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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Lisa Bernhard

Aired September 15, 2002 - 08:37   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, boy, the fall TV season is upon us. Very exciting, right? Well, let's ask Lisa Bernhard of "TV Guide," who is the deputy editor there. Lisa, I hear it's a yawner.
LISA BERNHARD, TV GUIDE: It's a yawner, and...

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: You disagree, obviously.

BERNHARD: It's a little early on a Sunday morning. You know, in all truth, I've seen better television seasons. I'm not going to go around saying that this is the best that I've ever seen since I've been in this business, but there's some stuff that's some really good stuff out there. There are some great new dramas. I think the comedies are a little weak this year, but I think that there is some really strong new dramas. So there is some good stuff to look forward to.

O'BRIEN: All right, I'll tell you what, before we get to the dramas, since you want to talk about dramas, let's talk about "Friends." This has got to be the last season, don't you think? I mean, they've been on the air 50 years now, right?

BERNHARD: Yeah, 49 and counting. This is actually has been their ninth season. But I don't know, Miles. I mean, do you think if they come back and they say, you know, look, they're each making $1 million per episode right now, so that's $22 million in the bag right there. Then they have syndication money in all of this.

You know, they're not exactly hitting big with their feature films. I'm sorry to say -- I love Matthew Perry, but "Serving Sara" at the box office -- so if they come back to these people and they say, what are they going to say? We can possibly give you $1.2? I mean, it's getting pretty costly for NBC at this point, but I think they'd still be willing to do it, to come back to these people. Who's going to turn down that kind of money?

O'BRIEN: Well, let me ask you this: Does the business model work when you start getting well into the seven figures for an ensemble cast?

BERNHARD: I don't know. That's an excellent question. That's an excellent question, because at a certain point, you've got diminishing returns here. But you know, Thursday night is still the prime advertising night for all the movies that open over the weekend, and you're still pulling in a great demographic for the people who are going to go see those movies, so you're still -- it's the number one, you know, comedy, so it's still out there. You still have got to hang on to it, I think, if you can do it.

O'BRIEN: OK. Not dead yet, "Friends" is. All right. Let's talk about reality stuff. Please tell me we're over this.

BERNHARD: We're not over it yet. I mean, it's going wild. I mean, you talk about a good business model. Reality makes great sense. It really doesn't cost that much to produce. I mea, you have shows like "Survivor" and "The Amazing Race..."

O'BRIEN: "Survivor," the cockroach of television. It survives, right?

BERNHARD: Exactly. I think "Survivor" is still the best of all of them, I have to say. There are no new reality shows coming on this fall, but there are a lot of them coming back. I mean, unbelievably, even "The Bachelor" is coming back. "The Amazing Race" is coming back; "Survivor" is coming back. Of course, there's stuff like "Fear Factor" and "Doggy Dogg" (ph) on NBC. Very inexpensive to produce. Stunt programming. You can get celebrities, you can get "Playboy" bunnies to come on, I mean, there's always going to be people who watch this stuff. So it's, you know, like I said, there are no reality shows on this fall, but it's -- it makes perfect economic sense and people are still watching it.

O'BRIEN: Could it be more inane is the question? Can it go any lower?

Anyway, we'll see.

BERNHARD: I think we know where you stand on this issue, very clearly.

O'BRIEN: I'm coming out on this one.

All right, let's talk about the dramas. What do you like?

BERNHARD: I love "Boomtown." "Boomtown" I think is -- yeah, we called it the best new show of the fall. This is on NBC. This is on Sunday nights at 10:00. And what I love about this show, is the way that "24" came out last year, and it was really kind of innovative in its storytelling -- this is really the only show that is kind of innovative this year. What happens is, it's a crime show, and the story is told through the eyes of the various characters on the show, so you kind of retrace their steps, through the paramedic's eyes, through the politician's eyes, through the cop's eyes, through the victim's eyes, through the woman who is having an affair with the politician -- I mean, all this -- there's Danny Wahlberg there, New Kids on the Block, who's one of the stars of the show.

It's just compelling storytelling. It's well cast. It's kind of, you know, what you hope TV to be -- just great storytelling, great scripts, great ensemble acting. It's a very strong drama, so I think it's the best new drama of the fall. O'BRIEN: It's another crime drama. I mean, I think (UNINTELLIGIBLE) dime a dozen?

BERNHARD: Well, they are, but you know, when you think about the dramas, what can you really do? You do crime. You do medical shows. You can do a family drama, or you can do a law drama. Well, I guess, you can do a Mafia drama, actually, on HBO...

O'BRIEN: I've heard about that, yeah.

BERNHARD: ... but that's crime as well. You know, I think that when you get into a crime drama, obviously, it has so many layers to it. So you can do so many things. You can actually make relationships and all that stuff. So it's pretty much always going to work, if it's done well.

O'BRIEN: Yeah, just doing CPAs just doesn't do it. Does it? Of course, these days, maybe, you know, who knows. That whole drama has changed too, hasn't it? What else do you like?

BERNHARD: Yeah. Let's see. Let's move on to some comedies, actually, let's pick out a comedy now.

O'BRIEN: I thought you said they were all lousy. We're going to waste...

BERNHARD: There's one that I'm going to say has potential.

O'BRIEN: OK. Is that "Bonnie?" You like...

BERNHARD: Yeah. "Life With Bonnie." I'm not jumping up and down quite yet about this show, but I think it has great potential. This is called "Life With Bonnie," it's on ABC, and this stars Bonnie Hunt, who you may recognize. She is a frequent guest on "Late Night with David Letterman." He loves her. She's very funny on that show. She had actually two failed sitcoms before, so she's coming back with this.

What this is, as you can see in this clip, she plays a morning talk show host in Chicago, and what I like about this kind of show- within-a-show contest...

O'BRIEN: Look at the lipstick there. That's good.

BERNHARD: ... that she's really great at improvisation, and they're going to do a lot of improvisation on this show-within-the- show segment, which I think should be really fun.

The other side of it is...

O'BRIEN: I hear the talk show stuff is completely unscripted. The part that was actually there.

BERNHARD: Yeah. Exactly. And most of it is unscripted, and I think it's going to be great. The other side of it is a little bit more traditional sitcom, where she's at home with the kids. There is her nanny there with one of the babies. And that's a little bit more standard, the home life stuff. You've kind of seen that before, that (UNINTELLIGIBLE) home life, but she's very appealing. She -- you know, I think ABC is trying to -- they also have a new comedy with John Ritter -- they're trying to go back to that kind of broad family comedy, which they had with like "Roseanne," which, granted, was edgy, or Tim Allen with "Home Improvement." I think that's what they're going for. So that's one of the comedies that I like.

O'BRIEN: So that meeting Gary Sheindling I guess, somewhat.

BERNHARD: Yeah.

O'BRIEN: All right, let's -- we would be remiss if we didn't talk about "The Sopranos," and this has nothing to do with the fact that it is owned by the holding company which owns us, because there is a lot of buzz out there about it. We've waited a year and a half...

BERNHARD: We have.

O'BRIEN: Are we going to be satisfied with the payoff?

BERNHARD: I definitely think so. I mean, you can't go 16 months and not give the people what they want.

O'BRIEN: That's a lot of pressure, isn't it?

BERNHARD: It's a lot of pressure. You know, now the third season is out on DVD, so if you didn't catch it before, people are going out to buy the DVD to catch up to see the cliffhanger of last year, and it premieres tonight. It's so highly anticipated. I think it's actually going to get -- I know it's actually going to get darker this season than it's been in seasons past, which people find hard to believe. I know the daughter Meadow has some outstanding early episodes to watch. Even if you're not thrilled with tonight's premiere, stay tuned for the second episode, because that's really has a lot -- that's really powerful and compelling. So...

O'BRIEN: Oh, so you've had a chance to preview a few of these?

BERNHARD: We've had a chance to preview some of these. And I have to say, actually, you know, "Sopranos" is getting all the buzz, but I loved "Curb Your Enthusiasm," the Larry David show which got an Emmy nomination, which premieres tonight, and also "Mind of a Married Man," another HBO show, is premiering tonight as well. So they've got three new shows coming on. Yeah. There's a lot of good stuff out there, as I've said.

O'BRIEN: All right. Well, that was an excellent guide to television. We appreciate it, and set your TiVos accordingly. Lisa Bernhard, we appreciate your being with us. She's with "TV Guide," and there is an excellent issue out at this moment, which summarizes what she said and then some. There's the cover of said magazine. Thanks for being with us, Lisa.

BERNHARD: Miles, thanks so much.

O'BRIEN: Happy doing.

BERNHARD: OK, you too.

O'BRIEN: All right.

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