Fox at 10

Tom Shales wrote "TV Eye" for me this week. Actually, the Washington Post critic wrote his own column for his own newspaper, but there it was, the same subject I'd had planned for this week's Chron: Fox Network (Ch 2) on their 10th anniversary of their coup against the ABC (Ch 3), CBS (Ch 5) and NBC (Ch 4) networks.

This is a network that has worked diligently to compete. Aware of the pitfalls of going against the old-line networks, it brashly entered the race for viewership with tasteless sitcoms like Married With Children as well as notable efforts like 21 Jump Street, while later skating the race lines with panache on In Living Color. With unabashed courtship of young viewers, it gave the world Beverly Hills 90210 which begat Melrose Place (which begat Models Inc., but we won't go into that for our own sake). It also spawned noble but under-watched shows such as Party of Five, forgettable shows -- remember Glory Days? No? Join the crowd -- and memorable if short-lived series like the stylish, intriguing Profit and the trendy Kindred: The Embraced.

Fox's naked desire for the Gen X crowd suits its brash underdog demeanor well, and it has paid off in the network's recent #2 ranking in the 18-49 age bracket. Fox built its early shows and limited programming at a time when a new generation of disaffected youth were fairly disgusted with the fare on which they had grown up. Good or bad, Fox gave them not only young street heroes like Johnny Depp and Richard Grieco, but dream sluts like Christina Applegate as MWC's Kelly Bundy (it's tough to think of solid female role models Fox has created, but maybe that's asking a lot). When Fox gave birth to In Living Color, it was a multi-ethnic wet dream: ILC was witty and well-cast, brave and risky. While other Fox shows like America's Most Wanted and COPS weren't exactly Gen-X hip, they appealed to a wider grassroots viewership and the two audiences combined made for some powerful demographics.

Shales balances his praise of the fourth network's fearlessness with cautionary words about its shamelessness, but notes that Fox "boasts probably its best lineup of prime-time programming ever." However, if this week's premiere of the new potboiler series Pacific Palisades sets off a stink bomb, neither the network nor uber-producer Aaron Spelling will be very happy. But it certainly won't stop them.

It's too easy to point a finger at such tripe as Married With Children -- Hee Haw, after all, was hugely successful in its run. Instead, Fox should give some thought to sending 90210 to the dead letter office. Here is a prime example of a show that has run its course and outgrown its cast (already too old for their adolescent angst). Proof of its deterioration lies in its storyline focus on that toad Donna Martin, poorly over-acted by Tori Spelling who favors an outre kinderwhore style of dressing for her professional virgin character. (In a recent episode, Spelling actually looked into the camera at the end of a scene.) If Donna's not irritating enough, it looks like Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth) and Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestley) are getting back together. The producers banished the parents a couple of seasons back, but if we start seeing trailers for new segments with Brenda (Shannen Doherty), we'll simply don black and wait for the banshees to wail.

But if that's the downside, the upside is good. Both The Simpsons and X-Files won Peabody Awards for Fox the week of its birthday. NBC and ABC each took home one (for Law & Order and NYPD Blue, respectively) and CBS none. Like Tom Shales, I pause at the the phrase "biting satire," for which The Simpsons was rewarded, and "an innovative and creative dramatic [X-Files] which is reinvigorating the form and bringing new vitality to prime-time television entertainment," but agree they are well-deserved.

For 56 years, the University of Georgia has administered the George Foster Peabody Awards to outstanding radio and television programming. The number of awards varies from year to year, and are chosen by a 15-person board of critics and executives. The Peabodys are a fine example of what awards should be -- annual honors of merit rather than the Emmy shoe-horning of TV shows into umbrella catergories, and Fox should rightfully take pride in them. But I bet Susan Lucci will never win one of these, either.

And, Tom -- I loved you on The Larry Sanders Show.

An excuse for a Julianna Margulies pic.

Channel Surfing: Paul Stekler of UT's RTF department, who won a Peabody Award this year for oustanding achievement in broadcast and cable for his PBS (Ch 9, 20) series on American politics, Vote For Me, will be honored by UT and KLRU on April 30...

Oops: last week it was reported that Court TV's Prime Time Justice appeared at 9pmC; it appears at 10pmC. If you tried to tune in at 9pm, you likely saw Johnnie Cochran butting heads with ex-Atlanta prosecutor Nancy Grace on Cochran & Grace, CTV's lively nightly news show looking at legal issues of the day. Pretty interesting, this show -- watching Cochran away from the O.J.Simpson trial is amusingly illuminating...

New episodes as the 1996-97 television seasons close: ER begins the last shows for its NBC season, giving me the slimmest excuse possible to use a picture of Julianna Margulies. (When I met her during SXSW Film.97, I rushed home and phoned up Weezer, saying, "Do you want me to torture you now or later by telling you how gorgeous she is in person?")...

Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny return for new X-Files (now we can tag it as "the Peabody Award-winning" X-Files), taking us to the May sweeps, though I haven't determined if any of these segments address Scully's cancer diagnosis. Now that is television that keeps me tuned in...

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"TV Eye" is a weekly column for TV viewers. Please address any queries or information to: TV Eye, The Austin Chronicle, PO Box 49066, Austin TX, 78765 or e-mail [email protected]