Word: sitcoms
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...quiet on Stage 25 of the Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank, Calif. Backstage, the bagels and breakfast makings are laid out for the cast and crew of NBC's new sitcom Veronica's Closet. But the star is nowhere to be seen. Kirstie Alley is in her trailer, squealing with laughter and slurping away on a juice concoction of white grapes and lemons. She is on Day 3 of a 40-day juice-and-fruit fast and proselytizing the cleansing merits of her diet. "Taste it!" says Alley, popping up from the sofa to pour a portion...
Nestled in NBC's coveted half-hour slot between Seinfeld and ER, it is the odds-on favorite to become the fall's new hit sitcom. But can Alley really succeed where other Cheers alums have failed? Though Kelsey Grammer's Frasier is a ratings hit for NBC, Ted Danson (Sam), Rhea Perlman (Carla) and George Wendt (Norm) have all bombed in series over the past year. NBC Entertainment president Warren Littlefield signed up Veronica's Closet for only 13 episodes, but he notes that Alley's producers, Kevin Bright, Marta Kauffman and David Crane, the creative team behind Friends...
...these supplicants is praying for the Top-10 ratings success of last season's surprise hit, Touched by an Angel (CBS, Sundays, 8 p.m. E.T.). Also back this fall are 7th Heaven (the WB, Mondays, 8 p.m. E.T.), the melodrama about a minister's family; Dan Aykroyd's priestly sitcom Soul Man (ABC, Tuesdays, 8 p.m. E.T.); and the Angel spin-off Promised Land (CBS, Thursdays, 8 p.m. E.T.). Joining them are four newcomers, each offering a slightly more irreverent approach to religion. A pastor tries to fill his church on UPN's jokey sitcom Good News (Mondays...
...call it prime-time revivalism, except that TV never had much religion to revive. Until recently, religion was considered too sensitive a topic to dramatize--or joke about. Producer Norman Lear (All in the Family) made an unsuccessful venture into that territory in 1991 with Sunday Dinner, a weak sitcom in which characters regularly argued about God. Two years later, Lear addressed the lack of religious programming in a speech at the National Press Club. "I said, 'Where are you guys? Why aren't you reporting on the biggest story in the culture of America?'" he remembers...
Meanwhile, TV's religious crusade continues. Universal Television is developing a sitcom for gospel singer Kirk Franklin. CBS will devote four hours this spring to a Celestine Prophecy miniseries. America's Martin postulates that all this activity "is reflective of a general trend toward spirituality." Ed. Weinberger, who made his mark with shows like Taxi before creating the 1986 Sherman Hemsley vehicle, Amen, and this year's Good News, is a bit more cynical. "People are sniffing a dollar, I guess...