The Herald-News from Passaic, New Jersey • 41

Sunday, fan 3, 2001 HERUDNEWS Oil TELEVISION The Death of the Network TV Movie-of-the-Week roducers ashing in Jelebrity of fieW Chefs' By ERIC DEGGANS Scripps Howard News Service Now that the networks have settled on their new fall schedules, its time to ponder a significant which was a stalwart on the CBS schedule, crashed this year like a 747 running into the ground, said Stanley Brooks, executive producer of NBCs Submerged, one of the few quality TV movies to anon a network so far this year. The movies that have shown any legs are the ones that break the form, added Brooks, a producer of TV movies since the mid-80s. Its not a coincidence that something as different, unique and well-crafted as ABCs Judy Garland minisenes was one of the (ratings) bright spots. We need to reinvent the form. Brooks suggests networks hand smaller budgets to hungry, innovative young minds to create cheap yet creative Boycott-style movies, saving larger budgets for specialized event movies aired during sweeps periods.

When TV movies started in the 70s, (networks) lost money, he added. Thats when Brians Song and Duel got made. Its time to turn back the clock and give the next Spielberg a chance. Hear, hear. Because if these movies and miniseries dont start surprising us more often, no one will care when the networks stop making them once and for all.

ing scenery as aging sociopath Sante Kimes on CBSs Like Mother, Like Son: The Strange Story of Sante and Kenny Kimes; Sex and the Citys Chns Noth stuck in a ludicrous moustache and even sillier production of Steve Martinis The Judge on NBC; The Practices Camryn Manheim channeling Cyrano through a comedy club in ABCs Kiss My Act. Compare that to HBOs programming in a similar period Kenneth Branaghs and Stanley Tuccis mesmerizing performances as evil Nazi officers developing the final solution in Conspiracy and Billy Crystals loving, detailed look at Roger Maris struggle to break Babe Ruths home run record. Yes, HBO has more money and time to develop projects. But even the low-budget Boycott, which offered an electric and innovative retelling of the Montgomery, bus boycott, found creative success by breaking rules. Actors occasionally talked to the camera, documentary-style, and lead character Martin Luther King Jr.

was shown speaking with contemporary black youths. The CBS Sunday Night Movie, With productions like Like Mother, Like Son: The Strange Story of Santo and Kenny Klmes, which ran on CBS last month, the network TV movle-of-the-week may be mercifully dying. The death of the original network TV movie-of-the-week. Such productions have a rich TV history, including the straight-up sentimentality of 1971s Brians Song (James Caan and Billy Dee Williams as Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers, football players and best friends whose bond is tested as Piccolo succumbs to cancer). More recently, talk show titan Oprah Winfrey briefly revived the genre on ABC with her Oprah Winfrey Presents efforts including the straight-up sentimentality of 1999s Tuesdays With Morrie (hotshot sportscaster visits his college mentor, who is dying of Lou Gehrigs disease).

Once upon a time, network TV movies of the week provided some of the mediums most classic moments. (I still shudder while remembering Duel, the Steven Spielberg-directed Dennis Weaver flick about an murderous, unseen trucker who tries to kill a motorist with his rig.) But in arranging their fall schedules, NBC-dropped its last made-for-TV movie night on Sundays, ABC dropped a movie night on Mondays, and CBS, which last season featured Sunday and Wednesday movie nights, axed their Wednesday edition for a reality TV show and an hourlong drama. TV movies are a vestige of the past, said NBC Entertainment president Jeff Zucker, in a conference call with reporters last week. Viewers just arent there for these types of programs. Right now, we had to step up and say, This genre is over.

It seems others in network TV-land agree. According to a study conducted by the Lifetime cable channel, the five biggest TV networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and the WB) in 1996 made 264 movies that averaged a 7.5 rating, a barely respectable number. By last year, they had made just 146 movies a 44 percent decline averaging a 5.4 rating, which would spell cancellation for any regular network series. In contrast, cable channels doubled their annual number of made-for-TV movies from 1990 to 2000, with four times the number of cable outlets airing original movies last year compared to a decade before, according to the study. Even non-fiction-based channels such as Animal Planet and Court TV are getting into the act, cable TV, theyre a fountain of plenty.

And because cable channels often run a movie several times in the same week TNT airs its movies three times on the same day during a premiere the cost of production is spread over a larger number of telecasts, and cable outlets can make fewer movies in a year. For cable, these kind of movies raise the profile of the channel and its perceived value to the viewer, Lifetimes Brooks added. (Sometimes) it almost doesnt matter if they make money. Im tempted to blame the demise of the made-for-TV movie on something simpler than cable competition and economics. Most made-for-TV movies these days stink.

Ill be honest for TV critics, made-for-television movies and miniseries are a true test of character. Anywhere from 2 to 20 hours long, they demand a level of attention thats tough in todays MTV-fast world, even when joure getting paid to watch them. And what a load of stuff you have to watch. Just a sampling of the pabulum offered viewers lately says it all: Mary Tyler Moore chew picking up any made-for-TV movie slack that the networks retreat may provide. Networks they tend to run in a pack, and theyre on the (reality TV) kick right now, said Tim Brooks, vice president of research at Lifetime, which airs one made-for-TV movie each month.

I dont think its that (viewers) are tired of the networks movies. Its that theres so much competition for their attention. Indeed, cable networks have found made-for-TV movies a valuable tool for showing viewers exactly where their focus lies. VH1 and can run a thousand commercials touting their wares. But a single Meat Loaf biopic or Nero Wolfe movie speaks volumes.

Which helps explain how the woman-centered Lifetime channel has found success in a style of movies that slowly died on network TV. The formula that has driven viewers away from CBS older-female-focused Sunday and Wednesday night movies predictable plots, women-in-jeopardy formats, tear-jerking melodrama, past-their-prime actors as stars has become Lifetimes calling card. Last month, the Sissy Spacek movie Midwives drew nearly 4 million households; the month before, Brooke Shields What Makes a Family brought more than 3 million. On a network scale, such numbers are chicken feed, but in the lower-profile world of JUNE 14 JULY 1 PALISADES CENTER Exit 1 2 off NYS Thruway in West Nyack, NY ticKe Trnas rer (212) 307-4100 All Ticketmaster Outlets ticketmaster com Helen Hayes Performing Arts Center Box Office 1 1 7 Main St Nyack Service charge- 1 per ticket In Association with Sponsored by bigapplecircus.org CIGNA HtthhCue By DARLA ATLAS Knight Ridder News Service Not long ago, it would have si emed ludicrous to compare a TV lefs popularity with that of, say, ick Jagger. But Hollywood types such as Liny Thompson, executive pro-d jeer of an upcoming American rsion of the cult hit Iron Chef, fei the comparison is entirely a curate.

TV ches have become the rock firs of our time, he says. With that sentiment in mind, the ioking worlds brightest stars are ginning to set up shop in prime ti ne. Emeril Lagasse, whose Food Network shows The Essence of Emeril and Emeril Live have ade him the most-watched chef 0 television, will star in an NBC tcom about a TV chef this fall. the same time, look for UPNs A merican version of the Japanese 4 jnd Food Network)- -hit -Iron Chef, which will be hosted by the perennially campy William Shat-ner. Jf chefs have become rock stars, Lkgasse would be Elvis.

His Emeril live, taped in front of a streaming audience and a band, qarried the network for a couple 01 years, says Judy Girard, president of the Food Network. From Day One, it did better than the rest of the network did. in its first season, the show received a half-million requests for few thousand audience tickets. Since then, Lagasse (rhymes with posse) has regularly packed arena-sized stadiums with fans who want to see his high-energy cdoking act. )His viewers at home include veteran television-producing team Harry Thomason and his wife, Lihda Bloodworth (who formerly wnt by Bloodworth-Thomason).

The duo, who created such shows as Designing Women and Evening Shade, took the last several years off and were looking foj- something to get back in, Thomason says. night, while watching Lagasse strut his foodstuff on TV, Bljoodworth came up with the idea for the pilot for Emeril, which she would later write and her husband would direct. The premise of the show is real easy: Its about a guy named Emeril who has a cooking show and is surrounded by several real mbuthy women, Thomason says. about what happens to him backstage. Although the shows details are still being developed, the concept soVinds similar to that of Designing Women: One man (Meshach Taylor then, Lagasse now) is surrounded by loud, funny women.

Emeril, set to air Tuesdays at 8 p.jn. ET, will feature recipes viewers can see afterward on a Web site. The New Orleans-based Lagasse still will be cooking on his Food Network shows, which are produced in New York, while tap-iiig the sitcom in Los Angeles. Sound like a recipe for commuter burnout? NBC and the Food Network have worked out a schedule that will keep him running between coasts, Thomason sys. Were all cooperating with each other, as its in our best interests.

Those looking for even more cheese with their chef-related comedy can tune into the Food Networks Iron Chef. The Japanese import has become a cult classic since it started airing in the Ujiited States three seasons ago. In each hourlong episode, a challenger chef battles one of the shows four Iron Chefs in creating a several-course meal with a secret ingredient such as giant eel or squid which is announced at the top of the show. makes Iron Chef especially entertaining are the theatrics and the over-the-top dubbing. The Americans doing the voiceovers for the Japanese chefs, Judges and commentators seem to take special glee in repeating their lilies such as, I am enjoying a sughtly bitter taste of the eel, or My mouth is on fire! Hee hee! While most wouldnt dare trying td top the unadulterated camp of yon Chef," producer Thompson Thompson spent almost a year negotiating with Fuji Television to acquire the rights to the Iron Chef format.

Two specials, which will be tdped on June 28 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, will feature an euiborate kitchen arena, a live audience, American chefs and Shatner. i A 1 Limited Eagagemeeti June 2-17 $32.50 42.50 rr qbutwi Box Office (845) 358-6333 Groups (85)358 2847 -n Ij 1 17 Atom Strwt Nyodi NY 10960 www hlnhaypoc org LmmmI (mm i 1 1 1 L-ii hT 4 m4 ft 1 l-M 4 .1 TV -j -A tv1 1 i u-VI' U1H AM a I i Tit I i A'Jjj. 'i.