Sunday, August 22, 1999
NBC chief says families should be funny again
BY JOHN KIESEWETTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Maybe Home Improvement wasn't the final TV family sitcom after all. NBC, of all networks, says its goal is finding the next Full House, Home Improvement or The Cosby Show.
This is the same network that helped kill the traditional family comedy — a TV staple since I Love Lucy — with sitcoms about single professionals (Friends, Frasier, Seinfeld, Cheers, Just Shoot Me, Suddenly Susan, Wings, NewsRadio).
Those shows spawned dozens of imitations (Spin City, Dharma & Greg, Drew Carey, Norm, It's Like ... You Know) that squeezed family comedies (Full House, Family Matters, Two of a Kind) off the tube.
“There's a huge void now that Home Improvement is gone,”says Garth Ancier, the former WB programmer who became NBC Entertainment president in May.
“I'm a big believer that family relationships are the core of probably the longest-running shows,” he says. “This is our highest priority.”
This is great news for viewers who feel increasingly disenfranchised by network TV.
Though Mr. Ancier is new to his position, he's not new to NBC. He started in the business in 1979, at age 22, under NBC programming wizards Brandon Tartikoff and Grant Tinker.
He rose through the ranks to become NBC's comedy development director (1983-86), during The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Facts of Life, Cheers, Golden Girls, Night Court and Silver Spoons.
He left in 1986 to launch Fox network programming and did the same for WB in 1994.
At 41, he brings a wealth of TV experience — and a rare sense of TV history — to revive NBC's sagging fortunes.
“Walking down the hall my first day of the job on NBC (in 1979), they had pictures of all the stars of all the shows. And when I last left this network (1986), we had The Cosby Show, Facts of Life, Diff'rent Strokes, Gimme a Break and Family Ties.
“Now you walk down the hall, and there's one child in prime-time on NBC — the child on Jesse who speaks about three words a season,” he says.
Family time slots
That will change this year as Mr. Ancier retools the Christina Applegate comedy, dropping her dad and brothers from the show.
“(Jesse) was developed as a show about a single mother and her child, and that seems to have been lost in the shuffle. This child will say more this year, and hopefully there will be more children across the network this season, too,” he says.
History tells Mr. Ancier that family comedies have always worked in certain time slots. Tuesday at 8 p.m. was the spot for Father Knows Best, Dick Van Dyke, Happy Days, Who's The Boss?, Full House, Roseanne and Home Improvement.
“I think there's a tremendous opportunity on Tuesday night at 8, where there's always been a family show,” he says.
History also tells Mr. Ancier that TV programmers usually ignore proven formats to copy current trends. So the airwaves are filled with Friends and Seinfeld knock-offs.
“The industry keeps on making duplicates of shows that are working, instead of saying: "You know, there's a show that worked in this time period 20 years ago. Why don't we try that?'
“There's got to be some diversity in the programs we're putting on. They can't all be look-alikes, stamped-out clones of Friends.”
Why did the other networks abandon family comedies? Were they lost in the strategy aimed at the 18-25 age group? If advertisers want viewers 18-49, aren't many of them parents?
“I don't know why it happened. I want to stop it,” he says.
Some not so zealous
Of the 37 new fall shows, 14 are comedies. NBC has scheduled 10 sitcoms this fall, down from 18 two years ago.
“Ten is too few. I'd like to see more on the air,” Mr. Ancier says.
Two of the 10 are new shows — Neil Patrick Harris as a neurotic horror book editor in Stark Raving Mad and The Mike O'Malley Show, starring the guy who played “Rick” the sports fan, in ESPN commercials.
“I don't think we did a good job at developing comedy,” says Mr. Ancier, who arrived a week before NBC announced its fall line-up. “We only had two shows we felt were up to snuff to order for the fall schedule.”
Not everyone shares Mr. Ancier's zeal for TV sitcoms. Other TV comedy veterans claim the 50-year-old format is tapped out:
• Bruce Helford, executive producer of the Drew Carey and Norm shows, and former Roseanne writer:
“Sitcoms have come to a very big crossroads. I'm sure you (TV critics) feel it, because I don't mind saying that most of the stuff is crap. We've got to find ways to do this better.”
• Doug Herzog, former Comedy Central president now programming Fox:
“Talk to younger people and ... you'll hear them say about sitcoms: "They're for my parents. That's what my parents watch.'
“The traditional sitcom format — the four cameras, the audience, the laugh track — has not changed in 45 years since Desi Arnaz started doing it,” he says. “There's something about that canned laughter that I think is unnerving to the younger audiences who expect something a little more real and in your face.”
Mr. Ancier disagrees.
“I'm actually old enough to remember how many times comedy has been written off. The last time, I was head of comedy at NBC, and the next year we put on The Cosby Show (1984).
“The sitcom is a very durable form,” Mr. Ancier says. “But you have to have people who are TV stars. You have to have a parental figure, either a mother or a father, who is great. Or preferably both, like in Roseanne, where John Goodman was as good as Roseanne.
“We have to do a better job of coming up with those concepts, writing them, and finding the talent that makes you laugh.”
Nuclear family show
He's eager to prove everyone wrong.
He signed brothers Keenen Ivory and Shawn Wayans to create and produce a racially mixed marriage comedy called Not the Bradys. He's talking to Saturday Night Live star Tim Meadows about starring in a sitcom next fall.
“At midseason, you'll see at least one nuclear family show (on NBC),” he promises.
“There are a lot of (producers) who are just now hitting 35 and have a wife and kids, and are very excited about doing a family show.”
He's determined to build the next Full House, Home Improvement or Cosby Show. Just you watch.
John Kiesewetter is Enquirer TV/radio critic. His column appears Monday and Wednesday. Write: 312 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202; fax: 768-8330.
