By Lisa de Moraes
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., July 14
Fox will tackle the comedy-series crisis by taking meetings with sitcom writers at their homes, or in restaurants of their choosing, to make them more comfortable, the head of Fox Entertainment told TV critics at Thank God I'm Working Summer TV Press Tour 2008.
And one of the stars already has been recast on J.J. Abrams's new Fox drama series, "Fringe."
Meanwhile, the slings and arrows of TV critics bounced right off Karl Rove (who appears to lack nerve endings) during a Fox News Channel Q&A session. But they appeared to land on Chris Wallace, who was rattled by the questions and comments directed at on-air talent and a network exec.
About the sorry state of comedy series on network TV, Fox Entertainment division chief Kevin Reilly said: "I can't even go to the platitude of 'it's cyclical, it's going to come back.'
"A lot of confidence has left the creative space on a day-to-day basis. I see really talented people coming in, very skittish, not knowing what to pitch and what will sell. I see executives trying to figure out where is that nerve to hit."
The solution? "We're not going to take most of our [comedy] pitches in our office," Reilly said. "We're going to go out and meet the writers on their own turf. And that could be a restaurant, that could be -- if they want to do it in their house, we'll do it in their house. Anything that gets it out of a sterile environment and try something different."
Reilly said he's heartened by the whole Sarah Silverman-having-sex-with-Matt Damon/Jimmy Kimmel-having-sex-with-Ben Affleck dueling-video thing, and all the stuff comedy writers put on YouTube and other Web sites during the writers' strike. It appears comedy writers still know funny and now all they have to do is figure out how to shove an ad break in every seven minutes and, presto, you've got a sitcom revival.
To that end, Fox is going to throw some money at comedy writers to go out and shoot something before they even come in to pitch it -- or, more accurately, meet Fox suits in their family room to pitch it.
"Go shoot something and then put it in the machine, even if it's not for air -- we've got to do anything to mix it up," explained Reilly, who said he had high hopes for one of his midseason comedies, "Boldly Go Nowhere." He described it as " 'The Office' in space -- petty jealousies and incompetencies on a long-term mission to wherever they're going."
With regard to the "Fringe" recasting: We're speaking, of course, of the cow that, some critics believe, steals at least one scene in the pilot. (You can see a bootlegged version online, though it's not the finished product.)
The cow had to be recast when the sci-fi-ish show moved from Vancouver, B.C., where the pilot was shot, to New York. The cow was not permitted to travel, the show's producer told TV critics, without elaboration. But pilot director Jeff Pinkner told critics they've had conversations about using makeup on the new cow if viewers notice its spots aren't in the same place in the second episode. You can just imagine the mythological implications.
Former White House adviser Rove seemed unfazed by critics' questions in re whether having someone with his "political baggage" hurts the credibility of Fox News Channel, for which he is a contributor.
Congress subpoenaed Rove in May to get him to talk about whether he had a part in prosecutors' decision to pursue cases against Democrats, or in the firing of federal prosecutors considered disloyal to the Bush administration, the Associated Press reported.
Rove told TV critics that in letters to the House Judiciary Committee, "my lawyer has offered for me to go up to visit with members of Congress, visit with the staff or respond to written questions without foreclosing any future action by Congress."
Fox News Executive Vice President John Moody answered the question by saying the situation is between Rove and Congress and does not involve the cable news channel. At which point Rove sprang into action, insisting it's not personal at all.
"It's not between me and Congress. I've not asserted any personal privilege -- this is between the White House and Congress," he said. It's about "the ability of the president to receive advice from senior advisers and for those senior advisers not to be at the beck and call of Congress for testimony."
Rove and Howard Wolfson, Sen. Hillary Clinton's former campaign strategist, came to the press tour to talk about Fox's election coverage. But they never seemed to get around to that. Mostly they defended just being there.
Wolfson acknowledged he wants Barack Obama to become the next president.
Rove said he's not formally working with Sen. John McCain's campaign but that he has frequent contact with those who are. Moody jumped in and said Rove wouldn't get information any quicker than the channel's correspondents covering the presidential race anyway. Critics seemed to buy that one, but when he said, "I don't think Karl would cross the ethical line like that," it set off guffawing in the Beverly Hills hotel ballroom.
Moody was asked about the reference by one air-talent, a while ago, to a possible "terrorist fist jab" between Democratic contender Barack Obama and his wife. Moody said he wished that had not happened, calling it "regrettable."
Wallace, who was on the panel, got kind of knicker-knotted by the end of the session, which was surprising, given the general softball-ness of the questioning.
"I think sometimes there's a double standard here," Wallace vented. "I think that MSNBC and its coverage of this campaign went so far over the line in terms of being in the tank for Barack Obama it lost a lot of credibility." He noted Keith Olbermann's involvement in that competing cable network's election news coverage; Olbermann is also "delivering 10-minute screeds against President Bush, telling him to shut the hell up and Hillary Clinton to get out of the campaign," he said. "The fact is that there was something of a firewall" on FNC, and a reason why "Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity don't anchor the election coverage at Fox.
"Our feeling is the opinion-makers should deliver their opinions and the journalists should cover the news."
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