‘Teddy Z’ Will Go on Hiatus
CBS said Tuesday it will put “The Famous Teddy Z,” its comedy send-up of a Hollywood talent agency, on hiatus until April, then will try to raise its ratings by scheduling it in a later time slot.
Starting Jan. 29, its 8:30 p.m. Monday time slot will be taken over by “City,” a comedy starring Valerie Harper as a city manager, widowed for seven years, living with her 19-year-old daughter, a college dropout (Luanne Ponce). The show, from MTM Enterprises, is produced by former “thirtysomething” producer Paul Haggis and Harper’s husband, Tony Cacciotti.
“Teddy Z” marks the third show to be removed from the CBS schedule since Jeff Sagansky took over Dec. 18 as president of the entertainment division. He previously canceled “Snoops” and “Beauty and the Beast.”
Although CBS had no comment on the sidelining of “Teddy Z,” creator and executive producer Hugh Wilson (“Frank’s Place,” “WKRP in Cincinnati”) said Tuesday that if the six remaining episodes fail to draw larger audiences in a later time slot, it will be canceled. No new episodes have been ordered.
“ ‘WKRP’ was taken off the air into one of those vague, indefinite hiatuses and returned, and survived,” Wilson said. “I’m hopeful that history will repeat itself here.”
If the new time slot improves the show’s performance and it is renewed in the fall, Wilson added, the show will undergo some creative changes before resuming production. He said that Sagansky had suggested creating new characters within the agency and exploring their lives in the tradition of “WKRP in Cincinnati” and other ensemble office comedies.
Wilson said Sagansky believes “Teddy Z’s” current 8:30 time is more appropriate for family sitcoms than an office comedy.
But, he said, “In April, we need to show some signs of vitality, or the re-tooling is a fairly moot point.”
“Teddy Z” ranks 55th out of 88 prime-time shows in the season-to-date Nielsen ratings, with an 11.5 rating and an 18% share of the available audience.
Wilson said he was surprised and disappointed by “Teddy Z’s” failure to win a larger audience, and added that the show, from Columbia Television, had tested well with audiences, particularly the characters of Teddy Zakolokis (Jon Cryer) and groveling super-agent Al Floss (Alex Rocco).
He said the show has already begun to focus less on Teddy’s home life, where he lives with his brother and his Old World Greek grandmother. But the producer doesn’t intend to remove Teddy’s family from the show.
“Maybe it (the family) is not our trump suit, but it’s necessary as a reminder of who Teddy is,” Wilson said. “Also, I feel very obligated to the actors to make the damn thing work.”