Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 18, 1994 TAG: 9407260043
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID BIANCULLI NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
The move: An announcement that its fall season will kick off, quite literally, with its Sept. 4 premiere telecast of regular-season NFC football.
According to Fox Entertainment Group President Sandy Grushow, that Sunday will begin on Fox with a daytime NFC doubleheader, with the second game featuring the Dallas Cowboys vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers. Following that, Fox will roll out new episodes of its entire Sunday prime-time lineup: returning series ``The Simpsons'' and ``Married With Children,'' as well as the premieres of new shows ``Fortune Hunter,'' ``Hardball'' and ``Wild Oats.''
``Given that the other networks traditionally run the equivalent of test patterns Labor Day weekend,'' Grushow said, ``we think Fox will be the place to be on the 4th.''
For the next dozen days after that, Grushow added, Fox will continue airing fresh episodes of its new and returning shows. ``Our entire lineup will be up and running in pattern, prior to the traditional network premiere week,'' he said.
Throwing down that gauntlet means Grushow is forcing his competitors to make a decision: Whether 'tis nobler to let the Fox get a two-week head start on the fall season, or to oppose it - and by opposing, to start eating up inventory earlier than planned.
Those decisions will come from other executives in the next legs of this semiannual TV press tour. Last week, though, was Grushow's turn to defend his own decisions. His answers, in the following cases, deserve responses of their own, which I am more than happy to provide.
On moving the steamy ``Melrose Place'' to Monday and an earlier time slot (8 p.m.), Grushow said, ``We all agreed that, while `Melrose' is certainly not a `traditional' family show, nor is it by any means antisocial. When people tune in to watch it, they know precisely what they're going to get. And what they get are themes that can be seen in soap operas all day long.''
(So, apparently, what's good enough for daytime is good enough for what used to be called the prime-time family hour.)
On plans for a Fox telemovie on O.J. Simpson:
``If you do an O.J. movie, it will probably run in late summer or very early fall ... We think, obviously, the American public is fascinated by this story ... and we get tired of doing `5 shares' with `Based on an Untrue Story'.''
(In other words, it'll get made. Quickly.)
On not permitting the male gay characters on ``Melrose Place'' to kiss on camera, even though ABC showed an infamous ``lesbian kiss'' on ``Roseanne'':
``The bottom line was, we'd have lost up to $1 million by airing that kiss. ... We didn't want to go down that road.''
Asked how the network could estimate its losses without scheduling the controversial show to see if sponsors pulled their ads or, if they did, to see if the ads could be replaced, Grushow said, ``We didn't want to try to find out.''
(In other words, we'll accept the credit for putting an ``openly gay'' character in prime time, so long as we don't have to actually show him doing anything ``openly gay.'')
On the difficulty of expanding the Fox network across the weekly schedule: ``While the other networks have had the luxury of fine-tuning nights that have existed for decades, we've faced the infinitely tougher task of launching whole new nights - nights that never before existed.''
by CNB