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CNN Live Sunday

Interview With Ted Johnson of 'TV Guide'

Aired June 02, 2002 - 18:22   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.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Now joining us to talk about all things entertainment, Ted Johnson of "TV Guide," thanks for being with us today.

TED JOHNSON, TV GUIDE: Good to be here.

CALLAWAY: It's a little surprising, at least I was a little surprised that this movie "Sum of All Fears" did so well. I wasn't sure it was a topic that a lot of people would want to see here, especially this week with all the reflections we've been doing on 9/11 and this movie, of course, is about a nuclear bomb by terrorists going off. Were you surprised at all?

JOHNSON: Oh, yes, definitely. I think there was a lot of second guessing at the studio's decision to put it in this summer time slot. You know, a very expensive movie and certainly one of their tent poles, and they also had to launch Ben Affleck as the new Jack Ryan over Harrison Ford. I think they wanted to put this on maybe in September or November, but it's probably a pretty bold move and one that seems to have worked.

CALLAWAY: What did you think of Ben Affleck in that role?

JOHNSON: I actually have not seen the movie yet. It's one of the movies -- I'm still trying to catch up with all the summer pictures. But he's got to be a lot different than Harrison Ford, you know, quite a few years younger.

CALLAWAY: I'm sure Ben can carry it off quite well. I haven't seen it either, but I look forward to seeing it. I've got to talk to you about "Six Feet Under" now, about the HBO program.

JOHNSON: Certainly, yes.

CALLAWAY: A huge hit. I actually watch that program as well, and I know it's wrapping up. This season is wrapping up on Sunday. What an interesting show that's turned out to be.

JOHNSON: Yes, and I was thinking this is a show that has broken so many conventions of what we see on network television, this being an HBO show. On network television, if this was done, this would be something like "Seventh Heaven," you know.

You know, the underlying thing of this show is about death, and these people work in a mortuary. You can see if the networks dealt with this, they would probably, you know, deal in a very lighthearted manner or it would be this kind of looming presence, a very special episode.

This show, I mean, death is just treated so matter-of-factly. That's, I think, the amazing thing about this and this is, I think, the first time that a producer and a show and a cable network has been able to really hit it so directly.

CALLAWAY: Were you surprised when they started advertising this long before it hit the air, and you sort of had this feeling that it was about life around a funeral home. It's really not about that. It's more about life in general.

JOHNSON: Not at all.

CALLAWAY: And nothing to do with death.

JOHNSON: Yes. Yes. Again, I mean it's like death is kind of secondary to this kind of Ozzie and Harriet or what you think is an Ozzie and Harriet type of family with a lot of dysfunction in it. And another interesting thing about this show is people have problems that aren't quickly resolved. You can deal with it in maybe several episodes. It will be there one episode and then it will come up again, you know, six episodes down the line.

CALLAWAY: Right.

JOHNSON: Which I think is an amazing thing. We're so accustomed to things being wrapped up.

CALLAWAY: We all want a nice bow on it and wrapped up nicely.

JOHNSON: Yes.

CALLAWAY: They're not going to do that in this series apparently. I'll ask you one more question about it. Are you going to see like a cliffhanger? How is this going to work? With HBO, I'm a little confused on how their seasons run. It's like too small seasons?

JOHNSON: Yes.

CALLAWAY: You never really go a long period of time, do you?

JOHNSON: Yes. Yes. HBO only goes about 13 episodes for each of their signature shows, and then you'll have "Sex in the City" start in June, and then you'll have "The Sopranos" start in September, and all on Sunday nights, and it's interesting because HBO has started to really own Sunday night over the networks, which is a pretty big phenomenon for network TV.

As far as a cliffhanger, I am not sure. They're keeping real mum to the details of what's going to happen.

One interesting thing is that Alan Ball, the producer of the show, has said that he wants less serialized episodes next season and more self-contained episodes, so there may not be this kind of "who shot J.R." cliffhanger that we'll see tonight.

CALLAWAY: It will still be interesting to watch no matter what happens, I think. Also, I want to ask you about Jerry Seinfeld. We have to talk about that. So much talk this weekend.

JOHNSON: The big news.

CALLAWAY: Is he coming back, and what about, Ted, (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?

JOHNSON: Well, Jerry Seinfeld seems to be enjoying this coyness that he's playing with Ted L. Nancy. The high suspicion is that he really is Ted L. Nancy, and Ted L. Nancy is the author of these series of books called "Letters from a Nut." I think they've done three books so far, and I think they made it to the best seller list.

What happened is he sat in on a pitch to turn these series of books into a weekly series on ABC, and that kind of escalated all these rumors that ABC is about to get him locked down for a new series. I'm really highly skeptical of this. You know, he did Seinfeld, a classic show.

I think -- I'm very doubtful that he, right now so quickly after that show ended, that he's ready to come back and try another sitcom. He'll probably have some role in it, probably make some kind of guest appearances, and really enjoy being kind of a jokester with a lot of the entertainment media.

CALLAWAY: Yes, I have no doubt Jerry's sitting there with his arms folded just laughing at the fact that we're talking about it here on CNN, you know.

JOHNSON: Sure. Exactly.

CALLAWAY: All right, Ted Johnson with "TV Guide," thank you so much for being with us today.

JOHNSON: Thank you.

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