WB kicks ‘Black Sash’ into midseason
The WB has formally placed a midseason series order on “The Black Sash,” which stars Russell Wong (“Romeo Must Die”) as an ex-cop who moonlights as a bounty hunter while operating a dojo in San Francisco. A pilot had already been shot and The WB has ordered six more episodes from series producers Tollin/Robbins Productions and Warner Bros. Television. A network spokesman said The WB is tentatively looking at an early 2003 start date for “The Black Sash.”
The WB also confirmed that the revival of “The Lone Ranger,” starring Chad Michael Murrary, is still in consideration. The back-door pilot will air as a two-hour movie presentation next season.
CBS takes three Family TV honors
The Fourth Annual Family Television Awards, held last Wednesday in Beverly Hills, Calif., and to be broadcast by ABC on Friday, Aug. 9 (9 p.m. to 11 p.m., ET), honored shows for their contributions to family entertainment. The Family Television Awards, in which advertisers select the honorees, bestowed three wins on CBS, with “The Guardian” voted best new series and star Simon Baker best actor. CBS also picked up a best movie award for “The Rosa Parks Story.” Among other award winners: The WB’s “7th Heaven” series nabbed the best family drama trophy, while best actress went to Alexis Bledel of “Gilmore Girls”; ABC picked up a pair of trophies, earning the best comedy award for “My Wife and Kids” and best animated special honors for the miniseries “Dinotopia”; and special series honors went to PBS’s freshman “American Family” drama, which revolves around a Hispanic-American family living in East Los Angeles.
P&G gives Hollywood a Tremor
Creative Artists Agency has announced that it is now representing Tremor, a new teen marketing initiative from packaged-goods giant Procter & Gamble. Through its new relationship with P&G, CAA will work with other outside entertainment companies and consumer brand marketers to integrate Tremor into marketing initiatives aimed at a youth-oriented market. Procter & Gamble joins Coca-Cola, Motorola, Boeing and the Indy Racing League as marketers looking to CAA for entertainment-related marketing strategies and programs.
Frons to ABC Daytime; Sherman upped
ABC has named Brian Scott Frons, a veteran executive of London-based SBS Broadcasting, to serve as president of ABC Daytime effective Aug. 26. Mr. Frons will be based in Los Angeles and succeeds Angela Shapiro, who was promoted to president of the ABC Family cable network earlier this year. Mr. Frons most recently served as senior VP of programming for SBS Broadcasting.
In other personnel moves, Thom Sherman has been promoted to senior VP of drama programming for ABC Entertainment, from VP, drama programming.
ABC awards talent grants
ABC has announced the 16 recipients of its 2002 ABC New Talent Development Scholarship-Grant Program, which is designed to discover and foster diverse writing, filmmaking and directing talent. The program distributes funds in the form of scholarships and grants to aid in financing and promoting creative efforts.
This year’s schloarship-grant honorees and their projects are Nora Chau (New York) for “To Chow Yun Fat with Love”; Gabriel Cordell (Los Angeles) for “Carolina”; Luisa Dantas (Washington) for “Bitter Sugar”; Juan Devis (Chicago) for “Welcome to Tijuana”; Sean Lee Fahrlander (Ojibwe Nation, Wisc.) for “Walk the Bear”; Diane Fraher (New York) for “The Reawakening”; Starr Harris (Raleigh, N.C.) for “Grown Up Already”; Rhonda Haynes (New York) for “Bringin’ in da Spirit”; Marsha Jackson-Randolph (Houston) for “You Send Me: The Sam Cooke Story”; Kevin Kamin (Minneapolis) for “Shawn Ship Shape”; Alexandra Martinez (Houston) for “Sunset Park”; Alaina Niemann (Raleigh, N.C.) for “Corpulent Power”; Anna Peralta (Los Angeles) for “Vet in the City”; Jean Trela (Chicago) for “Baby Central”; Vivian Umino (Washington) for “The Master Painter”; and Aaron Woolfolk (Los Angeles) for “Harimaya-bashi (The Harimaya Bridge).”