Wednesday, Feb. 23
For Robert Halmi Sr., the biggest TV movie producer in the world, the test of the American audience and just how low it will go comes Sunday, Feb. 27. That evening–one of the last in the February television sweeps period–NBC will air the first installment of his 10-hour fantasy epic about trolls and Read MoreBob Iger, the handsome, gleaming, departing head of ABC, sat at a center table in the vast Waldorf-Astoria's Grand Ballroom on Feb. 10 as Regis Philbin, in a double-breasted, charcoal-gray pinstripe suit, began pelting the air with insults directed at the new president of the Walt Disney Company.
Why did he get the appointment? "Because he Read MoreOn Jan. 14, Brad Grey's Basic Entertainment, which has brought you The Sopranos , Just Shoot Me and Politically Incorrect , announced it had formed a partnership with J. Walter Thompson, the second-largest ad firm in the country representing big-name advertisers like the Ford Motor, Kellogg and Miller Brewing companies.
The partnership harks back to the Read MoreBest wishes on a speedy recovery. Sure was a great run up to the operation. Top form with Hillary. Total class the way you broke the heart news with Regis, who handled it perfectly. Great television.
The people who work for you are too blinded by loyalty to suggest this, Dave, but it's really in your Read MoreWednesday, Jan. 19
PASADENA, Calif.–The TV reporters from all over the country were picking at plates of fajitas and corn chips in the middle of Stage 19A in the Warner Brothers lot. Peter Roth, the Warner Brothers Television president, approached the group and took a seat. It was to be a casual, catered lunch thrown so Read MoreAfter a run of roughly 50 years, the age of network television came to an end on Sunday, Jan. 9, 2000, with the merger of America Online Inc. and Time Warner Inc.
The $183 billion merger means an era in which the TV set and the computer will merge–promising a host of changes for the average Read MoreABC and CBS have teamed up with Fox News in an effort to take on Ted Turner's CNN and, while they're at it, NBC. They've formed an unprecedented news alliance that would have been unheard of just a few years ago.
Under the agreement, finalized late last month, the three news organizations and their affiliates Read MoreABC and CBS have teamed up with Fox News in an effort to take on Ted Turner's CNN and, while they're at it, NBC. They've formed an unprecedented news alliance that would have been unheard of just a few years ago.
Under the agreement, finalized late last month, the three news organizations and their affiliates Read MoreWednesday, Dec. 22
Columbia Tristar Television is finally getting close to creating a show for Bette Midler. The diva recently signed a deal with the studio, but coming up with an appropriate vehicle has been slow going. "It's almost impossible," said one writer. "It's like, what do you do? This is Bette Midler! You can't come Read MoreWednesday, Dec. 8
You'd think ABC is taking a big chance by scheduling Who Wants to Be a Millionaire three nights a week this winter. Like, what if someone wins a million bucks every show? But an NYTV analysis shows that ABC could give away $1 million every episode and still make a killing. Let's go Read MoreIf television is a mirror for the culture that watches it, then New York dreams about money more than other places and it's more obsessed by the legal system than the rest of the country. Surprisingly, New Yorkers are less enthralled with its onetime hometown hero, David Letterman, than viewers elsewhere, and they would rather Read More
The week after the Walt Disney Company's Touchstone Pictures released The Insider , Disney chief executive Michael Eisner called 60 Minutes executive producer Don Hewitt to discuss the film that has embroiled both men's organizations for the past few months, according to sources at CBS.
The discussion was brief, and neither man will talk about it. Read MoreWednesday, Nov. 3
CBS's new Early Show debuted with Bryant Gumbel and Jane Clayson on Monday, Nov. 1. Mr. Gumbel looked a little rusty. But NYTV decided to check in with the show's executive producer, Steve Friedman, to see what he thought of his first outing. "I think the overall tone of the show was terrific," Read MoreDaniel Kellison, executive producer of The Man Show , pointed to the stacks of boxes filled with baby toys and furniture. "The great emasculation has begun," he said.
By his wife's command, the poker room in the Kellisons' newly refurbished Greenwich Village town house is being dismantled to make way for a playroom for his 2-month-old Read More
