12 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, September 14, 1999 Mergers won't affect TV programs The Baltimore Sun With the rhetoric flying from all directions last week in the wake of Viacom buying CBS for $38 billion, it was not easy for viewers to understand what the transaction would mean to their lives. Analysts called it a threat to our democratic way of life and the "end of network television as we knew it," without saying who exactly "we" were and what it was we "knew." The Viacom-CBS deal is a major development, but not a watershed moment in broadcasting histo- ry. Disney-ABC and Time-Warner were water- sheds because they took us into the super-con- glomerate era of network television in which we now live. Viacom-CBS is the continuation of that trend, which experts are predicting will culminate in a Sony-NBC deal. As University of Maryland media economist Douglas Gomery, who writes the "Business of Television" column for American Journalism Review, put it, "NBC is the only network left with- out a major studio. Sony-NBC would be my pick for the next mega-deal. It almost has to happen at some point." You don't need to be an economist to realize how such deals can change our culture. All you have to do is watch the new fall shows that the net- works are starting to roll out. You have probably already read that this crop of series from ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, WB and UPN is the worst in recent memory. This is a direct result of relaxed federal regulations that allow the networks to own the shows they air. It's the first season in which the networks have produced the vast majority of new series themselves rather than buying them from independent producers like, say, Norman Lear or Steven Bochco. "American viewers need to know this sorry. group of shows this fall is the new look of network television thanks to the blockheads in Washington who allowed the networks to take control of pro- duction without the public ever knowing what was going on," said Stephen J. Cannell, an independent producer who has created more series and written more hours of television than anyone in Hollywood, with the possible exception of Lear and Bochco.' A former staff producer at Universal, where he wrote for and created such series as "The Rockford Files," "Baretta" and "The A-Team," Cannell was also one of the first writer-producers to own his own production company and studio. While he still has Stephen J. Cannell Productions, which makes television movies, he started writing novels full-time in the mid-1990s. He says he made the switch in part because the networks were starting to wrest control from independents by building their own production operations and looking to merge with major studios like Viacom's Paramount. With four best-sellers in four years, a fifth book climbing the charts and more money from syndi- cation than anyone should probably have, Cannell is not a bitter man. But he is an angry one - angry about the Federal Communications Commission letting Hollywood lobbyists seduce it into dropping the financial interest-syndication rules. These regulations, in place for 22 years, kept the networks from controlling both the pro- duction and the distribution of TV shows. That single act of deregulation in 1993 set loose the mega-merger beasts now on the rampage. "I'm not mad at the networks. They're business- es run by businessmen. This is what they do. I ran a studio in Hollywood; I understand. I'm mad at the people in Washington, who are supposed to serve the public interest, but instead just let the networks take control of the airwaves and wipe out a system in Hollywood that resulted in some pret- ty good television for the American viewer," Cannell said. The system of which Cannell speaks involved a constant tension between independent producers and the networks that bought their products. The best producers had a vision that aspired toward art, while the networks favored a more bland and pre- dictable kind of show that better fit their idea of television as an assembly-line business. Take "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." As co-cre- ator Allan Burns tells it, CBS hated the episode titled "Support Your Local Mother," which intro- duced the character of Ida Morgenstern (Nancy Walker) as mother of Rhoda Morgenstern (Valerie Harper). One of the things CBS objected to was the scene in which Ida first meets Mary. It is one of the fun- niest moments in one of television's funniest series. In it, Mary is "distressing" a table with a chain in an effort to make look like an antique. Walker's facial reactions tell you she thinks Mary is crazy even as she says, "Whatever turns you on, dear." The CBS executives thought it was "an S&M scene" when they read the script and, despite Burns' attempts to explain distressed furniture, cited it as one of the reasons CBS would not pay for the episode. In defiance, Grant Tinker, who was then running the fledgling MTM production company, OK'd the $100,000 cost of filming out of his own pocket - a move that would have near- ly bankrupt MTM had CBS not finally caved in after they were handed the finished product. Today, that episode would never get made and the character of Ida Morgenstern would probably never have gotten on screen. Cannell offered a similar example from his past. In 1990, he created a series called "The Commish," about a paunchy, balding police com- missioner. "I wrote it with the actor Michael Chiklis in mind as the Commish. It only worked with a guy who looked like him _ a guy who did not look like a matinee idol," Cannell said. "But the first thing the network says is, 'We really like the idea, but we see someone like Jack Scalia in the lead.' Well, Scalia has your standard Hollywood good looks, which is the exact oppo- site of what made this character work. "Today, I either give them Scalia or the show doesn't get made. Make it with Scalia, and it's- nothing. It's canceled in six weeks. But everything has to fit a standard model in the network mind." With the paunchy, balding Chiklis, the series ran four seasons on ABC. And, while it wasn't "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," it makes a point about a "standard model in the network mind" that is high- ly relevant to this season. I firmly believe that one of the reasons we have 27 new series from ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox this fall with no leading character who is black is that the networks controlled the production process so thoroughly for the first time. This is not to say that the networks conspired to make it happen or even consciously wanted it to happen - only shows that fit a certain model got made this year. And, outside of a very few super- star producers - David E. Kelley, Dick Wolf and John Wells - you either made the shows the net- works wanted in the way they wanted or found yourself without a buyer. The unprecedented level of network control is also the reason for so many uninspired spin-off series this fall; spin-offs are safe and fit the net- work practice of not taking chances. As for the larger claims about the Viacom-CBS merger, no one really knows what it all means. But I feel in my bones that Time-Warner, Disney-ABC and Viacom-CBS are not the proper media model for a democracy. And it is plain to see that we are headed even further down that road in coming years. Only gov- ernment can stand up to companies this large and powerful. And, sad to say, I don't see any trust- busters on the political horizon. Courtesy of Artisan Entertainment The creators of "Blair Witch Project" credit Pierson with hyping the movie. ieron gives e mvies big brecakse Have you always dreamed of seeing your name in print? Now is your chance! To learn more about writing for Daily Arts, call 763-0379. 'Harsh Realm' brings Want A Challenge? supernatui Los Angeles Times What would you call a world that looks just like the one you now inhabit, only when you step out your front door, people are shooting at you, trying to rob you and attempting to et your dog? New York? Well, close. But producer Chris Carter insists his is a make-believe world, and he calls it "Harsh Realm." Either way, it debuts on the Fox network Oct. 8 and, along with the WB's alien-inspired "Roswell" and the vampire-heavy "Angel,"it helps take the new fall televi- sion season into another dimension. Carter's success with such science- fiction classics as "The X-Files" and "Millennium" no doubt inspired Hollywood's current preoccupation with the paranormal. But he says the innova- tively haunting "Harsh Realm" is actual- ly richer in story possibilities than any of his previous series. Billed as the ultimate mind game, "Harsh Realm" explores a virtual reality world created by the military to test bat- tle scenarios. But something has gone terribly wrong with the military's plans and war hero Lt. Thomas Hobbes ral Start your career off on the right foot by enrolling in the Air Force OfficerTraining School. There you will become a commissioned officer in just 12 weeks. From the start you'll enjoy great pay, complete medical and dental care, 30 days of vacation each year, plus the opportunity to travel and AIM HIGH see the world. To discover how high , AIRA a career in the Air Force can take you, call 1-800-423-USAF, or visit www.airforce.com our website at www.airforce.com to Fox (played by Scott Bairstow) is ordered into the top-secret computer-simulation exercise to take on the "virtual charac- ters" who live in the realm. It's- not, however, an unruly world. Rules, in fact, are key to the story.. "You need rules," says Carter, "because if it were just lawlessness and rulelessness every week ... you'd never be able to know the consequences to any particular action. On 'The X-Files,' you know, science provided a foil to the unexplainable. And it's really no differ- ent. You have the real world, which pro- vides the measure of the unreal world to tell stories allegorically." Building that kind of foundation in reality was vital to making "The X- Files" so popular, says David Nutter, a former Carter colleague who directed 15 episodes of the show in its first three sea- sons. "The secret to its success was creating an atmosphere and an environment that's real. And characters that the audience can relate to;'says Nutter, now executive pro- ducer of the WB's hourlong prime-time series "Roswell," which debuts Oct. 6. The aim is to keep the audience focused on the show's people, not its premise. So when alien Max Evans (played by "Dawson's Creek's" Jason Behr) uses a mysterious power to save the live of classmate Liz Parker (played by newcomer Shiri Appleby), he trusts his secret - and his future - to a girl hes has been silently infatuated with since grade school. "It's a love story, an old-fashioned love story," Nutter says. "We basically wanted to tell a story that we wanted to watch." But while "Roswell's" main charac- ters hail from another world and "Dark Realm's" cast inhabits one, the new WB series "Angel" is set in present-day Los Angeles - an environment its executive producers insist is much richer in plot possibilities than anyone's imagination. Miramax's Harvey Weinstein has made himself the most visible face of independent film, with his extrav- agant Oscar campaigns for "The English Patient" and "Shakespeare in Love"- and his bankrolling Talk magazine after stealing Tina Brown away from The New Yorker. But those in the know consider John Pierson the real guru of indie film. When Spike Lee needed S10,000 to finish his first feature, "She's Gotta Have It," Pierson wrote him the check. Michael Moore's film "Roger & Me" might have been bit- ingly anti-corporate, but Pierson sold it to Warner Bros. for $3 mil- lion. Kevin Smith looked to Pierson as the "miracle man" who managed to get "Clerks" distributed when no one wanted to touch his low-budget, foul-mouthed film about New Jersey convenience-store workers. Richard Linklater's "Slacker" might never have been shown outside Austin, Texas, or become shorthand for describing "Generation X," if not for Pierson's support. Even the buzz over the current indie-film blockbuster "The Blair Witch Project" was started by Pierson in 1997. Pierson aired two short segments of "Blair Witch" on "Split Screen," the show he hosts on the Independent Film Channel, and immediately stirred a "War of the Worlds"-styled tempest on the IFC Web site over whether it was a real documentary. "Split Screen" had its premiere in 1997, as an outgrowth of Pierson's multimedia tour for his book "Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes: A Guided Tour Across a Decade of American Independent Cinema." Since then, there's been no better place to pick up the indie-film buzz. .Last week, IFC celebrated its fifth anniversary with an hour long "Split Screen" retrospective; Monday, the fifth season of "Split Screen" began. Chatting in the show's SoHo pro- duction office recently, aptly attired in a "Crumb" T-shirt, the bespecta- cled, curly-haired enthusiast - he got married at New York's Film Forum after showing friends a Buster Keaton comedy - said the show is taking a different approach this year. If Pierson was once the Charlie Rose of IFC, inviting directors to talk about their new projects, now he hopes to be more like "60 Minutes" creator Don Hewitt, supervising a cast of correspondents. "I hope it's a film-loving show, but it's almost equally about good stories and colorful characters doing unex- pected things. It would be nice to see the show get a larger audience, because we're not making it for somebody who is desperate to get some inside look at Lili Taylor or Parker Posey," said Pierson, naming two indie-film It Girls. "They're great actresses, but that's not what new in the town Bruce Willis bought; then abandoned. Then, of course, Smith, of "Clerks," will certainly come on in November to discuss his controversial new "Dogma." "I'm really keen on getting the right balance of stories," Pierson said. "There are people I'd love4 see on the show. We have Atom Egoyan ("The Sweet Hereafter") coming up. But it's going to be less of 'The John Show.' There are fewer people left I really want to interview. Although there are still people that I never want on the show." Such as? "Oh, I couldn't name any names. I've already picked on Eric Stoltz far too much," Pierson says, dismiss= the ubiquitous actor with a lau . "And Ed Burns. You'll never see Ed Burns on 'Split Screen.' 'The Brothers McMullen' was bad news. It's so middle of the road. It set off a wave of low-budget, mains tream romantic comedies You would not believe how many people isrk in that genre now. There may "atore of them than Gen X films." , Pierson hopes to give up-and# ers the chance to get their short films on IFC, helping them get the experi- ence they need to make their feature debuts stand out in the crowd of indie films. After all, he points out, both "South Park" and "Sling Blade" started as shorts. "His taste commands respect," said Christine Vachon, the executive producer of "Velvet Goldmine" a d "Happiness." She first worked wU Pierson 15 years ago on 1985's "Parting Glances," the first filnR to tackle the threat of AIDS, andthe movie that gave Steve Buscemi hjFs first leading role. "If John finds something ant pushes it, he gets it noticed," .,he said. The films that got their start'with sneak previews on "Split Ser include the documentary "D Trash" and this fall's hotly antiiat ed "American Movie." * - Two animators who got thembe a. on his show then came to thd a1 tion of Richard Linklater and 4Z doing the animation for hih $e film. Then there's the pop-culiseg tion "Blair Witch," whose &rei - credit Pierson for sparking tf ry excitement that led to a S I? i lion-plus take at the box offier The movie purports to be magng three people who never from an expedition into Maryland woods to explore the end of the Blair Witch. Th supposedly was found a year tg 2 "We ran it as 'found footg.> got a really good respon~ Z 'Split Screen' Web site e e with people talking about whdU r was real. That was our fist inclination of what might h said Daniel Myrick, who co-woe and directed the film. Pierson hopes "Blair restores some of the excitemet indie cinema, which he suggegs FULBRIGHT PROGRAM FOR STUDY & RESEARCH ABROAD The IE Fulbright programs support study abroad in over 100 countries, providing grants for research,.study and travel for selected countries, and various other opportunities such as teaching assistantships. The competition is open to US students at all graduate levels and to seniors who will have graduated by the time the award is to be utilized. Students need not have international experience to be considered. Recent graduates and graduating seniors are not at a disadvantage. Information sessions will be held on Sept. 8 at 3pm, and Sept. 9 at 5pm in room 2609 of the International Institute. Application materials are available at the International Institute (now located in the new School of Social Work Building). The Fulbright Program Adviser is Kirsten Willis. Contact her at 763-3297 or kbakke@umich.edu Deadline for application: September 24, 1999 ,._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ University of Michigan PROJECT COMMUNITY Edward Ginsberg Center for Community Service and Learning