Cable networks took their turns last week at the semiannual Television Critics Association press tour in Pasadena, Calif., wielding the traditional weapons of celebrities and hors d’oeuvres to win the hearts, minds and particularly the column inches of the nation’s…
When William Corbin graduated from the University of Maine he thought he wanted to go into politics. So he went to work for the now-retired Maine Sen. William Cohen. But the pace was way too slow for a young man…
Some television executives like to tell members of the creative community, “I’m one of you. I really get it. They just make me wear this suit.”Don’t necessarily believe it, unless the person speaking is Tracy Katsky, senior VP of comedy…
The battle over the digital future heated up last week when the American Civil Liberties Union lashed out against the threat of monopoly control of the broadband Internet by the cable industry.The organization echoed fears that have been voiced in…
Only in arcane Hollywood would the word “alternative” be used to characterize what now constitutes around 85 percent of programs on the network schedules. Chris Coelen, head of alternative programming at United Talent Agency, is out to take the much-discussed…
Greg Berlanti had never been to Colorado, hated cold weather and didn’t know much about medicine. But that didn’t stop him from penning a new drama for The WB’s fall schedule about a neurosurgeon who moves to the small fictional…
The traditional end to the CTAM Summit, cable’s annual educational conference under way this week in Boston, is the closing “Reality Check: What’s Hot, What’s Not” panel, which often is missed by cable summiteers already racing home as the convention…
Several cable networks have recently begun telling their viewers what to do. With such slogans as “Enjoy the Show” and “Join the Investigation” and “New Things; Turn Us On,” programmers are getting into the habit of issuing edicts to audiences.It’s…
For WJXT-TV this is Independence Day. The Post-Newsweek station that was Jacksonville, Fla.’s Goliath for 53 years cast off its CBS affiliation at the stroke of midnight and now hopes to prove itself an independent David who can still claim…
In “Turning deregulation into profit” (Deals, July 8), Viacom bought KCAL-TV in Los Angeles from Young Broadcasting.