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TV networks look to the familiar for help as the ''sweeps'' rating period begins.
By ERIC DEGGANS, Times TV Critic
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 27, 2002
Frasier star Kelsey Grammer has a simple explanation for why you'll see an explosion of specials, guest stars and other programming focused on classic TV shows in late April and May.
TV networks "don't know where they're going, so they've got to look back," said Grammer, who has played psychologist Frasier Crane on two classic sitcoms, Frasier and Cheers.
"They want something star-driven, and when the star falls flat on his face, they have nothing left," he added. "I just think it's easier for them to take a look back and maybe figure out where they're going to go."
Of course, Grammer is also a TV producer (UPN's Girlfriends) with a vested interest in pitching his vision of TV's future (including the pilot for a new Dennis Farina comedy, In Laws, under consideration by NBC for fall).
Still, the avalanche of backward-looking shows approaching over the next month makes you wonder if he's got a point.
NBC's cover is that it's celebrating 75 years in the broadcast business, beginning in August 1926 as a subsidiary of RCA focused on the then-embryonic radio industry. But since TV has paid the bills since the '50s, no fewer than seven different specials will focus on the network's series achievements.
The list includes: Bob Hope's Funniest Outtakes (April 30), Tonight Show 10-Year Anniversary (April 30), L.A. Law: The Movie (May 12), The Cosby Show Retrospective (May 19), 20 Years of Must-See TV (May 20), NBC's Funniest Outtakes (May 21) and a three-hour live 75th anniversary party May 5 featuring Grammer, Bill Cosby, news anchor Tom Brokaw, Today anchor Katie Couric and comic Jerry Seinfeld, among others.
And besides the specials, NBC will "stunt cast" a heap of stars from classic TV series in current shows: a mini Cheers reunion with George Wendt, John Ratzenberger and Rhea Perlman on Frasier; Quincy star Jack Klugman on Crossing Jordan; Hill Street Blues alumni Veronica Hamel, Bruce Weitz and Ed Marinaro on Third Watch, and more.
Predictably, NBC Entertainment chief Jeff Zucker didn't exactly echo Grammer's notion that such backward-looking efforts signal a lack of new ideas at TV networks.
"There's nobody who I have more respect for than Kelsey . . . (but) I don't agree that we've lost our way," he said. "What's in vogue in this country is a search for (times) when life was easier. There's no question that finding new comedies with the status of Frasier is tough, . . . (but) we're also giving people what they want."
And NBC isn't alone. CBS will present a two-hour, Carol Burnett-hosted tribute to its West Coast studios on Saturday, CBS: 50 Years From Television City; a one-hour tribute to Jackie Gleason's classic sitcom, The Honeymooners' 50th Anniversary Celebration, May 6; The Mary Tyler Moore Reunion May 13 with the cast, hosted by the star herself; and a Diagnosis Murder movie, Without Warning, featuring classic TV star Dick Van Dyke, on Friday.
At ABC, there's a 50th anniversary tribute to American Bandstand May 3; a Laverne and Shirley reunion assembled by syndicated TV magazine Entertainment Tonight May 7; Favorite Stars: Then & Now, a special produced by E! Entertainment Television, also May 7; a 50th anniversary tribute to TV Guide magazine May 13; a look back at reality TV pioneer That's Incredible and a TV movie Monday on Saturday Night Live star Gilda Radner featuring Jami Gertz (Twister, Less Than Zero).
So why all the nostalgia? It comes down to a single word: ratings.
In November, a CBS blooper special on Burnett's classic variety show drew nearly 30-million viewers, many of them too young to have seen the sketches when they first aired. It didn't hurt that post-Sept. 11 viewers seemed more interested in familiar TV fare after terrorism turned so many lives upside down.
"I was as surprised as everybody else," said Burnett Monday on the success of her bloopers special, speaking with reporters during a conference call to discuss the 50 Years From Television City special.
"Funny is funny . . . certain things seem to hold up over time . . . (because) people are yearning to laugh, (with) real gut laughter," she added. "I think a lot of stuff today is overly cynical. Most people aren't that cynical, and they welcome a chance to let it all hang out and not have to analyze it."
Combine Burnett's success with surprisingly good numbers for CBS shows featuring Michael Jackson, I Love Lucy and Gilligan's Island last year, and you have the kind of trend Hollywood loves to ride into the ground -- especially during an all-important "sweeps" ratings period, which began Thursday. .
"We forget how much viewers love the TV they grew up with. . . . It's a rich and deep well that network TV visits, profits from and then seems to forget for a while," said Tim Brooks, senior vice president of research for Lifetime cable channel and author of a classic book about classic TV, The Complete Directory to Prime Time and Cable TV Shows.
"Reunions and sequels are often thought of as a quick and dirty way to get ratings . . . and like the lemmings that they are, the networks have rushed to take advantage," he said. "And it's presold . . . to both advertisers and viewers. Everybody knows who the star is and what the show is."
Brooks pegged the beginning of nostalgia TV to 1976, when, in a network first, NBC put together a three-hour tribute to itself that scored huge ratings. A flood of similar shows burned out the concept by the mid-'80s, making the early 21st century a ripe time for heading back to the future.
"TV is a very intimate medium. . . . It's in the home and something you embrace when you're at your most vulnerable," Brooks said. "The stars are like friends you're welcoming into your home. So, (nostalgia specials) are like getting your old friends together to have one more visit."
Brooks has a simple formula for the elements that make up a classic TV series: a charismatic and sympathetic star, a cast with well-drawn characters who also bond with viewers, a quality level and/or concept that doesn't seem dated and a concept that defines a generation for viewers -- especially kids and teens -- so that they might want to revisit it as adult viewers with their own kids.
As an example, Brooks recalls a radio call-in show he appeared on where he met a 10-year-old fan of the '60s sitcom The Andy Griffith Show.
"The show probably went out of production 15 years before he was born, but what was so appealing to him . . . was Opie (Taylor, played by Ron Howard)," the author said. "Opie spoke to him just as strongly as he did to kids in 1965. Those kind of (classic) characters can speak to successive generations just as strongly as this one."
It's that kind of connection that inspired Gertz to take on the role of Radner, a comic actor who rose meteorically to fame on Saturday Night Live in the mid '70s and died in 1989 after a long battle with ovarian cancer.
Now 36, Gertz remembered watching SNL as a 10-year-old and enjoying the forbidden aspect of it all. "You felt like you were getting away with something just watching it," she added. "It did take you away in a way that you thought you were out clubbing or something."
In the ABC movie Gilda Radner: It's Always Something, Gertz recreates Radner's classic characters, including geeky high schooler Lisa Lupner, twisted commentator Roseanne Roseannadanna and confused senior citizen Emily Litella.
Though her castmates find less success trying to ape legendary comics such as Bill Murray and John Belushi, Gertz captures Radner's oddball appeal, while offering a behind-the-scenes look at her life that might appeal to those who, like Gertz, grew up with the show.
"I don't think there is a lot of fresh stuff out there . . . so we're looking to the pioneers," said Gertz, who said she's also playing "the hot mom" in the sitcom pilot Still Standing (with Mark Addy of The Full Monty), which CBS is considering for fall. "Our world is in such turmoil. . . . Maybe when you see the old stuff, you get wistful."
You might think this turn to classics on the big TV networks would alarm Larry Jones, executive vice president and general manager of TV Land, the cable channel dedicated to showcasing reruns of classic TV series such as The Beverly Hillbillies and The Andy Griffith Show.
You'd be wrong.
"This is like the biggest marketing campaign we could ever have, and (we're) not paying a penny for it," Jones said, laughing. "I've got all the networks talking about classic TV . . . all you writers talking about classic TV. . . . For NBC to create a Cosby Show special only creates more interest in the show. And we're the only continuing game in town for these series."
Established in April 1996, TV Land now reaches about 78-million viewers, offering a 24-hour version of parent Nickelodeon's Nick at Nite lineup of classic TV sitcoms. On May 1, TV Land joins Time Warner Cable's standard lineup in the Tampa Bay area, offering local viewers continuous access to nostalgia TV.
According to Jones, the channel has seen six straight months of ratings growth, with 37-million people tuning in for its March 5 Cosby Show marathon.
"So many new shows come in, for one or two episodes and they're gone, that people are getting frustrated," he said. "It's hard to find your favorite TV shows because they're gone so quickly. So people are resorting to the tried and true."
On TV Land, the most popular show remains The Andy Griffith Show, with The Beverly Hillbillies, I Love Lucy and The Love Boat coming in close behind. Nick at Nite viewers flock to The Cosby Show and Cheers.
And though he hates talking about shows that didn't work so well, Jones admitted that Charlie's Angels reruns flopped on TV Land -- probably because its mix of campy sexuality hasn't aged well. "TV has gone so much farther than that now; when you look back, it's not as fun."
In the end, the formula for classic TV shows seems awfully similar to the formula for any successful television series.
"The characters are always somebody we recognize . . . from The Honeymooners to Cheers," said Grammer. "After that, you have to have (actors) that are funny and writers that are funny. After that, it's up to the fans."