Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 11, 1993 TAG: 9404060003
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAMES ENDRST THE HARTFORD COURANT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Television has become far too vast a medium to contain just one - as the new 1993-'94 prime-time season is already proving.
There are fewer signs every year, for instance, of what used to be known as a fall season. Though the vast number of new network series don't begin until mid-September, the trend toward earlier summer debuts continues.
Competitively, CBS looks like it has enough to stay on top again this year, with ownership of Sunday, Monday and Saturday nights all but assured. But ABC - the network with the show of the year in ``Grace Under Fire'' - will be a strong challenger. Though the network will be tested Tuesday nights, it should still win that night, along with Wednesdays and Fridays.
NBC, showing signs of gathering itself creatively, will hold on to Thursday nights - where ``Cheers'' spinoff ``Frasier'' moves in after ``Seinfeld.''
Fox Broadcasting, still the renegade in network television, shows few signs of settling down, which is a good thing. The fourth-place but still-growing network has some calculatedly brash offerings - ``Daddy Dearest'' and ``The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.'' - with mixed results, but with Fox audiences you never know.
And if everyone on TV seems to be laughing, don't worry; it's not you, it's a new glut of sitcoms.
You'll notice another trend here, though it extends to dramas, too: A lot of new shows seem to have families with three kids (ABC's ``Grace Under Fire'' ``Boy Meets World'' and ``Joe's Life''; CBS's ``It Had To Be You'' and ``The Nanny''; and NBC's ``The Second Half,'' for example.).
The western is riding high this season, particularly at CBS on Saturday nights. ``Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,'' ``Harts of the West'' and ``Walker, Texas Ranger'' are likely to get the drop on ABC, NBC and Fox.
Newsmagazines - from CBS's ``Eye to Eye With Connie Chung'' to Fox's ``Front Page'' and NBC's ``Now With Tom Brokaw & Katie Couric'' - are officially clotting prime time.
Familiar faces will be recycled this season, including: Robert Urich, Bronson Pinchot, Richard Lewis, John Larroquette, Judith Light, William Devane, Daniel J. Travanti, Dennis Franz, Harry Anderson and Peter Scolari. And a wave of stand-up comics, most notably ABC's Brett Butler, are getting their own sitcoms - often patterned after their already popular acts.
The debate over violence in television may give way to a debate about sex, based on previews of such shows as ABC's already controversial ``NYPD Blue'' and CBS's soap ``Angel Falls.''
In some cases, viewers will be faced with tough head-to-head viewing choices. The kids will be frustrated by NBC's decision to run ``Saved by the Bell: The College Years'' opposite ABC's ``Full House'' Tuesday nights; NBC's ``Mad About You'' may lose out in its new time slot opposite ``The Simpsons'' on Fox; and ``Night Court'' fans may be disappointed to know that NBC's ``The John Larroquette Show'' will go up against ABC's ``Roseanne.''
Ironically, though, one of the big prime-time trends may be all the interest in post-prime-time programming - namely the late-night wars among David Letterman, Jay Leno, Ted Koppel, Arsenio Hall, Conan O'Brien, Rush Limbaugh, Chevy Chase et al.
Outside the networks, syndicators are likely to go their independent way on sex and violence, whether Congress likes it or not. And cable will continue to apply its own kind of pressure on the Big Four by offering both unique and R-rated programs.
So if it sounds as though television is going in a bunch of different directions at once, hasn't changed that much despite all these trends, and you're still going to have to search for more than a couple of shows to love, then you've got the 1993-94 season down pat.
by CNB