Fox, Knievel Jump-Start February Sweeps

What better metaphor could there be for the importance broadcasters attach to TV’s rating sweeps, the latest of which begins Thursday, than potentially having someone plummet to his death for our entertainment the first night? Fox gets the four-week survey rolling (hopefully with enough speed) by televising the “Robbie Knievel Building-to-Building Death Jump Live.” Knievel, who took the daredevil motorcyclist baton from his father, Evel, intends to set a record by jumping over 130 feet from one Las Vegas rooftop to another--without a safety net, 16 stories up. It’s been 25 years since the elder Knievel attempted to jump Idaho’s Snake River Canyon on a jet-powered motorcycle, only to have the parachute open on takeoff. An equally notable anniversary, however, would be a year ago, when “Breaking the Ice,” a special reuniting Olympians Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan, skated off with one of Fox’s highest Thursday ratings ever. The network has effectively countered NBC’s Thursday comedies with such sensational material, which explains the three specials this month with the word “Shocking” in the title. Actually, if Knievel’s jump lives up to Fox’s hype, that might be the most shocking stunt of all.

‘Private Ryan’ Prepares for Second Wave

Remember the film “Saving Private Ryan”? Big director: Steven Spielberg. Big star: Tom Hanks. Made tons of money. Won widespread critical acclaim. Well, it’s back. True, the film was never gone from theaters that long--only a few months as it turned out--but the folks at DreamWorks SKG have decided to re-release the movie Friday in about 1,000 theaters nationwide. Which naturally raises the question: Why? Wasn’t it only last July 24 that people flocked to see Hanks lead American GIs onto the beaches of Normandy in one of the most realistic World War II movies ever made? Is it because there has been considerable Oscar buzz of late over Miramax Films’ “Shakespeare in Love”? Or is it because 20th Century Fox released its own World War II movie, “The Thin Red Line,” at Christmas and that film is currently in theaters? In short, is DreamWorks feeling the competition? Neither, say studio executives. The re-release is simply a business decision that was made last fall. After a successful 16-week run, DreamWorks decided to remove “Saving Private Ryan” from theaters, wait awhile and then relaunch it early in 1999. “We didn’t want the movie diluted by the holiday movies coming in,” said DreamWorks distribution chief Jim Tharp. “We felt that if we came in with a new marketing campaign, there is still a lot of interest in people who had not seen the movie as well as people who saw it and might want to see it again.” A rival studio official agrees. “I think it’s all about how much more money is left in the picture that they haven’t got out yet,” he said. The film has grossed more than $190 million in North America alone.

Remixing the Song Still Known as ‘1999’

Parties weren’t meant to last, but don’t tell that to the Artist Formerly Known as Prince. On Tuesday, the reclusive funk star releases “1999: The New Master,” a disc containing a new remastering and six alternate remixes of the apocalyptic party song “1999.” The 1982 hit was de rigueur at New Year’s Eve parties last month and the Purple One performed some of the new versions a few days later at an exclusive Las Vegas concert, but will music buyers shell out between $9 and $11 for a disc featuring 35 minutes of one song? “I think they will,” says Bob Feterl, regional manager of Tower Records. “There’s a ton of interest, and it’ll build through the year as 2000 gets closer.” Those millennium mavens may, however, just buy the 1982 version, recently re-released as a single by Prince’s old label, Warner Records. The new remastering sounds superior, says music critic and Prince biographer Jon Bream, but the six accompanying reworkings sound surprisingly dated. “He is now as far out of touch as he was once ahead of the game,” Bream said. “I don’t know that younger or forward-thinking music fans are going to embrace this effort.”

--Compiled by Times staff writers