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dad1153

12-17-06, 11:59 AM

Technology
New hi-def DVDs in a tube tussle
By Tamer El-Ghobashy, New York Daily News December 17, 2006

With Christmas quickly approaching and high-definition TVs becoming more affordable and popular, many New Yorkers' wish lists include the latest home entertainment accessory - high-definition DVD players.

Older-model DVD players don't come close to offering the spectacular image and sound of the high-def players, which deliver as much as 10 times more data than their predecessors.

But Sony and Toshiba are locked in a pitched battle for the lucrative market, and have introduced competing - and incompatible - formats.

The struggle between Toshiba's HD-DVD and Sony's Blu-ray technology is giving some consumers flashbacks to the 1970s, when they had to choose between the Sony's Betamax and JVC's VHS format for VCRs. If you bet on Beta, you were wrong.

Both high-def DVD formats boast incredible picture quality and robust sound. But consumers should consider some key facts before making a purchase in the coming days.

"It's a matter of [movie] titles - buy the one who has the most titles that you're most likely to watch," said Michael Gikas, associate electronics editor for Consumer Reports magazine.

Each high-def DVD format has more than 100 movie titles available, but so far more movie studios - Sony itself owns one of them - have committed to Blu-ray technology.

Of nine major movie studios, six are releasing their movies on Blu-ray discs. Only two studios are "straddling support between the two formats," Gikas said.

That means you can only watch Sony's "The Da Vinci Code" on Blu-ray players and HBO's "The Sopranos" on HD-DVD. But Paramount's "World Trade Center" is out in both formats.

By several measures, including the variety of movie titles and amount of data on the discs, Blu-ray has the edge - except in one key department: price.

HD-DVD players range in price from $500 to $800, while Blu-ray equipment costs $750 to $1,500, experts said.

The best buy may be a video-game console with a high-def DVD player. Sony's new PlayStation 3 uses Blu-ray and rival Microsoft's XBox 360 uses HD-DVD. The XBox 360 costs about $700 with the HD-DVD player, and PS3 sells for about $600 with the Blu-ray player.

The best plan, according to some industry insiders, would be to hold off on buying a high-def DVD player until the format war settles down. But there may not be a clear winner for some time.

Gikas said manufacturers could develop machines that play both formats in the coming year. But it's not clear what those machines would cost.

http://www.nydailynews.com/business/story/480791p-404605c.html
____________________________________________________________ _____

Three mistakes in this article. 1.- The Sopranos Season 6 Part 1 will be available on both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray (not just HD-DVD) since Warner is neutral and releases for both formats. 2.- The $600 60GB PS3 is mentioned but not its cheaper alternative, the $500 20GB system. 3.- The price of an XBox 360 premium system ($399) plus an HD-DVD add-on ($199) totals $598, not the $700 price quoted above (unless the author includes the $40 Microsoft VGA cable, but he doesn't mention it). Heck, if you go with an XBox 360 Core system and the HD-DVD add-on the lowest entry-level price with HD-DVD is $498.

fredfa

12-17-06, 12:21 PM

Critic’s Notebook
Race and gender issues boiling over "Survivor: Cook Islands"
Finale tonight 8 PM ET/PT
By Susan Young Oakland Tribune

“Survivor” creator Mark Burnett has always known just which buttons were ripe for the pushing.

In fact, early on he corrected people who criticized "Survivor" for being more manipulation than reality.

"I never called my show a reality show, you all did. I've always called it entertainment," Burnett said after once again being castigated for being the P.T. Barnum of "reality" shows. "I do whatever it takes to engage and entertain my audience."

After hitting big with the first two cycles in 2000 and 2001 — each averaged about 29 million viewers — last spring's "Survivor: Panama" hit an all-time low of 16 million viewers. Several sponsors, including Coca-Cola and Home Depot, had already backed out of the series because of the sliding ratings.

So with sagging media interest in "Survivor," a once red-hot series that ignited CBS' rise from the ratings cellar and inspired the creation of "Lost," Burnett tapped into the nation's simmering undercurrent of troubled race relations to garner some headlines.

Burnett tossed out the old formula of getting contestants on the show and actively recruited members of minority communities. He then popped the ultimate gotcha by dividing the tribes along racial lines.

Burnett got his headlines.

While the sponsors had opted out even before the division was conceived, according to host Jeff Probst, others in the "Survivor" camp seemed to enjoy the added bonus of people writing and talking about the sponsor

defection as part of the racial element.

Burnett knew he had stumbled onto a great peg for this season, yet he fumbled the ball before he reached the goal line. After getting the initial media reaction he wanted, he quickly ended the social experiment. The tribes that were divided into African-American, Asian-American, Latino-American and white American were merged

into two tribes.

Which was too bad, especially in light of several celebrities getting tangled up in race-related issues in the past few months.

Even before the "Survivor" debut in September, Mel Gibson was making news for his anti-Semitic rant after an arrest for driving under the influence. His subsequent actions to try explaining his actions opened up a whole new dialogue about the rip tide currents of prejudice in our society.

Then, on Nov. 17, former "Seinfeld" star Michael Richards launched a hate-soaked diatribe against some hecklers during his Laugh Factory stand-up act. The Richards affair appeared to reveal a crack in our social veneer about race relations in America.

And recently, Rosie O'Donnell caused an uproar in the Asian-American community when she decided to describe a visit to her daily show "The View" from a seemingly inebriated Danny DeVito.

"The fact is that it's news all over the world," O'Donnell commented on the Dec. 5 show. "You can imagine in China, it's like 'Ching chong. Danny DeVito, ching, chong, chong, chong, chong. Drunk. 'The View.' Ching chong."

Outrage against O'Donnell has been growing, with the Asian-American Journalist Association speaking out against her "mockery of the Chinese language" and a New York city councilman explaining that it is not a trivial matter.

"It really hits a raw nerve for many people in the community," John C. Liu says. "(We) grew up with these kinds of taunts. We all know that it never ends at the taunts."

Sunah Park e-mailed to say that O'Donnell recently went off on talk show host Kelly Ripa after Ripa got mad at guest host Clay Aiken for putting his hand over her mouth.

Ripa said on air that she didn't know where his hand had been, and O'Donnell complained that it was because of Aiken's alleged sexual orientation that Ripa made the remark.

"Kelly Ripa says something completely innocent and (Rosie) takes it as a homophobic comment. But here she is doing and saying something blatantly racist," Park writes. "I just wish there was as much public and media outrage about what Rosie said as there was to what Michael Richards said. What Rosie said is as offensive to Asians as what Richards said to those African Americans."

O'Donnell has said through her representatives and on her blog that she didn't mean anything by it, that it was just a joke.

"(She) doesn't realize how it perpetuates the racism and discrimination against Asians just by ignoring or

dismissing that mockery of the language as a joke," Park writes.

Not to put too strong a point on a puff series like "Survivor," but perhaps if the premise had been allowed to continue, viewers could have been educated at least a little bit about other ethnic cultures.

Those first few episodes were interesting. Members of the African-American tribe did pep yells about representing in a positive light, while Asian-Americans feared reinforcing stereotypes. The Latino tribe wanted to prove their industriousness, while the white team bemoaned its lack of ethnic identity.

But after the merge, this "Survivor" quickly became one of the more boring editions. San Mateo resident and graduate of Walnut Creek's Northgate High School Yul Kwon has emerged as one of the strong favorites, but he's uneasy in the role. He seems to be guided in large part by his game partner Becky Lee, who urges him to get rid of tough competitor Ozzy Lusth.

Ozzy, Yul, Becky and Sundra Oakley were part of an alliance that vowed to go to the final four. This would mean for the first time in "Survivor" history, the final four would not include a white contestant.

In tonight's finale, for the first time there will be a final three facing a jury of nine. In the past, it has been a final two facing a jury of seven.

And when it's all over, we'll have the answer to the question about whether this was a social experiment or self-serving hype.

"Survivor: Cook Islands" fell squarely into the latter category. But it did achieve — at least briefly — the goal of bringing a more diverse face to primetime television.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/tv/ci_4856475

dad1153

12-17-06, 12:27 PM

The Business of TV
Nielsen gives it the old college try
Student measurement could spike ratings
By Michael Learmonth, Variety December 17, 2006

Add to the latenight cram sessions and boozy "study breaks" another campus tradition: "Grey's Anatomy."

Despite the growing number of alternatives, campus life has never revolved more around the tube, an observation that will soon be supported by hard data as Nielsen Media Research begins measuring college audiences the first week in February.

It's Nielsen's first attempt to measure TV viewing outside the home, a move that will instantly expand the number of ratings points within the hard-to-reach 18-24 demographic and will likely boost ratings for shows that have relatively small ratings but big campus followings like "Veronica Mars," "Adult Swim" and "The Colbert Report."

"Statistically, the numbers are small, but they will add to the 18 to 34 audiences," says CBS research chief David Poltrack.

Preliminary Nielsen data indicates students living on campus watch 25 to 30 hours of television a week -- on par with their off-campus peers --and that college students account for 50% of all TV viewing outside the home, with hotels, workplaces, gyms, bars and restaurants divvying up the other half.

"This is the biggest chunk of out-of-home viewing not being measured," says Turner research chief Jack Wakshlag.

Nielsen has long included college students in the sample, but for the nine months or so that they were away at college, their viewing was counted as zero.

Initially, Nielsen is following the college student children of 125 Nielsen families to campus and will install meters on TVs in dorm rooms or in the common areas of suites. The caveat is that the TV must be under the control of the Nielsen family member, and there will be limited ability to detect how many people are watching at any given time.

While this improves on the current methodology -- ignoring campus viewing altogether -- even a casual observer understands it hardly begins to describe campus TV culture, where viewing parties for "Greys," "24," "Lost" and "Battlestar Galactica" are as common as off-campus keg parties.

Social networking site Facebook has clubs for every major TV show. "One of the things TV has going for it is it's free, and students don't like paying for things," says Paul Levinson, professor of media studies at Fordham U., which has active viewing clubs for "24" and "Lost."

On Thursday nights in Gambier, Ohio, for example, the public lounge of Kenyon College's Caples Hall fills up with 30 to 35 students. Pizza is delivered, and at 9 p.m. the channel switches from "The Office" to "Greys."

None of this viewing will show up in the Nielsen sample, because televisions in common areas won't be measured. "That's problematic, because it isn't representative of who is watching the show and how freakishly devoted their fan base is," says Kathryn VanArendonk, 21, a senior English major at Kenyon.

VanArendonk believes that serialized dramas like "24" and "Lost" have increased group-viewing in recent years. "You get together, watch it and spend an hour talking about what just happened," she says.

Students also lead the way in terms of downloading shows, passing around DVDs and time-shifting -- which also isn't counted in the ratings. "With 'Heroes' on at 9 p.m. on Monday, it isn't the easiest time to be stuck in front of the TV, so I watch that on the Internet," says Allison Sunderam, 20, a political science major at Santa Clara U.

The push to include college students began more than a decade ago when broadcast ratings began to decline and increasing numbers of young viewers were lost to cable, videogames and other pastimes.

"At the time, there was enough viewing by young people at home that it wasn't considered a big issue. Business was good and there weren't a lot of alternatives for viewers and advertisers," says Tim Brooks, research director at Lifetime.

But then audiences began to fragment, and as networks increasingly found themselves narrowcasting, pressure built to measure students despite the logistical challenges.

In 1998, Wakshlag, then research head at the WB, proposed simply following the members of Nielsen families when they moved on to college, rather than trying to build a separate sample. As a network targeting 18-34, the WB had a big incentive to find these viewers, as the CW does now.

During a test last February, "Gilmore Girls" added four-tenths of a ratings point when college students were added. Such a boost could mean the difference between another season and cancellation.

In the same test, ratings for Cartoon Network's "Adult Swim" increased 19% in the 18-34 demo when college viewing was included. MTV, Comedy Central and TBS' "Sex and the City" also increased by double digits in the 18-34 demo.

"These people have been in the sample, but their viewing wasn't being credited to anybody," says Colleen Fahey Rush, exec VP of research at MTV Networks.

Sports and soaps are other categories also likely to increase. In the Nielsen trial, male students watched 29 hours of TV a week, on average, while women watched 24 hours, a stat that could help ESPN or ABC's college football.

Initially, Nielsen will not be providing the college audience as a discrete group, but when the numbers are added, networks and ad agencies will get a good sense of what is popular on campus, which could be of great significance to marketers desperate to reach the demo.

Even if the new data doesn't change the overall ratings much, shows that rate well on campus are going to draw attention from Madison Avenue, which covets the demo, but has been skeptical about its engagement with advertising.

"The college market is very attractive to a lot of advertisers and marketers from credit cards and movie studios to apparel and beer," says Brad Adgate, senior VP of research at media planner Horizon Media. "It's difficult to get them engaged, but many marketers will embrace them regardless of their engagement."

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117955874.html?categoryid=14&cs=1

fredfa

12-17-06, 12:30 PM

Saturday’s fast national over night 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

12-17-06, 01:42 PM

TV Notebook
'Offensive' phone call by publisher preceded her firing
Comments by Judith Regan, already in hot water over Simpson and Mantle deals, to a lawyer at HarperCollins were last straw, sources say.
By Josh Getlin and Sallie HofmeisterLos Angeles Times Staff Writers December 17, 2006

For weeks, publisher Judith Regan had been in trouble with higher-ups over the debacle of the canceled O.J. Simpson book and TV deal. But her firing swiftly followed a Friday afternoon phone call from her Los Angeles office to a HarperCollins attorney that included comments that were characterized as offensive, two highly placed corporate sources said Saturday.

The comments, the precise nature of which was not disclosed, came just before News Corp., the parent company of HarperCollins, held its annual holiday party, an expensive hotel bash in Manhattan attended by more than 4,000 people. Regan's company, Los Angeles-based ReganMedia, is a unit of HarperCollins.

As the book world gossiped over Regan's sudden fall, HarperCollins announced Saturday that Cal Morgan, her longtime editorial director, would take over the leadership of her division, which recently moved its offices from New York to Century City.

The company "will continue operations under the able leadership of Editorial Director Cal Morgan, reporting to Michael Morrison, president and group publisher of Harper/Morrow," according to a statement issued by Jane Friedman, HarperCollins CEO and president. The statement also said that "any future decisions relating to the imprint name or the publication of unpublished books will be addressed at the appropriate time."

One highly placed News Corp. source, however, questioned the viability of the imprint, and its ability to make further inroads into Hollywood, without its founder. "Without Regan, what's the point?" said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

As for Regan's alleged comments during the phone call, "we do not comment on personnel matters," said HarperCollins spokeswoman Erin Crum. Regan was unreachable Saturday, and Suzanne Wickham, chief publicist for ReganBooks, did not return calls. Morgan also did not return calls, and no one appeared to be home Saturday afternoon at his house in Brentwood.

Senior executives at News Corp. said Saturday that although Regan was let go not because of the controversy over either the O.J. Simpson project or another contentious book, a forthcoming fictional "reimagining" of Mickey Mantle's life that had drawn advance criticism for its salacious content, both incidents contributed to her downfall at the company.

"It was an accumulation of her behavior," said one of those executives, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the legal sensitivity of the issue.

The two News Corp. insiders said Regan was not held entirely responsible for the O.J. embarrassment because the project had been signed off on by senior management. But they added that the double whammy of the O.J. incident, closely followed by a wave of negative publicity about the Mantle book, scheduled for publication March 1, put her career at the company "on thin ice," as one executive put it.

The last straw, however, came Friday afternoon, when Regan, working in her office in Los Angeles, blew up on the phone at a lawyer from HarperCollins in New York who had been helping the publisher handle problems with the Mantle book. Regan was dismissed for cause shortly after that phone call, according to a high-level source.

Regan was informed of her dismissal by a letter faxed to her office late Friday, according to the source. Regan apparently packed up her office and left that evening, even as some of her colleagues attended News Corp.'s annual holiday party at the New York Hilton, where executives and the rank and file — more than 4,000 people, some dressed in ball gowns — crammed into various halls, each decorated in the theme of a different continent.

One person who was at the party said few people celebrating were aware of Regan's firing, outside of a handful of top executives, including News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch and HarperCollins' Friedman. News Corp. spokesman Gary Ginsberg said Saturday that Regan had been terminated but would not comment further.

On Saturday, Regan's Century City offices where shuttered, and no employees were available to comment on her termination.

Major players in the publishing world, however, could not contain their amazement at the rapid series of events.

"I'm shocked, I'm really surprised," said Sara Nelson, editor of Publishers Weekly. "I had written a week ago that I didn't think she was really in any trouble, that she had gotten her hand slapped, and the rest would be history."

Regan's abrupt departure appeared to signal the end of her effort to blend publishing content and TV and movie production at News Corp., which is run by Murdoch and includes Fox News, 20th Century Fox, television stations across the country, the New York Post and many other holdings. Besides book publishing, she has also branched into television, with reality shows including "Growing Up Gotti."

But Friedman, who has long had a branch of her publishing office on the 20th Century Fox lot, has also promoted aggressive efforts to find synergy between books, TV shows, movies and the Internet. By bringing ReganBooks more closely under her organizational control, she may have strengthened her hand and also gotten rid of Regan, who was a bitter rival in the corporation.

"There was a lot of tension in that corporation, and this was a way to solve it," veteran New York literary agent and former publisher Ira Silverberg said of the firing. "These companies are like any workplace; when there's a lot of tension, they think of the best way to defuse it for everybody involved."

Silverberg predicted that Regan, who has chalked up major successes in the publishing world — promoting national bestsellers by Howard Stern and Rush Limbaugh, as well as Jenna Jameson's "How to Make Love Like a Porn Star" — would continue to find success in new ventures.

One well-placed publishing industry source said there were reports that Regan had begun preliminary talks with several TV networks for a possible job.

"She is many things, but stupid is not one of them," said the source, who asked not to be identified. "It would make sense for her to be looking for Plan B at a time like this, when she might be replaced."

Morgan, who is replacing Regan, is a veteran editor who spent 11 years at St. Martins Press before joining forces with Regan in May 1999. He had previously published authors including James Herriot, Patrick McGilligan and Florence King. At ReganBooks, he has worked on titles including "The Case Against Hillary Clinton" by Peggy Noonan and "Business Is Combat" by James D. Murphy. He also worked on Arianna Huffington's bestseller "How to Overthrow the Government."

Earlier this year, when Regan was finishing plans to relocate her staff to Los Angeles, she said Morgan "went to Yale; he's a tweedy intellectual publishing type, and when I asked him what he thought of this move, he looked at me and said, 'Are you crazy?' But I said he should come out to Los Angeles for a few days, and he loved it. If Cal Morgan can be moved by the Hollywood Hills and the architecture in Los Angeles, so can others."

For his part, Morgan said at the time that he considered the imprint's move to Los Angeles "very forward-looking," because too many people in publishing had a New York-centric attitude.

"The mission of this business is to reflect the full breadth of American culture, but it all takes place on a few square miles of Manhattan," he added

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/business/la-me-regan17dec17,1,1366295,full.story?coll=la-headlines-business-enter

dad1153

12-17-06, 02:01 PM

RussTC3

12-17-06, 02:18 PM

I'm extremely curious to see what type of effect the Nielsen college measurement will have on ratings.

It's something that truly isn't talked about much when discussing ratings, it happens a lot. I know personally that though I watch some shows by myself, there are others (such as "24" and "The Office") that I watch with a group of friends or on some occasions with family.

I've never understood how Nielsen can accurately estimate how many "people", not households, are watching a show.

fredfa

12-17-06, 02:19 PM

Ms. Regan blew up (on the phone and in person) regularly to almost everyone.

Whatever it was, this was not something new, nor behavior which hadn't been experienced, many, many times, before.

fredfa

12-17-06, 05:49 PM

Top 10 Lists
Plot twists are not all written
By Paul Brownfield Los Angeles Times TV critic Dec. 17, 2006

What sticks out about '06 is Stephen Colbert's routine at the White House Correspondents' Assn. Dinner, Spike Lee's Hurricane Katrina documentary "When the Levees Broke" and the arrival of Showtime's "Dexter." Given the ever-expanding offerings — you could do a list of Top 10 Internet video, including but not limited to lonelygirl15 and Michael Richards' Laugh Factory tirade — here's a loosely categorized, fuzzy-eyed look at the year past. On TV, that is.

Best plot twist: "The Sopranos." Series creator David Chase divided fans of his HBO hit with the two-episode fugue state that kicked off the sixth season, when Tony was left in a coma after being shot by his demented Uncle Junior. But the sequence re-established "The Sopranos' " big-tent themes and willingness to test the bounds of viewer involvement.

Biggest tempest in a teapot: Katie Couric, anchor of "CBS Evening News." The move was designed to make a lot of noise, to touch off a referendum on the role of broadcast news and whether a morning person had any business being on at night. Mission accomplished. Only the news failed to change.

Best career move: Michael C. Hall. Granted, he was coming off a boutique hit, HBO's "Six Feet Under," but Hall's performance as a kinder, gentler —but still emotionally absent — sociopath on Showtime's "Dexter" is more than arguably the most consistent performance in a TV series right now.

Best stare: Michael Emerson, "Lost." As Henry Gale, chief executive officer of the Others on ABC's "Lost," Emerson has the bug-eyed thing down pat. On a show that derives much of its tension from the extreme close-up, Emerson's in-your-face face is the best mood-setter this show has left.

Best flameout: "Emily's Reasons Why Not." You couldn't miss the billboards for this misbegotten comedy, but ABC made sure you missed the series, canceling it after one very-low-rated episode and thus depriving legions of Heather Graham fans from gifting the first-season DVD at the holidays.

Best talk-show apology: Michael Richards, "The Late Show With David Letterman." There was Vice President's Dick Cheney's mea culpa for shooting his lawyer friend while quail hunting on Fox News' "Special Report With Brit Hume" and Mel Gibson's olive branch to the Jews via "Good Morning America's" Diane Sawyer. Refresh me: Did any of these men actually apologize, as in "I'm sorry for (insert stage-managed description of supposed transgression here)"? No, wait, I distinctly remember Richards using the word "apologize." So he wins.

Best use of my television for your personal hobby: CNBC's "Conversations With Michael Eisner" and Dane Cook's "Tourgasm" on HBO (a tie). Which was the comedy, and which involved narcissists droning on and on into a camera? We'll let you play around with that one.

Best casting, top to bottom: "The Wire." There are various entry points for talking about the achievements of this series, but in its fifth season on HBO, "The Wire" had four new male protagonists, all 16 and younger, not to mention Felicia Pearson as the nailgun-wielding Snoop, the most ineffable character on TV this year.

Best metrosexual costuming: "Ugly Betty." The men at Mode dress in very primary colors, hot magentas and exciting blues, and not just the gay ones. ABC's adaptation of "Ugly Betty," the much-beloved/translated telenovela, is like staring at a lollipop as it turns into different shapes and colors.

Best sound of silences: White House correspondents' dinner. Stephen Colbert's keynote monologue ("He stands for things," Colbert said, as the leader of the free world looked on. "Not only for things, he stands on things. Things like aircraft carriers and rubble and recently flooded city squares") seemed to leave the room, not to mention the president and first lady, wearing the kind of smile that hurts.

The worst

In April, after some half-dozen episodes, ABC cancels "Sons & Daughters," a superbly cast, partly improvised, hungry sitcom about a mixed-up extended family in Ohio. In November, it airs "Big Day," a completely starved, bankrupt series about a mixed-up extended family in Connecticut.

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-ca-brownfield17dec17,0,5138075.story?coll=cl-tvent

fredfa

12-17-06, 05:55 PM

Top 10 Lists
A surprisingly inventive bunch
By Robert Lloyd Los Angeles Times TV critic Dec. 17, 2006

There are times when a list like this seems an impossible chore, but in what felt like a particularly good, inventive year even for mainstream television (read: fewer new cop shows), many more programs might have made this list. But these are some that came from an unexpected angle and took me out of myself, either by delight or awe or through suspense or sympathy. It is always nice to be surprised.

"Animals" (Ogilvy & Mather New York). Endlessly re-watchable American Express ad, in which Ellen DeGeneres lives out her childhood ambition — to work with animals — by letting them run her television show. Possibly the most perfect 120 seconds of TV this year.

"Brotherhood" (Showtime). In some respects the anti-"Sopranos," this involving tale of two Irish American brothers, one a politician, one a crook (and each a little of the other), in Providence, R.I., was all the more convincing for its slow pace and quiet tone.

"30 Rock" (NBC). Absurdity is played straight in Tina Fey's brainy show about competing kinds of logic/illogic, set backstage at a sketch comedy. Now compatibly installed in a Thursday lineup of skewed sitcoms.

"The Upside Down Show" (Noggin). Australian import for kiddies (of any age) mixes dry humor and physical exuberance as duo David Collins and Shane Dundas transform space via "mime with noise" — what you don't see is what you get.

"Ugly Betty" (ABC). Although the worldwide domination of the "Betty la Fea" franchise might have betokened its domestic success, this charming, ever-deepening urban fairy tale is like nothing else on network television, from its nonstandard heroine to the cool flamboyance of its production design.

"The New Adventures of Old Christine" (CBS). A top-flight, old-school, personality-centered sitcom. Hail to thee, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, your stuttering rhythms, your dogged hopefulness.

"Wonder Pets!" (Nickelodeon). A duckling, a turtle and a guinea pig travel the world saving baby animals while singing light opera. Could you have imagined this?

"Country Boys" (PBS). The poor are nearly absent from American television. David Sutherland's six-hour documentary went deep into the Kentucky hollers to tell the story of two boys attempting in fits and starts to break free from history, and told it in depth, at length and without judgment.

"When the Levees Broke" (HBO). Spike Lee's generous Hurricane Katrina documentary masterfully orchestrated a wide array of regional voices into a compelling narrative of novelistic heft and scope.

Edie Falco, in the first few episodes of this year's "The Sopranos" (HBO). The season went astray after Tony woke up from his coma, but while he was out, Falco gave us the unvarnished Carmella, too worn down to do anything but feel.

The worst

There may have been worse series put on the air this year ("twentyfourseven," anyone?), but measured in terms of waste of talent, none I saw were more vexing than NBC's sub-geriatric sitcom "Twenty Good Years." But these are just bad shows: Far worse is the continuing disinclination of the FCC (or at least of its chairman, former telecom lobbyist Kevin Martin, following in the ideological footsteps of Michael Powell) to act as a custodian of the people's trust, preferring to strew rose petals in the path of runaway media conglomeration. Bad for everyone but the conglomerates.

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-ca-lloyd17dec17,0,1495371.story?coll=cl-tvent

fredfa

12-17-06, 05:58 PM

fredfa

12-17-06, 06:12 PM

Critic’s Notebook
'A Perfect Day' entertaining and thought-provoking
Monday at 8, 10 and midnight (ET) TNT-HD
By Jeanne Jakle San Antonio Express-News

Finally, a new Christmas movie that makes you think as well as feel.

Not surprisingly, "A Perfect Day" is based on a book by Richard Paul Evans, the same author who gave us the memorably poignant tale of 12 yuletides ago, "The Christmas Box."

Similar to the classic Frank Capra film "It's a Wonderful Life," TNT's original offering has the hero finally appreciating the really important aspects of his life when he fears losing all through death.

In "A Perfect Day," premiering at 7 p.m. (CT) Monday on TNT, Robert Harlan (Rob Lowe) drops the selfish notions that accompany sudden success and wealth when he believes he's about to die. Only then does he remember the precious intangibles he's about to lose and clings desperately to the people he loves.

When the movie begins, Robert is at a low point. He's fired from his longtime radio sales job just when he thought he was in line for a promotion.

His supportive wife, Allyson (Paget Brewster), convinces him to turn the negative into a positive and return to writing a book that he'd put on the backburner.

His novel is based on a sad time in his wife's life — the loss of her father. When she reads it, she's incredibly moved and urges him to get it out there. He enlists the help of Camille, a friend who's also an agent (Frances Conroy). It's tough going at first, but the book soon grabs readers' hearts and shoots up the best-seller list. Offers of magazine covers and TV interviews pour in.

With this onslaught of fame and fortune, Harlan begins to change — and not for the better. He becomes insufferably egotistical and says all kinds of pretentious things on "Larry King Live," not even acknowledging his wife as the inspiration for his book.

Worse, he virtually ignores Allyson when a beautiful fawning publicist (Rowena King) takes him under her wing and schedules him for appearances around the country that run from Halloween all the way to Christmas.

His daughter Carson (Meggie Geisland) also suffers neglect; she can't make it through her Thanksgiving play without bursting into tears.

Allyson is further alarmed when Carson begins to parrot her dad and speaks of material things as if they were life's priorities.

The last straw arrives when Allyson's beloved aunt dies and Robert doesn't stop his roller coaster ride to accompany her to the funeral. After all, wasn't his wife's grief over a death what inspired Robert to write in the first place?

He seems to have forgotten all that, just as he forgets the help of his agent who jumped aboard when he was nobody. He decides to drop Camille in favor of someone more prestigious.

Robert is slowly awakened, however, when a mysterious stranger (Christopher Lloyd) begins to shadow him and prophesizes that he's about to lose everything . . .

including his life.

The movie ends on Christmas, with a strange twist that might be difficult to buy. No matter. The tale is so wonderful, the acting so believable, the message so true, that the artifice of the end can be easily forgiven.

Making the story even stronger is the fact it's relatable to just about anyone who's had a modicum of success — and has allowed ego to take precedence over friends and family. Writer Evans said he certainly wasn't above this failing. "My first book was about learning the value of your own family and children and putting priorities right," he relates in TNT's press materials. "It was a week before Christmas, and I was leaving home to be on a TV show. I went to kiss my daughter goodbye, and she said, 'Dad, why did you write a book about spending time with your children, and now you're leaving again?' I felt a stab right through the heart."

http://www.mysanantonio.com/entertainment/columnists/jjackle/stories/MYSA121706.0P.jakle.17fc50c2.html

dad1153

12-17-06, 07:21 PM

The two previously posted Los Angeles Times columns pretty much clinch slots for Brownfield and Lloyd in my own personal top-five of TV columnists who feel they must show how intelligent they are and how stupid viewers are awards.

It is pretty easy to see why TV viewers really don't need to waste their time reading the LA Times TV critics.

(And why does a financially struggling paper need TWO such egregiosuly pompous critics? Isn't the Tribune Company trying to shave costs?)

I don't know. At least both critics mentioned two moments from the past Sopranos season (the Kevin Finnerty coma sequence and Faldo's performance) that I felt were among the best and most overlooked moments on TV this past year. It's become 'chic' to hate 'The Sopranos,' just as it has been 'chic' for years to bash Saturday Night Live for its terrible writing. Every other critic that smells blood and has become a 'Sopranos' basher seems to be doing it to mirror the audience's contempt for being made to wait endlessly for episodes that didn't fulfill their expectations of Season 2-caliber greatness. I guess since I watched each every episode of 'Sopranos' at least twice this year (the 9PM Sunday premiere and one of the weekday repeats) I picked-up nuances, subplots and throaway lines that made each subsequent viewing much, much more fun than the premiere. Carmela's trip to Paris and Tony's coma inner trip were filled with so many juxtapositions and meaning/depth a whole book could be written just about these three episodes. Call it masochism but I actually enjoyed having my expectations and loyalty as a 'Sopranos' viewers challenged and unfulfilled by David Chase & Co. And this coming from someone that was told years ago in person by Federico Castelluccio (Furio from seasons 2-4) what Chase is like and thinks of the audience when he (Federico) came by our business to put together a demo reel.

But yeah, two critics in one newspaper that think alike? If I were the editor I'd try to get me two completely different reviewers to cover as many tastes and potential viewing options as there are in the city of L.A. Something for Mr. Geffen to think about is his $2 billion bid for the newspaper comes through. :rolleyes:

dad1153

12-17-06, 07:38 PM

I'm extremely curious to see what type of effect the Nielsen college measurement will have on ratings.

It will probably add a few hundreds of thousands of 18-34 viewers to shows/networks that appeal to young people (Adult Swim, 'Conan O'Brien,' college basketball games on ESPN, 'Lost,' etc.). Doesn't sound like that many viewers but since they're mostly in the 'golden' demo the networks want them, and want them bad.

dad1153

12-17-06, 07:43 PM

The Business of TV
TWC, DirecTV settle ad dispute
By Paul J. Gough, Hollywood Reporter December 17, 2006

Time Warner Cable said Thursday that DirecTV has agreed not to run ads saying that the MSO's customers in New York won't be able to watch the New York Giants-Washington Redskins game Dec. 30.

The companies agreed to what TWC called a "stipulated injunction," which was approved by Judge Laura Taylor Swain of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. TWC confirmed the agreement, but DirecTV declined comment.

The Giants-Redskins game is part of the primetime regular-season package that started last month on the NFL Network, which isn't carried by TWC.

TWC filed suit last week against DirecTV in U.S. District Court in Manhattan alleging that the satellite provider falsely said that the game wouldn't be shown in the New York region unless a viewer subscribed to a service, like DirecTV, that offers the NFL Network (HR 12/9).

The game will in fact air live on WNBC-TV.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3i16891de0eed2dafec040d8ffbf444bd8

fredfa

12-17-06, 08:11 PM

I don't know. At least both critics mentioned two moments from the past Sopranos season (the Kevin Finnerty coma sequence and Faldo's performance) that I felt were among the best and most overlooked moments on TV this past year. It's become 'chic' to hate 'The Sopranos,' just as it has been 'chic' for years to bash Saturday Night Live for its terrible writing. Every other critic that smells blood and has become a 'Sopranos' basher seems to be doing it to mirror the audience's contempt for being made to wait endlessly for episodes that didn't fulfill their expectations of Season 2-caliber greatness. I guess since I watched each every episode of 'Sopranos' at least twice this year (the 9PM Sunday premiere and one of the weekday repeats) I picked-up nuances, subplots and throaway lines that made each subsequent viewing much, much more fun than the premiere. Carmela's trip to Paris and Tony's coma inner trip were filled with so many juxtapositions and meaning/depth a whole book could be written just about these three episodes. Call it masochism but I actually enjoyed having my expectations and loyalty as a 'Sopranos' viewers challenged and unfulfilled by David Chase & Co. And this coming from someone that was told years ago in person by Federico Castelluccio (Furio from seasons 2-4) what Chase is like and thinks of the audience when he (Federico) came by our business to put together a demo reel.

But yeah, two critics in one newspaper that think alike? If I were the editor I'd try to get me two completely different reviewers to cover as many tastes and potential viewing options as there are in the city of L.A. Something for Mr. Geffen to think about is his $2 billion bid for the newspaper comes through. :rolleyes:

Without even getting in to specifics about "The Sopranos" (we'll just have to agree to disagree -- I thought this most recent "season" was pedestrian at best) I was struck by the fact that both Brownfield and Lloyd apparently felt they had to stay away from almost everything that is popular on network TV.

And that does a disservice to most viewers/readers.

I'd be happier with critics who wrote a year-end network TV best and worst column and then another column highlighting cable shows they felt the viewers were too dumb or lazy to watch.

That would be more honest, to me, anyway.

On the other hand it has been fun watching so many TV critics backtrack quickly. Generally they didn't think much of "Heroes" for example, now they fall all over themselvesw to praise it.

They (almost unanimously) did love the pilot of "Studio 60" yet now they can't stop talking about how the show hasn't lived up to its potential or expectations or something.

Last year they hated "The Unit" and detested "Criminal Minds". Now they seem to sniffle at the horrible taste of the American public. "CM" they say, is so violent and dark....then they go on to expound at length about how wonderful "Dexter" is.

Hello? Can we spot a disconnect here?

(In the interest of full dislosure, personally I don't enjoy either "Criminal Minds" or "The Unit". Or, "Dexter" for that matter.)

But unlike most critics (with the exception of Tom Shales, Matt Roush, Rich Heldenfels, Maureen Ryan and a handful of others) I tend to believe there is far more high-quality TV available right now on network TV than at any time in the history of the medium. (And most of it, thankfully in HD!)

In addition, we don't just have three channels to choose from anymore. And if you go back 10, 20, 30 or 40 years and compare the quality of the top 20 or 30 programs each year, you'd be hard-pressed to make an argument that the old days were truly better -- even if you only compared today's network prime time programming.

And when you add in the cable and premium cable programs readily available, there simply is too much good TV for any sane person to watch. At least there is too much for me.

RussTC3

12-17-06, 09:01 PM

I miss "Sons and Daughters". :(

What a wonderfully well-acted, superbly done comedy.

TommyK

12-17-06, 10:30 PM

Without even getting in to specifics about "The Sopranos" (we'll just have to agree to disagree -- I thought this most recent "season" was pedestrian at best) I was struck by the fact that both Brownfield and Lloyd apparently felt they had to stay away from almost everything that is popular on network TV.

And that does a disservice to most viewers/readers.

I'd be happier with critics who wrote a year-end network TV best and worst column and then another column highlighting cable shows they felt the viewers were too dumb or lazy to watch.

That would be more honest, to me, anyway.

On the other hand it has been fun watching so many TV critics backtrack quickly. Generally they didn't think much of "Heroes" for example, now they fall all over themselvesw to praise it.

They (almost unanimously) did love the pilot of "Studio 60" yet now they can't stop talking about how the show hasn't lived up to its potential or expectations or something.

Last year they hated "The Unit" and detested "Criminal Minds". Now they seem to sniffle at the horrible taste of the American public. "CM" they say, is so violent and dark....then they go on to expound at length about how wonderful "Dexter" is.

Hello? Can we spot a disconnect here?

(In the interest of full dislosure, personally I don't enjoy either "Criminal Minds" or "The Unit". Or, "Dexter" for that matter.)

But unlike most critics (with the exception of Tom Shales, Matt Roush, Rich Heldenfels, Maureen Ryan and a handful of others) I tend to believe there is far more high-quality TV available right now on network TV than at any time in the history of the medium. (And most of it, thankfully in HD!)

In addition, we don't just have three channels to choose from anymore. And if you go back 10, 20, 30 or 40 years and compare the quality of the top 20 or 30 programs each year, you'd be hard-pressed to make an argument that the old days were truly better -- even if you only compared today's network prime time programming.

And when you add in the cable and premium cable programs readily available, there simply is too much good TV for any sane person to watch. At least there is too much for me.

Great post, fredfa.

dad1153

12-17-06, 11:01 PM

In Memoriam
We'll miss these stars, craftsmen, pioneers
By Cynthia Littleton, Hollywood Reporter December 18, 2006

Oh, Barn ...

For those of us who can recite most episodes of "The Andy Griffith Show" from memory, it was a sad morning in February when the news broke that that Don Knotts had died at age 81.

There is a good reason why the bug-eyed, rubber-limbed comedian won five consecutive Emmys for playing bumbling sheriff's deputy Barney Fife. Nobody ever threw themselves into a role more than Knotts did, with every sinewy, funny fiber of his being. Before CBS' "Andy Griffith," Knotts was a member of the legendary "Steve Allen Show" troupe, and that alone would have earned him a spot in television encyclopedias for all time. But Knotts clearly was a person who just liked to work, and he kept at it until almost the day he moved on to the great Mayberry in the sky.

Dennis Weaver died the same day as Knotts, at the same age and, yes, he too played a beloved law-enforcement sidekick, Chester Goode, deputy to James Arness' Marshal Dillon on CBS' "Gunsmoke." Weaver graduated to boss-cop status and TV's coolest sheepskin coat ever in primetime on NBC's long-running "McCloud."

Darren McGavin, who died in February at 83, didn't have such a long run as way-out-there investigative reporter Carl Kolchak on ABC's wonderfully weird, mid-'70s comedy-horror series "Kolchak: The Night Stalker." But the show still managed to influence just about every spooky/fantasy drama to come along since, i.e. "The X-Files" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Dan Curtis, producer of the first "Night Stalker" telefilm for ABC in 1972, died in March at 78. Curtis left the limited special effects of "Night Stalker" behind in the 1980s for the ABC miniseries spectacles "The Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance."

A pause for remembrance also is due for such giants who died during the past 12 months as NBC News president Reuven Frank, steward of "The Huntley-Brinkley Report" (good night, Reuven); Mike Douglas, the unfailingly warm talk-show conversationalist and song stylist; Ed Bradley, ever-cool, racial-barrier-busting reporter noted for his derring-do on assignment; and the incomparable Aaron Spelling, who was no stranger to this column in his final years.

Elma "Pem" Farnsworth never was a household name in connection with television, but she should have been. She was married to the genius farm-boy television tube inventor Philo T. Farnsworth, and as such she was a key supporter in all of his lab work and doomed business ventures. And to the end of her 98 years, she never stopped agitating to secure her husband proper recognition for his role in advancing the medium.

Other passings that touched the industry this year included Scott Brazil, who worked as a showrunner on FX's "The Shield" until days before his death in April; Jerry Belson, the comedy writer deemed by his longtime writing partner Garry Marshall to be "the funniest man in the world"; and Ralph Story, the radio and TV broadcaster whose finely crafted news and feature reports for KABC-TV and KCBS-TV (nee KNXT-TV) in the 1970s and '80s linger in my memory as gems of a bygone era in Los Angeles TV news.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/features/columns/tv_reporter/e3i16891de0eed2dafe8990e8e964964f86
____________________________________________________________ _____

Personally I was impacted by the passing of WABC-TV local anchorman Bill Beutel (March 18) and Press Your Luck host Peter Tomarken (March 13). The former was an old-school local news reporter/anchor from the days when local news were still able to command respect as a source of accurate journalism. The latter died alongside his wife tragically while flying their private airplane for Angel Flight West providing volunteer transportation for medical patients. :(

DoubleDAZ

12-17-06, 11:14 PM

Without even getting in to specifics....................there simply is too much good TV for any sane person to watch. At least there is too much for me.I don't care what anyone says, I've never trusted critics of any kind because I've always believed they have ulterior motives or let outside influences affect their critiques. While there is no doubt there are aspects of The Unit, for example, that could certainly be improved, their dislike centered around the very things they like about other programs, like Dexter. Therefore, I often suspect there is some unacknowleded animous toward specific actors, directors, producers, etc., and all of that should be a non-issue in a truly objective critique.

As for the quality of today's offerings being better than in the past, I have to agree, but I do so with some reluctance. Programs like Perry Mason, Gunsmoke, and many others were exceptionally well done for their time. I think we tend to forget that morals were different and censorship played a big role in what couldn't be done than what can be done today. I can't think of a single primetime program today that would have been allowed to air untouched 30 years ago, and that includes the "reality' shows, with thier blurred out and bleeped scenes.

In the past, I loved programs like I've Got A Secret, What's My Line, etc., but can't stand to even watch commercials for today's crop of similar programming, like Identity. The recent Match Game stuff brought back a lot of memories of just how "innocent" programming used to be. Maybe it's just that today's hosts try too hard to be the focus of the show instead of the show itself. Not to single him out, but I just can't imagine Howie Mandel being as upset as Gene Rayburn over a show's cancellation.

fredfa

12-17-06, 11:14 PM

TV Notebook
MyNet in 'meetings' over sked
By Kimberly Nordyke The Hollywood Reporter Dec 18, 2006

MyNetworkTV is considering cutting back on its strategy of "all telenovelas, all the time," sources said.

The network, which launched Sept. 5, has a schedule comprising two 13-week drama strips, with new episodes airing Monday-Friday and hourlong recaps airing Saturday.

But in light of underwhelming ratings for the dramas, network executives are exploring other options, which could include reducing the number of nights on which the dramas air or throwing nondrama series programming into the mix, sources said.

The first two dramas, "Desire" and the Bo Derek-Morgan Fairchild starrer "Fashion House," each averaged a 0.7 household rating/1 share over their 13-week run.

The newest dramas -- "Wicked Wicked Games," starring Tatum O'Neal, and "Watch Over Me," starring Casper Van Dien and Catherine Oxenberg -- debuted Dec. 6. In their first week on the air (a partial week consisting of three days because the shows debuted on a Wednesday), "Games" averaged a 0.7/1 among households, while "Watch" averaged a 0.6/1.

As for any possible on-air changes, it's believed there's no timetable for a potential revamping of the programming strategy.

A MyNetworkTV representative declined comment other than to say "we have lots of meetings."

When parent News Corp. announced the network in February, it said that it had several shows in development along with the dramas. Among those in the works were "Catwalk," a reality-competition series involving aspiring models; "Celebrity Love Island," a Granada series that would bring together six celebrities and six singles; "America's Brainiest," a quiz show from Celador; and "On Scene," an investigative series that would put viewers at the scenes of crimes and with the people who solve them.

But at the Television Critics Assn. press tour in July, Fox Television Stations CEO Jack Abernethy and Paul Buccieri, president of programming at Twentieth Television, which produces the dramas, indicated that the network had abandoned those projects in favor of the telenovela-like serials (HR 7/21). Abernethy was firm on his stance that the network was committed to making the telenovela model work, with each show having its full 13-week run no matter the ratings, and likened MyNet to such "genre-driven" networks as Lifetime and Fox News Channel.

Three months later, at a Hollywood Radio & Television Society panel discussion in October, Abernethy admitted that "the ratings are not what we want them to be" after a month and a half on the air (HR 10/20). But, he added at the time, "this is the best thing for us. If something better comes along, we'll consider it, but right now this is the best model for us."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i16891de0eed2dafe2f73a8a009deb1ac

fredfa

12-17-06, 11:17 PM

fredfa

12-17-06, 11:17 PM

Thanks for the kind words, TommyK. :)

Inundated

12-17-06, 11:24 PM

Someone gave me a new DVD of 30 classic "Match Game" programs and I watched a few of them on a plane the other day. I found the episodes just as funny now as they were a generation ago -- and that is VERY funny.

Fred, I've mentioned this elsewhere but forgot where I could find the answer - is there a list of episodes?

A dear friend of mine was on three MG '78 episodes, and I'll buy it for her if any of her episodes are on it!

I have a MG ARWL on my TiVo, but have to sort through a gazillion episodes from GSN, and they're nowhere near '78...

fredfa

12-17-06, 11:30 PM

TV Notebook
Murdoch Is Said to Have Ordered Editor’s Dismissal
By Julie Bosman and Richard Siklos The New York Times December 18, 2006

Rupert Murdoch personally ordered the dismissal of Judith Regan, the publisher of a widely criticized O. J. Simpson book, after he heard reports of a heated conversation Ms. Regan had with a company lawyer on Friday that included comments that were deemed anti-Semitic, according to two people familiar with the News Corporation’s account of the firing.

Mark Jackson, a lawyer with HarperCollins, a division of the News Corporation that includes Ms. Regan’s imprint, reported the alleged comments from a phone conversation with Ms. Regan to Jane Friedman, HarperCollins’s president and chief executive.

“And then Jane called Rupert and Rupert said he won’t tolerate that kind of behavior,” said one of the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Despite the success Ms. Regan brought Mr. Murdoch’s publishing business since he established her imprint in 1994, their relationship had soured in recent weeks as she became involved in a controversy involving the Simpson book and companion television special she had championed.

After some Fox affiliates declined to broadcast the special, the company pulled the project, which featured Mr. Simpson hypothesizing about how he would have murdered his former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald L. Goldman.

“You don’t do this in a perfect world because she makes a lot of money,” the person said of Ms. Regan’s dismissal, adding that Mr. Murdoch did not put the blame for the Simpson controversy solely on Ms. Regan.

Several efforts to reach Ms. Regan since her dismissal, including new attempts since the accusations of anti-Semitism surfaced, were unsuccessful.

A News Corporation spokesman declined to comment.

Mr. Murdoch, who had also approved the Simpson project, has not spoken to Ms. Regan since before the imbroglio it provoked but authorized Ms. Friedman to dismiss her, saying her slurs were the final straw after other recent episodes of what were deemed improper behavior, according to one of the people familiar with the News Corporation’s account.

Ms. Regan’s previous successes at the company seemed in sync with Mr. Murdoch’s penchant for pushing the boundaries of public taste and shaking up the media establishment.

The conversation with Mr. Jackson on Friday afternoon was described by sources as heated and confrontational, even for the famously forceful Ms. Regan. Ms. Regan’s alleged comments, which came in the midst of a tense conversation in which she berated Mr. Jackson, were directed at him and Ms. Friedman, who are Jewish, as well as toward other Jews, one of the sources said.

That source would not say specifically what Ms. Regan is alleged to have said, but characterized the comments as offensive and inappropriate, but not a hateful tirade. Still, the source said, it was enough to prompt Mr. Murdoch to dismiss her.

Ms. Friedman, known to have had a testy relationship with Ms. Regan, called Mr. Murdoch in the late afternoon in New York to discuss Ms. Regan’s behavior just as he was preparing to play host to the News Corporation’s annual holiday party for employees from across the company’s subsidiaries, which include the Fox television network, Fox News Channel, The New York Post, the 20th Century Fox film studio and the Web site MySpace.com.

Later that day, at the ReganBooks offices on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles, a stunned Ms. Regan was confronted by security guards who arrived with boxes and ordered her to leave, according to an account by a HarperCollins executive that was confirmed by another person familiar with the situation.

“This came completely out of the blue,” one executive said. “She was completely taken by surprise.”

It was an abrupt decision that ended a tumultuous few weeks for Ms. Regan. She had publicly defended herself from what she called the “backstabbers at HarperCollins” during the taping of her Sirius Satellite Radio show on Thursday, according to the industry blog GalleyCat. And within the company, she had become convinced that there were “people trying to take her down,” said a person familiar with the situation.

On Saturday, HarperCollins released a statement announcing that the Regan imprint would continue under Cal Morgan, Ms. Regan’s longtime editorial director.

Ms. Regan was known for her sharp instincts and even sharper elbows, attributes that had served her well in her ascent from cub reporter at The National Enquirer to publisher of her own imprint under HarperCollins.

Although her empire was built on celebrity tell-alls like Drew Barrymore’s “Little Girl Lost” and by bringing the porn star Jenna Jameson and the professional wrestler Mick Foley to the best-seller lists, Ms. Regan also published several highly respected books, including “The Zero” by Jess Walter, a National Book Award finalist this year. She also published political books by writers like Arianna Huffington and Peggy Noonan.

Last year, Mr. Murdoch allowed Ms. Regan to move her operations to Los Angeles, part of a strategy to build synergy between the publishing world and Hollywood. And it seemed to be working well, until the recent Simpson fiasco and a subsequent, though lesser, controversy over a novel about Mickey Mantle that purported to tell tales of drunkenness and sexual promiscuity in the late Yankee slugger’s own voice.

At the heart of the problem, though, was what many executives said was a tense relationship between Ms. Regan and Ms. Friedman, her boss.

“They always had a difficult relationship,” said one executive at a rival publishing house. “I don’t think Jane was ever happy with Judith. You have two very considerable egos.”

While Ms. Regan was rapidly losing credibility over the Simpson book, Ms. Friedman was enjoying a particularly bright moment in the spotlight. She had stayed silent during the Simpson controversy, never speaking to the press.

Last week, Ms. Friedman was named the Publishers Weekly Person of the Year, an honor within the industry. In the article about the award, Ms. Friedman was praised for managing to “distance the company from the book without openly confronting one of her publishers.”

Longtime publishing executives traded in speculation about Ms. Regan’s fate over the weekend, dismissing the idea that there was another company that would give her as much creative and financial autonomy as the News Corporation did.

“I think right this minute people are saying, She’s a pariah and we don’t want her,” said Sara Nelson, the editor in chief of Publishers Weekly. “But I’ve seen enough of publishing to say that that will change.”

Some thought Ms. Regan might opt for Hollywood, her home of less than two years.

“She’ll certainly have another life in entertainment,” said Laurence J. Kirshbaum, a literary agent and the former head of the Time Warner Book Group. “I think she will rise from these ashes and find another place.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/18/business/media/18regan.html?ei=5094&en=c9fced1f36c5e7ab&hp=&ex=1166418000&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print

fredfa

12-17-06, 11:33 PM

DoubleDAZ

12-17-06, 11:33 PM

Dave:

Someone gave me a new DVD of 30 classic "Match Game" programs and I watched a few of them on a plane the other day. I found the episodes just as funny now as they were a generation ago -- and that is VERY funny.That reminds me of a trip to Laughlin NV last year where we caught a Smother's Brothers show. There was a young newly-wed couple at the same table and they did not laugh once. And, they couldn't figure out the Yo-Yo Man schtick at all. The rest of us were laughing our collective butts off, so some of this is certainly a generational thing. A lot of today's viewers couldn't accept the corny sets, "clean" jokes, etc. Can you imagine a program like The Honeymooner's today? That show took place mostly in a single room with no color, no decorations whatsoever, etc. The content, not the set, was the focus and it worked. How many of today's viewers are going to long for the likes of How I Met Your Mother, Everyone Hates Chris, or even Raymond, 30 years from now? Although I still catch shows like Gunsmoke, Leave It To Beaver, Andy Griffith, Perry Mason, etc., I can't see myself catching House, Criminal Minds, CSI, etc., 30 years from now. Of course, I probably won't be around then, but you get the point. :)

dad1153

12-17-06, 11:39 PM

Fred, I've mentioned this elsewhere but forgot where I could find the answer - is there a list of episodes?

A dear friend of mine was on three MG '78 episodes, and I'll buy it for her if any of her episodes are on it!

I have a MG ARWL on my TiVo, but have to sort through a gazillion episodes from GSN, and they're nowhere near '78...

Inundated, you're better off checking the "trading circuit" on websites dedicated to gameshows. These guys are hardcore collectors that have been taping Game Show Network shows for years and would be willing to trade you for the one you're looking for if (a) it has aired (GSN often skips entire weeks/months of 'MG' shows without any explanation; defective tapes and/or difficulty clearing appearances by some celebrities are suspected) and (b) somebody was taping the show. Try these fan-run websites to get you started:

Match Game Wallpaper Factory: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/matchgame/ (check the 'Links' section).

The Game Show Forum (Invision Board): http://gameshow.ipbhost.com/ (the hardest of the hardcore gameshow fans post here; thread lightly!).

Classic Game Shows.com: http://www.classicgameshows.com/ (slim chance your request will stand out but what you've got to lose?).

fredfa

12-17-06, 11:43 PM

Critic’s Notebook
Not exactly a 'Perfect Day'
By Robert Bianco USA Today

Blah humbug.

The more dully formulaic Christmas movies that TV produces, the more you wish the medium would adopt a very literal reading of Silent Night. If straining-to-be-inspirational, card-shop stocking fillers such as A Perfect Day are the best TV can do, then really, leave us to contemplate the meaning of the season in peace.

As if convinced the holiday abhors originality, TV builds most of its Christmas movies around two popular themes, told in a thousand variants. Year after year, we either get mean guys who don't realize how bad it is to be mean (A Christmas Carol), or nice guys who don't realize how good it is to be nice (It's a Wonderful Life).

For this sanctimonious follow-up to his The Christmas Box, writer Richard Paul Evans blends the two. Over two teeth-ache-inducing hours, a nice-guy-gone-suddenly-bad is reformed by a fallen angel who warns him the end is near.

Yeah, well not near enough.

Would that “Perfect Day” (Monday at 8, 10 and midnight, TNT) were perfectly awful. Movies like that, at least, tend to have some energy, even if it is of the camp/comic variety. This artificially sweetened fruitcake just lies there, as unappetizing and unwelcome as its inedible equivalent.

As the movie plods its way toward its totally nonsensical final twist, the main emotion it provokes is one of pity for star Rob Lowe as a short-sighted best-selling author. True, Lowe isn't exactly working at his best, but it couldn't have been easy to play a character whose only interesting trait is his certainty that he's about to die.

Worse than its treatment of Lowe, however, is the way the movie deadens one of TV's liveliest actors, Paget Brewster. She has elevated bad material before, but even Brewster can't rescue a role that asks her to instantly, inexplicably segue from grating, perky support to shrewish attack.

Bad enough she has to tell her just-fired husband "when one door closes another one opens," but to have to follow that groaner with "this whole thing could be a blessing in disguise" is really adding insult to actor injury.

But then, the entire script is one huge sugar-cube collection of bad lines and unconvincing characters, from Frances Conroy's all-knowing, all-loving agent to Christopher Lloyd's harbinger of doom.

And why exactly is Lowe's writer doomed, by the way? For momentarily taking too much pleasure in success? For spending a few weeks away from home working? For longing to see his book turned into a feature film rather than a TV movie? If those were crimes punishable by death, we'd have no authors left.

The real crime, of course, is television's insistence on turning Christmas into the season of sap.

It is possible, after all, to do a holiday movie that is heartfelt and even sentimental without making people feel as if they've entered some alternate, goo-filled universe.

We've seen better before (think The Gathering or Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory), and surely we'll see better someday again.

That day can't come too soon.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/reviews/2006-12-17-perfect-day_x.htm

fredfa

12-17-06, 11:48 PM

Critic’s Notebook
Battlestar Galactica: Nuke you!
By Alan Sepinwall of the Newark Star-Ledger in his TV blog “What’s Alan Watching” Dec. 17, 2006

"Battlestar Galactica" spoilers coming up just as soon as I figure out who I have to call to get the Sci-Fi promo monkeys fired...

Ron Moore said that he dreamed up the New Caprica arc because he was getting bored with fleet on the run stories, and worried that the audience was, too. He figured that by taking such a drastic departure from the formula, "Then by the time we get back into space, it'll have much greater impact."

Now, I consider the New Caprica episodes (from "Lay Down Your Burdens" to "Collaborators") to be by far the best sustained stretch this show has ever done, but the return to space hasn't had the impact that Moore was hoping. If anything, the extended stay planetside has made me less willing to indulge mediocre space opera, and we've gotten a little too much of that in the last month or so.

The New Caprica episodes felt like they had things to say, socially, politically and about the characters. The episodes since have had some strong moments, but overall they've felt aimless. Baltar is on the Cylon baseship. Why? Do we know significantly more about the Cylons than we did before? Are they more interesting now? Why bother having Tigh and Starbuck go so far off the deep end if you're going to resolve it (for the most part) so quickly? Was there any real point to "Hero"?

With "Eye of Jupiter," at least, a lot of the seemingly pointless strands began to come together: the Kara/Lee/Dee/Anders quadrangle, the D'Anna/Baltar/Six triangle, D'Anna's suicidal tendencies, the search for earth, etc. Plus, we got our first taste of Brother Cavil in quite a while, and Dean Stockwell continues to be all kinds of awesome. And the cliffhanger would've been pretty cool...

... if the eedjits in Sci-Fi marketing hadn't given away the entire damn resolution in the January promo. Way to not leave people on the edge of their seats, guys.

What did everybody else think? Am I being too hard on the most recent episodes?

http://sepinwall.blogspot.com/2006/12/battlestar-galactica-nuke-you.html

dad1153

12-17-06, 11:50 PM

TV Notebook
'Nine's' strange, swift decline
By Scott Collins, Los Angeles Times December 18, 2006

Hank Steinberg is trying to keep the faith. But it's tough to wage war against doubt when the show you've poured the last 18 months of your life into has just disappeared from the TV schedule, and no one knows when it's coming back.

Steinberg is executive producer of "The Nine," ABC's drama that was supposed to have been one of the big hits of the fall season. It was the sort of project that was seemingly blessed from the get-go. Critics loved the pilot, a tense thriller about hostages rescued from a 52-hour bank heist who emerge as a close-knit but emotionally battered group. Steinberg, moreover, clearly knew how to make a hit show; his missing-persons drama "Without a Trace" is in its fifth season on CBS. The large ensemble was headed by veteran TV actor Tim Daly ("Wings"), who played a heroic cop with a troubled past. And to help ensure that viewers at least checked out "The Nine," the network bestowed a golden 10 p.m. Wednesday slot after the hit drama "Lost."

You don't need to toil on a soundstage to guess what happened next. "The Nine" tanked. This wasn't a case of a show starting out strong, as is common, and then having the ratings slowly waft downward. The relatively low numbers for the "Nine" pilot — 11.9 million total viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research — sent jaws dropping all over town. Once "Lost" was over, the audience fled as if watching ABC at that hour had been deemed harmful by the surgeon general. And it just got worse from there. The network glumly took note as the show steadily sunk in the ratings, week after week, and finally yanked it late last month. The last episode, on Nov. 22, was watched by a mere 4.1 million.

Some outlets have reported — erroneously — that the series is officially canceled. And Steinberg can understand why skeptics may assume the worst.

"This may be hard for people to believe, but I believe they'll bring it back for another shake," he said last week. "They've been very supportive all the way through."

The network says it has every intention of a return for "The Nine." ABC executives are looking at running the remaining six unaired episodes starting in March or April, which would give the show's small regiment of loyal fans a chance to tie up some loose plot strands. But the network didn't order any new episodes from Warner Bros. Television, which means that crew members are out looking for new jobs. And some observers say it's iffy whether ABC will even bother burning off the episodes, given the series' dismal performance.

"I don't know if they can bring it back," said Laura Caraccioli-Davis, executive vice president at Chicago ad firm Starcom.

Of course, TV history is filled with examples of acclaimed shows that struggled to find an audience, such as NBC's crime drama "Boomtown" and ABC's family show "Once and Again." But "The Nine" fell further, and faster, than most.

The most vexing question remains: What the heck happened? How did such a promising show whiff?

"If we knew," ABC Executive Vice President Jeffrey D. Bader said wryly, "it would never happen." He added that network executives remain happy with the creative side of "The Nine."

That opinion is widely shared. Caraccioli-Davis dubbed the pilot "the most riveting piece of TV I'd seen in a long time." But in retrospect, she added, that first episode may have proven too self-contained for many viewers who like episodic dramas. "It seemed almost too good for television, almost like a movie," she said.

She also wonders whether viewers were looking for sheer escapism this fall, as evidenced by the strong numbers for NBC's "Heroes." "Maybe 'The Nine' was a little too real," she said. It's also possible that viewers mistook the show for a heist thriller rather than what the producers intended, a twisty character drama about a group of friends getting a second whack at life after a near-death experience.

Steinberg, for his part, was initially pleased to have his show follow "Lost," but now wonders whether it would work better paired with a "softer" character drama like "Grey's Anatomy" (like all TV producers, he dreams big when it comes to scheduling).

But ultimately, theories that presume to explain failure are often no more satisfying than those aimed at illuminating success. "I'm sure there are 20 factors" behind "The Nine's" ratings fizzle, Steinberg said.

One of the assumptions of the TV business is that if a show delivers the goods creatively, today's TiVo-armed, tech-savvy viewers will find it, even if it airs at 2 a.m. and has a marketing budget of zero. That's what many executives like to think, anyway, but it's simply not true.

Who says that the audience always makes aesthetic quality the driving force behind its viewing habits? If that were the case, one would assume that NBC's game show "Deal or No Deal" would die from lack of attention (it's doing just fine, thanks). NBC Universal, in fact, even runs a website, http://www.brilliantbutcancelled.com , dedicated to acclaimed shows that couldn't cut the mustard with viewers. And who decides what's "good," anyway?

TV execs, media buyers and critics and columnists, like yours truly, are hardly a representative sample of Americans.

Not that any of that helps Steinberg, of course, who's struggling to stay positive about one of the most frustrating episodes of his career.

"I always say the show is about second chances," he said. "Hopefully, we'll get ours."

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-et-channel18dec18,1,2202030.story?coll=la-entnews-tv

fredfa

12-17-06, 11:54 PM

TV Notebook
Networks have eyes on the prize
By Gary Levin USA Today

Question: What's the latest Band-Aid to treat what ails television networks?

a) Serialized thrillers.

b) Singing contests.

c) Old-fashioned game shows.

If you picked c), you're in line for the big-money prize — but not before programmers seek their cut.

Game shows are the flavor of the moment in the copycat-happy TV business, where they're seen as the cheapest route to success for networks faced with fickle viewers, tighter programming budgets and a big push for profit-boosting interactivity. The success of Deal or No Deal, introduced a year ago this week, has spawned a wave of followers not seen since the heady days of Regis Philbin's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire six years ago.

The risk is that networks could again make the Millionaire mistake: relying too heavily on a format that history has shown can burn out with none of the billion-dollar paydays a CSI or Law & Order can provide through years of syndicated reruns.

• Tonight (9 ET/PT), NBC unveils Identity, a modern-day spin on What's My Line? that will air this week as a five-night event — the same way NBC kicked off Deal, which continues to air twice a week. NBC also has quiz show 1 vs. 100 on Fridays.

• ABC, which canceled William Shatner's Show Me the Money late last week, is readying two more games: Set for Life, in which Jimmy Kimmel promises monthly payouts that can stretch for 40 years, and Wanna Bet, based on a hit German format. Premiere dates haven't been set.

• CBS, home of daytime staple The Price Is Right, is developing several for prime time, including a remake of Name That Tune and a quiz show pitting child geniuses against average adults.

• Fox confirmed plans last week for Are You Smarter Than a Fifth-Grader? from Survivor producer Mark Burnett, which lets adults turn to 11-year-olds as lifelines to answer questions. The show is expected by spring.

What's the audience appeal?

"There's something comforting and pleasurable about watching people win money," says Kimmel, the late-night talker who got his TV start hosting Win Ben Stein's Money on Comedy Central.

Not a big gamble

But it's not so pleasurable to viewers as it is to ratings-starved networks facing escalating costs for other "reality" shows, many of which are no longer cheaper alternatives to sitcoms and dramas. New spins on Survivor require a risky commitment to film an entire season before a single episode has aired.

Not so for game shows: With modest upfront costs, primarily involving construction of a set, networks can order as few as five episodes at a time, with minimal risk.

Two or three can be filmed in a single day and rushed on the air in a few weeks. There are no pesky Friends or Housewives to demand steep pay increases if the show becomes a hit. Networks earn profits from product plugs and text-messaging. And best of all, they're a channel surfer's dream: Game shows appeal to a broad family audience that can instantly grasp the rules, join them midway through or leave when a contestant takes home a parting gift.

"They've got a lot going in their favor," says Identity executive producer Ben Silverman.

Take an economics lesson from NBC, which is the midst of an $750 million cost-cutting drive. Deal now costs about $1 million an episode, a bit more than newer game shows but substantially less than the $2.6 million production cost for a typical first-year drama. Even modestly budgeted Friday Night Lights —shot in Texas with no big-name stars — costs twice as much to film but has less than half the audience.

Programmers are desperate to fill up to 22 hours of prime time, with fewer viable comedies and serialized dramas such as Lost and ER that don't perform well in repeats. And since most new series fail, game shows are far less risky than other shows, though a hit drama can eventually earn far more from sales overseas, in syndication and on DVDs.

As part of its cost-cutting move, NBC announced plans to mostly steer clear of expensive sitcoms and dramas in the 8 ET/PT hour, and ABC has lately adopted a similar strategy on five of seven nights.

"The proportion is shifting," says Marc Graboff, West Coast president of NBC Universal Television group. "Repeats aren't doing well, and we need to pepper our schedule with more programming that's original. We need to tweak the balance and spread our costs out to do more original programming."

So it's not surprising that NBC — and its rivals — have their eyes on the game-show prize. The genre, out of prime-time favor for several years until Deal hit, is a staple dating back to the earliest days of television, when shows such as Truth or Consequences and Beat the Clock migrated from radio.

"There's a bit of a herd mentality, that 'maybe we can capture that magic, too,' " says David Goldberg, president of Endemol USA, the company behind Deal, 1 vs. 100, Set for Life and Show Me the Money. But more than that, "it's low-cost, it's flexible, and in success it can do just as well as any genre on television."

Identity, hosted by magician Penn Jillette, asks players to match 12 people with their occupations, ranging from "sushi chef" to "created Spider-Man," in search of a $500,000 prize. Jillette says viewers can relate: "Every shopping mall you go to, every street you walk down, you look at people and say, 'What's their story?' "

But network executives say game-show producers, recognizing the favorable economics, are pitching new shows at a feverish pace.

Wide appeal in prime time

As American Idol has proved year after year, "People are more involved in wanting to participate than ever before, whether they're shouting at the TV or texting in," says Rich Cronin, president of GSN (formerly Game Show Network). "So the time is right for game shows to come back."

As with Millionaire's imitators, none of Deal's challengers has matched its success: Show Me the Money is gone, and Fox's The Rich List was DOA last month, canceled after a single episode. Yet the low risk makes them tempting just the same. And advertisers applaud them, even as game shows earn lower ad rates than comedies and dramas with similar audiences.

"As 80% of homes in America have only one television on in prime time each night, it makes sense to have programming that appeals to all family audiences," says Initiative Media buying chief Tim Spengler. "Game shows, by and large, do this rather well."

Many of the newer shows don't tax brain power, with kid-friendly trivia questions or games of chance. On Set for Life, "you don't have to be smart; you just have to be lucky or ballsy," Kimmel says.

Deal requires no knowledge or skill: Players choose models clutching numbered briefcases, deciding whether to keep their cash or gamble on what's inside.

Still, the inherent drama is enough to keep viewers hooked. Since premiering as a regular series in late February, Deal's Monday edition has become the network's most popular entertainment series, averaging 16.1 million viewers and eclipsing ER and Heroes, this season's biggest new hit.

"Nobody is more surprised than I am," says host Howie Mandel, an actor, stand-up comedian and onetime talk show host who resisted early attempts to enlist him. "I thought it would put a nail in the coffin of whatever my career was a year ago."

And now? "I've become part of the vernacular," he says. "I have 4-year-olds walking up to me, and 84-year-olds. It's dramatic, it's intense, there's comedy: It's everything all wrapped up in this very simple veil of a game."

NBC plans to air about 60 new episodes this season, nearly three times as many as a hit drama can produce.

'Very short shelf life'

Lingering in the background, though, is the danger of relying too heavily on the genre. ABC learned the lesson the hard way with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, which raced to the top of the ratings in 1999 only to burn out two years later, when the network aired it up to five times a week to patch its otherwise faltering schedule. (The show continues to air in syndication.)

That's why producer Endemol agreed to a lower price hike when Deal took off, in exchange for NBC's promise to air it less often.

"There are exceptions to every rule —Survivor and American Idol have long-term value — but generally, reality shows are phenomena that have a very short shelf life," Graboff says. "Scripted shows like Law & Order can go on for years and years. … The payoff is greater but the bet is bigger."

And ABC Entertainment chief Steve McPherson says networks can't cheapskate their way to success. "In your portfolio, there are only a certain number of reality shows that can work; you have to have a mix," he says.

"We all have $1 billion-plus budgets of programming for the entire year, and all the pieces in the puzzle have to fit. But the finances are completely driven by ratings, and the ratings are completely driven by creative," McPherson says. "To say we're going to do cheaper shows and that will make our business better makes no sense."

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-12-17-gameshows_x.htm

dad1153

12-17-06, 11:59 PM

fredfa

12-18-06, 12:01 AM

The Business of TV
THE DRAMA VS. THE GAME SHOW
A look at the contrasting economics, per episode:
USA Today

Example: Deal or No Deal
Produced by: Endemol USA.
NBC's license fee of $1million covers the $700,000 production cost and prizes.
Major expenses:
Prize money (average $125,000)
Talent fees (Howie Mandel, models), staff
Physical production
Ad fee per 30-second spot: $165,000
Additional revenue: Endemol: Text-messaging (split with NBC); foreign sales. NBC: Online advertising.
Average viewers: 16.1 million*
Cost: $1 million

Example: Heroes
Produced by: NBC Studios. NBC network pays license fee of $1.3 million per episode; NBC Studios pays remaining production cost.
Major expenses:
Actors
Writers
Physical production
Special effects
Ad fee per 30-second spot: $260,000
Additional revenue: DVDs, foreign sales, cable and broadcast syndication.
Average viewers: 15.1 million
Cost: $2.7 million

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-12-17-gameshows_x.htm

dad1153

12-18-06, 12:14 AM

TV Notebook
PBS Pre-Streams First Full Episode
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable December 17, 2006

PBS is trying a little science experiment.

The noncom programming service will announce Monday that it will, for the first time, stream a show online before it is available on-air. The move comes as the network explores program delivery on multiple platforms and looks to boost its online presence.

PBS will stream pilots/specials for three potential new science series at PBS.org Jan. 1, then air them on member stations starting Jan. 3 and ask Web surfers and viewers to weigh in online with their favorite.

Although the the effort is being dubbed in-house as "PBS Science Idol," the online vote will not actually be determinative. PBS will take the surfers’ top vote getter into account along with other reseach in determining the winner, which will get a 10-episode slot in fall 2007 on member stations.

"Ultimately, we are going to make the call," said Wilson, who said he hopes one emerges as a slam dunk winner. "We have a programming team and this is what we do for a living. But we are looking forward to having multiple feedback loops."

The three pilots are Wired Science, a co-production of KCET Los Angeles and Wired Magazine; Science Investigators, a co-production of WGBH Boston and Lion TV; and 22nd Century, from Tower Productions and presenting station Twin Cities Public Television.

Wired Science is from executive producer Tod Mesirow (MythBusters and Monster Garage), and wil translate the magazine into a "stylish and irreverent" take on the latest discoveries and innovations.

Science Investigators is from, among others, Tony Tackaberry (History Detectives), and features four young hosts providing solutions to a series of scientific mysteries like what secrets a Neanderthal’s DNA could unlock, can bacteria power an iPod, are disappearing frogs something to worry about, and why the knuckleball does whatever it is that knuckleballs do.

22nd Century will look at the shape of scientific things to come, posing such questions as: Will lifespans increase to 250 years, will machines get so small they can do a Fantastic Voyage like repair of the human body, and the Borg-like premise of brains one day being linked much as computers on the Web are today. Taking viewers on the tour of tomorrowland will be an actor playing Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World, which was about the possible dehumanizing effects of technolgoy; an "everyday viewer" character, and a resident of the future who paints a rosy picture of the possibilities.

Each will get a free screening on PBS.org as well as a free podcast on Apple iTunes. Each of the three will also air on three succeeding Wednesdays on PBS at 8 p.m., starting Jan. 3 with accompanying promos asking viewers to vote online for their favorite.

Could this be the vanguard of a development strategy of pre-streaming pilots? Perhaps. "This is a first," says John Wilson, senior VP and chief TV programming executive for PBS, "we’ll see if there is a second."

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6400457.html?display=Breaking+News

dad1153

12-18-06, 12:27 AM

WARNING: this review of the premiere of NBC's new gameshow 'Identity' contains spoilers about tonight's show. Do not read if you don't want the surprises revealed
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Critic's Notebook
NBC’s ‘Identity’ a mistaken attempt at entertainment
By Mark A. Perigard, Boston Herald December 18, 2006

“IDENTITY” Series premiere tonight at 9 on WHDH (Ch. 7). [u]Grade: F

Tired of torturing his silent partner Teller, comedian and illusionist Penn Jillette turns his attention to the rest of America.

The Greenfield native hosts NBC’s new prime-time game show “Identity” (tonight at 9 on WHDH, Ch. 7), perhaps the most creatively deficient show to hit the airwaves this season.

In “Identity,” contestants must match a trait with one of a dozen people based on appearance alone.

If it sounds terrible, it’s worse viewing. The producers could have added a smidge of suspense by demonstrating how first impressions can be deceptive.

That would require an ounce of thought, more than NBC is willing to pay for.

In the premiere - the cash-conscious network is stripping the show every night this week - Illinois store manager Nicci Guzik first tries to find the sushi chef among the panel of 12. Hmm. There’s one Asian onstage. Who, oh, who could be the chef?

Among the other traits up for grabs: opera singer, bouncer, alligator wrestler, break dancer and the youngest. The latter is dressed as if she were a backup dancer in Britney Spears’ 1998 video “Baby One More Time.”

The premiere panel includes two celebrities - the world’s fastest man, athlete Maurice Greene, and Stan Lee, creator of Marvel Comics’ Spider-Man - whom Guzik does not recognize.

Correct answers start at $1,000 and work up to a $500,000 payday. Short of just handing contestants the answers, NBC gives the contestants a number of aids. They are allowed one mistake. They can consult a panel of experts once. They can also utilize something called “tri-identity,” in which the field of possible panelists is narrowed to three. It’s overly complicated for something that plays out as simple as a game of tag between two people.

NBC understands viewers enjoy watching emotional ditzes win big money. Even if the network handed out the top prize every episode, the costs would still be far less than what it takes to put on a drama in the same time slot.

Why is Jillette here? If it weren’t for that trademark ponytail, you’d swear somebody must be impersonating the snarky co-host of Showtime’s “Penn & Teller: Bull(expletive).”

At the end of the show, Jillette welcomes contestant Herb Irvine, a private investigator from Boston. Irvine doesn’t have a chance to do more than say hello, so you’ll have to tune in tomorrow to learn how he fares. But when it comes to “Identity,” just forget it.

http://theedge.bostonherald.com/tvNews/view.bg?articleid=172541

fredfa

12-18-06, 12:39 AM

The Business of TV
Chernin Steps In to Plot MyNet Fix
News Corp. CEO, Top Execs Might Trim Soaps on Some Nights:
By Chris Pursell and James Hibberd Television Week December 18, 2006

News Corp. President and CEO Peter Chernin drove the discussions in recent weeks that have resulted in an about-face in the programming strategy behind the company's MyNetworkTV, multiple sources close to the situation said.

Faced with disappointing prime-time ratings that in some markets are lower than affiliated stations' daytime performances, MyNetworkTV executives are plotting changes that could cut the network's current all-telenovela programming from six nights a week down to as few as two, sources said.

Mr. Chernin was involved in the creation and launch of MyNetworkTV, but until about six weeks ago he was relatively hands-off.

Station executives who requested anonymity for this report said they welcome Mr. Chernin's involvement in attempts to right the ship.

The most popular option to have emerged from recent brainstorming among executives of the network has the 4-month-old MyNetwork adding a variety of content on non-telenovela nights that could include movies, unscripted series and sports, sources indicated.

One series being considered for a prime-time slot is "My Games Fever," a live game show formatted from a hit British series that was originally slated for daytime via syndication. The show's appeal will be evaluated during a daytime test run on 10 Fox-owned stations that began earlier this month.

A scenario being considered comprises telenovelas on Tuesday and Thursday, a movie night on Wednesday, a sports event on Mondays or Saturdays and a talk show/variety hour paired with a game show on Fridays.

Any changes to the lineup are not likely to happen earlier than next summer, but the current planning marks a retreat from a format that News Corp.'s Fox fielded in September in response to the formation of The CW earlier in the year. Trying new programming signals that Fox isn't ready to give up on the network, and it may tamp down speculation that the company might pull the plug on MyNetworkTV in the next year if its ratings don't improve.

Executives of the network who have been involved in the recent rejiggering meetings include Mr. Chernin, Twentieth Television President and Chief Operating Officer Bob Cook, Fox Television Stations CEO Jack Abernethy and Fox Television Stations Chairman Roger Ailes. They have been discussing, both internally and with stations, "more than a few options" designed to kick-start the channel, several insiders said.

A Big Bet

Acquiring or producing alternative MyNetworkTV programming might cost more than telenovelas, which are produced on a shoestring budget. The bet would be that the new shows will draw a broader, bigger audience and generate higher advertising revenue, offsetting the programming investment.

Among the programming options MyNetwork is considering is an attempt to revisit a deal with the Ultimate Fighting Championship organization, insiders said. The martial arts league currently televises fights on pay-per-view and Viacom's Spike TV network and has a weekly syndicated series planned with Trifecta Entertainment for a fall 2007 rollout.

UFC was in discussions with MyNetwork executives before the network opted to go with prime-time soaps six nights a week, and Fox station executives have expressed interest in the league in light of its Trifecta deal, sources said.

Distributor Twentieth Television has sought talent for unscripted projects in recent months that include game show series, as well as a variety format, that could be contenders for MyNetwork rather than syndication.

The distributor is looking at potential game shows in "Catch Phrase" and "Connections" from Granada as well as "Temptations" from Fremantle for other dayparts, but could move the projects to prime time, sources said.

Any programming upheaval at MyNetwork is likely to start after cycle two of the network's prime-time soaps. "Wicked Wicked Games" and "Watch Over Me" end their runs next spring. That's when "Saints and Sinners," part of the network's planned third batch of telenovelas, has been scheduled to begin.

A decision to cut back on telenovela nights could have several ramifications for the TV industry. Until now, MyNetwork's content has been distributed by fellow News Corp. property Twentieth Television. Mixing up MyNetwork's programming could open time on the network's schedule to other production companies and studios looking to sell prime-time content.

Scaling back on the format will also take a step toward returning prime time to a field similar to the days before The WB and UPN merged.

More Competitive

Currently, MyNetwork has set itself apart with its unique telenovela programming, which it adapted to English from wildly popular Spanish-language soap operas. Adding a variety of unscripted fare would put the fifth- and sixth-ranked networks into a more competitive relationship.

MyNetworkTV was launched in 180 days as a counterstrike to the creation of The CW, but has struggled to find audiences for its prime-time telenovela format.

Since its launch Sept. 5, the shows have averaged a 0.7 household rating, according to Nielsen Media Research. That's less than a third of what stations pulled in the time periods last year with UPN and The WB.

"MyNet was born out of last-minute desperation, and it's a miracle they got on the air as quickly as they did," said Tim Brooks, Lifetime's executive VP of research. "MyNet is going to have to evolve to survive. The model of telenovelas has shown they're not such an easy translation. It's programming from the finance department rather than programming from creative vision."

MyNetwork executives have urged stations and the media to be patient with the format, saying they were focus-group testing the content and promised the second cycle of telenovelas would show a marked improvement.

Two weeks ago, the second cycle debuted to ratings that didn't improve markedly on the first go-around.

A spokeswoman for MyNetworkTV declined to comment for this report, noting only that "We have lots of meetings."

Syndicators had been waiting for a decision on MyNetwork's future. The mini-network currently holds valuable real estate around the country, including extremely rare prime-time slots in New York and Los Angeles that distributors were looking to target if MyNetwork went away. Executives have privately acknowledged that a number of series in development would move forward only if those time slots were made available.

http://www.tvweek.com/article.cms?articleId=31158

dad1153

12-18-06, 12:42 AM

Remember this story (which I condensed for this re-posting) that I posted on this thead a few days ago?

The (International) Business of TV
Mexico’s Newest TV Drama Is a Bid to Block a Third Broadcaster
By Elisabeth Malkin, The New York Times December 6, 2006

Night after night for almost two weeks, Mexican television news has shown exposés on how poor people suffer from the high cost of medicines. It may be merely a coincidence that Mexico’s two competing television companies, Televisa and TV Azteca, have each chosen to focus on this particular social problem at the same time.

Their separate reporting comes to exactly the same conclusion. The culprits who drive the prices so high are two pharmaceutical distributors who together control 70 percent of the market. And both news teams single out the same one for particular opprobrium: Grupo Casa Saba, a $2 billion company controlled by the reclusive octogenarian billionaire Isaac Saba Raffoul.

What neither Televisa nor TV Azteca mentions is that Mr. Saba has his eye on another business: television.

Mr. Saba is the Mexican partner of Telemundo, the NBC Universal unit that is the No. 2 Spanish-language television broadcaster in the United States. In September, Telemundo and another company Mr. Saba owns, Grupo Xtra, formally requested a license for a broadcast television network.

The decision over whether to authorize a new network, which would be awarded by public auction, could prove to be the new government’s first big test when it comes to taking on powerful business interests. Televisa and TV Azteca control almost the entire broadcast television industry in Mexico, although Televisa is much larger, with about 75 percent of the advertising market. Last April, they won passage of a law that critics say gives them free space on the broadcast spectrum.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/06/business/worldbusiness/06tele.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin

Well, guess what just happened? :rolleyes:

The (International) Business of TV
Mexico not yet ready for 3rd national net
NBC Telemundo won't be allowed to operate in country
By Michael O'Boyle, Variety December 17, 2006

Mexico's new administration on Friday dashed the hopes of NBC Telemundo that the government would license a third national network any time soon.

Mexico's newly appointed communications and transport minister, Luis Tellez, said the administration was committed only to examining the possibility of new TV and radio stations in certain citi