- News Archive March 1999 -
UPN - ADVERTISING ANYTIME IN YOUR FAVORITE SHOW - Mar 31
By David Bauder
AP Television Writer
Technology Allows TV Ad Placement
NEW YORK (AP) -- A Coca-Cola can and a Wells Fargo billboard in the background on a recent episode of UPN's Seven Days was the first prime-time test of technology that allows advertisers to have products digitally added to a scene.
The placements were done during an episode two weeks ago to gauge viewer reaction. The response is still being evaluated, UPN spokesman Paul McGuire said Tuesday.
The technology has been used in sports, to add commercial billboards in the background of baseball games. But the practice could blur beyond recognition the line between entertainment and advertising.
Product placement is popular in movies but much less so on television, where there are plenty of opportunities to run full-fledged ads.
Yet it's starting to get harder to tell when the ads end and the show begins.
Networks sprinkle stars from their prime-time shows in the audience at sporting events for cameras to spot during big games. ABC last month promoted a show with a "crawl" along the bottom of the screen, treatment usually reserved for news bulletins.
"There is certainly a sense that the bleeding of the commercials into the programs is getting more extreme than it ever has been," said Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University.
For many years, networks took pains to avoid product placement. The results often looked awkward: Actors would drink from a beer bottle with a generic label instead of a Budweiser.
Showing actual products may better reflect real life, but the decision on whether to use them should rest with the people making the shows, not with advertisers, Thompson said.
It's not clear whether Christopher Crowe, creator and executive producer of Seven Days, had a choice. He didn't return calls for comment. He works for Paramount, which owns both the series and the network.
Paramount spokeswoman Trisha Cardoso noted that the technology has other uses beyond advertising. Producers may be able to insert special effects or background locations at relatively low cost, she said.
The new technology isn't likely to replace regular commercials, some experts said.
"I don't see it taking off like a rocket," said Ave Butensky, president of the Television Bureau of Advertising.
People see so many commercial messages in real life -- on clothing, in shop windows, even in school -- that product placement on TV shows may be too subtle, Thompson said.
'For the most part this stuff becomes absolutely invisible to us in real life," he said. "I imagine it would become invisible to us in imaginary life just as quickly."
UPN STILL PINS HOPES ON VOYAGER - Mar 30
From Kansas City
Star
By Neal Justin
Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune
Despite yellow alerts, UPN wants Voyager to keep on trekkin'
A space warrior's duty is never done. After spawning three spinoff series, nine feature films and enough rabid Trekkies to startle a Vulcan, the Star Trek franchise won't be docking anytime soon.
UPN's Star Trek: Voyager is likely to return next season. Star Trek: Insurrection, the latest big-budget movie, has cleared $70 million at the box office in the United States. Restored versions of the original TV series have more than doubled viewership on the Sci-Fi Channel. And top executives at UPN have strongly suggested that after Voyager ends its run, series creator Rick Berman, who also produced Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, will be ready to launch again.
"If Rick Berman said Voyager was the last one, I wouldn't believe him for a million dollars," said Jeri Ryan, who plays Seven of Nine on Voyager. "It's an absolute cash cow."
And for those who thought Trekkies were an extinct species, think again.
"There are no fans like Star Trek fans," Ryan said. "They adore anyone remotely related to anyone involved in any aspect. You could fall over your own feet and they'd give you a standing ovation."
Need proof? Sci-fi lovers held a convention in the Twin Cities in February called Marscon '99. Their guest speaker: Carl David, whose claim to fame is being a stand-in for Brent Spiner's character Data. The event drew 475 people, significantly more than organizers expected.
Still, some believe the franchise should consider a shore leave. Marscon organizer Brinn Willis suggests at least a one-year break before the next series. She's also concerned that Star Trek conventions aren't drawing as many young people as they used to. Most Marscon visitors were in their late 20s or early 30s, she estimated. Ten years ago the average age would have been much lower.
Young adults have embraced newer shows such as The X-Files and Xena. Teen-agers and kids seem more naturally drawn to the Star Wars franchise.
Majel Barret Roddenberry, widow of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, says she thinks the hiatus should last a decade.
"The public may be a little tired of Star Trek, " she told the Seattle Times late last year. "They'll watch the reruns, but as far as anything new is concerned, the idea is to give it a rest."
Voyager has lost more than half of the audience it had during its first season (1994-95). Deep Space Nine suffered a similar erosion before going off the air last year. Insurrection was the least successful of the movies since William Shatner directed the 1989 flop Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.
But UPN executives say not to worry.
"Next season we could be the only prime-time sci-fi show on the air," said Tom Nunan, president of UPN Entertainment. "I think there will be a renaissance next year."
MOESHA RENEWED - Mar 29
From UltimateTV
UPN's Moesha, starring Grammy Award-winning singer/actress Brandy Norwood, has been renewed for the 1999-2000 season. Moesha, which was recently honored by the museum of Television and Radio during the William S. Paley festival, ranks as the network's highest rated program this season among Women 18-34 and Teens.
"Moesha is an original and exceptional look at an African American family built around superstar Brandy," said Tom Nunan, President, Entertainment, UPN. "It's one of our highest-rated programs and deserves an early and enthusiastic pickup for next season."
Moesha airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on UPN.
(Thanks Jean)
UPN LOOKS TO FALL - Mar 23
By Michael Freeman
Mediaweek
Network TV: UPN to Rise This Fall
Since its inception, UPN has struggled each season to find the right identity to lure more viewers. This fall brings another shift in the 4-year-old network's strategy, toward more male-oriented, younger-skewing, programming. Call it the anti-WB.
UPN execs last week touted a 20 percent gain in the 18-34 demographic during the February sweeps (compared to November 1998) and claimed it was the biggest gain of any network. They see that recent swing as a good omen. "Our message is that we are going to be a little bit younger and a little bit wiser," said new UPN COO Adam Ware.
Tom Nunan, UPN president of entertainment, said the audience of the network's foundation series, Star Trek: Voyager, best illustrates the network's target this fall. The Paramount series "substantiates the conventional wisdom that if you get young male adult viewers, the women will come along." Other than Star Trek, though, UPN has only a handful of modestly rated building blocks -- such as Moesha, Dilbert and Seven Days -- to serve as potential lead-in springboards for new series.
Several big-name drama/action producers are developing pilots for UPN: Lethal Weapon producer Joel Silver is creating a drama called The Strip; Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana (producers of NBC's Homicide) are producing cop drama Flesh & Blood; and Barry Sonnenfeld (Get Shorty and Men in Black) is executive producer of Secret Agent Man.
Nunan is banking on Dilbert to anchor Monday night at 8 p.m., followed by midseason addition Home Movies, which starts in the 8:30 slot April 26. He also pointed to such sitcom projects as Foursome, from Jon Favreau (star and producer of the film Swingers); Meg Ryan's animated comedy, Quints; and the soap-opera spoof Student Affairs as potential entries to hammock between Dilbert and Home Movies.
UPN plans to grow its "ethnic" comedy lineup but may move the current Tuesday lineup to Thursdays or Fridays next season. Already, Nunan is positioning the 8 p.m. Moesha anchor as lead-in to spinoff Mo'Nique, and its 9 p.m. Malcolm & Eddie staple as a lead-in to spinoff Daddio (starring rapper Coolio). Also in the wings is sitcom Grown Ups and hip-hop comedy Brothers Out Loud. To make room for the new lineups, Tuesday-night sitcom Clueless may be cancelled this season. The remake of The Love Boat on Fridays could also end up in permanent dry dock.
Ad sales will be handled differently this year under Mandelker's watch. He said UPN will hold back a "significant amount" of inventory from the upfront (see related story) to concentrate on scatter sales from fourth-quarter 1999 on. "What we really have to do is position ourselves like a mutual fund, where we prove our performance during the course of the season and strategically price ourselves each quarter," said Mandelker.
One New York buyer said by holding back, UPN, or any network, is "taking a risk in that the scatter market sometimes goes soft the following year." But Tim Spengler, senior vp/national broadcast for Western Initiative Media, believes that UPN's scatter strategy "makes sense, given that they have a few shows with some traction that could help their new projects get established" next season.
On the distribution front, Ware said, UPN has nine new primary affiliate deals "pending" for next season, but he declined to identify those stations. Ware noted that several other primary affiliates are scheduled to come online in the 1999-2000 season, including WWHO-TV in Columbus, Ohio; WAFV-TV in Greenville, S.C.; WLWC-TV in Providence, R.I.; KSAS-TV in Wichita, Kan.; WHOI-TV in Peoria, Ill.; and WHPN-TV in Madison, Wis., which is owned by former UPN chairman Lucie Salhany and executive vp Len Grossi. Currently, UPN reaches 84 percent of the country; Ware wouldn't say how much additional coverage the new affils would bring.
(Thanks Barbara)
RATINGS - CAN YOU TRUST THE NUMBERS? - Mar 24
From the LA Times
Who Says Numbers Don't Lie? (Hollywood)
HOLLYWOOD Note: No math skills are necessary for enjoying the following. Honest.
Although the television industry seemingly finds some new award to hand out nearly every week celebrating artistic merit or lauding one of its own as a humanitarian, let's face it: TV ultimately boils down to raw numbers.
Programs (and the careers tied to them) rise and fall based on ratings. Producers turn out 13 episodes of a series, then wait anxiously to see if "the numbers" justify the network's ordering nine more. If a series runs long enough, it eventually hits the magic 100 installments needed to go into syndication, which is when the numbers following the dollar signs get really, really BIG. This is good news not only for producers and TV executives but also for real estate agents, luxury car dealerships and other sellers of ostentatious status symbols.
Heightened emphasis on audience demographics not just how many people are watching but who they are has only added to dizzying amount of data swirling through the media. Number crunchers at the major networks work overtime splicing and dicing ratings a dozen ways from viewers age 18 through 49 to women 25 through 54 to nearsighted, high- income teen-agers of European descent with one leg shorter than the other until everyone can claim victory somewhere.
You can have a lot of fun playing around with these numbers, largely because many of them, at first glance, make so little sense. ABC, for example, averaged 13.2 million viewers in prime time during the recently concluded February sweeps. Determined to improve on that performance, the network's parent, Disney, subsequently placed ABC under the stewardship of Steve Bornstein, president of the Disney-owned cable network ESPN, which during that same sweeps period brought in 874,000 viewers.
In similar fashion, higher-ups at Fox decided the network needed new leadership back in November, when Fox recorded 12 million viewers. Its choice? Doug Herzog, the former head of Comedy Central, which delivered fewer than 500,000 viewers the same month. And NBC last week named Garth Ancier its new programming chief, even though NBC regularly draws an audience nearly three times as big as the audience of Ancier's last place of employment, the WB network.
This is not to sell cable or the WB short. The major networks have clearly seen their share of audience slide since their heyday in the early 1970s, when the "Big Three" enjoyed a near-monopoly and commanded more than 90 percent of the available viewing audience.
Today, with Fox included, the "Big Four's" share has sunk to 56 percent of prime-time viewing, a drop attributable in large part to competition from cable and upstart networks. These options have nibbled away at the big guys, with most viewers receiving nearly four dozen channels thanks to the cable wires or satellite dishes that serve roughly three-quarters of U.S. homes.
Unfortunately, these often-cited statistics ignore a simple fact: People don't watch "cable." They watch programs. And when it comes to the gee-whiz really BIG numbers television generates, the major networks continue to possess what amounts to a monopoly, while cable's highlights are usually more collective think army ants swarming over an iguana than individual. Consider the following:
A whopping 84 million viewers sat through this year's Super Bowl. Ten months ago, more than 76 million watched (and, by most accounts, were singularly unimpressed by) the one-hour Seinfeld finale. Forty-nine million people tuned in for ABC's recent Monica Lewinsky interview, and 98 percent of them probably knew what "phone sex" is, meaning they are smarter than Barbara Walters.
Nielsen Media Research estimates 78 million people watched at least part of Sunday's Academy Awards telecast on ABC. If every one of those viewers actually bought a movie ticket at $4.70, the Motion Picture Association of America's estimate of the average ticket price in 1998, the return (about $367 million) would exceed the two top-grossing films released last year, Saving Private Ryan and Armageddon. The networks only recently began publicly noting this "we serve more people" equation, perhaps because so many television people not-so-secretly yearn to make their own perilous leaps to the big screen.
The audience that watched ABC on Sunday easily surpassed the combined audience viewing the 42 top national cable networks nightly during the February sweeps.
In another factoid from February, even UPN least-watched of the six broadcast networks and the butt of many a joke at well-trafficked Hollywood eateries surpassed the most popular cable channel, the USA network, whose top-rated program was wrestling.
NBC, the No. 1 network during February, averaged 14.6 million viewers in prime time, attracting more people than the total assembled by the top seven cable networks.
The aggregate prime-time audience for ESPN and ESPN2 during February totaled 1.26 million viewers. If ABC was viewed by that many people during a single half-hour, let alone an entire month, all its programming executives would be fired between the time Walt Disney Co. Chairman Michael Eisner saw the ratings and the crumpled paper they were printed on hit the floor.
ESPN agreed to pay $4.8 billion last year for rights to NFL football over eight seasons. ABC, CBS and Fox are all paying less, even though they draw bigger audiences with their telecasts than ESPN normally does with Sunday Night Football.
ESPN can afford to be more generous because the channel earns an enormous profit, in the last few years tallying several hundred million dollars annually, and ABC, CBS and Fox don't. This is because all those folks who aren't watching ESPN with much regularity still pay their cable companies for the privilege, and cable operators return cash to ESPN for each subscriber. Of the six broadcast network operations, only NBC will show a profit this year, meaning that programmers reaching far more people than ESPN are making way less money.
Is this a great country, or what? If all these numbers have left your head spinning, they can best be simplified by viewing them this way: It's been said there are lies, damn lies and statistics. In television, there are effective manipulators of statistics and people who are either looking for new jobs or soon will be.
(Thanks Barbara)
VIACOM SETS SIGHTS ON TOTAL OWNERSHIP OF SPELLING - Mar 22
From Reuters/Variety Online
By Martin Peers
Viacom's Spelling bound
NEW YORK (Variety) - Viacom Inc. (AMEX:VIA - news)'s $162 million offer, unveiled Friday, for the 20% of Spelling Entertainment it doesn't already own likely signals the end of Viacom's long-running attempt to sell the TV production and distribution company.
While full ownership could make a subsequent sale easier, Viacom left no doubt it plans to hold onto Spelling now by signaling its intent to integrate Spelling into Paramount.
Spelling's Worldvision distribution operations will be consolidated into Paramount Television Group's distribution business, while the back office functions of the two companies will also be merged, a Viacom spokesman said.
Aaron Spelling is expected to become chairman of Spelling Television, which will be housed at Paramount as a separate production banner. But layoffs are expected in areas that overlap with Paramount's existing units, particularly at Worldvision.
For now, however, a Viacom spokesman said it was too early in the process to speculate about staff cuts. Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone accentuated the complementary aspects of Spelling and Viacom.
"Having completed a strategic refocusing on its core television business, Spelling is a perfect fit with Viacom's entertainment businesses. ... By fully integrating Spelling into the Viacom family, with the efficiencies and economics of scale we can bring to bear, both Spelling's and Paramount's operations will be greatly enhanced," Redstone said in a statement.
Spelling stock, which in the past year has traded as low as $5.93, leaped as much as $2.81 to a high of $9.56 Friday on news of the offer before trading down to close at $9, up $2.25. Viacom, in turn, fell $2.62 to $85.18, a sign that investors are disappointed the entertainment conglomerate is giving up on its sale efforts, one analyst speculated.
While Spelling is best known to the public for its production business, responsible for such hits as Beverly Hills, 90210 and Melrose Place, the most profitable part of the company is believed to be the Worldvision distribution arm, which holds rights to more than 8,000 hours of programming domestically and 18,000 hours internationally.
Worldvision also distributes the red-hot syndicated show Judge Judy, from Spelling's Big Ticket production banner, also the home of the UPN sitcom Moesha.
Last year Spelling reported net profit from continuing operations of $8.9 million compared with a net loss of $12.3 million a year earlier. But these numbers are affected by production deficits, and cash flow (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) from the distribution side is believed to run as high as $80 million, industry executives estimate. Spelling declined comment.
With that in mind, industry executives said Viacom's offer appeared to be reasonably priced. At $9 a share, Viacom is valuing Spelling at $828 million.
That compares with the $1 billion-plus valuation Redstone wanted for Spelling when he put it on the market in 1995, one year after acquiring a majority stake in the company through the 1994 acquisition of Blockbuster Entertainment Group. At the time, Viacom said Spelling's operations were duplicative of Paramount's business.
But Redstone's price was too high for most potential bidders and in May 1996, he took the company off the market, saying no offer was received "that satisfactorily reflected Spelling's value and long-term growth potential."
In the past three years, rumors have periodically circulated that Redstone was again talking to potential buyers. Indeed, as recently as last fall Redstone told reporters he would sell Spelling for the right price.
Companies such as King World Prods. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer are believed to have looked at Spelling in the past few years but found Viacom's asking price too high.
In the past 18 months, Spelling has been drastically restructured, with Virgin Interactive Entertainment as well as the TeleUNO Latin American entertainment channel sold and its film division shuttered. Divestment of Virgin and the closure of the film division resulted in one-time charges of about $200 million.
The restructuring makes difficult a comparison between Spelling in its present state and the company that was put on the market, particularly as Viacom wanted to keep Virgin even if it sold Spelling. One executive who has looked at Spelling closely said the $828 million valuation is probably even higher than Redstone was asking, taking into account the various adjustments made to Spelling.
Paying a high price is not Redstone's style, but trying to buy out the minority shareholders at a low price would invite lawsuits, tying the deal up, observers said.
A spokesman for Viacom acknowledged that the company had changed its mind about Spelling, noting that the proposed integration would yield cost savings of an unidentified size.
Spelling's board met Friday afternoon, and the company announced later that its two independent directors, attorney John Muething and former Creative Artists Agency executive Bill Haber, would review the offer with assistance from legal and financial advisers.
(Thanks Angie)
MORE ON UPN'S STRUGGLES - Mar 22
From Nando Times
By Neal Justin
UPN struggles to stay afloat
Bring on the Borgs. Tribbles? No trouble. And Khan's a cakewalk compared with the toughest mission in the galaxy: Piloting the UPN enterprise out of its black hole.
When the United Paramount Network and the WB Network blasted off almost simultaneously about four years ago, almost everyone agreed that only one would survive. UPN looked like the sturdier ship. Its Star Trek: Voyager seemed a worthy member of the Trek franchise and its sitcoms, featuring prominent black casts, hit a chord with urban audiences.
But UPN veered off course. At the start of this season, its audience was only half the size of WB's. And as of November, its prime-time viewership was down about 40 percent from the year before. WB, on the other hand, gained 13 percent. And while UPN lost half of its teen and young adult audience, WB's shot up 20 percent.
Robert Urich, star of UPN's The Love Boat: The Next Wave, has seen more than his share of bad shows. Even he admitted that the network's ratings are a "little bit of a bruise to the ego."
Love Boat and UPN's newest offering, the cornballish sitcom Family Rules, aren't the kind of shallow shows expected when UPN made its debut in 1994. But two years ago, UPN president Dean Valentine steered the network away from its urban hip sitcoms, aiming at a modern version of Pleasantville.
While Warner Bros., like Fox before it, made its mark with youth-oriented series (Dawson's Creek) and edgy programming (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Valentine disdained the notion of niche audiences. He was convinced that a network could flourish by developing progressive shows that were wholesome and politically correct enough to attract the whole family. But before proving his theory, he forgot to read over the scripts.
Sitcoms such as Goode Behavior and Head Over Heels were gone before the laugh track died down. Action dramas such as Nowhere Man and Deadly Games had more in common with The Six Million Dollar Man than they did with The X-Files.
Only Moesha seemed to typify the UPN formula without making viewers want to gag. But while the show remains on the air - and has a huge star in Brandy Norwood - it's merely a blip in the ratings, with nowhere near the market appeal of WB's teen sensation Felicity.
WB president Jamie Kellner has estimated that his competitor will lose $300 million this season, a number that Valentine says is "way, way wrong." Insiders believe it's closer to $200 million.
UPN's latest plan is to appeal to younger viewers, particularly males.
"We need to be a little bit more scrappy and outrageous with our programming," said Tom Nunan, president of UPN Entertainment. "We need to make more noise."
Actually, UPN's first attempt made a mighty thud. Last fall's The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer, a sitcom about a black valet to Abraham Lincoln, had enough politically incorrect jokes to start a civil war - just the kind of controversy that had earlier drawn viewers to Married ... with Children and NYPD Blue. But UPN was so far off viewers' radar, and the initial reviews were so awful, hardly anyone bothered to give Diary a peek. It was canceled after three weeks.
Dilbert has worked much better. Since its premiere in January, the Monday-night animated series, based on the popular comic strip, has become the highest-rated comedy ever on WB or UPN in key demographics. (Dilbert ranked 98th among prime-time shows last week in the national Nielsens. If UPN's enthusiasm seems misplaced, note that its top-rated show, Star Trek: Voyager, was 89th.)
UPN is so high on the series that TV critics at January's press tour in Los Angeles half expected Dogbert to pop out of a cake and challenge WB's mascot, J. Michigan Frog, to a Celebrity Deathmatch.
"We're putting an enormous amount of resources behind" the show, Nunan told the critics. "We're picking and choosing our shots" to establish "building blocks" for the network's future, he said.
By those standards, UPN doesn't seem to have much faith in the new Family Rules, a sitcom about a nice-guy father (Greg Evigan) trying to raise a herd of nice-gal daughters. He's so cool, his best friend is black. It's sweet, integrated and safe. Just the kind of programming that got UPN into so much trouble in the first place. Not surprisingly, the network is spending next to nothing on promoting the show.
What kind of ideas can save UPN? Here are some in the works:
- Candid Camera gets a mean-spirited update in Redhanded, which recently bowed. With host Adam Carolla (MTV's Loveline), this series catches practical jokes on tape.
- Comedian Paula Poundstone lends her blunt wit to Home Movies, an animated series about a single mother and her ambitious kid that applies the same kind of squiggle drawings seen on Dr. Katz. Judging by excerpts shown to critics, it also may share the same smart sense of humor. Debuts April 26.
- Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana, the team responsible for NBC's Homicide: Life on the Street, are working on a drama for this fall tentatively called The True Story. According to Nunan, it's a story about a brother and a sister. He's a cop, she's a doctor. Their father is in jail for murdering their mother. Sounds like a hybrid of ER, Homicide and Oz. Now if only they could work in a precocious next-door neighbor named Felicity ...
- Barry Sonnenfeld (Men in Black) is developing an action show described as a slick update of Man from U.N.C.L.E. The team who wrote The Mask of Zorro, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, also are working on a series.
- Aaron Spelling, who helped put Fox on the map with Melrose Place and Beverly Hills 90210, is helping to create The Strip. Set in Las Vegas, it's a younger version of Hotel, the short-lived ABC series that was supposed to be a more adult Love Boat.
- Meg Ryan may lend her ideas and voice to an animated series called Quints, seen as a female South Park. Actor/writer Jon Favreau (Swingers) is working on a comedy described as a male version of HBO's Sex and the City.
- Former New York City police officer and novelist Angela Amato is helping to create a female buddy-cop show.
UPN executives say they don't need a whole slate of shows to survive. Two or three successful ones would be just fine.
"We are a very-low-overhead organization," Valentine said. "We don't broadcast during the day. We don't broadcast late night. ... One or two hits have an enormous impact on our finances in a way that it wouldn't for one of the big three broadcast networks."
Skeptics don't understand the business side, says Stu Swartz, general manager of KMSP, the UPN affiliate in Minneapolis. The network is owned by Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries Inc., which together own UPN affiliate stations that cover 50 percent of the country (Chris-Craft owns KMSP). Those stations get UPN programming free, saving them millions that it would cost to buy prime-time shows. For that reason, Swartz insists that UPN is "in it for the long haul."
Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, the show that helped Fox go from a punchline to a powerhouse, doesn't disagree. Whether it can get out of deep space is another matter.
"In the future there will be 5,000 channels," he said. "And UPN will still be in last place."
By NEAL JUSTIN, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.
Copyright © 1999 Nando Media / Copyright © 1999 Scripps Howard News Service
(Thanks Noon)
ONE VIEWER'S QUALITY IS NOT ALWAYS ANOTHERS CAMPAIGN - Mar 22
From The Philadelphia News
by Ken Parish Perkins
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Life after cancellation: Whose 'quality' is it?
The Sentinel built a loyal but exceptionally paltry following after its 1996 debut, so it wasn't all that shocking when UPN pulled the plug last season.
Surprising was the number of hearts the cancellation broke. Devoted fans deluged the network with calls, letters, e-mails and general threats of mass hysteria.
So, figuring it had some life left, UPN scheduled the drama as a midseason replacement.
Most intriguing about this rare resurrection is this: When viewers campaign to save endangered series, it's usually for shows carrying the oft-used, but awfully nebulous label of Quality TV.
Relativity carried the tag a few seasons back, Nothing Sacred last year, Cupid this season.
The rap on The Sentinel, about a police detective with extraordinarily heightened senses, was that it didn't fall in the "quality" category and therefore wasn't worth saving, despite all those viewers who thought otherwise.
Surfacing once again was the issue of Quality TV - what it is, what it isn't, who has the credentials to spot it, which programs have the artistic elements to possess it. We've heard this descriptive term tossed about quite freely by TV critics, media pundits and others. Few who use the term can say exactly what it is, but they know it when they see it.
ER is quality.
Nash Bridges is not.
Frasier is quality.
Malcolm & Eddie is not.
From what I can come up with, the term Quality TV started appearing regularly in the 1970s, but really caught on after Hill Street Blues caught our attention around 1981. Three years later, a lobbying group began protesting the cancellation of the female buddy-cop show Cagney & Lacey.
Viewers for Quality Television (VQT), a nonprofit group made up of discerning couch voyeurs, would make the term an acceptable part of TV description. VQT is now an influential organization attracting the attention of top producers, writers, stars and network executives. Attendance is high at annual VQT conventions, where they hand out awards for, of course, "quality."
The group's monthly newsletter, in which members fire off comments on series in general and episodes in particular, is a must-read by industry insiders who want - need - to be part of the organization's "endorsed" list.
To its founder and newsletter editor, Dorothy Swanson, there truly is a set of "quality TV" criteria. Essentially, these include breaking rules (The Simpsons); having a quality pedigree (The Practice); undergoing a noble struggle against profit-mongering networks (Sports Night); having a large ensemble cast (ER); and creating new genres by mixing old ones (NYPD Blue). They also tend to be writer-based (Frasier), self-conscious (Ally McBeal), controversial (Nothing Sacred) and realistic (Law & Order).
"It doesn't talk down to the viewer," but "challenges them," she notes. "And it appeals to the intellect and touches the emotion. It provokes thought, and good characterization is explored."
Manipulative writing is frowned upon, Swanson insists, and if it focuses on the funny bone, it should do so by "engaging the intellect, the way Frasier does while illuminating the human condition."
She's asked about the current talked-about drama Providence. "They call it a hit," says Swanson, "but it's manipulative. I don't respect it."
And this is where the line blurs, because audiences have responded well to that series.
The verdict on two recently canceled series: the long-running Melrose Place on Fox - no. Cupid, the new series on ABC - yes, barely. Some of the requirements can't possibly be absolutes, like, for instance, controversy, which would make The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer quality TV.
There are those who consider VQT elitist snobs. Swanson has heard the criticism. "To me," she says, "it's like picking up a good book. It has to engage my attention. It has to be worth my time."
She understands that not everyone has similar requirements. "And that's fine," she says. "That's why we don't debate shows that are not quality."
Which brings us back to what is.
It's easy to accept the term "Quality TV" on programs sanctioned by critics or nonprofit, yet harder to admit that what's known as escapist TV - the "Melrose Places" of the world - is integral to the tube's diverse menu.
At times people crave catharsis, and at any intellectual price. For that moment, perhaps, what they truly see is their "quality."
UPN RE-ARRANGING DECKCHAIRS AGAIN - Mar 19
From Variety
HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Adam Ware, UPN's new chief operating officer, has named former SF Broadcasting chief Steve Carlston executive VP of affiliate relations and affiliate marketing, replacing Kevin Tannehill, who has headed network distribution at UPN since the netlet was formed in 1994. Tannehill's departure is expected to be the first of several personnel changes at UPN. Robert Rene, the executive VP of marketing, likely will be the next to go.
NEWS FROM THE OTHER CAMPAIGNS - Mar 18
From Ultimate TV
The campaign by fans of The Sentinel was one of the three high profile show campaigns which emerged at the end of last season, the other two being Magnificent Seven and Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman.
While Magnificent Seven fans saw their show renewed, fans of Dr Quinn shared no such joy, but the fortunes of both shows seem to have reversed in the latest news below:
Magnificent Seven Pulled
CBS' western series Magnificent Seven, starring Michael Biehn, has been pulled from the schedule. The midseason show, which narrowly skirted cancelation last year, but was brought back thanks to an intense fan campaign, was scheduled to return to its 9 p.m. Friday slot March 26 following two weeks of preemptions by NCAA college basketball coverage. However, CBS will air double episodes of Kids Say the Darndest Things and Candid Camera from 8 to 10 p.m. on that date instead, and then insert Unsolved Mysteries into the time slot on April 2 for a six-week run of original episodes.
Although the series has not been officially canceled, the show's mediocre ratings, an average 6.7 rating/11 share, losing nearly 20% of its Candid Camera lead-in, make its chances of returning to the schedule slim.
Dr. Quinn Returns
Jane Seymour has signed on to star in Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, a CBS movie that will air during May sweeps. Joe Lando will reprise his role as Sully, and Seymour's husband James Keach will direct and executive produce the pic.
Mike (Seymour) and Sully (Lando) search for their kidnapped 4-year-old daughter in the movie written by former Quinn staff writer Josef Anderson.
STUDIOS NERVOUS ABOUT COMMITTING TO UPN - Mar 18
Hollywood Reporter
Request for UPN insurance policy
Studios are always making tough demands of networks before producing a series, from episode commitments and hefty license fees to cast contingencies and executive-production credit for managers.
Here's a new one: A guarantee that a network won't go out of business.
Columbia TriStar Television has asked just that of UPN this development season, sources said. As the emerging network's major supplier of fall pilots, the studio is seeking assurances that it can recoup expenses on shows if the No. 6 network fails. Paramount and Chris-Craft, UPN's parent companies, would ultimately have to make such a guarantee, sources said.
A spokesman for the network declined comment, but industry sources said studios can make whatever requests they want of networks; the key is whether they're granted. In this case, sources said UPN dismissed the request out of hand. A spokesman for Columbia TriStar TV declined comment.
However unorthodox, the request raised eyebrows around town because emerging networks have typically been cut slack by the studios because of their limited programming budgets. Fox and the WB are not believed to have received such requests.
What's more, Columbia TriStar TV hasn't stopped showing confidence in the emerging network. Although UPN has struggled in the ratings this season, the studio sold the network five pilots for fall more than any other supplier, including UPN sister company Paramount Network TV.
Columbia TriStar TV's comedy pilots are Grown Ups starring Jaleel White, Daddio with Coolio, Foursome from Jon Favreau and Brothers Out Loud. The studio also is delivering a drama pilot to UPN dubbed Secret Agent Man from Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson.
Columbia TriStar TV also produces UPN's 3-year-old series Malcolm & Eddie and the animated Dilbert, which has received a 22-episode commitment for next season.
UPN has generated some good news of late. From the November sweep to the February sweep, the network is up 20% in adults 18-34 and 8% in 18-49.
UPN entertainment president Tom Nunan on Wednesday also impressed media buyers in town to review fall development among the broadcast networks. Many walked away thinking UPN "is more centrally focused and on track in terms of programming," one observer said.
"They acknowledged they made a big mistake last year," said one media buyer. "They walked away from their core audience. Yet, like most of the networks, they are trying to reach out to males and bring them back to primetime television. And they are more on track in terms of programming that is compatible with its lead-ins and lead-outs."
Still, some industry watchers saw Columbia TriStar's request as writing on the wall for UPN. Studios are already reluctant to put themselves out financially, where back end profit is uncertain and foreign revenue is declining.
"It's a legitimate question to ask," one major TV executive said. "The important thing for networks is to convince the creative community that making a show for you and taking a deficit is worth their time. If you make everyone your partner in the community, eventually, they want you to succeed. Your success is their success."
(Thanks Barbara)
UPN BREATHES NEW LIFE INTO LEVINSON/FONTANA DEAL - Mar 16
Hollywood Reporter
Levinson on UPN's cop beat
Renewing its faith in two premier producers, UPN has given a 13-episode commitment to Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson for a cop drama, sources said.
Fontana and Levinson, executive producers of NBC veteran drama Homicide: Life on the Street, have already begun to shop for a studio that would produce their new series slated for UPN's 1999-2000 midseason lineup. The drama focuses on the personal and professional lives of young Manhattan recruits and will be shot on the East Coast.
A UPN spokesman could not be reached for comment. Late last year, Fontana/Levinson Co. together with Rysher Entertainment received a six-episode order from UPN for a new ensemble drama. Tentatively titled The True Story, the project focused on a cop brother and a surgical intern sister and starred Mark Ruffulo (The Last Big Thing).
Rysher backed out of the deal after UPN refused to grant a 13-episode order, sources say. The network remained hot for a show from Fontana/Levinson, whose relationship with UPN entertainment president Tom Nunan goes back to Nunan's days at NBC Studios. The latter production unit has produced Homicide for the past five seasons.
Ruffulo is expected to star in the new cop project, sources say.
[This project replaces the original 'family/prison/medical/cop drama' project originally schedule to premiere mid-season of the current season. This new project is still not expected to air till this time next year.]
(Thanks Barbara)
REDHANDED - EMBRACING YOUR INNER MORON - Mar 14
Reuters/Variety
By Ray Richmond
Morons on parade in Red Handed
HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - The gentle, goodhearted whimsy that always has defined the various incarnations of Candid Camera -- even the punchless edition being showcased on CBS -- spawns something resembling cruelty in this new UPN half-hour whose essential mission seems to be exposing the flaws of human nature rather than celebrating its quirks.
Instead of catching people "in the act of being themselves," Red Handed wants to find them looking like complete imbeciles. And pretty much without exception, the folks are only too happy to comply.
This is not to say that the reality-based show is never entertaining. Particularly in the second installment, the premise produces laughs. But there is a mean-spiritedness to the whole enterprise that provokes a cringe. And intentionally or not, the average IQ of its victims during its first two weeks on the air appears to be stuck firmly in the low double-digit range.
Red Handed is hardly the first show to take the Candid Camera concept and enliven it with a loosey-goosey, rock 'n' roll, quick-cut sensibility more befitting the times. Fox tried it in 1989 with the ungainly Totally Hidden Video, and it seems like pretty much everything on the Fox Family Channel involves a video camera (hidden or otherwise). But not until this show has TV tried to use the concept to educate, albeit while snickering behind the backs of its students.
Education? On TV? Well, as Red Handed's cloying wiseacre of a narrator, Adam Carolla, promises, "We're gonna teach 'em a lesson they'll never forget! We're gonna set 'em up! We're gonna knock 'em down!" Yes, it's time to treat human beings like bowling pins.
As part of its curriculum, the show rips a page from the Linda Tripp School of Human Decency by enlisting friends and lovers to rat out a special someone, uncovering a behavioral shortcoming that can then be exploited on national TV to humiliating effect.
Last week's opener found a woman named Bethany setting up her boyfriend, Bird. She's upset that he steals too many soaps and towels from hotel rooms. So here, he's put up at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, and the cameras record it all as he pilfers a robe, slippers, even soy sauce - all depicted on an aren't-we-too-hip-for-the-room Theft-O-Meter.
A guy who is too anal about his car is seen ranting and raving when he returns to his auto in a parking lot to find it splattered with paint and ticketed for parking in a handicapped spot. But what's most disturbing is not the guy's understandable reaction, but Carolla's oily voiceover observation: "What a schmuck!"
In week two, there's an undeniably amusing, if uncomfortably mean, piece in which a woman sets up her purportedly skirt-chasing fiance by sending him off to a rigged stag party and confronting him as he's about to mud-wrestle a stripper -- or so he thinks.
Since post-ruse reaction from the victims is intercut with the episodes, the people on the receiving end clearly wind up being uncommonly good sports.
As Red Handed takes the concept of playing pingpong with peoples' dignity and elevates it to an art form, the message is that Americans had better be prepared to embrace their inner moron. Any one of us could be next.
REDHANDED NOT IN THIS CRITIC'S CORNER - Mar 8
By Robert Bianco
USA TODAY
You have to congratulate UPN for setting a standard. The network's loathsome hidden-camera show RedHanded (8:30 p.m. ET/PT) is easily the most repulsive show this season - and ranks up there with the worst ever. This is Candid Camera done by people who mistake cruel for funny and for a network that seems increasingly desperate and directionless.
Narrated by Adam Carolla (Loveline), whose smarmy verbal drooling is even more obnoxious than the concept, RedHanded uses people's friends to trick them into behaving badly on camera, then confronts them with the proof of their misdeeds. ("It's payback time, baby!") For the premiere, the victims include a man who ogles women, a car fanatic and a thief - two of them set up by their girlfriends, which should really improve those relationships.
With so many miscreants to choose from, it's hard to say who's the worst: the disloyal friends, the people they've tricked or the producers who think this qualifies as entertainment. "I didn't deserve this," one victim says. Neither did we.
(Thanks Lori)
UPN PLANS SPIN OFFS FOR MOESHA AND MALCOLM - Mar 2
From Variety
By Jenny Hontz
HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - UPN is developing spinoffs of its comedy series Moesha and Malcolm & Eddie.
The Malcolm spinoff pilot will star Grammy-winning rapper Coolio and be directed by Cosby alumnus Malcolm Jamal Warner.
The project looks at fatherhood from the perspective of a stay-home dad married to a dental hygienist.
Plot details were not immediately available on the Moesha spinoff.
Other UPN pilots greenlit last week include Malcolm in the Middle, a comedy about a teen genius coping with his loving but dysfunctional family. Another comedy pilot in the works is ACTV, which uses revoiced footage from Japanese game shows and animal series.
SENTINEL STARS IN HUNK HALL OF FAME - Mar 1
PopStar! #2, vol 3
Accompanying the pictures below, was the following write-up. Well done people!
In PopStar! (v.2 #5) we ran the complete results of all the write-in votes in our on-going Hollywood's Hottest Hunk series.
After Hollywood's Hottest Hunk #2, so many readers wrote in to beg for return engagements of their favorite hunks, we decided to provide you with pinups of some of the top vote-getters.
Most of these dudes showed up in #1 or #2. The only newcomers are Richard Burgi and Garett Maggart, hunky stars of the UPN series The Sentinel, and William Shockley, a costar on the unfairly canned CBS series, Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman. These three men sparked a massive e-mail campaign that taxed our system, so it's only fair to give them their day in the sun.
Enjoy the eye candy!
(Thanks Sherry)
