June 30, 1999
| Today's News | |
ALL OUT OF THE FAMILY?
Several companies have pulled their ads from Fox's new animated series Family Guy, following a letter-writing campaign directed by the Rev. Richardson Schell, a Kent, CT headmaster with a personal connection to the show's creator, Seth MacFarlane, the New York Times reported today (Wednesday). The campaign reportedly began after Schell, an Episcopalian priest, asked MacFarlane, who attended Schell's school a decade ago and whose mother worked there for 15 years, to change the last name of the Family Guy's family, Griffin, since it was the same last name as Schell's assistant. When MacFarlane refused to change the name, Schell reportedly became upset and started firing off protest letters to Family Guy's advertisers under a letterhead reading Proud Sponsors USA. In an interview published in Advertising Age on Monday, Schell conceded that there was no such organization and that he had never protested against any other TV show.
The top-ten shows of the week according to Nielsen
Research:
Copyright 1999, Studio Briefing. All Rights Reserved.
NOT YOUR AVERAGE SLAM DUNK
NBC won a Pyrrhic victory last week as the NBA Finals scored their
worst
ratings since 1989 -- back when basketball telecasts were far less
costly. Nevertheless, the hoop contests were the most-watched telecasts
of the week, something the network appreciated given the usual
summertime
nosedive of its top-rated drama E.R. (TV audiences are rarely
attracted to reruns of dramatic programs; witness last week's
relatively
poor ratings for the climactic Jimmy Smits episode of NYPD Blue,
which pulled big numbers for the network when it was originally
broadcast.) NBC won the week with a 7.2 rating and a 14 share. CBS was
second with a 6.9/13, followed by ABC with a 5.7/11 and Fox, with a
4.2/8. The week also saw the critically praised Canadian series
Power
Play on UPN draw the lowest rating in the history of the Nielsens,
a
.07. UPN canceled the series after only two airings on Tuesday.
1.
NBA Finals Game 3 (Tues.), NBC, 12.1/21; 2. NBA Finals Game 4 (Weds.),
NBC, 12.0/22; 3. NBA Finals Game 5 (Thurs.), NBC, 11.0/22; 4.
Dateline
NBC (Tues.), NBC, 9.5/17; 5. 60 Minutes, CBS, 9.2/19; 6.
Frasier, NBC, 9.0/16; 7. Everybody Loves Raymond, CBS,
8.9/15; 7. Friends, NBC, 8.9/18; 9. CBS, Now and Then
CBS,
8.8/15; 10, 20/20 (Sun), ABC, 8.5/15.
TV STING OPERATION IS STUNG
The general manager of a Palm Beach, FL TV station has apologized for
an
incident in which a station reporter posed as a police officer to gain
entry to a home as part of a hidden-camera story about how easily
criminals can do the same thing. As it turned out, WPTV reporter Derrol
Nail picked the wrong home -- that of a columnist for The Palm Beach
Post, who promptly called police. A police officer who was
cooperating with the TV station in its report, later took the
columnist's
complaint. WPTV general manager Bob Jordan later told the Post,
"This is a regrettable episode. What we did was poor judgment, and
I
don't believe a reporter should ever have to misrepresent themselves to
get a story."
NBC REHIRES MARV ALBERT
The yesssssss-man, Marv Albert, has been signed by NBC to a new
multiyear
contract two years after the sex scandal that made him the brunt of
jokes
in every late-show host's opening monologue. The deal calls for him to
call 12-14 NBA games, the playoffs and basketball contests during the
Olympics. Albert told today's (Wednesday) New York Post, "I
never
took it for granted that all this would fall into place. It was a
distant
hope, and it hasn't completely set in yet."
VARNEY AND BAY TO REPLACE DOBBS
CNN has named veteran financial news reporter Stuart Varney and
NewsStand
co-host Willow Bay to replace Lou Dobbs on Moneyline News Hour.
In
a telephone interview with today's (Wednesday) New York Times,
Varney said, "This is a spectacular opportunity. Lou created the
premier financial news program, and I would just like to follow in
those
footsteps."
CNN'S TO LAUNCH BIG PROMO CAMPAIGN TOMORROW
CNN said Tuesday that Yankee pitcher Roger Clemens, Amazon.com founder
Jeff Bezos and Virgin's Richard Branson will be among those appearing
in
its $25 million ad campaign, set to launch on Thursday. The theme of
the
campaign is "You Are What You Know."
THE V-CHIP IS HERE -- BUT WILL ANYONE USE IT?
With Thursday marking the FCC-mandated deadline for TV manufacturers to
include the V-chip in half of their new sets, the inventor of the chip
has acknowledged that he has doubts about whether parents will actually
use it. In an interview with today's (Wednesday) Los Angeles Times,
Tim Collings, an assistant professor at Technical University of
British Columbia, pointed to opinion polls that indicate that many
people's attitude is, "I think I have a good handle on [TV violence] in
my home; it's Joe next door who needs to do some work." However, he
notes, now that the V-chip is a reality in new sets, "We can finally
have
a look at this and whether people will really be using it."
SOUTH IS UP; WEST IS DOWN
A $100 million blockbuster is being pounded by the critics today
(Wednesday) even as they lavish praise on a low-budget, boastfully
vulgar
cartoon feature. Their comments about South Park and Wild,
Wild
West, however, are not expected to influence the box office over
the
coming 4th of July weekend -- with many analysts predicting a big take
for both movies and a record overall box office for the holiday.
MOVIE REVIEWS: WILD WILD WEST
Janet Maslin in the New York Times suggests that box office is
all
that Wild, Wild West is about. "It cares far more about herding
audiences into theaters than about what they hear or see," she writes.
Stephen Hunter in the Washington Post goes after the movie with
blazin' cavils. "The Wild Wild West is a rambling wreck from
computer tech and a helluva souvenir -- that is, for those interested
in
artifacts representing the American movie at its worst," he writes. Rod
Dreher in the New York Post tops even that invective: "Nothing
goes right in this empty-headed, extraordinarily dull and pointless
exercise in throwing Warner Bros. money down a rat hole. It's a wild,
wild waste of time."
MOVIE REVIEWS: SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER AND UNCUT
As the ads for South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut read:
"Uh-Oh, the Critics Love It!" Indeed, the film is pulling some of the
best reviews of the season, earning 4-star ratings from a slew of
critics. Rita Kempley's review in the Washington Post is
typical:
"Although some will see this rude, crude comedy as the work of Satan
himself, others will see the sharp, wildly funny social satire behind
the
profanity and potty jokes," she writes. Mike Clark, in USA Today,
who hands the film 3 stars, comments: "You can easily imagine the
theater-hopping mall rats scheming to sneak in: 'No, really, Mom, I'm
going to see An Ideal Husband on my way back from the nose-ring
boutique.' Parents take heed: This has to be the raunchiest full-length
animated feature since Fritz the Cat, which got an X rating in
1971." Of all the major critics, only Rod Dreher of the New York
Post,
who gives the film 1 1/2 stars, raises a salient cry of outrage
(sort
of): "Think of the most offensive mainstream movie you've ever seen.
This
is worse. It's obscene, disgusting, blasphemous, scatological,
nauseating
-- and, at times, very, very funny."
KODAK TO CLEAN UP MOVIE PROJECTION
Eastman Kodak Co. has launched ScreenCheck Experience, a program to
monitor and improve the projected image in movie theaters, the Los
Angeles Times reported today (Wednesday). The program seeks to keep
screens and projectors clean, align reflectors, replace fading
projector
lamps and otherwise improve the visual experience in theaters, the
Times indicated. Kodak executives told the newspaper that they
hope that moviegoers will be looking for the ScreenCheck logo in
theater
ads the way they now look for the THX logo, which has come to signal
superior sound.
THE ROOSTER CROWS AGAIN
The Pathe rooster, best remembered in the U.S. as the bird that
heralded the newsreel ahead of feature films in theaters back in the
'30s, '40s, and '50s, has received a makeover, the Wall Street
Journal
reported today (Wednesday). The rooster, which has actually served
as
the French entertainment company's logo since 1896, was seen in recent
years as "too haughty, and even too French," the WSJ observed,
indicating that the company had given the bird the bird, reducing it to
merely an image on its corporate stationery. The new rooster is the
creation of San Francisco-based Landor Associations, and in new
marketing
campaigns has been presented as a "self-deprecating, whimsical"
creature
named Charlie, the newspaper noted. He'll appear in animated intros to
Pathe films and on the marquees of the company's 300 theaters in
France and the Netherlands.
VAN SANT HONORED AT GAY FILM FEST
Director Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting), who is openly gay,
has
been selected to receive the Outstanding Achievement award at Outfest
'99: The Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival on July 8.
ALLAN CARR DIES AT 62
Producer Allan Carr (Grease, Can't Stop the Music) died Tuesday
in
Beverly Hills at the age of 62. Paying tribute to Carr in his column
today (Wednesday), Daily Variety's Army Archerd observed that
when
Carr was roundly criticized for his production of the 1988 Oscars, "he
went into a depression from which it took him years to fully recover."
Archerd reported that Carr had told him at this year's Oscars that he
was
planning to bring a musical version of Tom Sawyer to Broadway.
Carr was reportedly diagnosed with cancer only a month ago.
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