on probation. She's also sounding a mite suspicious about all those business trips he's been taking.

The boss at his cover job would like him gone and the boss who commissions his real jobs ("24's" Shohreh Aghdashloo) just smiles when he talks about going straight.

Producer John Wells ("ER," "Third Watch") has clearly assembled a first-rate cast, even if Liotta, who appears to be wearing a mask even when he's not, isn't as interesting an actor as Andre Braugher, whose similarly themed FX series "Thief" might want to press charges against "Smith."

It's not entirely Liotta's fault, though, that there's so little passion in "Smith," that the Everyman situations that serve "The Sopranos" so well seem so, well, generic, here and that the intricacies of the gang's capers fail to fascinate.

Writing counts.

"Thief" was intriguing but left me mildly depressed.

"Smith" simply left me cold.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/entertainment/television//15553222.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

fredfa

09-19-06, 03:56 AM

Tuesday’s New Show
”Smith” 10 PM ET/PT CBS

The heist series that isn't "Knights of Prosperity." Ray Liotta stars as a master thief with a family at home that includes Virginia Madsen and a gang on the road that includes Simon Baker (who was "The Guardian"), Jonny Lee Miller (from "Trainspotting") and Amy Smart ("Crank") The money's on the screen in the impressively cinematic, suspenseful pilot — and the question that inevitably follows is whether they can keep it up.
•By Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times

"Smith" is nearly as plain and undistinguished as its anonymous-sounding title, but it does have Ray Liotta (most notably of "GoodFellas" fame) making the transition to TV with a strong performance as an antihero for our time: a thief who sets his sights on an art museum as the premiere opens. See, he's a classy kind of thief. No convenience stores or pawnshops for him. Although created by John Wells of "ER" fame, "Smith" limps when it should sprint -- and dressing it up with kinetic explosions doesn't help.
•By Tom Shales Washington Post

Nutshell: Ray Liotta leads a band of ruthless high-end thieves while trying to keep his wife (Virginia Madsen) in the dark.
Aaron’s take: The bandits, which include an unsettling hit man played by Simon Baker (he whistles while he works), don’t exactly radiate warmth. As the storyline plays out this season — yes, another serial drama — they may take on a certain dark allure. But will anyone be watching then?
Verdict: Worth taping, but not worth missing “SVU” or “Boston Legal.”
•By Aaron Barnhart, Kansas City Star

(“Smith” has) arguably the deepest cast in a season full of them (Ray Liotta, Virginia Madsen, Simon Baker, Amy Smart, etc.), good production values, some fun moments with Baker as a charming sociopath, but the pilot's a bit too far on the glum side without adding the style (ala Michael Mann) to match.
• By Alan Sepinwall, Newark Star-Ledgre

One of many new serialized shows this season that have the feel of an exciting feature movie, this drama follows a world-class thief who also happens to be a devoted husband and father. Ray Liotta, looking for his first hit show, plays the thief, with Virginia Madsen (“Sideways”) as his wife, who also has her share of secrets. The opener features a spectacular art theft from Liotta’s gang, which turns partly bad. Simon Baker, late of “The Guardian,” also stars.
• By Bil Carter, The New York Times

There are more inept shows this season (led by anything on MyNetworkTV), but if you're looking for fall's most off-putting and misguided new series, look no further than Smith. Then look away.
Ray Liotta stars in this overly ambitious series as the leader of a gang of murderous thieves who, for openers, kill a guard while robbing an art museum. Odds are you're asking yourself why you should care about people like that — a question Smith is unable to answer.
True, we are fascinated by similarly awful people in The Sopranos, but that classic achieves a level of writing and acting Smith doesn't even begin to approach. In the end, the real problem here isn't that Smith's crooks are unlikable, it's that they're uninteresting. There's no greater TV crime than that.
• By Robert Bianco, USA Today

Ray Liotta stars as the head of crew of high-tech, big-time thieves (a premise reminiscent of the inferior “Heist” and the excellent “Hustle” and “Thief”). The drama is made with the sturdy, watchable quality of any CBS one-hour show, but is this relatively amoral crime caper too dark for the network’s viewers?
•By Maureen Ryan, Chicago Tribune

A weary concept (the secret lives of high-class thieves) but a fabulous cast. Ray Liotta is the chief thief; Virginia Madsen is his wife, who allegedly doesn't know how he earns all that money. Good chemistry and production values. Grade: C+
•By By Diane Holloway, Austin American-Statesman

Ray Liotta plays corporate manager who moonlights as a heist mastermind. His team of charismatic cat burglars includes Simon Baker, Jonny Lee Miller, Amy Smart and Franky G. Chris Bauer plays the FBI agent obsessed with bringing down Liotta and his team. Shohreh Aghdashloo ("24," "House of Sand and Fog") is Liotta's mysterious puppet master. And Virginia Madsen stars as his devoted wife who has her own dark secrets.
• By Marisa Guthrie, The New York Daily News

fredfa

09-19-06, 04:10 AM

Obituary
Mickey Hargitay, 80
Mariska’s Father, Bodybuilder Popularized the Sport
By Dennis McLellan Los Angeles Times Staff Writer September 19, 2006

Mickey Hargitay, the Hungarian-born bodybuilder who parlayed his 1955 Mr. Universe title into a career as a movie actor and had a high-profile marriage to Hollywood sex symbol Jayne Mansfield, has died. He was 80.

Hargitay, the father of Emmy Award-winning actress Mariska Hargitay, died of multiple myeloma Thursday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said Ellen, his wife of 38 years.

The handsome Hargitay, who began bodybuilding after moving to the United States in the late 1940s, was relatively unknown internationally when he won the Mr. Universe title in 1955. That quickly changed.

"Walter Winchell once said that what [President] Eisenhower did for golf, Mickey Hargitay did for bodybuilding, because he brought it to the forefront," Gene Mozee, a bodybuilding historian and writer for Iron Man magazine, told The Times on Monday.

"Back in those days, bodybuilding was thought of as a freakish, unusual activity that wasn't popular with the general public," Mozee said. "At that time, athletic coaches discouraged lifting weights, thinking you'd become muscle bound. And along came Mickey Hargitay, a great all-around athlete."

Hargitay's Mr. Universe win, Mozee said, "was just an eye-opener. It lent a lot of credence that lifting weights, rather than harming your athletic career, could enhance it."

For a young Arnold Schwarzenegger, the fact that Hargitay had won the Mr. Universe contest was an "inspirational force."

"Bodybuilding was dominated by American bodybuilding champions; there was no hope for anyone else," the California governor told The Times on Monday.

That someone from central Europe became Mr. Universe, he said, gave "hope for someone like myself and others to dream about that."

"When I came to this country in 1968, he was one of the first people I wanted to meet," said Schwarzenegger, recalling Hargitay's advice to not "come over here for a handout, contribute, and with hard work you can achieve things."

Schwarzenegger, who played Hargitay opposite Loni Anderson's Mansfield in the 1980 TV-movie "The Jayne Mansfield Story," said Hargitay's marriage to Mansfield and his life amid the glamour of Hollywood only added to his stature as a successful role model in the bodybuilding world.

Hargitay's segue from bodybuilding to show business came after he was discovered by aging Hollywood sex symbol Mae West on the cover of Strength and Health Magazine.

He was part of the cast of musclemen in West's nightclub act, the Mae West Revue, when he caught the eye of Mansfield on stage in New York in 1956.

When Mansfield was asked what she would like that evening, she reportedly responded: "I'll have a steak and the man on the left!"

They were married in 1958.

Hargitay, whose film credits included "Bloody Pit of Horror," appeared with Mansfield in "The Loves of Hercules," "Promises! Promises!" and "Primitive Love." They also appeared together in a nightclub act. They were divorced in 1964; she died in a car crash in 1967.

"I enjoyed my career," Hargitay once said. "I never wanted to be any more than what I was, and I had fun doing it."

Hargitay, who became a successful contractor and real estate investor, "was the epitome of the word 'gentleman,' " said John Balik, publisher of Iron Man magazine.

"The kind of feeling you got from him was just a really genuine guy," Balik told The Times on Monday. "He had a lot of accolades and success in his life, but you never felt that."

Schwarzenegger also recalled Hargitay the successful businessman: "He was always very good in making one dollar into two. So that was another thing he had going for himself that was inspirational, and he loved his family and children. So he was really a great idol to have."

Hargitay was born Jan. 6, 1926, in Budapest, Hungary. Hargitay's father, Mozee said, was athletic and brought up his sons as athletes. They had an acrobatic act that they performed in the largest opera house in Budapest and throughout Hungary.

"Mickey later became an outstanding soccer player, and his brother got him into speed skating," Mozee said. "He became the middle European speed-skating champion."

An underground fighter during World War II, Hargitay fled Hungary after the war and moved to the United States. He began bodybuilding in 1947 after moving to Indianapolis.

"He walked into a gym one day out of curiosity, never having lifted a weight before," Mozee said. "He lifted 215 pounds over his head, which astounded the gym owner, because Mickey weighed about 180 pounds."

Hargitay started competing about four years later, winning local events such as Mr. Indianapolis and Mr. Eastern America.

During his early years in Indianapolis, Hargitay worked as a builder and did an adagio act with his first wife, Mary, in nightclubs. Their marriage ended in divorce.

For two years, beginning in 1959, Hargitay hosted a television exercise show.

Last May, he received the Muscle Beach Hall of Fame Award from the Muscle Beach Historical Committee.

In addition to his wife and daughter Mariska, Hargitay is survived by another daughter, Tina West; stepdaughter Jayne Fenley; sons Mickey Jr. and Zoltan; brother Eddie; sister Eva Nemeth; 10 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

A private service was held Sunday for Hargitay's family.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-hargitay19sep19,0,2535649,print.story?coll=la-home-obituaries

fredfa

09-19-06, 04:15 AM

TV Sports
NFL Network Feeling the Blitz

(Skyreport)—Just as the 2006 NFL season is getting underway with its new-look television coverage, the NFL Network is coming under pressure from both sides of the ball. And when taking a look at the predicament that the 24/7 football channel has gotten itself into, some are starting to wonder who is really to blame. Not only are MSOs chop-blocking the legs out from under the league's in-house TV station, but broadcasters too are turning up the heat in order to stay in the game.

According to reports, Comcast has initiated a plan that would move the NFL Network to a new digital sports and entertainment tier, notifying its systems everywhere that at the beginning of the year, the country's largest MSO will only carry NFLN on this restricted package. The move, Comcast officials said on a conference call last week, would kick in just two days after NFLN's last live game of 2006. Reports have also suggested the new tier would cost Comcast digital cable subs an additional $5 per month.

The switch would take NFLN off Comcast's basic AND second-level digital tiers, sacking the channel into a position of reaching far fewer than the 7 million customers said second-level reaches. Although the network has refused to comment on the conflict, league sources have vowed to fight such a move saying cable operators don't have the right to punt the network to a sports-only tier. NFLN reportedly is demanding that operators carry its programming on an expanded-basic basis which would pipe the net into more than 68 million households.

The NFL Network also launched a monster ad campaign urging fans to demand their cable systems carry the channel or switch to either DirecTV or DISH for their football fix: It's been deals with the satellite companies that have largely enabled NFLN to huddle up its roughly 41 million subscribers. Not to mention that cable operators don't like paying an inflated cost-per-subscriber licensing fee for the channel while the NFL so heavily promotes its "Sunday Ticket" package on DirecTV.

The Comcast news comes on the heels of Time Warner Cable's scheduled drop of the channel from more than one million homes in football-less Los Angeles, football-hungry Cleveland, football-consumed Dallas and football-wasteland, Buffalo. The week prior, Insight Communications refused to pay the net a surcharge on live game carriage.

And in just more bad business practice news, weeks before this latest run-in with MSOs the NFL told broadcasters that their own local news crews would no longer be allowed to cover the games from the sidelines. In repsonse, National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) President and CEO David Rehr recently sent a letter to the league's new Commissioner Roger Goodell urging him to reverse the "poorly thought out" and "discriminating" policy. On behalf of local broadcasters across the nation, Rehr asked league brass to reconsider the ban and "quickly repair the crucial link between NFL teams and their communities."

DoubleDAZ

09-19-06, 09:20 AM

The New Season
The CW: 'Smith' does crime drama a terrible injustice
Fred, why does this have "The CW" in the title when it's on CBS?

fredfa

09-19-06, 10:38 AM

I don't know. That was a pretty stupid mistake! :)

Thanks Dave.

fredfa

09-19-06, 10:38 AM

The New Season
Station identification key to CW game plan
Viewers lured with local promo, Net
By Kimberly Nordyke The Hollywood Reporter Sep. 19, 2006

It's been eight months of planning, integrating, affiliate-wrangling, color-scheming and slogan-testing for what might be called television's first patchwork quilt network.

The CW network bows Wednesday night with the advantage of having established hits comprise the bulk of its schedule, including its opening-night program, a two-hour edition of "America's Next Top Model." But among the highest hurdles CW brass have faced in the run-up to the launch is the marketing dilemma of how to instruct viewers in more than 200 U.S. markets that some erstwhile WB Network and UPN shows have moved to a different channel.

"We're going through what every other network is going through, but we have an added layer of work and things to do," says Dawn Ostroff, the former UPN president who was tapped entertainment president at CW. "The thing that we're focusing on now is bringing the audience to the new network -- it sounds easy, but it really is quite a task. With every other network in existence, you have that base and you know where you left off last season, and so you kind of have an idea of where you're going to be this year. But being a new network, we really have no idea where we're going to be yet."

The CW was created in January by the fusion of WB and UPN into a single entity jointly owned by CBS Corp. and Warner Bros. The cherry-picking integration process has encompassed everything from shows to executives to local affiliate stations. That means that on a market-by-market basis, some UPN shows are bound for a former WB affiliate station and some WB hits will air on a former UPN affiliate.

According to CW's tally, 63% of viewers who were watching UPN are going to have to seek out a different channel to find "America's Next Top Model," "Everybody Hates Chris" and other UPN shows that made the transition to the CW, while 27% of viewers looking for "Smallville," "Gilmore Girls," "7th Heaven" and other WB tentpoles will be looking for them on a different channel as of Wednesday night. And to complicate things even further, in markets covering about 8% of all U.S. TV households, the CW will debut on stations that were not affiliated with either UPN or WB.

Rick Haskins, executive vp marketing and brand strategy at the CW, came on board in February from Lifetime to direct the efforts that would ensure that viewers knew what the CW was and where they could find it -- efforts that resulted in the lime green-themed advertising and "Free to Be" slogan that has turned up everywhere from buses to billboards to the CW's newly launched Web site (www.cwtv.com). And the vast majority of CW's program-oriented launch campaign had to be carefully tailored for individual markets depending on which shows were switching stations and which were staying put on a former UPN or WB affiliate.

"For example, in the markets where 'Top Model' was moving (stations), we had to send a very different message than (in markets) where it was staying" on a former UPN affiliate, Haskins says. "We've really been digging deep into the markets to communicate on a local level the name of the CW and the channel position and letting them know what shows were staying and what shows were moving."

In the months since CBS and Warner Bros. rocked the industry with the Jan. 24 announcement of the WB-UPN merger, Ostroff and John Maatta, the former WB chief operating officer who holds the same position at CW, have been busy coming up with plans for everything from the network's programming and schedule to the Web site and the overall look of the network to a unique form of advertising dubbed "content wraps." In fact, they had a plan in place by April regarding every element of the new network, and they've stuck to it.

"We had very few change orders," Ostroff says. "What everybody signed off on has been what we implemented. We did a great job of organizing as a team the priorities of what we needed to get done and when. Each week we had different goals. That's the only way we were able to pull this off."

The gist of the plan was that the CW would need to incorporate four characteristics -- innovation, participation, connectivity and community -- targeted around the adults 18-34 demo. As part of that plan, the CW executives knew it was crucial to create a highly interactive Web site that ideally would make viewers feel as if they were part of the network.

"Online is one of the most important things for the demo," Haskins says. "The timing of this network is so right; if this had happened a year ago, it would have been too soon because what was happening in the wireless and online space was just beginning to jell. It just seemed to happen at the right time to incorporate new media and old media together into a new brand. But we can't rest on our laurels. We'll be staying close to the demos so that we can always be ahead of what's next."

The site, which launched Sept. 11 and features a countdown to network launch, is focused on three distinct areas: programming, including videos and behind-the-scenes from the network's shows; the CW Lounge, a social networking area where fans can create their own communities and chat about the shows; and the CW Lab, which includes what Haskins calls a "mash maker" whereby viewers can easily create their own promos for the network's shows -- using popular music that the network has cleared -- that others can view online and could in turn could end up airing on the network.

Another part of the CW Lab is an initiative dubbed "Free to Be Famous," which launches Oct. 1. Through this, viewers can upload their own photos to create a 10- to 15-second montage set to music that also could end up airing on the network.

Ostroff hasn't had much time for sleeping during the past two weeks as the clock ticked down to Monday's CW launch party, which drew some 2,000 people to the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, and Wednesday's on-air debut.

"I'm feeling a combination of anticipation about the network launch and thinking about things that need to get done," Ostroff says. "When you're laying in bed at night, it's the first quiet moment you have, when everything floods into your mind (about what still needs to be accomplished)."

It'll be another couple weeks until all of the CW employees are officially moved into one location in Burbank -- the scheduled move date is Oct. 3 -- which will cap off more than eight months of pouring their heart and soul into the birth of a network.

"When I look back, I can't believe we've gotten it all done," Ostroff says. "We're building a brand new network and going full-steam ahead -- and, by the way, while two other networks are still operating. But this is an amazing opportunity to be part of the launch of a new network. I'm very grateful for the chance to do this, and I feel like we're not going to let anybody down."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003123981

fredfa

09-19-06, 10:46 AM

The New Season
On 'NCIS,' Leroy Gibbs is back on duty
By Diego Vasquez MediaLifeMagazine.com staff writer Sep 19, 2006

Mark Harmon will be back on “NCIS,” last season’s finale notwithstanding. That last episode had Harmon’s Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs leaving his job to build boats in Mexico, which in turn left fans angry and confused.

But “NCIS’s” producers have been careful not to say too much about what prompts Gibbs' return and what it will mean. Those questions will begin to be answered in tonight’s season premiere, airing tonight at 8 PM ET/PT. Just what the writers were thinking when it shipped Gibbs off to Mexico probably won't be.

Producers certainly stirred up some anger by making it seem as though Harmon was done in the season finale. The producers had been saying for weeks that someone was leaving “NCIS” in that episode but no one thought it would be Gibbs, the lead character of the highly rated spook show.

All summer chatboards devoted to the show debated whether Harmon would be back, threatening to boycott the show if he was not. That led CBS to confirm that Harmon was indeed returning, perhaps fearing viewers would not watch the fourth season if they thought otherwise.

Indeed, all the show’s descriptions through Oct. 4 list Gibbs in the credits. It turns out that when producers announced that someone was leaving NCIS, they meant the military outfit, not the show.

“NCIS” dominated the Tuesday 8 p.m. timeslot among total viewers last year until Fox’s “American Idol” returned at midseason, but this fall “NCIS” will likely drop behind a popular reality show moving into the timeslot for the first time, ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars,” which averaged 20 million viewers in its debut last week.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/printer_7359.asp

Ou8thisSN

09-19-06, 10:57 AM

Fred, when do you think you will have the ratings posted for Studio 60/rest of yesterday's shows?

fredfa

09-19-06, 11:03 AM

In about an hour.

fredfa

09-19-06, 11:45 AM

TV Sports
Peter Gammons Returns to ESPN Wednesday
By Andrew Marchand New York Post Sept. 19, 2006

Peter Gammons will return to ESPN tomorrow night.

Gammons, who has been off the air since suffering a life-threatening brain aneurysm in late June, will appear on tomorrow's 6 p.m. SportsCenter and the 7 p.m. Baseball Tonight.

Gammons will not be in studio, but rather will appear via a remote from Fenway. ESPN VP Josh Krulewitz said that Gammons is progressing well, but stressed at this point Gammons is not prepared to return full-time.

"We're thrilled to have him back," Krulewitz said. "He is going to make this appearance Wednesday and then we will work closely with him to work out a schedule going forward that he is comfortable with."

Since Gammons has been absent, Baseball Tonight has had a drastic makeover. Harold Reynolds was fired from the show after being accused of sexual harassment. While Jeff Brantley is also on his way out, Steve Phillips has become more of a fixture with a new five-year contract.

http://www.nypost.com/php/pfriendly/print.php?url=http://www.nypost.com/sports/gammons_returning_tomorrow_sports_andrew_marchand.htm

fredfa

09-19-06, 11:49 AM

TV Sports
NFL Network Is Counting on Fans to Pay a Lot for a Little
By Richard Sandomir The New York Times Sept. 19, 2006

The NFL Network, the television progeny of a league that knows better than all others how to mint money, is overreaching in its tough-minded campaign to prove its indispensability to fans in the cable TV universe.

The network is overselling the value of its eight-game Thursday-and-Saturday schedule, which will not begin until Thanksgiving. It is clearly in love with what it is offering. You can tell by what it is charging.

Basic arithmetic shows that at the rate it is demanding, at least 70 cents a subscriber every month, the NFL Network would amass $756 million in revenue if it were fully distributed to 90 million cable homes.

That is an astonishingly steep value to place on eight games — which will be simulcast on local stations in the teams’ markets — and an array of very good studio, news and archival programs. Still, that’s 357 days without games.

Until awarding itself the matchups, the network charged cable operators 20 cents a subscriber. It is now available in 41 million homes, two-thirds of them DirecTV and Dish Network satellite customers.

It takes serious guts to place a huge valuation on a handful of games shown over six weeks, without playoffs, but the league has seen how its ESPN games dominate cable by attracting about 8 percent or 9 percent of the cable world, then selling advertising off that rabid fan base.

Assuming full cable penetration, the $756 million valuation exceeds NBC, Fox, CBS or DirecTV’s average annual payments to the N.F.L., but it is less than ESPN’s $1.1 billion fee.

• A critical difference is that all but the NFL Network carry full-season schedules. NBC has 17 games and playoffs. CBS and Fox each carry, regionally or nationally, more than 100 games divvied into 25 or 26 Sunday afternoon singleheader and doubleheader windows, in addition to the playoffs. ESPN has 17 games, but no playoff games or Super Bowls, which CBS, Fox and NBC will rotate through 2011.

DirecTV’s Sunday Ticket satellite plan carries all 219 Sunday afternoon games to about 1.5 million subscribers for an annual payment to the league of $700 million. The N.F.L. has always sold the package exclusively to DirecTV, leaving it out of the reach of cable operators, who have long coveted it.

Having cast its lot with DirecTV, the league wants cable operators to swallow a large fee, which would inevitably find its way to consumers.

“To suggest that anybody’s season will be ruined for missing eight games is ludicrous,” said Fred Dressler, the executive vice president of Time Warner Cable, which is feuding with the NFL Network.

Cable operators are required to put the NFL Network on expanded basic, where the widest swath of customers exists. One key exception is Comcast, with 24 million subscribers the largest cable operator; it signed a deal three years ago that allowed it to put the NFL Network on a digital tier available to only a third of its customers — even if the eight games were added.

Still, there is a lively dispute over whether Comcast will eventually put the channel on a sports tier that will reduce its viewership to those willing to pay $5 or $6 a month to see it, NBA TV, CSTV and other networks.

Sports tiers have been little-viewed flops. For the NFL Network, being on a pay-per-view tier would be a terrifying financial prospect, slashing revenue and exposing it to the habits of subscribers who might buy the tier for two months, then drop it for the rest of the year.

“No one will ever have the right to do that,” said Seth Palansky, a network spokesman. Steve Bornstein, its president, was unavailable for comment.

Bornstein and owners spurned a Comcast bid worth at least $400 million to carry the eight games on OLN (newly rechristened Versus). It appears clear that Bornstein is betting that he can use the N.F.L.’s power to extract well more than that from cable, satellite and telephone customers. “Our value is commensurate with the programming we’re offering,” Palansky said.

In its tiff with Time Warner, the NFL Network is battling through an ad campaign designed to stoke the anger of cable customers. Time Warner is responding with a Web site geared to undermine the league’s position.

• Unable to strike a deal with the league, Time Warner last week stripped the channel from systems in Buffalo, Cleveland, Dallas and Los Angeles, systems that were recently acquired from Adelphia.

In one newspaper ad, the network cited Time Warner and Cablevision as holdouts and claimed quite hyperbolically that without it “you’ll miss the best games and the run to the playoffs.” The claim borders on deception, given how many games can be seen elsewhere and that there is no way to know how important they will be. Still, the tactics on all sides are predictable.

Dressler, of Time Warner, said, “The NFL Network keeps the pressure on because it believes we will ultimately end up charging all our customers to satisfy the few who want these games.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/19/sports/football/19sandomir.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=sports&pagewanted=print

fredfa

09-19-06, 11:54 AM

The New Season
Light-Fingered 'Smith' Makes for A Weightless Drama
By Tom Shales Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, September 19, 2006; C01

Who doesn't enjoy a good, old-fashioned heist now and then? Or, as in the case of "Smith," the CBS drama premiering tonight (10 PM ET/PT, CBS), a good newfangled heist -- replete with the kind of high-tech gadgetry familiar to moviegoers from such films as the "Mission: Impossible" series?

Familiar, indeed. "Smith," which stars Ray Liotta as Bobby Stevens, smooth-talking and smooth-acting uberthief, follows in the footsteps of "The Thomas Crown Affair," which was filmed twice, and many another caper picture. The pilot is admittedly a swift, brisk bit of escapist whimsy, but one has to wonder whether the idea of a heist every week will really prove tenable.

One could, of course, ask the same question of many an episodic TV show. "Fear Factor" -- that awful mess that has finally left NBC -- enticed viewers with gross and disgusting inanities every week.

There's just something about "Smith" that seems to have monotony built in. It represents an ongoing trend: weekly TV shows that seem as though they ought to be (or already were) motion pictures, like the forthcoming "Kidnapped" and "Jericho."

Perhaps "Lost" and "24" made such distinctions obsolete by persuading viewers to tune in week after week for the kind of story normally wrapped up in a neat and tidy two hours at the cinema. Television is the great time-warper, and in recent years, those who work in TV have found new ways to do the warping.

It helps "Smith" that Liotta is a solid charmer in the role of Stevens, and he has extremely able assistance in Virginia Madsen, the ageless and agile actress who plays his wife.

The idea of leading a double life remains an appealing daydream, especially for people holding down jobs they consider routine -- though of course, Smith's two lives are not equal. By day, he works behind a door marked "Robert Stevens, Midwest Sales." Blah, humdrum. It's his after-hours night life, as the ringleader of a band of saucy rogues, that has all the allure: the fancy trappings and the gee-whiz gadgetry and, with each new creep around a corner, a seductive, pervasive sense of danger.

He's a thief, but we don't want him to get caught. And he isn't exactly in the business of robbing convenience stores or pilfering pension funds. In the pilot, he manages to remove a Rembrandt from a Pittsburgh gallery, among other daring acts carried off with flair and finesse. (And yes, he's very careful with the painting. He's a criminal with good taste.)

The executive producer of "Smith" is John Wells, who revolutionized prime-time television with "ER," a show that truly brought movie-quality production to weekly TV. It's been said, of course, that nobody ever left a musical humming the scenery, and handsome production values can go just so far. A key problem with "Smith" is that, at least in the premiere, it relies too heavily on them.

"Smith's" writers even find an excuse for a side trip to Las Vegas, which entails, naturally, generous shots of scantily clad dancers turning up the heat, bumpety-bumpety-bump. It's the kind of show of which one might reasonably say, "They don't miss a trick" -- except that maybe, like the Tin Man in "The Wizard of Oz," the poor thing was born without a heart.

(Of course, fellow baby boomers, there is the counterargument: that Oz didn't give nothin' to the Tin Man that he didn't, didn't already have.)

CBS has slotted "Smith" to follow David Mamet's extraordinary and literate action drama "The Unit" on Tuesday nights. So viewers are invited to watch the exploits of an elite team of do-gooders pull off amazing feats in the name of liberty, followed by the exploits of an elite team of do-badders pulling off amazing feats in the name of greed and self-indulgence. But also in the name of adventure, for the thrill of getting away with it and evading capture.

As a programming ploy, it might work. It's just too bad that "Smith" is so slight it keeps threatening to float away, like a runaway balloon that's not quite worth chasing down the street.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/18/AR2006091801395_pf.html

fredfa

09-19-06, 12:01 PM

The New Season
Introducing 'Smith': All surface, little substance
From Maureen Ryan’s Chicago Tribune blog “The Watcher”

“Smith” (10 PM ET/PT Tuesday, CBS) sure looks great. But beneath its glossy surfaces, there’s little substance.

Many scenes in the first episode take place inside an art museum, where the scarlet walls are full of Old Master paintings. Ray Liotta plays the leader of a high-tech gang that storms the place and grabs several priceless works of art.

But those expecting a groovy “Ocean’s 11” vibe, a retread of FX’s noir-ish “Thief” or even a “Da Vinci Code”-style thriller will be disappointed.

Instead, the expensive-looking “Smith” aims to be a Michael Mann-style existential action drama: Liotta’s character, Bobby Stevens, juggles a double life as an office-going suburban dad and as a ruthless gangster-for-hire.

The story of the thief who wants to give up the game is a familiar one; whether we care about the plight of Stevens, whose gang is capable of stunning brutality, rests in the drama’s execution. And that’s where “Smith” lives up to its bland name.

It’s possible to create a TV series about people whose actions are reprehensible (and in this pilot, four people die), but the writing and performances have to be so compelling that the viewer feels drawn to watching what these ambiguous characters do. But “Smith” is so thinly written, and the characters so generic, that it’s hard to feel much for this series except admiration for its cinematography.

Liotta’s flinty eyes only come alive when Stevens is meting out discipline to his crew, and Amy Smart in particular does nothing to bring Annie, her cold crime-gang character, to life.

All the “Smith” actors are ill-served by the clichéd script (“She’s trouble, you know she is,” one character tells Annie’s ex), but there are standouts: Shohreh Aghdashloo is all silky menace as the gang’s ultimate boss, and Virginia Madsen, as Stevens’ wife, Hope, gives a lovely, subtle performance as a wife who knows what her husband is up to, but -- for now -- chooses to look the other way.

http://tempo.typepad.com/entertainment_tv/

fredfa

09-19-06, 12:05 PM

The New Season
Fast National ratings for Monday, Sept. 18th
Season's First Night Goes to NBC
'Deal' strong, 'Studio 60' OK for Peacock Monday

(zap2it.com)—Aaron Sorkin's new drama "Studio 60" started off not too badly for NBC on Monday, but it was "Deal or No Deal" that led the network to a ratings win on the first night of the 2006-07 season.

NBC averaged a 9.3 rating/14 share in primetime, narrowly beating CBS' 9.0/14. FOX took third with a 5.3/8. ABC, 5.1/8, was not far behind in fourth, while new network The CW, which won't start original programming until Wednesday, came in at 1.4/2.

In the adults 18-49 demographic, NBC's 4.9 rating captured the top spot over CBS' 4.7. ABC and FOX tied for third at 3.3/8. The CW trailed with a 0.8.

The season premiere of "Deal or No Deal" put NBC on top at 8 p.m. with an 8.9/14. The series premiere of "The Class," 6.9/11, and "How I Met Your Mother," 6.8/10, finished second for CBS. "Prison Break" posted a 5.7/9 for FOX. The season premiere of "Wife Swap" was fourth for ABC, while a "7th Heaven" rerun on The CW drew a 1.8/3.

"Deal or No Deal" improved to 10.2/15 at 9 p.m. to keep NBC in the lead. CBS stayed in second with the season premieres of "Two and a Half Men," 9.7/14, and "The New Adventures of Old Christine," 8.1/12. A second "Wife Swap," 5.6/8, moved ABC ahead of FOX and "Vanished," 4.8/7. The CW aired a network-launch special.

At 10 p.m., the season premiere of "CSI: Miami" scored the night's biggest audience with an 11.2/17. "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" averaged a decent 8.6/14 for NBC but lost a significant number of viewers in its second half-hour. ABC was third with "Supernanny," 4.8/8.

• Source: Nielsen Media Research data

fredfa

09-19-06, 12:15 PM

The New Season
No rooting for the good guys here
'Smith' is all about the heist
By Tim Goodman San Francisco Chronicle Tuesday, September 19, 2006

The first thing anyone notices in discussions about the new CBS drama "Smith" is the stellar cast. Ray Liotta, Virginia Madsen, Simon Baker, Shoreh Aghdashloo, Jonny Lee Miller, Franky G. and Amy Smart.

That's impressive depth.

Also of keen interest, no doubt, is that "Smith" is a caper series. Writers, directors and fans all love the heist. "Ocean's Eleven," "The Italian Job" -- lots of fun. And though television of late has jumped into the game, not much has stuck outside of the wonderful British import "Hustle." At NBC, "Heist" was a flop. On FX, "Thief" was good enough to get Andre Braugher an Emmy, but hardly anyone watched him earn it.

"Smith," it would seem, could really change the fate of the caper genre on the small screen. CBS can practically make a show like this in its sleep, Liotta is a great lead, and people like to watch other people pull off big robberies. The only problem -- and it's the same problem that dogs most heist stories -- is the allure of the cliche. The mastermind is usually strong and silent, and he's been beating the odds for enough years that he's haggard and ready to get out. All he wants is -- here it comes -- one more score.

Quitting while you're ahead is not in the master thief DNA, of course, so this usually causes dramatic friction with his significant other, the wise counsel he inevitably seeks and, in really good heist dramas, in oneself.

All of that unfortunate baggage is present in "Smith," but this being a CBS series -- where the audience wants good, strong stories and has yet to make a major ruckus about emotional nuance -- it won't matter. "Smith" could become a breakout hit.

Given all of this information about first impressions and hallowed formulas, perhaps the oddest discovery about "Smith" centers on what it's not: typical CBS fare, in the sense that justice and heroism are not first and foremost. CBS is a white-hat network. A huge chunk of its schedule revolves around series that solve crimes for the betterment of society. Two military related hits -- "NCIS" and "The Unit" -- lead into "Smith," and there's never any confusion about the point of view.

But "Smith" is a black-hat series: bad guys doing bad things. Liotta, as the leader, is supposed to be the anti-hero. Never mind that CBS doesn't do anti-heroes (HBO and FX do -- you need a whole lot more grit to embrace the ethically impure). It's not even that Liotta, who plays Bobby, a.k.a. Smith, might frighten CBS viewers in this endeavor. It's Simon Baker, who did four seasons on CBS in the feel-good drama "The Guardian" but plays a sociopathic hit man here, killing people needlessly and without remorse.

Not very CBS at all.

"Smith" comes from John Wells ("ER," etc.), who tends to have a heavier hand in the game of nuance, so actually making viewers care about Liotta and his crew might not only be harder than expected, it may be out of his realm (you certainly don't end up loving anybody in the pilot). Not that having an anti-hero series on CBS is a bad thing. The network would do well to diversify the storytelling genres. (It will also take a stab at something completely different in "Jericho" this season as well.) But the last time CBS tried to break its crime and punishment reputation, it nervously pulled the plug on a fun little comedy called "Love Monkey." And not because the series was bad -- in fact, it was really good. But the numbers weren't there because the CBS audience wasn't given any other like-minded series, so they ignored "Love Monkey" in droves.

In "Smith," there's a bigger problem. The pilot is good, not great. Setting up the first big heist takes all of the first episode, so our introduction to Smith and crew is too quick, more than a little forced and ultimately not compelling enough. Is it worth another look a week later? Absolutely. Will the CBS audience go there?

That's a tougher sell.

But that's why you have the great cast. Liotta is a slam dunk in pretty much anything he does, though he's no Braugher in the pilot, and they better make him lose his temper sometime soon, since that's the best way to watch Liotta.

As his wife, Hope, Madsen will eventually get to show more layers than suspicious wife. The pilot closes with some secrets about her that bode well for future episodes. Frankie G., Smart and Miller don't get quite enough to show their range in the pilot, and Baker's trigger-finger killing machine perhaps gets too much. Aghdashloo, who plays Smith's boss, could be a nice twist on the money and muscle angle.

In one way, CBS ought to be applauded for going after "Smith" and encouraging the dark edges. As a 10 p.m. show, it can play a little looser with content, and CBS is not a network with a lot of sharp right angles.

On the other hand, the big worry about "Smith" -- the one that obscures whether or not the second episode will get better -- is that CBS will not display resolve if its audience initially rebuffs the idea of a black-hat drama (and lots of black-hat characters, not a one to embrace).

"Smith" may benefit with patience on two different levels. Now it's just a waiting game.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/09/19/DDGTFL6RDA1.DTL&type=printable

fredfa

09-19-06, 12:18 PM

TV Notebook
Under Couric, Ratings Race Is Once Again, Well, a Race
By Jacques Steinberg The New York Times September 19, 2006

Two weeks after Katie Couric embarked on her new career as an evening news anchor, one thing is clear: She has thus far made the ratings race among the three network newscasts more competitive than it has been in nearly a decade.

Last week, Ms. Couric drew an average of 7.9 million viewers each night, according to preliminary figures from Nielsen Media Research that were released yesterday by the networks. If, as expected, those figures remain essentially unchanged when Nielsen puts out final results today, Ms. Couric’s program on CBS will have beaten “NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams’’ by an average of only about 70,000 viewers each night last week — and topped “World News with Charles Gibson’’ on ABC by about 370,000.

Those results are noteworthy both for Ms. Couric’s apparent victory for the week — when coupled with her opening week, it would represent the first time CBS had won back-to-back weeks since July 1998 — but also for how exceptionally tight the three-way race has become, at least for now.

In the demographic category on which evening-news advertising is sold (viewers ages 25 to 54), Ms. Couric drew a 2.1 rating last week, according to preliminary Nielsen figures, compared with 2.0 for both NBC and ABC. By comparison, during the 12 months before her arrival, the “CBS Evening News’’ had a 1.9 rating in that audience category, compared with 2.4 for NBC and 2.3 for ABC. (A ratings point in that demographic represents about 1.2 million viewers.)

While the two weeks Ms. Couric has been on the job represents far too short a period to evaluate her performance from a business perspective, she has, initially, raised the network’s perennial third-place standing.

“Two weeks is two weeks,’’ said Chris Boothe, president of Starcom USA, a media planning and buying agency that has placed advertising for Discover Card, Walgreens and Kellogg on the network evening news. “But she has definitely turned it into a ballgame.’’

And yet, there was much for both NBC and ABC to celebrate in the ratings estimates for last week, considering that CBS has trumpeted Ms. Couric’s arrival on the evening news with a huge marketing campaign.

Assuming that Ms. Couric’s broadcast outpaced Mr. Williams’s by about 70,000 viewers last week, then he, in the span of a week, managed to virtually erase the 3.1-million-viewer margin that her program held over his during her first week. Then, on average, she drew 10.2 million viewers a night, and he 7.1 million.

Similarly, Mr. Williams’s audience last week appears to have increased by about 700,000 (to 7.83 million) when compared with the week before, which suggests that he is wooing back at least some of those who may have forsaken him to sample Ms. Couric.

Mr. Gibson’s audience, too, appears to have grown from Ms. Couric’s first week (when he drew an average of 6.9 million) to last week (an estimated 7.5 million.)

“It’s a wide open race,’’ said Jon Banner, executive producer of Mr. Gibson’s program. “In six months, it’s anybody’s bet as to who’s in first place.’’

A spokeswoman for NBC News, Barbara Levin, declined yesterday to comment. But amid a flurry of near-daily press releases from CBS News over the last two weeks, Ms. Levin put out a statement last Tuesday noting that Mr. Williams’s broadcast had outdrawn Ms. Couric and Mr. Gibson on the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Ms. Couric’s dip to third place in the ratings that night had merited a front-page headline on Wednesday in USA Today. Sean McManus, the president of CBS News and Sports, was concerned enough about the perception that Ms. Couric was losing ground that his representatives offered him up for interviews to The New York Times, among other outlets.

“I’m no more elated today than I was depressed yesterday,’’ he said last week. “There seems to be this rush to judgment.’’

He added, “To even be in the race for No. 1 is an accomplishment.’’

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/19/business/media/19cbs.html?ref=media&pagewanted=print