THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, May 30, 1995 TAG: 9505270071
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
I SAW IT coming months ago - finis for ``Northern Exposure'' - when CBS began treating one of the 10 best shows on television like a visiting uncle who had overstayed his welcome.
The network pulled up a moving van and packed off ``Northern Exposure'' to Wednesday night after it had been a hit with viewers young and hip on Mondays at 10 p.m. Now, there is some pretentious doctor show with a singing surgeon in that Monday night time slot.
And after moving ``Northern Exposure'' to Wednesday night, CBS often pre-empted the drama. Who knows when we'll see the handful of new episodes that CBS has locked in its vaults?
When CBS and ABC released their 1995-96 primetime schedules not long ago, they disappointed viewers devoted to ``Northern Exposure'' and ``My So-Called Life.'' Judging by the calls that reached me on Infoline (640-5555, press 2486), some Fox viewers are in a funk because ``Medicine Ball'' has been canceled. It was ``ER'' for the MTV generation.
But nobody is as upset about the new network schedules as 17-year-old Aimee Tripp of Edenton, N.C.; Crystal Smith in Chesapeake; and others who say that their lives will have a great big hole in them now that ``My So-Called Life'' is history. ``Shows like this come along only once in a lifetime,'' said Tripp.
Maybe twice for you, Aimee. You're only 17.
There is talk of bringing the ``My So-Called Life'' cast together for a two-hour ABC movie. We can hope.
While the cancellation of ``Northern Exposure,'' ``My So-Called Life'' and ``Medicine Ball'' disappoints many viewers in Hampton Roads, it didn't surprise television insiders. The producers of these shows knew they did not have the support of the network hierarchy.
What did surprise critics and television insiders was the decision by Fox to continue ``A Party of Five'' on Wednesday night after ``Beverly Hills 90210.''
``My So-Called Life'' at times had better ratings.
Other eyebrow-lifters:
CBS, in third place and starving for younger viewers, moved ``Murder, She Wrote'' from Sunday to Thursday at 8 p.m. ``Cybill,'' and a new show, ``Almost Perfect'' assume the time slot where Angela Lansbury has ruled for 11 seasons.
When Tim Reid presided over his celebrity tennis tournament at Norfolk State University not long ago, he expressed doubts that his sitcom, ``Sister, Sister,'' would be back on ABC in the fall. Reid believed his show and others on the ABC schedule that were popular but not monster hits would be purged to make room for projects from big-name producers Steven Bochco. Reid was right.
But the sitcom has been picked up by Warner Bros. network.
UPN, which dares to call itself a network although it puts on programs only two nights a week, went back to the drawing board for its 1995-96 season. Only ``Star Trek: Voyager'' was retained. Coming up are shows of gimmicks and glitz that remind me of other series, including ``The X-Files,'' ``The Prisoner'' and ``The Fugitive.'' New shows on UPN include ``Nowhere Man,'' ``Deadly Games'' and ``Live Shot.''
Leonard Nimoy is the creative force behind ``Deadly Games,'' which is about a video game gone mad. He appeared with UPN brass at a Los Angeles press conference with cast members of ``Star Trek: Voyager.'' How curious they looked in everyday 1995 street clothes. (I caught it on closed circuit courtesy of WGNT).
Nimoy, his royal Spockness to these new Treksters, said he felt like a great-grandfather at a family reunion. The ``Star Trek'' franchise has been part of TV for three decades, Nimoy reminded the press and UPN executives.
In contrast, UPN's ``Platypus Man'' lasted for about three minutes.
``Northern Exposure'' was on longer. But not long enough. Even in its declining years, ``Northern Exposure'' was better TV than 90 percent of the shows on the new fall schedules. Make that 95 percent. by CNB