Cable gets original Channels produce own movies, shows Monday, August 3, 1998
BY JOHN KIESEWETTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
PASADENA, Calif. -- Maybe Bruce Springsteen will change his tune about "500 channels and nothing on."
Penn & Teller's Sin City Spectacular is just one of the highly anticipated shows coming to cable this month.
(AP photo)
| ZOOM |Cable TV channels, faced with increasing competition from an increasing number of cable choices, are investing heavily in original programs to help them break through the clutter.
"Original programming is what makes you special. They're unique to your channel," said Mark Sonnenberg, vice president of Fox's FX cable channel, after a recent presentation to the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour.
A year ago, FX gained attention -- and ratings -- by filling prime-time with double repeats of NYPD Blue and The X-Files, two cutting-edge network dramas.
For two decades, cable channels have thrived on repeats of network shows, from I Love Lucy to Law & Order, plus replays of theatrical and TV movies, occasional made-for-cable movies, a few original productions, professional wrestling and other sporting events.
But at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour here last month, the mantra of every cable TV executive was "more original programming." And that was before cable networks on July 23 earned a record 139 prime-time Emmy nominations, led by 17 nominations for HBO's From the Earth to the Moon, more than ER or The X-Files (16 each).
Cable's impressive Emmy showing -- 36 percent of the 390 nominations -- came on the heels of another TV watershed: the combined ratings for basic cable channels (44.7 percent) surpassed the combined audience for mostly reruns on ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox (44.2 percent) the week of June 29-July 5. Basic cable did it again (44.6 to 44.0) July 13-19.
WHAT'S COMING ON CABLE Rock & Roll Jeopardy!: VH1 music trivia show, from the Jeopardy! producers (8 p.m. Saturday).
Penn & Teller's Sin City Spectacular: FX variety show from Las Vegas (9 p.m. Aug. 10).
I Can't Believe You Said That!: Fox Family Channel Family Feud-style show hosted by John Salley, part of Fox's new takeover of the old Family Channel (6:30 p.m. Aug. 17).
Welcome to Paradox: Sci-Fi Channel anthology series set in the future in a town called Bataville (10 p.m. Aug. 17).
Any Day Now, Maggie, Oh Baby: Lifetime debuts its first original prime-time series Aug. 18 -- a drama, Any Day Now, starring Annie Potts and Lorraine Toussaint (9 p.m.), and comedies Maggie with Ann Cusack (10 p.m.) and Oh Baby with Cynthia Stevenson and Joanna Gleason (10:30 p.m.).
The Rat Pack: HBO's dramatization of the lives of Frank Sinatra (Ray Liotta), Dean Martin (Joe Mantegna) and Sammy Davis Jr. (Don Cheadle (9 p.m. Aug. 22).
Endless Harmony: The Beach Boys and their Music: VH1's two-hour documentary with Brian Wilson demonstrating his brothers' unique musical stye (8 p.m. Aug. 23).
The Baby Dance: Showtime's adaptation of Jane Anderson's play about a couple (Stockard Channing, Peter Riegert) adopting a baby from a pregnant trailer-park resident (Laura Dern). (9 p.m. Aug. 23).
The Wild Thornberrys: Nickelodeon's new prime-time cartoon about a 12-year-old girl who talks to animals on her parents' anthropology trips (8 p.m., Sept. 1), part of Nickelodeon's expansion to an hour of original prime-time shows (8-9 p.m.).
Cable programmers, bullish about their prospects, boasted about their new sitcoms, dramas, movies, game shows, children's programs and variety series for the fall season. They totaled more than 1,000 hours, though NBC executives were quick to put the numbers in perspective.
"The fact is, NBC programs 2,131 hours of original entertainment a year. Now that's more than all the cable services combined," said Warren Littlefield, NBC Entertainment president.
And most cable channel ratings "have not really increased this summer. Seventy-five percent of all the cable channels have stayed the same, and only a few -- MTV, Nickelodeon, Sci-Fi, Family -- have shown some increase," said Stu Bloomberg, ABC Entertainment chairman.
Here's a glance at fall cable programs:
Lifetime: The women's cable channel launches three new series Aug. 18 -- a drama and two sitcoms -- from 9 to 11 p.m., against Spin City, Just Shoot Me, NYPD Blue and Dateline NBC. Annie Potts and Lorraine Toussaint star in Any Day Now, a one-hour drama (9 p.m.) about a housewife and an African-American lawyer. Ann Cusack plays Maggie, a married woman in a midlife crisis (10 p.m.), followed by Oh Baby, with Cynthia Stevenson in TV's first sitcom about an artificially inseminated single woman (10:30 p.m.).
Family programs: Fox totally revamps the Family Channel on Aug. 15, infusing it with $500 million in new and off-network rerun programming. While the heart of the new "Fox Family Channel" will be 680 hours of new 6-9 p.m. weekday shows, Fox also will produce new Shining Time Station programs with new "Thomas the Tank" adventures during weekdays, as well as 20 original Sunday night movies.
Nickelodeon will offer an hour of original programming (8-9 p.m.) on Aug. 31. Since Nickelodeon ventured into prime time (8-8:30 p.m.) two years ago, programming to children abandoned by the Big Four broadcast networks, its audience among viewers ages 2-11 has tripled, said Cyma Zarghami, Nickelodeon vice president and general manager.
Among the new Disney Channel series announced was Rolie Polie Olie, a cartoon from children's author William Joyce about a little round robot and his family in a robot world premiering Oct. 4.
Movies: HBO, TNT, Showtime, Disney, Lifetime and USA cable will have more competition for viewers when VH1, A&E and FX produce their first TV movies this season. But it's unlikely the newcomers can match the quality of big-budget HBO and Showtime productions. p> HBO has the most talked about TV film of August, The Rat Pack, a dramatization of the lives of Frank Sinatra (Ray Liotta), Dean Martin (Joe Mantegna) and Sammy Davis Jr. (Don Cheadle) at 9 p.m. Aug. 22. Showtime will follow its controversial Lolita, which premiered Sunday with The Baby Dance. Jodie Foster produced the film, based on Jane Anderson's play about a couple (Stockard Channing, Peter Riegert) adopting a baby from a pregnant trailer-park resident (Laura Dern). It premieres 9 p.m. Aug. 23.
Music channel VH1 announced six TV movie projects, ranging from documentaries like Endless Harmony: The Beach Boys and Their Music (8 p.m., Aug. 23) and Trouble Girls: Women in Rock to The Two of Us, a drama about a 1976 fictional meeting between Paul McCartney and John Lennon in New York, before Mr. McCartney started his sold-out Wings Over America tour.
A&E, known for documentaries, revealed plans to make mystery movies based on Edgar Allan Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue and Anne Perry's The Cater Street Hangman; a docudrama about the life of P.T. Barnum, and a mystery movie starring Gene Wilder.
FX, a general basic cable channel, also plans to announce four TV movies for 1999 later this year, Mr. Sonnenberg says.
Game shows: Music service VH1 offered an old favorite with a new beat: Rock & Roll Jeopardy! (8 p.m. Saturday). Producers of Alex Trebek's popular weeknight series created this weekly series featuring such categories as "1980s No. 1 Albums," "(Blank) & The (Blank)" and "Canadian Women Singers, Eh?" The Game Show Network, with a library of 50,000 hours of classic Password, Match Game, I've Got A Secret, The Price Is Right, The Gong Show and other old telecasts, also has plans for original productions.
As Seen On, premiering this fall, will feature clips of game show appearances by David Letterman, Barbra Streisand, Paul Newman, Dustin Hoffman and other celebrities.
"Original programming, in our minds, is the key to growth," said Michael Fleming, president of the Game Show Network, which has doubled its number of TV homes (to 16 million) in the past year.
Sci-fi: The Sci-Fi Channel, which has seen its highest ratings for original episodes of Sliders, announced two new series -- the Welcome to Paradox anthology series (10 p.m., Aug. 17) and Farscape, a futuristic drama featuring characters from Jim Henson's Creature Shop (premiering Jan. 11.)
Variety: The variety show, a staple at TV's inception 50 years ago, will return with Penn & Teller's Sin City Spectacular featuring music, magic and novelty acts from Las Vegas on FX (9 p.m. Aug. 10). "There's too much at risk for broadcasters to try (new) things. On cable, there is much more patience," said Mr. Sonnenberg, explaining his attempt to revive the variety format that disappeared when Fox canceled Townsend Television five years ago.
"Ultimately, every cable channel is going to come up with programming that makes them stand out in an environment of 70 channels" in most cable homes," he said.
Maybe even Bruce Springsteen will find something worth watching.
Enquirer TV critic John Kiesewetter is reporting from the Summer Press Tour.
