Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 15, 1994 TAG: 9401150302
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: 12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KEN PARISH PERKINS DALLAS MORNING NEWS
DATELINE: PASADENA, CALIF. LENGTH: Medium
It's not television at all. It's me.
Well, not me, per se. It's men. Guys. Those beings whom Queen Latifah, when asked on "Living Single" what a world without them would be like, answered, "a bunch of fat, happy women - and no crime."
Maybe she's got a point. I thought about Latifah after meeting Dan Filie. He's senior vice president at Universal Television, in charge of the company's new production project.
Action Pack, as it's called, will over the next year broadcast 24 original action adventure movies starting this week with William Shatner's sci-fi "TekWar."
While listening to him, I recalled a study conducted by Satellite Orbit, considered the bible of satellite dish owners.
The study listed the top five shows for men, ages 18 to 49. They were: "Monday Night Football," "Married . . . with Children," "Herman's Head," "In Living Color" and "I Witness Video."
Rating just as high with men were shows featuring a lot of gunfire, blood, dead bodies and scantily clad women, and anything with Chuck Norris.
Women, in heavy numbers (well over 60 percent), tend to support more dialogue-driven shows. "Roseanne." "Northern Exposure." "Murphy Brown." "Love & War." "Home Improvement."
Not figured into the study were relationship shows such as "Mad About You," which at least one guy I know said he'd toss himself in front of a moving train rather than watch.
Universal's Action Pack will target that crowd. The men crowd. "No, there won't be a lot of romances," promises Filie. "It's good, solid action. Something they (men) can sit down and make an appointment with each week. Just like football, it doesn't matter which teams are playing."
The gender gap has always been glaring when it comes to, well, just about everything. But nowhere is it more pronounced than in film and television.
"Sleepless in Seattle" made a huge deal over boy movies and girl movies. "Sleepless," about soulmates, was a girl's movie.
So there must be boy TV shows and girl TV shows. Of course, there are exceptions. Some men love "Sisters." lf I do. Some women somewhere love Chuck Norris.
Problem is, according to the study, men's tastes seem to be sucking quality TV dry.
I asked NBC Entertainment president Warren Littlefield for his take on the whole thing. He never fully grasped my question.
At a lavish cocktail party where more than 90 of NBC's stars attended, I cornered Helen Hunt, the actress who plays Jamie Buchman in "Mad About You."
"I could get killed for this," she began, "but I've always believed that men struggle to see how they can fit relationships in their lives. For women, it is their lives."
And? "And why would someone want to be reminded of something they have trouble doing? `Cops' sounds a lot better than spending a half-hour watching a couple navigate their lives."
Question of the day: Has the lowbrow taste of men ruined television? Ummm. Just something to ponder the next time he grabs for the remote.
by CNB