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By ERIC DEGGANS
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 30, 2000
As you sample the trickle of new programming scheduled for the TV networks this summer, let a helpful critic suggest four words to keep in mind.
Don't believe the hype.
That's because most of the shows you'll see are hardly premium goods.
It's a fact of life in TV land that summer brings a deluge of reruns and ill-conceived specials. Thanks to the Summer Olympics, the wait for new material this fall stretches even longer -- with the 2000-01 TV season delayed to Oct. 2.
The networks have offered a sliver of hope to TV junkies, scheduling a smattering of new stuff that starts this week. A lot of it is product that wasn't good enough to get on the air when it really counted -- during the regular TV season.
ABC may pitch its Clerks cartoon as a bold new animated series from Kevin Smith, the guy who wrote and directed the movie of the same name. But the truth is, this comedy is so lame the network decided to air stuff like Kyra Sedgwick's traffic accident of a sitcom, Talk To Me, instead.
Don't even mention the relaunch of ABC's washed-up reality show Making the Band, which resumes its Real World-style look at the assembly of Orlando-based boy-band O-Town at 9 p.m. Fridays this week -- despite the show's conspicuous absence from ABC's fall schedule.
At NBC, the programming suits may use a single night to air three out of five unseen episodes from its canceled '80s-era high school comedy Freaks and Geeks in June or July. New episodes of canceled sitcoms Veronica's Closet and Suddenly Susan air on Tuedays beginning June 6.
This strategy -- which Fox will also use in showing unaired episodes of the canceled Jennifer Love Hewitt drama Time of Your Life beginning June 14 -- is called "burning off" episodes of shows the networks are probably contractually bound to show anyway.
Fox may emerge as the king of series burnoff this summer, airing new episodes of the animated comedies Family Guy and The PJs on Tuesdays beginning tonight; this fall The PJs moves to WB and Family Guy moves off the schedule entirely.
Even CBS, which is offering honest to goodness new summertime shows in Survivor and Big Brother, gets in the repackaging business next month -- re-launching its failed mob drama, Falcone, at 10 p.m. Saturdays beginning June 10.
"We didn't think the show got a fair shake (during the season)," says Les Moonves, CBS Television president, of Falcone's debut over eight days in April. Nevermind that the network first aired this watered-down, TV-series version of Donnie Brasco just as HBO's groundbreaking Mafia series The Sopranos was concluding a wildly-hyped second season.
Thank goodness ABC is giving Who Wants to Be a Millionaire only two weeks of rest next month -- bringing 42 hours of new episodes over the summer to combat CBS' new shows. Because a month without new Regis truly would make the summer unbearable.
Here's a look at the summertime fare coming on the Big Four networks:
Clerks
Debut: 9:30 p.m. Wednesday on WFTS-Ch. 28.
As you watch this hopelessly unfunny cartoon, keep a few things in mind: when ABC agreed to make it, people still thought youth shows were in, animated shows were funny and Kevin Smith's vision of comic book-fed slackerdom was hip. Fortunately, we're all past that now. Perhaps that's why this production, featuring the voices of writer/director Smith and the film's other stars, feels so empty. Even in a TV landscape filled with summertime reruns, if this limp effort gets through its scheduled six-episode run, it will be a miracle.
It's Your Chance of a Lifetime
Debut: 8 p.m. June 5 on WTVT-Ch. 13.
A colleague of mine says the failure of all the game shows that followed in Millionaire's wake proved one thing: viewers don't necessarily like game shows, they just liked one game show. Still, Fox couldn't take the hint, presenting Gordon Elliott as the host of a contest where players can wipe out their credit card debt with one answer, then field nine more questions to win $1-million. I'll take lame Millionaire rip offs for $100, Alex.
M.Y.O.B.
Debut: at 9:30 p.m. June 6 on WFLA-Ch. 8
Ever wondered what might happen if Christina Ricci's self-centered, ruthlessly cynical character from The Opposite of Sex had her own TV series? Neither did I, but somebody at NBC must have, because the network paid Sex creator Don Roos to make this oddball series. A wry comedy about a totally self-obsessed teen knockout who winds up living with a prim high school principal who might be her aunt (!?), M.Y.O.B. makes two significant mistakes. It is yet another teenybopper series in a world that doesn't need more. And it focuses on the only TV character that might be less likable than Kathie Lee Gifford.
Sammy
Debut: 9:30 p.m. July 25 on WFLA-Ch. 8
In this laugh-an-hour cartoon comedy, David Spade is the voice of a super-sucessful actor whose life turns upside down when his no-good father shows up to share his fortune. Along with God, the Devil and Bob and Stressed Eric, it's strong evidence why NBC should never, ever try animated comedies.