THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 16, 1996 TAG: 9607160046
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LARRY BONKO
LENGTH: 112 lines
IT IS STILL early - Week 1 of the semiannual gathering of television critics in the land of a million tummy tucks.
But we've been here long enough to see trends emerging and patterns forming for the new fall TV season. Among them:
The Warner Brothers' network and United Paramount have decided that primetime should be a min-strel show. They scheduled sitcoms (``Homeboys in Outer Space,'' ``Malcolm and Eddie, ``The Jamie Foxx Show'') that portray the African-American male as a jive-talking, hip-hopping hustler who regards women only as sexual playthings.
Steven Bochco, who succeeded in developing an Emmy-winning, frank, edgy, unconventional drama in ``N.Y. Blue,'' proves that he is also capable of producing tasteless trash in the new CBS sitcom ``Public Morals.'' Crotch and cleavage one-liners.
A year ago, NBC's rivals were scrambling to clone ``Friends.'' This season, instead of buds with bods, the Hollywood Xerox machine is giving us weirdness, as in ``The X-Files.'' The new offbeat shows include ``Pretender''; ``Millennium,'' from ``The X-Files'' creator; ``Early Edition''; and ``Dark Skies.''
While it isn't the 1960s, when game shows were all over the TV landscape, including four in primetime, that form of programming is making a comeback this season with the help of the Virginia Beach-based Family Channel. FAM, as the chummy channel likes to be known to viewers, previewed for members of the Televisions Critics Association four new game shows on its fall schedule starting in September.
``Family Challenge'' will be back but with a new host after the suicide of Ray Combs. And that host is - surprise! - Michael Burger of the late, great ``Mike & Maty'' talk show on ABC daytime. (Vicki Lawrence was mentioned as a possible host of ``Wait Til You Have Kids,'' but the deal fell through, said FAM vice president of corporate communications Diane Linen Powell).
Burger's ``Family Challenge'' will anchor FAM's Monday through Friday three-hour block of game shows starting at 3 p.m. with ``The New
Til You Drop,'' followed by ``Shopping Spree,'' ``Small Talk,'' ``Wait Til You Have Kids'' and ``Family Challenge.'' (Two other FAM game shows, ``Masters of the Maze'' and ``Wild Animal Games'' are history).
Fox announced that it will give a game show called ``Big Deal!'' a tryout in primetime (Sundays at 7 p.m.) starting Sept. 4 while the show originally scheduled for then, ``L.A. Firefighters,'' gets a much-needed overhaul.
Even before Fox and FAM crank up their game-show package, the fX cable channel on Aug. 12 will sign on with ``No Relation,'' a game show from Dick Clark productions in which a three-member celebrity panel tries to spot the imposter in a family group.
The USA network has already started ``The Big Date'' with Mark Walberg weekdays at 3:30 p.m., Lifetime is up and running with Wink Martindale's ``Debt'' Monday through Friday at 6:30 p.m., and on MTV weeknights at 7 and 11, ``Singled Out'' with major babe Jenny McCarthy is that channel's most-watched program.
Speaking of winning dates and mates on TV, ``The Dating Game'' and ``The Newlywed Game,'' last seen on network television in 1971, will soon be revived for the 1990s on 220 stations in syndication. Also being reborn in 1996 are ``Match Game,'' ``Card Sharks'' and ``Tattletales.'' Coming from another syndicator is a game show called ``Bzzz!'' - a dating game for the 1990s.
And as this press tour got started, Sony Pictures Entertainment said its 24-hour-a-day Game Show Network is up and running with a library of 49,000 episodes of 61 vintage game shows. GSN's daily ``Club A.M'' is a talk show about game shows.
A year ago when producers met the TV press, the story of daytime TV was talk, talk and more talk, as nine new gabfests signed on. The thinking in Hollywood was that if Ricki Lake can attract a large audience of young adults, anyone can.
As it turned out, the new syndicated talk shows with the Ricki wannabes sank in a sea of sleaze, with everyone from your local congressman to your preacher calling for the Jennys, Jerrys, Geraldos and Sally Jessys of daytime talk to clean up their acts.
Rosie O'Donnell last month came along with a refreshing entertainment and talk show that was better than a case of Renuzit air fresheners for daytime TV.
Enter now the new game shows. A few are titillating, as in the case of ``Singled Out'' and ``The Big Date,'' but they are generally wholesome and harmless, as in FAM's new daytime block. ``Game shows have become a hot commodity,'' said John Michaeli, Family Channel's spokesman on the West Coast. ``Viewers have had it with the sleaze.''
Talk is tired.
The Family Channel took its place among the major players in cable as the press tour rolled on, bringing on such star power as Naomi Judd (via satellite from Nashville), Stefanie Powers and Robert Wagner (FAM's ``Hart to Hart'' stars) and Jaclyn Smith, who'll do a movie for the channel.
Also introduced was Pat Finn of ``The New Shop Til You Drop.''
Television has given birth to about 500 game shows, including the shopping frenzies, since 1946, when the first one (``Cash and Carry'') was seen on the Dumont network. Before long, the game shows that were hits on radio (``Pot O' Gold,'' ``Take It or Leave It'') were switching to television. As television matured, so did the game-show format - with shows such as ``Password,'' ``Concentration'' and ``Match Game'' holding the attention of viewers for years.
Back then, some of television's biggest names, including Walter Cronkite, Mike Wallace, Regis Philbin and Rod Serling, hosted game shows. Cronkite's show was ``It's News to Me,'' Wallace fronted seven game shows, Philbin hosted ``Almost Anything Goes'' and Serling was light years from ``The Twilight Zone'' on ``Liar's Club.''
``Hollywood Squares'' ran for 14 1/2 years on NBC. ``The Price Is Right'' signed on 25 years ago on CBS and is still running weekdays at 11 a.m.
Once upon a time, there were 73 game shows on ABC, NBC and CBS, including the game show (``Who Do You Trust?'') that helped launch Johnny Carson's career. Then came the quiz-show scandals of the 1950s.
Game shows gasped and died until Merv Griffin invented ``Wheel of Fortune'' and ``Jeopardy!'' 13 years ago. It was a mini comeback for game shows. Another came in 1991, when five new game shows signed on. Now comes the game-show revival of 1996 with 10 new shows in production. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
LIFETIME
Veteran game show host Wink Martindale asks questions on Lifetime's
new ``Debt.'' by CNB