The News Tribune from Tacoma, Washington • 51

--v Fox Fox finds some broadcasting better off broken Continued from Page 4 The News Tribune prove a worthy competitor this fall when for the first time in a long time it introduces original programming? (8et to air an K8TW am Chuck new talk show Geraldo It Can Be Told" and a Ihamle Miller show slated for January) Would Fox think twice about renewing the KCPQ affiliate -v contract a year from September of Kelly's resistance to a be paid for attempts to come op with something different is material that goes beyond the piste Things that are tasteless gratuitous vulgar and offensive I don't think unlnie to Fax or to us Whenever people are trying to go Into new dmcttons aonw of the people doing it go into the wrong The problem ie that the problem doesn't end there Aa Fox has attracted considerable attention for ita off-center am the Still to be 1 The old rale: The vast majority of new network -series launch in September followed by three months of summer mruas' 1 The new rale: Fax series premieres and repeats will be staggered over months The rationale: September as usual the -networks and in this case it also included Fox laanched S4 new series in a 45-day period And as usual-it was a massacre Seventy-five percent of those series make it heck to this Peter Chernin Fox Entertainment Groan president said recently think it takas an Indastry expert to question why networks spend millions of dollars in prodaction and promotion on these series and then lump them all together end expect the viewer to find each one of them -V- v'v And in an era of year-roand competition from cable and home video it take a genias to anderstand the lunacy of summer repeats yoa imagine if McDonald's shat down in the for four straight Chernin said expect that when they reopened in the fall customers would probably have developed a Barger King Wendy's or Taco Bell Fox hopes to build a viewer habit for sack new shows as 8am upcoming series and each older fam es With by offering viewers compelling programs every week of the -Chemia said r- Fox Broadcasting Co vmimi im i iqm nvr Mw mows Fox ortoreg 30 npleodsa of HSto 90210 InetOBg of tho standard 22 any of Us upcoming i from Sam trashy to the comedy wffl fly whether its new approach to 12-month programming wfll work whether Fox cen gontlnnalty reinvent itself and teievMon -Kelly believes that if anyone can do it DUler and Utaer at Fox -can know mom about 1 going on in the prodaction of movies and television programs than Mr Tisch (CBS chief -executive officer Laurence Hach) and Mr Wright CEO Bob Wright) wowd if they spent the I- waking hours of the next SM years episodes each of and vtth 40 segments of and 50 weeks of Mpst Wanted The rationale: Give the audience more of what it mats and it won't have reason to look for studying DUler I is The old rale: Networks gauge audience reaction to series through focus groups who watch the 'pilots and offer their opinions '-v -r The new rale: Fox will test audience reaction by -performing series concepts before Uve audiences In a 'trsl setting The rationale: like an oatof-town uncharacteristically mom modest about Fort future our impulses am to plant the little flag a foot down the road and see if we can get them in amamh aflMAef aF jugs 58 every upon 01 our dohubh So far the mavericks am The old rale: Networks air S3 original episodes of regular aeries f- Broadway tryout this will allow the producer mom The new rale: Fox has ordered episodes each time to fine-tune the material before we actually of Hills and Living S4 commit it to Chernin said KCPQ reeearch director (and Kelly heir) Chria Kelly peti It the other network have tried desperately to imitate 1 momenta of last year's I o'clock CBS comedy to an upcoming bewdy Redd Foxx comedy again set for I pjn on CBS network ateadarda have gone lax in permit of Fox-like --poblicity -vi Even KSTW is Joining the -bandwagon if botetedly Audiences will get a quintuple doae of this fall when Channel II airs the-aeriea in syndicated nightly reruns If taateleaaneaa is the price fresh programming la the payoff has repopularised animation aeriea for family audiences with a second wave to follow next aeeaon with Critters" on ABC and on CBS a Satarday night show that follows polim on thrir imeti with an unblinking eye has recreated the so-called reality genre into a gsouine and genuinely provocative programming form And Hills NS1I" with its stories on snch matters as rape and tern pregnancy is the first dramatic series to take yoong viewers and yoeth lasses seriously As ratings have soared with this month's airing of new episodes reasonable to assnme i that copycat programs far being written States by Paramount tide year with companion show airing east of the 1 3 COUPON BPRB vvm Which brings us finally to thorn shootouts I promised you before Fox whim had promised to launch a national news program in concert with local last year was sidelined by the recession has only deterred us in DUler said recently deterred us in Thrn DUler declared i doortUnk tolerate But when it comm to a traditional nightly newscast Kelly maintains we pay for not going to have it Unlike the federal government we lack the ability to tax people for what -we A second showdown this one concerning Udvid is still to come Over this fail and next Fox will expend its programming execs) know more about going oh in the production of movies and television progams than Mr Tech (CBS) and Mr Wrigit (NBC) would if I they spent the waking hours of the next 300 years studying television 2 room only $2969 Robert Holy Which brings back to how this story might mid The very qualities that have contributed to the Fox and KCPQ successes may lead to their demise As long as they keep BwHl needs fulfilling and rivals rash to copy them Diller and Kelly will have to continually reinvent the wbeeL Chris Kelly admits biggest chaltatye is mepiag the Fox edge and the big Fox answer is moving away from the fall season schedule saying that make sense whydo aU the shows need to premium in September where viewers find them alir To that end Fox has found ways to rewrite the rules of primotime 5 ROOMS A A nmrov STOCKS $17399 HOW $9S4t ff KCPQ-TV you save $7830! an affiliate that In the news A SOM HP It 7 lf I OMRS DUler said hell give affiliates -two to three years to get a 10 newscast The spoken but dearly Implied Bob Kdty is not a man who responds to threats think I mud be candid and say we have no 0 to indude the animated in the afternoons a five-part minlsrriiu hrglnnlm TTrrpt and a cartoon version of for next year Like a number of other Fox affiliates KCPts before- and aftarechool hours am booked solid with Mutant Ntyja and the successful Disney cartoons Something wifi have to give: And Fox chief Kellner says the showdown wUl come to this: Either you save $1950! 1 jdamtoday that are definite ofaay in the area of general local UannUiM Ulsfc SEARS ifcifcd "I DUler toldthe TV critics who gathered last month at Fox for a fan presentation went into broadrasthig Just as everybody kind of sold it was going to he over And with doomsayors along the path we have made oar way certainly made a lot of mistakes We certainly esped to Kdty said KCPQ which canceled its local news la a wholesale firing four months before the Fox launch in 15M has returned with a news magasiae program A prodaction based at the Kdtys we Sacramento station KCBA The the affiliates find a way to carry or FoxJ the Fox Children's Network CALL Dffl KX MON SAL 830 AM TO PM Soatile (King County) 433-8872 oBremorton 373-2811 Tacoma 53SA804 Everett 259-7107 wiU fc the firtwH to another station In town: Wodd K8TV dadty sab I rWqsttwiU Fox I JS-noiMIAMI IWiAFlfMVrtmBg ll ffid I1 i I.