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CNN Live At Daybreak

America Recovers: Fall TV Impact

Aired September 26, 2001 - 08:54   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The fall television season is in a state of flux since the September 11th terrorists attacks. And for some shows, it is back to the drawing board.

Joining me now to talk about it is Matt Roush, senior television critic for "TV Guide". Good to see you again.

MATT ROUSH, TV GUIDE: Good morning.

ZAHN: Well, your life has been in upheaval.

ROUSH: Everybody.

ZAHN: Everything that was on the schedule has been taken off.

ROUSH: Oh yes. Well, fall season is confusing just by the nature of coming on the air, 30 odd new shows, shows changing time periods. And now with all this terrible distractions of the news, and the disruption of the fall season by at least a week, nobody knows what is happening on any of their shows. Plus, the shows themselves have had to do some soul searching in the terms of the types of stories they're telling, the types of jokes they are telling, and what is actually appropriate to tell on television.

This was a fall when we were going to get a few new spy thrillers on TV, and all of a sudden they are wondering if that's even...

ZAHN: I don't think so.

ROUSH: ... if it is appropriate. And what is exploitive. Is it going to trivialize our fears? Who knows what these show are going to be. And the one show, right in the focal point, is "The West Wing." The show about a fictional White House at a time when the real White House is so much in the focus of our thoughts and minds right now.

So Aaron Sorkin, who used to be a playwright, he is basically -- the first episode is being pushed back a week, and the next first episode is going to be sort of a very cerebral, very -- hopefully -- talkative, I suppose, show in which the characters, the people in the White House, are addressing this issue of terrorism, and perhaps bigotry, and all of the other things that are coming to the forefront in the wake of this.

Aaron Sorkin knows that his show has to be a platform for this kind of discussion. So he has written a special episode, they rushed it into production, it's being filmed right now. It's going to go on next Wednesday, and we really don't know what to expect.

ZAHN: So basically, they have to blow up old shows. This is going to cost them a lot of money, if the events of two weeks ago are going to dictate the content of shows that thrive on this kind of breaking information.

ROUSH: Right, and Thursday night there's a new series, kind of like "The West Wing" of the CIA, called "The Agency." And they had to suspend the entire first episode, put a new episode that we haven't seen in it's place, because the first episode dealt directly with a terrorist cell of bin laden's, and how do fictionalize that right now? The answer is, you don't. So I don't know if that episode is ever going to be seen.

So yes, we are talking about a lot of rethinking in Hollywood right now in terms of what we are going to watch on television.

ZAHN: What about the show "Third Watch?" Have they made some changes to address what happened September 11th?

ROUSH: We are not quite sure. Because they film in New York, they've had to suspend production for a short time anyway because of all of the madness in the city. And the fact is that the show is about firefighters, it's about police on the street of New York City. And they have to find some way to reflect what happened to their own community within the fictional context of the show. We are not quite sure how they're going to do it, but that's a particularly acute situation for that show to know how to deal with it.

I would assume that they will take the high road in terms of honoring the people who have lost their lives, but it is a very tricky situation for so many of these shows on TV.

And as we watch TV, what is clear is that we are also very happy to have the comedies that we loved coming back on the air. "Frasier" came back last night, which of course had a tragedy in its own family. One of its...

ZAHN: Lost its producer.

ROUSH: ... creators died in one of the planes. And the numbers have been big for "Everybody Loves Raymond," came back on Monday and it was watched in huge numbers. There is a sense that we are ready to turn to TV as sort of our comfort food to a certain extent. Always, of course, prepared to turn to TV for the information that we've been getting the last couple of weeks as well.

ZAHN: We are going to have to follow your directive, because I can tell you, for those of us that can stay up passed 8:30 at night...

ROUSH: Exactly.

ZAHN: ... the fall schedule is going to be extended. And there's going to be a lot changes. ROUSH: Being at "TV Guide" is going to be extremely changing right now, let me tell you.

ZAHN: Well, keep your eye on the map.

ROUSH: There you go.

ZAHN: Matt Roush, good to see you.

ROUSH: Thank you.

ZAHN: Thank you for dropping by.

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