Word: hbo
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...ironic humor suggests a David Letterman filtered through the pages of Spy magazine. But Sweet represents something different for TV, a new breed of entertainer known as the comedy jockey. Viewers will learn what she does on Wednesday, when the Comedy Channel, a new 24-hour cable service from HBO, goes on the air. It is one of two all-comedy networks getting set to square off on a new battlefield of yucks...
...movies, snippets of old TV series, excerpts from stand-up performances and other laughtoids. An occasional full-length movie will intervene, but mostly the comedy will come in quick bursts, aimed at a new generation of TV "grazers," viewers who flip around the dial with their remote control. Says HBO chief Michael Fuchs: "We're looking to make a very hot, today channel, and comedy is the place...
...rivals are already sniping at each other. "We think our format takes better advantage of the strength of comedy than just a clip channel," says Tom Freston, head of MTV Networks. "Comedy has traditionally been character driven and story driven. It takes time to work." HBO executives snicker. "Why should their channel succeed in doing original long-form comedy?" says Fuchs. "The three networks spend hundreds of millions of dollars trying to do original comedy, and one show succeeds every two years...
...anybody ready for 24 hours of chuckles, grins and guffaws? Boosters point out that the public's appetite for comedy seems almost insatiable. Seven of the ten top-grossing movies of 1988 were comedies, as are eight of the ten current top-rated TV series. Cable channels like HBO and Showtime have made comedy specials a staple of their schedules, while vintage sitcoms are being perpetually recycled across the dial...
...series Quantum Leap involves time travel, and Fox's new Alien Nation postulates a Los Angeles of the future, where people from another planet are trying to integrate into American society. Cable is going for classy shocks in such series as Shelley Duvall's Nightmare Classics on Showtime and HBO's Tales from the Crypt, adapted from the old E.C. horror comics and directed by such notables as Walter Hill (48 HRS.) and Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future...