ABC looking for laughs next season

At the WB, the focus is on earning viewers for life, starting while they're young.

NEW YORK - They call it "reflecting their brand."

But when asked to describe what that means for the 2003-04 schedule on ABC, executives had a little trouble defining their "brand," except that it includes successful comedies such as According to Jim but not failed, seamy reality fare such as Are You Hot?

"We decided to "double down' on comedy this season," said ABC Entertainment Television Group chairman Lloyd Braun, noting that the network has scheduled 10 comedies. "We feel we've found our comedic voice."

Braun and Susan Lyne, president of ABC Entertainment, spoke with reporters Tuesday morning, hours before they revealed their fall schedule to advertisers in a glitzy presentation at Radio City Music Hall.

Their mission: explain how they're going to improve ABC's fourth-place position among the big broadcasters.

Shows that seemed to be in danger of cancellation, including Dragnet (renamed L.A. Dragnet) and The Practice, were given another chance. Also back in the mix: the network's Friday youth-oriented T.G.I.F. programming (now it stands for Thank Goodness It's Funny), recast for an older audience with series including George Lopez and Bonnie Hunt's Life With Bonnie.

The new comedies tend toward family centered affairs, including Kelly Ripa and Faith Ford as sisters in Hope & Faith and a movie star married to a teacher in I'm With Her. Bucking a trend toward multicultural comedies at NBC and the WB, ABC's new comedies have no major minority characters.

New dramas include Karen Sisco, a Miami-based spinoff of Jennifer Lopez's character in the film Out of Sight; a show about a deputy sheriff trainee, 10-8; and a program on the Department of Homeland Security, Threat Matrix.

ABC also named former Bachelorette contestant Bob Guiney as the next Bachelor and touted four hours of programming based on Bachelorette Trista Rehn's wedding to the guy she chose. Still, executives said that they are turning away from trashy reality series.

"They don't sell very well," Braun said of advertising spots on reality shows. "And they often don't fit our image. A reality-laden network is just not good business."

In its fall season announcement to advertisers Tuesday, the WB offered a fast-paced, well-produced presentation that showed off its stable of fresh-faced stars and offered a crash course on its "brand": building a cool TV home for teen and young adult viewers.

"Now, more than ever, products need a youth strategy," said Bill Morningstar, executive vice president of sales for the WB. "If you (reach young viewers) now . . . you can earn a customer for life."

To that end, the WB moved its hot drama on Superman's teen years, Smallville, to Wednesday and paired it with Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff Angel to create a programming block for moviegoing, comic book TV fans.

Nickelodeon star Amanda Bynes' comedy, What I Like About You, will shift to Thursday, paired with the Candid Camera-style reality show The Jamie Kennedy Experiment and a new talent show hosted by comic Steve Harvey that unfolds like Star Search meets Stupid Human Tricks.

Gone are forgettable efforts such as the remake of Family Affair and the Hispanic-centered comedy Greetings from Tucson.

Reba McEntire's self-titled comedy on Friday will be joined by two mostly black sitcoms, including All About the Andersons, starring Anthony Anderson (Barbershop) as a struggling actor living with his barber father that feels like a thin clone of the movie that made him famous.

But the big buzz was reserved for Tarzan and Jane, a Smallville-style update of the classic tale featuring Tarzan as an orphaned millionaire raised by gorillas but brought to the city, where he falls for a gutsy female cop.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright