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No false moves: Keep 'NYPD Blue' where it is
Philadelphia Daily News - October 19, 1999
By Ellen Gray
Can't we all just get along?
Steven Bochco is reportedly furious because ABC may give "NYPD Blue's" Tuesday-night time slot to "Once and Again."
ABC is antsy because "Blue," which was once a major hit, is now only a medium-sized hit, and because CBS's "Judging Amy," which is already beating "Once and Again" on
Tuesday nights, might scoop up all the women when Sipowicz & Co. return next month.
And me? I'm thinking that tonight I might start taping "Once and Again" so I can watch "Judging Amy" first. My own biggest surprise of the fall season has been just how much
the CBS drama about a young family-court judge (Amy Brenneman) and her social-worker mother (Tyne Daly) has grown on me.
I'm even becoming - gasp - just a wee bit bored with those middle-aged teen-agers, Rick (Billy Campbell) and Lily (Sela Ward), on "Once and Again." Their sexual obsession with each
other, which once seemed so refreshing, is beginning to seem, well, obsessive.
At the very least, they need to get out more.
So do I, of course. Thanks to what's turning out to be a pretty decent fall season, I find I'm watching more prime-time television this season than even my job demands. Certainly, I'm enjoying it
more.
That ABC feels it has such an embarrassment of riches it can afford to even think of moving "NYPD Blue" is good news for broadcast television, popularly believed to be on its last legs.
It's bad news for fans, though. No way do we need to be Desperately Seeking Sipowicz. And what's bad for "NYPD Blue" fans is bad for ABC.
"Blue," coming off a rebuilding year that saw the show recapture much of the magic of its early seasons, is what the networks like to call "appointment TV," the kind of show
people just don't stumble on by accident but plan their evenings around. While that's true, it's also true that many of us already have that appointment memorized. We're easily confused. Don't
mess with us.
Yes, the ratings were down last season - in part because of ABC's own ineptness regarding pre-emptions - but it still averaged more viewers than "Once and Again," whose numbers have
declined steadily since its premiere.
A new time slot for "NYPD Blue" would no doubt chip away at the 14.6 million who watched ABC's highest-rated drama last season. Here's a better plan for the network, one that might
actually increase the ratings: Promote the Nov. 9 season premiere like crazy. Use the unusually late start date to minimize reruns. And avoid taking your best drama off the air for weeks at a
time.
Will women desert "Blue" for "Amy"? This one won't.
Not that I wouldn't like to give my VCR a break. CBS is no doubt feeling cocky about the success of "Judging Amy," a show that premiered to lukewarm reviews, but I can't help wishing
they'd move it to Monday nights and give people who don't watch football or news magazines a better choice than "Family Law."
And while we're loading the van, why not:
Move "Once and Again" to 9 p.m. Sundays and send "Snoops" off to whatever limbo was once intended for Rick and Lily while they awaited the end of "Monday Night
Football"?
Send NBC's "Cold Feet," the supposedly women-friendly show that replaced "Homicide: Life on the Street," back to Britain, where they apparently found it funny?
Leave CBS's ever-more-intriguing "Now And Again," which is proving to be the best new show of the season, right where it is, but move heaven and earth to help viewers find it? (Not to
mention tell it apart from "Once and Again.")
Copyright © 1999 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. All rights reserved.
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