Where All the Drama Is--On the Cable Networks

TV or not TV. . . .

CHANNEL SWIM: With jazzy reality series increasingly pushing weekly dramas out of network prime time, cable is turning out to be a godsend.

Not only are reruns of “thirty-something,” “Moonlighting,” “Hill Street Blues” and other dramas frequently available on cable, but it’s also blossoming as a home for series that at least tried to be daring even though they failed in the ratings.

Last month, the Bravo channel announced that it will launch a new showcase in June, “TV Too Good for TV,” by repeating all 32 hours of “Twin Peaks,” the cult series that starred such performers as Kyle MacLachlan, Joan Chen and Michael Onktean.

And this week, the Arts & Entertainment network is presenting two-hour programming blocks of “Cop Rock” daily at 11 a.m. and 1 a.m.

Other well-known dramas, from “Cagney & Lacey” to “China Beach,” also made their way to cable, not to mention such offbeat comedies as “Frank’s Place” and “The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd.”

Cable sometimes gets a rap for rerunning former network series, but nowadays it’s a pretty good alternative as the Big Three broadcasters steadily alienate intelligent viewers.

Bravo says its “TV Too Good for TV” series, presented on a “very selective basis,” will adhere to the criteria of “unique artistic vision and critical acclaim rather than ratings.”

The way things are going during the Big Three meltdown, fans of NBC’s “I’ll Fly Away” and CBS’ “Brooklyn Bridge” may find them over on Bravo, or elsewhere on cable, if the networks, as expected, drop them.

AGAINST THE TIDE: Despite the growing takeover by reality series, a handful of new dramas are struggling to carve out a niche for themselves, including NBC’s “Homicide” and CBS’ “Picket Fences.”

And on March 23, “Tribeca,” a new anthology with Robert De Niro as one of its executive producers, debuts on Fox TV, offering “contemporary urban tales about New York City’s downtown community.” Fox says the one-hour stories will range from drama to comedy.

THE JURY’S OUT: “L.A. Law” is one case you can’t blame on reality shows--it has just fallen off sharply, and now it’s been pulled until April 1, when it returns with eight episodes that will try to recapture the magic. If they don’t--and the ratings remain depressed--you can probably kiss this once-great series goodby as an NBC fixture.

DISCO NEWS: It’s kind of hard not to laugh at times watching KCOP-TV Channel 13’s new walk-around anchor format. The anchors don’t exactly move with the grace of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers as they try to glide around the newsroom. This is probably the only newscast in town that needs a choreographer.

THAT’S LIFE: We caught Willie Nelson singing in a Taco Bell commercial.

THE CREATIVE COMMUNITY: Robert Rodriguez, director of the new film “El Mariachi,” told David Letterman that during one discussion in Hollywood, he was asked if he could make the movie less ethnic.

VISION: With his jaunty hat and confident style, Tom Kite reminded us of Truman Capote as he drove and putted his way to victory in the Los Angeles Open on CBS Sunday.

REACTION: A number of readers called to ask if we noticed a commercial for Secure Horizons in which a woman tells how the medical plan paid her bill. It seems that in the ad, the camera shows a bookshelf with a book by Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science.

Well, yes, says an advertising executive for Secure Horizons, they had gotten feedback about the shot too. She says that they just “didn’t catch it.” According to the executive, the woman in the advertisement is a member of the plan, the commercial was filmed in her home and the book happened to be there.

The executive says that the ad is not being shown at present because the company rotates its commercials. But if it is used again, she suggests, it may very well be re-edited.

LAUGH TRACK: The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is giving producer Randy Johnson a $100,000 grant for an hourlong PBS special in which disabled stand-up comedians will offer their insights into the experience of being disabled.

The show, “Look Who’s Laughing,” is planned for 1994 and will be “60% club performances and 40% interviews with the performers,” Johnson says. “I want more disabled people to come up with entertainment ideas,” he adds, recalling the line: “The shortest distance between two people is a sense of humor.”

Johnson singles out Jay Leno for being “very open to booking comedians who have a disability. Their being on ‘The Tonight Show’ lends credibility to my show and gives hope to other performers with a disability.”

PREDICTION: Comedian Sinbad is a can’t-miss proposition in his upcoming Fox sitcom if he’s given the right stuff. He’s ingratiating, funny and could be very big.

GO FIGURE: “Dateline NBC,” under fire for faking a truck crash, had its highest rating in almost two months last week, attracting 21% of the audience. It featured a family that survived nine days in a Nevada blizzard.

TOGETHER AGAIN?: Maybe that’s what you were thinking when you saw that Robinsons-May ad in Friday’s Times showing Paul Moyer and Wendy Tokuda of KNBC-TV Channel 4 as an anchor team. Well, no. The station split them up days before.

BOOKMARK: Latest tome for those who can’t get enough of Lucy and Desi and colorful backstage sagas: “Desilu,” by Coyne Steven Sanders and Tom Gilbert (William Morrow & Co.: $23). It’s hard to put down.

CHANGE OF PACE: MTV put its own spin on last year’s election campaign. And Wednesday night at 10, it takes the serious route again when it offers the hour special “Straight From the Hood,” focusing on young people of South Central and other parts of Los Angeles in the wake of last April’s riots.

BEING THERE: “The subject: fear. The cure: a little more faith. An Rx off a shelf--in the Twilight Zone.”--Rod Serling in “The Twilight Zone.”

Say good night, Gracie. . . .