Word: networking
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Enter Fox. That three-letter nickname may one day be as familiar to TV viewers as ABC, CBS and NBC. Right now it is short for Fox Broadcasting Co., the most ambitious effort yet to create a full-fledged fourth network. Financed by Australian-born Press Baron Rupert Murdoch (who in 1985 added 20th Century-Fox studios and the Metromedia chain of independent TV stations to his worldwide media holdings), Fox made its first foray into national programming in October with The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers. Though Rivers' ratings in the battle against Johnny Carson have been disappointing...
...fledgling network has assembled an impressive roster of Hollywood talent. At the top of Murdoch's entertainment conglomerate is Barry Diller, who was head of Paramount from 1974 to 1984, turning out such hits as Raiders of the Lost Ark and Flashdance. To run its program department, Fox raided NBC for a 29-year-old whiz kid named Garth Ancier. To create shows, it has enlisted such seasoned producers as James L. Brooks (The Mary Tyler Moore Show), Ed. Weinberger (Taxi) and Stephen J. Cannell (The A-Team...
What have they come up with? Nothing strikingly different, though a few shows depart slightly from the network cookie cutter. Married . . . with Children, one of the first Fox offerings, has the trappings of a typical sitcom but turns out to be a wicked assault on wholesome family shows. Another entry, The Tracey Ullman Show, stars the bouncy British singer-actress in half an hour of sketches, songs and variety acts, a mix that does not fit into current network pigeonholes...
Other series are less distinguishable from routine network fare. Duet, a half-hour romantic comedy, uses familiar sitcom contrivances to chronicle the relationship between a detective-story writer and a caterer. And Cannell's 21 Jump Street will spend an hour each week following the exploits of a group of undercover cops on the high school beat. Fox officials admit that much of this is hardly breakthrough material. "Have we reconceived the mousetrap? Do we feel any necessity to do so? No," says Diller. "But we will by definition take more risks...
...network can break even with such ratings, Murdoch says, partly because its operation is much leaner and more efficient. "The networks have overheads of the better part of a billion dollars. We have an overhead of 70 salaries," says network TV's newest mogul. Fox has devised other ways of helping the bottom line. Its shows, for instance, will include eight minutes of commercial time an hour, a minute more than on typical network counterparts. Ad time is selling briskly so far: 30-second spots originally priced at just over $30,000 are now going for about...