Fox Keeps Sunday, Dumps Saturday Shows

Fox Broadcasting Co. will renew its Sunday night lineup and replace its Saturday night shows with all-new material in the fall, then launch a new Monday movie next spring, the company announced Thursday.

The company also plans to introduce “NewsExtra,” a 90-second weekday news update, in June, and is developing “Page One,” a one-hour “human interest magazine,” which should be ready for air this summer.

Fox’s fall season announcement followed NBC’s, made earlier this week. ABC is to reveal its fall schedule on Monday, and CBS will probably make its announcement later next week.

Removed from the Saturday schedule are “The Dirty Dozen,” “Boys Will Be Boys” and “Family Double Dare.” The new Saturday shows are “City Court,” a spinoff of Fox’s “21 Jump Street”; “Page One,” and “Angels ‘88,” a new version of “Charlie’s Angels,” produced by Aaron Spelling.

“Page One,” slated for summer, will later give up its 9 p.m. time slot to “Angels ‘88,” but a Fox spokesman said the company will find a new spot for “Page One” if it proves successful.

Despite being hampered in new production by the Writers Guild of America strike, Garth Ancier, Fox president of programs, said Fox’s fall programming can go on the air as scheduled if the dispute is settled by July 1. Ancier would be no more specific than to say Fox’s season is scheduled to start “sometime in the fall.”

Ancier added that “Page One” was being developed because of the strike, since the show does not require Guild writers and could continue in the fall if the strike lasts beyond July 1. Fox’s most popular show, “America’s Most Wanted,” which solicits viewers’ help in solving crimes, was also described as “strike-proof” by another Fox spokesman.

Some scripts for “Angels ‘88” and “City Court” are already written, but if the strike continues past July 1, Fox will opt to delay the start of the fall season rather than go on the air with only a few episodes.

The writers’ strike forced the removal of “The Dirty Dozen” from the schedule, Ancier said. He said the series, which entered the Saturday lineup only a few weeks ago, needed writers to polish existing scripts, and rather than going on the air with weak material in the fall, Fox chose to pull the series.

“We have a strange situation on Saturday nights . . . most of those shows just went on the air,” Ancier said.

Although Ancier refused to describe any of the Saturday shows as “canceled,” he said the comedy “Boys Will Be Boys” was pulled because Fox considered it unwise to compete with NBC’s strong comedy lineup, which includes “Golden Girls.” The game show “Family Double Dare,” he said, isn’t developing an audience.

“Dirty Dozen,” along with the other Saturday series, will continue through the summer, however. Ancier said the programs will occasionally be preempted to try out replacement shows during the summer.

Ancier said Fox decided to try movies for its first weeknight programming rather than introducing new series because most Fox stations already run movies in that time slot.

“When these stations have movies or specials in the time period that are well promoted, they usually do very well,” Ancier said. “Rather than disrupt that franchise, we thought it best to replace movies with movies.”

Fox has bought a number of feature films for Monday nights--including “The Fly,” “Black Widow” and “Revenge of The Nerds II: Nerds In Paradise”--but Ancier said mostly original made-for-TV movies will be on the schedule in the future.

Ancier added that Fox plans no fall changes for its weeknight “Late Show,” which has gone through numerous incarnations--all of which failed. It has been hosted for the last five weeks by former Seattle comedian Ross Shafer.

“The shows have been better produced (than previous late night shows on Fox); he is terrific as a host,” Ancier said. “We’re still looking for a sidekick.”

Fox’s fall schedule:

Saturday: “City Court,” “Page One” (summer), “Angels ‘88” (fall).

Sunday: “21 Jump Street,” “America’s Most Wanted,” “Married . . . With Children,” “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show,” “Duet,” “The Tracey Ullman Show.”

Monday: “Fox Movie of the Week.”