Television Programming

In an age of long commutes, late sports practices, endless workdays and 24/7 television programming, the image of Mom hanging up her dish towel at 7 p.m. and declaring "the kitchen is closed" seems a quaint relic of an earlier era. It also harks back to a thinner America. And that may be no coincidence. A new study, conducted on mice, hints at an unexpected contributor to the nation's epidemic of obesity - and, if later human studies bear it out, a possible way to have our cake and eat it too, with less risk of weight gain and the diseases that come with it. Just eat your cake - or better yet, an apple - earlier.

He had already been proclaimed "the Picasso of children's books" by Time magazine when Maurice Sendak, then in his 30s, wrote and illustrated "Where the Wild Things Are," a dark fantasy that became one of the 10 bestselling children's books of all time. Published in 1963, the book was a startling departure from the sweetness and innocence that then ruled children's literature. "Wild Things" tapped into the fears of childhood and sent its main character — an unruly boy in a wolf costume — into a menacing forest to tame the wild beasts of his imagination.

Because of unfolding national events, network, cable and local television programming schedules were uncertain at press time.

The reality TV show "Bait Car" is supposed to catch car thieves in the act. Undercover cops park a rigged car on the side of the road, conspicuously leaving the keys inside, while a television crew waits nearby for an unsuspecting passerby to take the bait and steal the car. But in one recent sting filmed in cooperation with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, the lead detective on the case ended up getting busted instead....

The Oprah Winfrey Network seems to have everything needed to succeed: some of the best creative minds in the business, strong financial backing, a loyal audience and enthusiastic advertisers eager to buy commercial time. But more than 20 months after the announcement that Winfrey was teaming with Discovery Communications Inc. to create a cable channel that celebrates her ethos, "Living your best life," not much has happened -- except for a revolving door of executives. Three top programmers abruptly left the Los Angeles-based network in recent months, and development spending has been cut. OWN was supposed to have launched by now, but its debut has been pushed back to mid-2010.

Spanish-language TV giant Univision Communications said Monday that it was creating an in-house production unit -- a move that reflects consumers' changing viewing habits and a sign that the company no longer wants to rely as heavily on its longtime partner in Mexico for its most popular shows. Univision will launch Univision Studios in Miami to produce prime-time soap operas, reality shows and videos for the Internet. Although Univision benefits from a steady supply of the popular telenovelas produced by Grupo Televisa of Mexico City, the New York-based broadcaster has determined it needs greater diversity in content, according to company executives.

The 35,000-member Southern California affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union has launched a campaign to combat fundamentalist groups that it says have tried to censor television programs in recent months. The campaign is aimed at supporting programs--including "Midnight Caller," "Knots Landing" and "Tour of Duty"--that have been targeted by the Rev.

After years of opposition, the nation's television broadcasters are expected to announce today that they have agreed to a government plan requiring them to provide three hours of educational programming for children per week. Sources close to an intense weekend of talks between federal officials and the broadcasters said Sunday that President Clinton will announce the agreement during a White House "summit" on children's television.

The human race seems to be falling for the space aliens' devious scheme: We're watching more television than ever, according to a report released Monday. If you've seen that Hulu.com commercial starring Alec Baldwin, you know that TV is a plot devised by aliens to turn our brains into mush so they can scoop them out and eat them. Computers, the ad says, are making our brains even mushier by giving us more places to watch TV. The Nielsen Co.'

Most critics and TV reviewers complain about how few good programs there are on television. But I am amazed that there are as many good programs as there are, knowing, as I do, what it takes to get any program on the air. Those producers who actually wind up with a successful prime-time network series, TV movie or special have usually weathered an ordeal as difficult as trying to become the next President.

CBS Corp.might be a titan of old media but its first-quarter earnings were boosted by gains in new media: the digital distribution of its television programming and the sale of e-books. The New York-based broadcasting company beat analyst estimates with 80% higher net earnings for the quarter ended March 31. The company earned $363 million, or 54 cents per diluted share, up from $202 million, or 29 cents per diluted share, compared with the year-earlier period. The substantially higher margin came from growth in operating income as well as lower weighted average shares as a result of the company's stock repurchase program.

Julian Fellowes recalls his first Titanic moment, decades before a young Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet climbed onto James Cameron's set. "It haunted me," he says of a childhood viewing of "A Night to Remember," the 1958 British film about the ocean liner's crash into an iceberg and the ensuing race for the lifeboats. "Somehow the disaster of the Titanic embraces so much of that world -- high and low, working men and aristocrats, entrepreneurs and movie stars, immigrants hoping to start a new life in America.

Imagine a hulking, growling, 8-foot-tall woodland creature so elusive that professional trackers can't find it, scientists can only speculate about it and believers can't prove -- definitively -- that it exists. Hiding deep in the forest may be your modus operandi, Bigfoot, but Hollywood and Madison Avenue are pushing you -- however reluctantly -- into the spotlight. A slew of documentary, TV and film projects including Animal Planet's current hit "Finding Bigfoot," and a Sasquatch film trilogy from "Blair Witch Project" director Eduardo Sanchez are poised to get past the old grainy images of yesterday and give the hairy 800-pound biped a high-def close-up.

Chinese television broadcasters have been ordered to stop showing foreign programs during prime time and limit the total amount of programming from other countries. A new set of rules bars imported programming from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. and calls for no more than 25% of programming each day to come from foreign sources, according to a statement issued Monday by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, China's media regulator. "If there's no rule against taking shows from abroad, then TV stations will only broadcast foreign shows," said Yuan Fang, a professor in the advertising department of the Communication University of China.

The Gig: Paul Telegdy is president of alternative and late-night programming for NBC Entertainment. He is responsible for unscripted shows, including "The Voice," "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" and "Saturday Night Live. " The gregarious 40-year-old Brit, son of a Hungarian political refugee who became a chemical engineer and a former British actress turned teacher, has lived in Switzerland, Austria, England, Belgium and the U.S. Telegdy, a father of two young daughters, took an unconventional path to network television, but the seeds were planted early.

With its lush mountains, tropical rain forest and sugar-white beaches, Puerto Rico has long prided itself as a "paradise of locations" for filmmaking. But the U.S. territory has never been ranked in the top tier of filming destinations, in part because it had only a small pool of money allocated for its tax-credit program. That could change now that the Caribbean archipelago wants to grab a larger share of Hollywood's production pie. Last week, Puerto Rico Gov. Luis G. Fortuño signed into law a new package of film incentives aimed at making his commonwealth competitive with some of the top production hubs in the U.S. The new law broadens the existing 40% production tax credit to include TV programs and documentaries, and for the first time allows producers to claim a 20% tax credit for hiring nonresidents, including actors' salaries.

Some of the nation's largest corporate advertisers, seeking greater control over television, are proposing to create their own shows to air on the major broadcast networks. With the networks suffering a downturn in ad revenues, advertisers sense an opportunity to buy their way back into the creative process for prime-time television and, potentially, return to the early days of broadcasting when they controlled many of the most popular shows.

Call it comic relief. Sitcoms are making a comeback and keeping sorely needed jobs in Los Angeles. A new crop of half-hour comedies is helping drive up television production at a time when L.A. has been struggling to keep major feature films from fleeing the state to cheaper locales. Last week, activity for on-location shoots for television programs doubled over the same time a year ago, a sign that the sector is rebounding after falling in the third quarter. Dramas were up 36%, TV reality programs rose 128% and situation comedies jumped 1,580% ?

Jack Horkheimer, an amateur astronomer who created and hosted the long-running weekly public television segment "Star Gazer," died Friday in Miami. He was 72. Horkheimer had battled respiratory problems for many years, according to Tony Lima, a spokesman for the Miami Science Museum and Space Transit Planetarium. Horkheimer directed the planetarium for 35 years until his retirement three years ago. A flamboyant showman, Horkheimer was not taken seriously by professional astronomers, but his exuberant promotion of naked-eye astronomy — stargazing without a telescope — made him a celebrity among amateurs and gave his five-minute weekly television segments a campy appeal.