Media Week - April 19, 1999

Back in the Saddle Again

'Dr. Quinn' team buries the hatchet with CBS for May sweeps film

By Alan Frutkin

Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman may be gone from series television,but she's certainly not forgotten. And CBS, which cancelled the once popular drama last spring, is banking on that familiarity in reuniting the series' original cast for a two-hour movie during the May sweeps.

The telefilm, titled simply Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman: The Movie, will air on Saturday, May 22. The project marks both the return of an old Saturday-night staple for CBS and a mending of fences between the network and the show's creative team who publicly expressed their anger following its sudden demise.

"There were a lot of hurt feelings with the way the series ended-you just don't go flippantly cancelling a show like this without a goodbye season," say Beth Sullivan, executive producer of both the series and the movie. "But we put those issues aside, and got to the task of making this film."

Sullivan says that just after New Year's, the network contacted her about producing a Dr. Quinn movie. "The call came and they said, 'We want to heal the wound,' "Sullivan recalls.

The movie follows pioneer physician Mike Quinn (Jane Seymour) and her husband, Byron Sully (Joe Lando) through the wilds of 1860s Mexico as they search for their kidnapped daughter, Katie.

Seymour would like bygones to be bygones as well. "I never had a personal war or vendetta with CBS," she says. "I realized it wasn't me personally they were cancelling."

In fact, at the time that CBS announced its decision to end the series last spring, Seymour was in production on al movie for the network, A Marriage of Convenience. The romantic drama, co-starring James Brolin, became one of CBS' highest-rated TV films ever when it aired last fall.

"Jane Seymour speaks directly to our core audience-women 25-54 and 18-49," says Sunta Izzicupo, CBS senior vp for television and miniseries. "You can put her in many different concepts and they'll work."

Yet after five years, Seymour's Dr. Quinn did not work for the network anymore as a series. The show premiered in January 1993 from CBS Productions and quickly found an audience with family viewers on Saturday evenings. But after Dr. Mike and Sully married during the third season, ratings dropped from an average 22 share to an 18. Viewership continued to decline, and as the ax hovered over Quinn last season, reports suggested that the series was no longer making money. "I believe it was still profitable," producer Sullivan says, noting that the show remains popular overseas, that it was sold into domestic syndication after its third season, and that it began airing daily last year on PaxTV, in what amounted to a second syndication sale.

CBS exhibited its renewed faith in the good doctor by spending "above the average" of $3 million for next month's telefilm, Izzicupo says. Part family drama, part action/adventure, the movie targets not only Dr. Quinn's core audience but also will be promoted to viewers who avoided the series in droves-young males. "I think that's what doing this type of story was about," Izzicupo says. The movie "has a rugged look to it, like a big old Western. There are male/female aspects to it."

The story line and marketing strategy does not sit particularly well with Sullivan, who chose not to write the teleplay. "If I had to (create) what movie should come back to viewers after a year of rancor and weirdness, this would not be the one," the producer says. "But I'm sure fans will enjoy it."

If they do, CBS may sign on for a series of Dr. Quinn movies, Izzicupo says. That's fine by Seymour. "This is a special piece of programming," the star says of Quinn. "If I'm asked to make it from time to time, I'll find a say."