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Fall TV season is showing signs of maturity
Bergen Record - October 24, 1999
By VIRGINIA ROHAN, Staff Writer
It's hard to connect the dots between this season's new high points. Let's see ... "Judging Amy" is an earnestly idealistic show about a single mom who's just become a Connecticut
judge. "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" is a dark spinoff about dedicated detectives who deal in gruesome sex crimes.
"Third Watch" is an action show about a group of brave and tough New York City cops, paramedics, and firefighters. "The West Wing" is about the fast-talking strategists who
keep the White House humming. And "Once and Again" is a romantic tale about a couple of middle-aged single parents and the children they're trying to keep from getting scarred by
divorce.
The variety of settings and premises drives home that there's just no formula for television success.
Among this year's early winners, there are only two common threads.
They're about responsible adults, not picture-perfect teenagers -- who've been far less popular than TV executives wagered they'd be.
And, the winning shows are all hour-long dramas.
Continuing a trend that's been brewing for several seasons -- leading "Law & Order" creator Dick Wolf to proclaim a new "golden age of drama" recently -- the dramatic surge
comes at a time when there's a glut of network news magazines, and a maddening shortage of available hour-long time slots.
This point was made painfully clear during the recent face-off between ABC and "NYPD Blue" creator Steven Bochco over the network's proposal to move "Blue" from its longtime 10
p.m. Tuesday berth and in its place, leave the tryout "Once and Again" -- a show that comes from the production arm of ABC's corporate parent, Walt Disney Co. (Favoritism based on
network ownership is another new TV reality to keep an eye on.)
If dramas are breaking out, this fall's new comedy contenders have mostly been breaking down.
The biggest comic disappointment, ratings-wise, has been Fox's "Action," a wickedly funny, envelope-pushing, curse-bleeping half-hour about a Hollywood producer. Critics loved it, but
viewers seem to have dismissed the show with a collective "yuck."
Fox professes a continuing commitment to the series, which hails from Chris Thompson ("The Larry Sanders Show") and filmmaker Joel Silver, yet the network is preempting
"Action" for the entire November sweeps (it's scheduled to return Dec. 2) to try out a new game show, with a potential $2 million payoff, called "Greed." (That, by the way, is
part of a mini-trend of high-stakes game shows that includes ABC's spectacularly successful "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," which returns for a 15-night run Nov. 7, and CBS' upcoming
"Survivor," in which 16 people will be flown to a South China Sea island to take part in games of endurance with a $1 million prize.)
Another heavily hyped comic loser is Fox's self-consciously hip family comedy-drama "Get Real," which hasn't been grabbing viewers. And Fox's "Ally," David E. Kelley's
half-hour condensed comedy version of "Ally McBeal," has not been a rousing success either.
Yet another disappointment for Fox has been "Harsh Realm," from "X-Files" creator Chris Carter. His grim new offering is striking out in the same Friday-night time slot where
Carter's "Millennium" failed to thrive.
Fox is doing so poorly this season that Doug Herzog, the Paterson native who took over as entertainment chief in January, is desperately in need of a miracle.
While Fox's midseason "Malcolm in the Middle" is promising but untested, at first glance, "Time of Your Life," Jennifer Love Hewitt's "Party of Five" spinoff, is not
the answer to Herzog's prayer. The pilot for this heavily retooled drama -- which debuts Monday -- sends Hewitt's Sarah character to Manhattan in search of her real father. It might have made a
cute movie of the week. As in one week.
The season's biggest all-around disgrace was NBC's dismal "The Mike O'Malley Show." The fall's first cancellation, it disappeared after just two episodes. Runner-up in this category:
Fox's "Manchester Prep," a teen version of "Dangerous Liaisons," set at a prep school, which Fox canceled before the series even got out of the starting gate.
To be sure, more TV graves are being dug as we speak.
The November sweeps (Nov. 4 through Dec. 1) are a critical time for the networks, ratings-wise, and, preemptions for big-event programming aside, you'll soon see what they really think of their
newcomers, based on what they keep on the schedule and what they bench.
One surprise this fall has been viewers' apparent lack of interest in real youth-oriented series. Inspired by the success of shows like "Dawson's Creek," the networks scrambled for a new
crop of fresh young faces.
But some industry analysts predicted -- correctly, it now seems -- that the market was already oversaturated, and there just would not be enough of an audience to sustain all of them.
Sadly, "Freaks and Geeks," NBC's genuinely witty and promising series about high-schoolers, hasn't caught on. Because of the baseball playoffs, the series has only aired twice so far,
and its 8 p.m. Saturday slot is a killer to begin with. NBC should move it -- and show some patience.
Fox's "Ryan Caulfield: Year One," about a 19-year-old Philadelphia cop, finished No. 93, with a paltry 3.0 rating in its first airing.
WB's "Popular" has simply not been. (It was No. 96 in the most recent Nielsens), and UPN's "Shasta McNasty" has deservedly done dismally (No. 108).
Of course, it's difficult to compare the overall ranking of WB and UPN shows with those of their larger competitors, because these newer networks draw young viewers, the demographic advertisers
most want and for whom they're willing to pay top dollar.
And so, WB is said to be happy with the young female appeal of "Angel" (at No. 86 last week, it was two places ahead of the series that begat it, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"),
and "Roswell" (No. 89). Beyond that, both of these new series are good.
In the wild card category is UPN's "WWF Smackdown!," the two-hour
Thursday night wrestling extravaganza, which doesn't fall high in the overall ratings list, but does draw a sizeable chunk of teens and young men.
But the biggest, most clear-cut winners this fall have been those aforementioned adult dramas.
"Judging Amy," which casts Amy Brenneman ("NYPD Blue") as Amy Gray, a single mother who leaves New York and becomes a judge in Hartford, Conn., finished seventh in the most
recent Nielsens -- tying with NBC's long-established powerhouse, "Law & Order," and CBS' "60 Minutes." Inspired by NBC's "Providence," last season's surprise
midseason hit, "Amy" co-stars Tyne Daly as Amy's graying, opinionated mom.
Although their ratings haven't been quite as spectacular as "Amy's," several other newcomers are doing well -- including "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (No. 22);
Kathleen Quinlan's new "Family Law" drama (No. 19, though not a favorite of mine); Aaron Sorkin's "The West Wing" (No. 30); John Wells' "Third Watch"; and ABC's
"Once and Again" (No. 36), from "thirtysomething" creators Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz.
In light of the "Blue" fracas, it should be noted that "Once and Again" has experienced a continual ratings slippage, which ABC attributes to the defection of men to baseball.
(In arguing for leaving "Once and Again" where it is, ABC claimed that by moving it, the network would be ceding female viewers to CBS' competing "Amy.")
Among the returning shows, "ER" is still television's No. 1 series, and Alan Alda's well-publicized appearance in the Oct. 14 episode -- the first in a five-episode story arc for Alda --
increased the show's audience by two million people over the previous week.
All in all, television is healthier this fall than initially prognosticated. And dramas are a big reason for its good first checkup.
Copyright © 1999 Bergen Record Corp. All rights reserved.
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