Television Programs

The schism between the Rev. Robert H. Schuller and his son at Orange County's Crystal Cathedral arose over a disagreement about broadening the church's long-running television show, "Hour of Power," beyond a single personality -- a move opposed by the younger Schuller, pastors involved in the matter said Sunday. The elder Schuller announced Saturday that he was removing his son, the Rev. Robert A. Schuller, as the show's only preacher three years after turning the program over to him.

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.

Poor, poor little rich boy Gordon Clune. Poor little starving Gordon Clune. --excerpt from a PBS Net forum about "Frontier House" The widely seen PBS reality series "Frontier House" captured the many sides of Gordon Clune and his Malibu family. It caught their whining side, complaining side, feuding side and cheating side.

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....

Her Saturday morning show, which spotlights California public education, points to Dina Ruiz Eastwood's down-to-earth background: graduation from a state university and a father who teaches high school math. But the big-time celebrity interviews she scores for the modestly produced show also offer a glimpse into a more glamorous world. Eastwood is the anchor of "Quest for Excellence," a feature show that the California Teachers Assn. pays to have produced and aired on stations around the state.

The Public Broadcasting Service turns 40 this year, and on Tuesday it gave itself a gift that just might make it feel young again. PBS' new video portal allows online viewers to stream an array of its best-known shows over the Web. The new site gathers more than 130 episodes of nearly 20 programs, including marquee fare such as "Frontline," "Nova" and "Masterpiece Theater." PBS says thousands of hours of programming should be available to users by the summer.

In response to the American Family Assn. advertisement that appeared in the comics section, July 11: I'm very excited about your newest comic strip, "We Are Fed Up!" Even more timely and satiric than "Doonesbury," "We Are Fed Up!" provides insightful social commentary cleverly mingled with entertaining humor. The hysterical ramblings of the main character, a cutting parody of the painfully close-minded, ultraconservative religious right, had me in stitches right from the start.

A cable TV show beginning this month will spotlight the schools, teachers and staff of Tustin Unified School District. "Tustin Schools Today," a 30-minute program, will be shown on Continental Cablevision's Community Channel 33 before and after meetings of the district's Board of Education, usually the second and fourth Mondays of each month. Each program, presented in a news format with six segments, will focus on one school.

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.

Michaele and Tareq Salahi were a reality TV producer's dream. Until they became a nightmare. As aspiring cast members of the upcoming Bravo show "The Real Housewives of D.C.," the Virginia couple portrayed themselves as a high-flying duo that could offer a window into Washington's power set. But their brazen crashing of a White House state dinner last month reduced them to attention-craving caricatures, triggering a congressional investigation into...

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.

TV westerns, game shows and variety shows have come and gone. But when it comes to prime time, TV has rarely experienced a cop-out, despite the seemingly endless recycling of formulas dealing with the central themes of good and evil, crime and punishment. The creative forces behind CBS' new "NYC 22" hope that their series demonstrates that there is plenty of life left in the well-tilled cop show territory. Its A-list pedigree is an immediate attention grabber: Executive producers include Oscar winner Robert De Niro and novelist-screenwriter Richard Price.

Two years before she became the object of young men's fantasies as Catwoman on the ABC series "Batman," Julie Newmar starred as a shapely robot named Rhoda on the 1964-65 CBS sitcom "My Living Doll. " The series, though, never had a chance. It premiered on Sunday opposite the No. 1 show on TV at the time, NBC's "Bonanza," and then moved midseason to Wednesday evenings opposite yet another high profile western on the Peacock network, "The Virginian. " The series was axed after 26 episodes, and "My Living Doll" all but disappeared from public view.

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.

Living in the farther reaches of basic cable are a growing number of television series about what might be called "ordinary people" at work in what most of us would consider extraordinary jobs. It is lazily tempting, though not quite right, to describe these shows as redneck or blue-collar or rural, but they are mostly set away from big cities in places that -- apart from these shows -- you don't often see on TV: Southern places and prairie places and backwoods places. You can link their titles into a kind of poetical associative chain: "Ice Road Truckers," "American Joggers," "Lady Joggers," "Ax Men," "American Loggers," "Swamp Loggers," "Swamp Brothers," "Swamp People," "Swamp Wars" -- do you see a pattern emerging?

Hall of Fame baseball greats from Lou Gehrig to Mickey Mantle didn't exactly hit home runs when they tried their luck in feature films. In fact, for most baseball stars, it was a swing and a miss. But that hasn't been the case with some pro football players. The reasons? Perhaps it has to do with the sheer physicality of the game -- football players seemed to fit easily into the action genre. And surprisingly many, including Terry Bradshaw, Bubba Smith, Alex Karras and O.J. Simpson, found a home in comedy.

Without the help of choreographers or voice coaches, Leroy, Andrew and 10 other contestants have been preparing for stardom on a new reality show. They're intensely training by running, jumping, fetching and just looking adorable. They're all vying for the title of "Greatest American Dog," CBS' new unscripted series hosted by pet expert-zoologist Jarod Miller. With weekly challenges and a three-judge panel, the program offers a grand prize of $250,000 for the winning dog-and-human team.

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.

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.

The Oscar contest for best picture had been shaping up as a head-to-head fight between the plucky British drama "The King's Speech" and David Fincher's "The Social Network," but Tuesday's Golden Globes nominations may have brought a third contender into the ring: David O. Russell's "The Fighter. " Members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., who vote on the annual awards, bestowed the most nominations ? seven ? on the indie film about King George VI's stutter, including in the categories of picture, director, lead actor in a drama ( Colin Firth)