My Blog

The Biz Behind THE 4400

by

USA Network has ordered a TV series based on the hit USA miniseries THE 4400. But it’s not as simple as it sounds. Behind that series order is an interesting business story, as reported at zap2it.com, of deal-making and awkward timing.

“The 4400” was caught in a business vortex not of its own making. Its studio, Viacom Productions, has been folded into Paramount Network Productions; and its broadcast outlet, USA Network, was involved in the recent merger between Universal and NBC.

There was, according to other press reports, protracted haggling between NBC, its broadcast partners USA and SciFi, and supplier Paramount. NBC reportedly wanted to retain some rebroadcast rights (ala MONK on ABC & USA, “Law and Order” on NBC and USA, etc.). There was even some question about which NBC/Universal network the series version of THE 4400 would actually air on.

Once that was all ironed out, more problems remained.

When “The 4400” finished its run, none of the producers or actors was retained on contract. The executive producer and show runner, Ira Steven Behr, has since gone on to CBS’ “dr. vegas,” while his predecessor, Rene Echevarria, is now working on NBC’s midseason drama “Medium.”

DR VEGAS isn’t exactly wowing audiences, and the rumor is the show is destined for cancellation. The folks behind THE 4400 are well aware of that… and have been hinting that showrunner Ira Behr may soon be free.

“Maira and I are going to talk about the possibility of having him come over,” says co-executive producer Scott Peters, “because we’re not going to be up and running until March in terms of shooting. This means we have to start writing earlier than that, but not tomorrow.”

Meaning, they can wait for DR. VEGAS to tank. The big hurdle now is getting the cast back for the series…

As the production team reassembles, a bigger challenge may be reassembling the large cast for the drama, in which 4,400 people returned mysteriously in a ball of light. Some had been missing a short time, some for decades. All hadn’t aged and didn’t remember where they had been. Some returned with extraordinary or even dangerous abilities.

The cast included Joel Gretsch (“Taken”) and Jacqueline McKenzie as federal agents dealing with the returnees, with Peter Coyote as their boss. Among those playing returnees were Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, Laura Allen, Patrick Flueger and Michael Moriarty. Mark Valley (“Keen Eddie”), currently a regular on ABC’s “Boston Legal,” joined midway through the run, as did Billy Campbell.

“We’re still negotiating with actors I want,” Peters says. “I want everybody back, because there’s a winning combination. Right now, Joel and Jackie are definitely coming back, which is good, because it would be an awfully difficult show to do without them. It would be hard to do it without any of them, as a matter of fact, because they’re all integral to the success of the show. We have to get Billy Campbell back. He’s tied up at the moment, but we’re going to try to figure out a way to get him back.

Hard Time

by

Zap2it.com is reporting that ABC is moving forward on a private eye drama from “Usual Suspects” scribe Christopher McQuarrie called HARD TIME.

The drama focuses on a convict who gets out of jail and becomes a successful investigator thanks to his ability to see misdeeds from the perspective of the criminal.

Um…wasn’t that THE ROCKFORD FILES?

Still Another “Law and Order”

by

First, there was “Law & Order.” Then there was the TV movie, “Law & Order: Exiled,” in 1998, starring Chris Noth, which proved branded “Law & Order” fare could score big ratings. The series “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” and “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” soon followed. “Law & Order: Trial By Jury” is on tap for January. Now comes word in Variety that still more is on the way.Law_and_order NBC/Universal is developing three, two-hour movie sequels to “Law & Order: Exiled” starred Chris Noth… seven years after the original aired.

Chris Noth is ready to return to a familiar beat. Noth is in final talks to star in up to three “Law & Order””Law & Order”-branded telepics, reprising his role as Detective Mike Logan in a series of two-hour movies. Pics are being developed internally by NBC Universal Television Studio-based Wolf Films.

Last “L&O” pic with Noth, 1998’s “Exiled,” scored strong ratings, attracting roughly 28 million viewers to give NBC numbers that, at the time, repped the net’s best overnight Sunday numbers in three years.

“What ‘Exiled’ showed is that there’s an appetite for this franchise — and Chris was a huge part of that,” Wolf told the New York Post. Noth played Logan from 1990-1995.

How many more “Law & Order”-branded shows can NBC possibly air… and when will audiences reach their limit? Pretty soon, maybe even their sitcoms and news programs will have the “Law & Order” moniker, too.

That said… “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” remains, in my opinion, the best (and most critically under-rated) cop show on network television. This week’s episode was especially good.

TVBGone.com

by

Tired of the TV blaring in your favorite restaurant or bar, making it impossible for you to have a conversation without yelling? You could ask the owner to turn the set off… or, now, you can do it yourself without anyone even knowing it was you who did it. According tothe LA Times, someone has come up with a handy, key-chain remote that will turn off any television set.

For someone who just wanted a little peace and quiet, Mitch Altman is causing quite a ruckus. The San Francisco entrepreneur, perennially irritated by televisions blaring in restaurants and other gathering spots, revealed this week that he had come up with a solution: a cheap remote that shuts down almost every model of TV.

After the story of Altman’s invention zapped around the Internet, so many people visited TVBGone.com that the website crashed. Even so, Altman had taken 2,000 orders by early Wednesday, accounting for the entire first production run. Through mobile phones, pocket TVs and other devices, gadget makers have spent two decades devising ways to keep people constantly "on." The buzz over Altman’s device shows that some people are eager to turn off.

"I can see it turning into a sort of punky instrument of disruption," Columbia University sociologist Todd Gitlin said of the $15 devices, "a sort of new-style culture jam that’s within a lot of people’s means."

Gitlin warned that with TV such a big part of daily life — Americans watch an average of more than four hours a day — incautious use of TV-B-Gone could be unwise. Picture, for example, a sports bar during Wednesday night’s decisive match-up between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees.

Altman started mulling over what became TV-B-Gone after he and some friends found themselves watching a soundless TV in a restaurant, abandoning what had been an entertaining conversation.

Altman, an engineer, tinkered in his studio apartment and then ordered as many of the keychain devices as his one-employee company could afford: 20,000. The gadget works by emitting every known set manufacturer’s signal to shut down. In his daily experiments in stores and elsewhere, Altman said, few people have objected.

"TVs are so ubiquitous that they don’t even think about it," Altman said. They see TV-B-Gone as giving them "some way of controlling their lives."

Amherst College sociologist Ron Lembo described Americans as ambivalent about TV. They want to turn it off, he said, but can’t stop watching. TV-B-Gone "plays into deeper resentment," Lembo said. But even if Altman’s gadget catches on, "you can’t turn off where television is and how important it is in the culture."

Along with customer orders, Altman said, he has been deluged with suggestions for follow-up products, including Car-Alarm-B-Gone, Booming-Bass-Speakers-B-Gone, and the clear favorite, Cellphone-B-Gone.

Altman has put some thought into that last one. "There are many possible ways to do it," he said, "but I don’t think any of them are legal."

Yet Another TV Show Goes Big Screen

by

While movie stars are flocking to primetime…

…primetime shows are flooding the theatres. Variety Reports that the 70s sitcom GOOD TIMES is heading to a multiplex near you.

Management-production company Creative Production Group has secured featurefeature rights to "Good Times," the 1970s Norman Lear sitcom that captured the life of an African-American family living in a Chicago housing project. The rights were secured by CPG’s Rodney Omanoff and Graham Kaye, both of whom will produce.

With the film "Speedway Junky""Speedway Junky" atop its resume, CPG didn’t have a track record comparable to those of the other suitors who tried to win the rights over the past decade, from Wesley Snipes to Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, Earvin "Magic" Johnson and the Wayans clan.

But Omanoff did have one advantage: He ran a collection agency, which enabled him to track down series co-creator Mike Evans. Best remembered for playing Lionel on "The Jeffersons," Evans long ago retired to live in the California desert. While series co-creator Eric Monte put together several possible deals, Evans objected to being an afterthought and declined to sign off on them. Omanoff was the first suitor to visit him, and Evans was persuaded to make the deal.

Also on tap soon…BEWITCHED, THE HONEYMOONERS, FATHER KNOWS BEST, and MY THREE SONS.

Gee, I can remember when it used to be the other way around… and they tried to make TV shows based on movies. I must be getting old.

“The Shield” Gets Close

by

It used to be that movie stars wouldn’t slum in television…certainly not on a weekly drama series. Those days are long gone. James Spader, Gary Sinise, Sharon Stone, Rebecca DeMornay… those are just a few of the names that have shown up in episodic TV lately. The trend is picking up speed. Variety reports that Glenn Close is joining the regular cast of THE SHIELD.

Marking her first series regular role on primetime television, Glenn Close has joined the cast of FX cop drama “The Shield.” Thesp, who landed an Emmy nomination this year for her portrayal of Eleanor of Aquitaine in Showtime movie “The Lion in Winter,” will appear in every episode of the 13-seg fourth season. Production begins in January. Close will play Monica Rawling, the new captain of the Farmington precinct, who empowers Det. Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) to enforce her controversial community policies.

Could it be that stars have started noticing something viewers did a long time ago… that, by and large, TV shows are better written, produced and directed than most feature films these days? And not just on HBO, either…

“Farscape” A Dud

by

Variety reports that SciFi may have been right to cancel FARSCAPE last season.

“Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars” tallied so-so ratings (1.9 million overall viewers) for the channel. Though the two-night event topped 18-49 rankings among basic cablers in its timeslot, the “Farscape” bow paled in comparison to recent Sci Fi original premieres “Stargate Atlantis” (4.2 million) and eighth-season launch of “Stargate SG-1” (3.2 million).

I wonder how it fared compared to the GROWING PAINS reunion the same night…?

Scammer of the Month Reponds

by

A while back, I criticized Bookreview.com as a scam for offering to review books for a fee. Heather Froeschl, associate editor of the service, has responded and thinks I was way out-of-line (I wonder if she’s also a member of the Colonial Fan Force, "the power brokers of the new Babylon"?)

Every writer providing a review deserves to be paid for the service. This does not mean paying for a rave, it means paying for the reviewer’s time and written word.

Sure, a reviewer should be paid. By her editor, not by the person whose work she is reviewing.

My goal is to give authors what they ask for…a review of their work. Sometimes I have to give bad news, sometimes I do give a rave, but in the end, authors respect what I have said about their book. Can you buy MY respect? Nope. But you can get a review from us within 14 business days. And that’s no scam.

Heather argues that the reviewers, despite being paid by the author or publisher for their comments, can maintain their objectivity and journalistic integrity. Paying for a review, she says, doesn’t guarantee a rave or that the reviewer will tread gently.

Okay, for the sake of argument, I’ll take her word for that.

How could anybody respect a book review that’s paid for by the author or publisher? How could anybody trust a critic who takes cash from the subjects of her reviews?

Of course the assumption is that a review that’s bought and paid for will be positive. If a  book gets a negative review from her,  I’d have to figure the author’s check bounced…or he wouldn’t kick in the extra $50 for a rave.

She doesn’t seem to get why anyone would question the validity of a review that’s paid for… or a critic who is in the pocket of the author or publisher. Heather also doesn’t seem to get the ethical problems, either…or how the practice creates a glaring conflict of interest.

Would you respect a movie review from a critic hired by the studio? Would you trust Consumer Reports on their review of a car, appliance, or other product if they were paid for the review by the manufacturers? Would you respect a restaurant review from a critic who was paid by the chef?

Apparently, Heather would.

There is a God

by

Variety reports that NBC’s cop show HAWAII has been cancelled. 1hawaxn04

We should start seeing the full-page advertisements from the fans, clamoring for its return as a feature film with the original cast, appearing in the trades in about 25 years. Mark your calenders.

Ivan Sergei is now officially tied with Jason Gedrick as the kiss of death for any TV show.