BY JOHN KIESEWETTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
PASADENA, Calif. -- Don't call 911, or me. The Family Channel is dead.
Diagnosis: murder.
All your favorite reruns -- Bonanza, Rescue 911, Diagnosis Murder, Carol Burnett, The Rifleman, Christy, Hawaii 5-0 -- vanish Aug. 15, when Fox transforms the popular basic cable channel into the Fox Family Channel.
Only Pat Robertson's 700 Club, a cornerstone since the minister founded the channel (as the Christian Broadcasting Network) in 1977, will remain on the air.
But death isn't always a bad thing. The new Fox channel truly will offer programming for the whole family -- everything from 15 hours of new weekly prime-time shows to new "Thomas the Tank" adventures on Shining Time Station to an afternoon children's block with Pee-wee's Playhouse reruns.
"We will provide television that the entire family will enjoy, with 50 percent original programming," says Haim Saban, chairman and CEO of Saban Entertainment and Fox Kids Worldwide, which operates the channel.
Thinking big
The conversion to Fox from Family reveals how media mogul Rupert Murdoch thinks big.
Rather than lose hundreds of millions slowly building a new cable channel -- Disney's new Toon Disney animated channel launched in April reaches only 6 million homes -- Fox paid $2 billion for the ninth-largest basic channel, which reaches 72 million homes.
Then Mr. Murdoch shelled out $500 million more for new shows (680 episodes and 20 original TV movies), and another $100 million for advertising and promotion.
"Our goal is to get entire families watching, and to have parents be perfectly comfortable sitting next to a 2-year-old, a 12-year-old, or a 25-year-old to watch our shows," says Maureen Smith, chief programmer for Fox Family.
Replacing reruns of Rescue 911 and Hawaii 5-0 will be game shows (I Can't Believe You Said That!; Outrageous), funny video programs (Show Me the Funny; Life, Camera, Action!) and sketch comedy (Mr. Bill Presents starring the Saturday Night Live claymation character).
Daytime children's series include The All New Captain Kangaroo, Bobby's World, Goosebumps, Heathcliff, Magic Adventures of Mumfie, Casper, Dennis the Menace and new Shining Time Stations.
The movie mix
Nightly Fox Family movies (9 p.m. weeknights, 8 p.m. weekends) will be a mix of theatricals (Mrs. Doubtfire, Home Alone 2) and originals (The Michael Jordan Story; National Lampoon's Men in White; National Lampoon's Golf Punks; Earthquake in New York).
Unlike the Fox TV network, everything on the Fox cable channel will be rated TV-G (general audience). "We will make cuts to the movies (Mrs. Doubtfire, Home Alone 2) so that they rate G," Mr. Saban says.
And all of the shows will be targeted to the children and grandchildren of the Family Channel fans of Bonanza or The Rifleman. Keeping those shows wasn't viable, Ms. Smith says.
"Our focus is on families that are a little younger, more suburban or urban, more plugged into pop culture," says Rick Cronin, the former Nick at Nite executive who became Fox Family Channel president and CEO on July 1. He promises "a network that entertains contemporary families with a Fox attitude."
Feisty Fox folks rightfully point out that their new programming is more family-oriented than the channel's current line-up.
Isn't it deceptive to call old Westerns and cop shows genuine "family" shows in this day and age?
As Detective Steve McGarrett would say on Hawaii 5-0: Book 'em, Danno.
Enquirer TV critic John Kiesewetter is reporting from the Summer Press Tour this month.
