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American Morning

Preview of Fall Television Season

Aired May 14, 2002 - 08:48   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.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: All this week on "American Morning," we're getting a sneak preview of the fall television season. The six networks -- and there are six now -- are unveiling their new lineups this week to advertisers and to the press in a springtime ritual called the up-fronts. NBC began it yesterday. One of the network's brand-new sitcoms "Good Morning Miami" -- what a clever title -- is getting good buzz.

Here's a little preview of a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lucille, let me start with the things that have to change. Number one, stop repeating what Gavin says, it makes you sound stupid and obsequious. In interviews, don't shake your head so vigorously, particularly when you're bored with the subject, you're not fooling anyone.

And finally, when you're on the air, I want you to dress like a own grown-up, not an extra in a Britney Spears video. The show is called "Good Morning Miami" not "Leave the Money on the Dresser."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAFFERTY: Pretty funny line actually.

The show will be part of NBC's new must-see Thursday night schedule. We're going to take a closer look at the new shows in a moment.

Joining us here in the studio to talk about some of all of this is "Entertainment Weekly" critic at large Ken Tucker.

Ken, good to see you.

KEN TUCKER, "ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY": Nice to see you.

CAFFERTY: We'll go back to the NBC stuff in a minute. The rumor dujour is that "Politically Incorrect" over there on ABC is toast, and that they're going to get that guy from that really tasteful, high- level, high brow "The Man Show" Jimmy Kimmel to replace Bill Maher.

What do you know about that? TUCKER: That's what we're hearing. I mean, it's not been confirmed by ABC, probably will be by later today, when they announce their schedule, but it sounds like Bill Maher has really taken the fall. He's been too politically incorrect.

CAFFERTY: Is that about the terrorist crack that he made after September 11th?

TUCKER: Yes, the show never recovered it's momentum. It never recovered the advertising that it lost. It lost a lot of affiliates. He really dug himself a big hole on that one.

CAFFERTY: I'm paraphrasing, but he said something about it took real courage for the terrorists to fly those airplanes into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. It was the worst kind of remark that a guy...

TUCKER: No matter how many times he apologized, he just couldn't do it.

CAFFERTY: Can Jimmy Kimmel survive against Leno and Letterman? I mean, what would we have, politicians jumping on trampolines?

TUCKER: Yes, exactly. I mean, I think this is kind of the balance ABC's trying to strike between running "Nightline" and then following it with an entertainment show. It's a way of kind of trying to play of Leno and Letterman, but I'm not sure if that's a good idea either.

CAFFERTY: Let's look at the NBC slate of new shows, since they were the first with their preview. There are five new series, "Good Morning Miami," "The In Laws," "Hidden Hills," "American Dreams," and something called "Boomtown."

Any hits in here, besides, I guess, the buzz on "Good Morning Miami," which based on that clip I guess is not bad?

TUCKER: It's not bad. "Good Morning Miami" is created by the guys who did "Will & Grace," and it's going to be on Thursday night at 9:30.

CAFFERTY: What did he say, it's "Good Morning Miami," not "Leave the Money on the Dresser?"

TUCKER: That's right. It seemed to get some good response from advertisers who were present at this up-front yesterday, which is really what the networks wants, because they're spending the money, so they want to hear the laughs from the advertisers.

I mean, as for the others, they're very, very generic. I think we'll see the wave of traditional family sitcoms, real comfort food kind of stuff. They don't want to program anything that's controversial. I think people think with all the bad news in the world, they don't want to see stuff like controversial items like "The Sopranos" on network television. CAFFERTY: On the other hand, the golden fleece in primetime television is the successful sitcom, and NBC is going to lose arguably one of the most successful shows ever, when they lose "Friends," I guess a year from now, right?

TUCKER: It will be on all next season, but what they're doing to kind of prepare for this is moving "Scrubs," which has been pretty successful on Tuesday nights, to Thursday nights at 8:30, and I think that they're thinking they'll put that in the 8:00 time period once "Friends" finally leaves the air.

CAFFERTY: I suppose the great argument among network programmers is take the way that's guaranteed not to offend, the road most traveled, versus the road less traveled, where you go out on a limb and take some kind of a risk by putting a show out there that has the potential, if it hits, to make you millions, but if it doesn't, then you're in big trouble with production costs and pilots and all of that. Are they taking any risks? How much risk will be involved? You're suggesting they're not going to be a lot.

TUCKER: They're not going to take a lot of risks. And what they do take in risks, they're not going to put on in the fall. They'll save that until the midseason in January. There's a show that NBC showed a bit of called "Kingpin," which is about a drug lord family. They're the protagonists. In essence, they're making a drug cartel family the heroes of the show. But it looked like it was really well written, it looked like it was very well directed. It looked like the kind of show -- this was finally the way network television is going to respond to "The Sopranos," something with a little violence, a little sex, but well.

CAFFERTY: An example I guess of risk taking at its finest was "The Osbournes". It turned into a megahit.

TUCKER: Exactly. Yes, but it kind of stumbled into that, but it was really good.

CAFFERTY: I appreciate your time, and your insight into the upcoming fall season. And perhaps as we move through the week, we'll do this again.

TUCKER: Great, thank you.

CAFFERTY: Thank you much. Ken Tucker, critic at large for "Entertainment Weekly."

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