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In Depth

Poppy Montgomery

Australia native Poppy Montgomery made a name for herself playing Marilyn Monroe on the CBS miniseries Blonde, but this actress says she was built for the one-hour drama schedule. “I love working week after week,” she said. “I go nuts…

Scrubs

Loyalty has paid off for NBC’s sophomore dramedy Scrubs, according to the show’s creator-executive producer Bill Lawrence. By maintaining continuity during the past two seasons, “We have evolved and not repeated the mistakes from the first year-being too cartoony or…

Dedicated Planning Units on the Rise

The consolidation of media planning assignments may not be as visible as the consolidation of media buying accounts that transformed Madison Avenue over the past several years, but its implications are more far-reaching, especially for entrenched advertising options like television….

Consolidation Raises Stakes for TV Indie

Having emerged from the rigors of the prime-time pilot season with two NBC series pickups, one of TV’s last surviving independent production and distribution companies, Carsey-Werner-Mandabach, faces new financial challenges posed by this week’s pending media deregulation. At the very…

Marg Helgenberger

The professional balancing act carried off by both Marg Helgenberger and the character she plays on CBS drama series CSI has not gone unnoticed by those closest to them. Ms. Helgenberger describes her stripper-turned-crime-scene-investigator character Catherine Willows as “a very…

Editorial: Time to Honor Excellence in TV Industry

The 2002-03 season is over, as are May sweeps. One of the most successful upfront selling seasons in history is now on the books. The summer offers some promising TV programming, as does the coming fall season. After all the…

Dems Object to Univision Buy

Univision’s $2.3 billion acquisition of Hispanic Broadcasting Corp. was coming under increasingly heavy attack from Democrats in Washington last week, largely out of concerns that the combination of the biggest Spanish-language broadcaster and largest radio chain may be too GOP…

The Simpsons

The Simpsons-prime time’s longest-running animated series and longest-running sitcom currently on the air-managed to stay fresh in its 14th season by returning to its roots, executive producer Al Jean said. “We tried to go back to the reason why people…

Quick Takes

“If Hollywood ever ran a contest for best showbiz award, the Emmy would win. Because of its careful system of judging panels and at-home voting it is the only award that pledges to all nominees that their work will be…

Dialing in a Bland TV Landscape

So television’s going to be more like radio now. Gosh, that’s swell. Let’s have a little dancing in the streets, because this is no small accomplishment-finding a means to make TV worse, I mean. It’s a helluva way to regulate…