Laughs and Looking to the Future at Festival Forum

No one might have guessed that some of the best one-liners and verbal ribbing at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival would be found at an early Saturday morning seminar on the future of network television. Never mind that the good-hearted barbs would be delivered by a panel that included writers but mostly consisted of what many would consider stuffed shirts--television executives, journalists and academics.

Moderator and CNN senior analyst Jeff Greenfield’s opening remark set the tone for the Saturday meeting. “The topic of today’s discussion is diversity in the media,” Greenfield dead-panned.

Behind him, the all-white, male panel sat shoulder to shoulder, creating a short-lived semblance of uniformity.

“I’m Irish,” Warren Littlefield, president of NBC Entertainment, retorted to appreciative laughter.

Instead of addressing today’s realities, Greenfield asked the panel to imagine it was 2005 and a fictitious network, International Communications United, badly needed a hit show. By role-playing and hammering out the specifics of where ICU should invest its efforts, the panel soon turned to the implications of the impending conversion to digital television. The potential for more channels was thought by most to be more valuable than the sharper image created by high-definition television.

“My main concern is to make money for the network, and I’m not sure a sharper image is going to do that,” said Dean Valentine, president and CEO of UPN.

When asked if as a creator HDTV would appeal to him, writer Larry Gelbart was succinct in offering what became the continuing theme of the discussion: “If it ain’t on the page, it ain’t on the stage--quality programming still has to be there.”

But apprehensions about filling potentially 150-plus channels were also apparent.

“One thing that’s good about TV is that it can get a big audience together at one time; if you change that then you undermine the business,” said Bill Carter, chief television correspondent for the New York Times.

Greenfield asked how a network like ICU might still gather a large audience in the “demassified mass audience” of 2005.

“It’s all about the creators,” said Leslie Moonves, president of CBS Television. “Our talent pool is stretched out now. The one new hit show of this season is ‘Ally McBeal’ and the creator writes every episode--what’s that tell you about our creative pool?

“I’m still looking for that superstar creator.”

With the impending fragmentation of the television audience only exacerbating the search for quality programming, some panel members were skeptical about the possibilities.

“Let’s talk about what the shows will be like in 2005, anyway,” Gelbart said. “The shows are only a minute and 15 seconds long, there’s no credits--you can’t see them anyway, and you view the show in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.”

When asked if ICU should consider giving a news slot to a controversial morning radio personality, the line between fact and fiction was jestfully blurred.

“There’s no question he’s going to make it on,” responded Carter.

“I agree, especially because Howard Stern has been anchoring CBS news for the last couple weeks,” quipped Littlefield.

“I’d say we have to have the guy, but then I’d blame it on someone else if it went badly,” responded Moonves. And then, firing back at Littlefield: “It depends on what the news division is like. If it’s putting shows on like (CBS’) “60 Minutes” that’s one thing, if it’s putting on shows like (NBC’s) “Dateline,” it’s another.”

When Littlefield and Moonves agreed that charging viewers to watch “water cooler events” such as the Academy Awards would be a bad idea, Greenfield facetiously asked for a camera.

“Wait a minute--this is like Arafat and Netanyahu here,” he said, laughing.

All the panel members agreed that the changes for network television between 1998 and 2005 would be radical.

“We’re in for radical changes, but the network-creator partnership will get us over the hump,” said network consultant John Agoglia.

Brad Siegel, president of TNT, agreed that radical changes are coming, but they won’t be evident on the small screen.

“I don’t think the consumer will see radical change,” he said. “I think the radical change will be within the industry.”

And again, the need for creative, quality content was reiterated.

“There’s too much product out there already and not enough talent,” Moonves said.

The people expected to come out ahead of it all are the creators.

“There will be a renaissance in the industry--content will be king,” Littlefield said.

“Look at the book industry; they have a lot of books published every year and they still have the John Grishams,” said Andrew Lippman, associate director of the Media Laboratory at MIT.

Despite the challenges, Greenfield managed to close the discussion on a positive, if somewhat sardonic, note. Quoting an industry wag, he quipped “ ‘Television is called a medium because it is rare when it is well done.’

“It is to me a miracle that people can still turn on the television and find things to make them laugh and cry. In the year 2005, no matter how fragmented the delivery, there will still be hope for that.”