Thursday

To Susan Lyne:
Bring back 'MOTW'

That's 'Movie of the Week,' when ABC was hot

By Ed Robertson

   ABC says it’s serious about developing new dramas, despite a new fall lineup that appears to suggest otherwise.
   “We intend to launch some new dramas that we’re creatively committed to,” said network entertainment president Susan Lyne when announcing the network's new schedule this week. “We have to build the network on the long-term value of scripted programming — shows with compelling enough characters that we can write to them and that can build audience loyalty.”
   Lyne also said that ABC would emphasize its comedy blocks come September. That was certainly reflected in the fall schedule the network announced on Tuesday.
    But if Lyne really wants to develop the kind of dramas that can build audience loyalty, she might consider resurrecting one of the most successful franchises in ABC history.
   That means bringing back the “Movie of the Week.”
   One of the last great anthology shows, “Movie of the Week” was a weekly series of original, 90-minute movies “made especially for television,” as the voice-over man used to say. The brainchild of the late Roy Huggins, “MOW” was also the show that would launch the careers of TV mogul Aaron Spelling and film director Steven Spielberg.
   Sure, it seems like a nutty idea. With reality TV so strong right now, why would Lyne — or any other network president, for that matter — commit herself to producing 22 original TV-movies a year?
   For two reasons. One, though it wasn’t necessarily designed that way, the original “MOW” worked spectacularly well as a “farm team” for fledgling ABC series.
   Nearly all of these were dramas, including many of the shows that would vault the network to the top of the ratings in the mid-1970s.
“Charlie’s Angels” began as a “Movie of the Week.” So did “Starsky & Hutch,” “The Love Boat,” “Baretta,” and “The Six Million Dollar Man.”
    All told, the original “MOW” ran for seven seasons (1969-1976), and would launch more than 20 different series. That’s three new shows a year.
   Not a bad yield, when you think about it.
   Of course, bringing back “Movie of the Week” would be a huge risk, requiring a level of patience and commitment most networks just aren’t willing to show these days.
   Which is exactly why Lyne should do it. Because it’s just the sort of bold, daring move that once made ABC great.
   Most of us, when we think of ABC, only think in terms of ABC in the ‘70s, when it was No. 1 with a bullet. That was the era of “Angels,” “Starsky” and “Love Boat,” as well as “Happy Days,” “Laverne & Shirley,” “Mork & Mindy,” “Three’s Company,” “Barney Miller,” “Vega$,” “Fantasy Island,” “Rich Man, Poor Man,” and “Roots.”
    Not surprisingly, these shows will be featured prominently this coming Monday, when the network celebrates its 50^th anniversary with a three-hour prime time celebration.
   But to really appreciate what ABC has done over the years, you have to realize how close it came to folding altogether in the ‘50s and early ‘60s. Not only was ABC dead last among the three major networks, it often had barely enough affiliates to keep itself going.
   Being in last place for so long, ABC had nothing to lose, and nowhere to go but up. That’s when it started taking chances, hiring people such as Dick Clark, who gave them “American Bandstand,” Chuck Barris, who took the traditional game show and turned it on its ear, Quinn Martin, who produced a string of dramas for the network throughout the ‘60s (including “The Fugitive” and “The F.B.I.”), and Roone Arledge, the man behind “Wide World of Sports” and “Monday Night Football.”
     ABC in the ‘50s and ‘60s was also the era of “Maverick,” “77 Sunset Strip,” “The Untouchables,” “Bewitched,” “Peyton Place,” “Batman” and, of course, “Movie of the Week.”
   Each of these shows, in their own way, constituted a risk. Yet they not only found an audience, sustaining ABC’s faith in them, they also kept the network alive going into the ‘70s, thus making it possible for the halcyon days that will be celebrated Monday night.
   Strictly speaking, ABC is hardly in the basement these days — not with UPN, PAX and the WB still around. But the Alphabet Network ranks last among the four major nets in the all-important 18-to-49 demographic, while it’s barely ahead of Fox in the No. 3 position in terms of overall audience.
    That means, for all intents and purposes, ABC is pretty much in the same position it was in back in the ‘50s and ‘60s.
   If Lyne hopes to find the sort of dramas that can help turn the network around, she would be wise to remember the past and go back to taking chances.
   After all, that’s what Fox did to move past ABC in the first place. While not of all Fox’s moves have worked (hello, “Celebrity Boxing”), those that have (“Joe Millionaire,” “American Idol”) have worked very, very well.
Lyne should start going out on a limb by bringing back “Movie of the Week.”
    History says she could do a lot worse.

-Ed Robertson is a writer from the San Francisco Bay Area who covers television.

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