'Sex' and rebirth
What will happen to Carrie and Regis?
By Todd Leopold
CNN
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Sarah Jessica Parker in "Sex and the City." For the final episode, the "city" is Paris.
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Eye on Entertainment" talks about the weekend's happenings on CNN's "Live Today" between 10 a.m. and noon EST Thursday. |
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(CNN) -- A lesson in how not to run a network:
Five years ago, ABC had a surprise hit with "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." Four years ago, "Millionaire's" three weekly editions were the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 shows of the season. Three years ago, the network started fooling around with its franchise, larding it with dubious celebrity versions and playing with the contestant balance and jerking it around the schedule.
Two years ago, it was canceled. A show that had brought in $1 billion over its first 18 months was canceled.
ABC -- which was unable to develop other hits while enfeebling "Millionaire" -- has yet to recover.
Contrast that with HBO, a network that caters to a much different audience than ABC -- but caters well. (HBO also happens to be a division of Time Warner, but that has nothing to do with this column. I was also a contestant on the old "Millionaire," but I have nothing but fond memories of my appearance ... besides blowing the $32,000 question.)
When "Sex and the City" premiered on HBO in June 1998, it earned decent reviews and decent ratings -- but it wasn't a phenomenon out of the box.
But HBO was patient. The show deepened, making its characters more three-dimensional, less sex-and-relationship joke machines. Suddenly, "Sex" was hip, popular -- and honored. The show became the first cable sitcom to win the Emmy for best comedy.
This Sunday on HBO, "Sex" ends its run. The same night on ABC, "Millionaire" gets another prime-time shot.
Eye on Entertainment is looking for the final answer.
Eye-opener
On "Sex and the City," most things have been more or less settled. Charlotte (Kristin Davis) is married, even if it's not to the kind of man she imagined. Samantha (Kim Cattrall) has successfully dealt with breast cancer and found a mate that measures up. Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) is doing OK with her son -- and her move to Brooklyn with Steve (David Eigenberg).
And Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker)? She's caught -- not sure if she wants to move to Paris with Aleks (Mikhail Baryshnikov) or try again with Mr. Big (Chris Noth) or simply start afresh.
So now the cast may gather in the City of Light, and many of us will be gathered in front of our light-emitting picture tubes (or plasma screens, if you've got the dough), to see what happens next. The final show airs 9 p.m. ET Sunday on HBO.
"Sex and the City" may be ending, but it won't be forgotten. The show made household names out of shoe designers and inspired cover stories in newsmagazines. HBO had had some success with regular series before -- "The Larry Sanders Show," most notably -- but now it's a force to be reckoned with. And the new season of "The Sopranos" is right around the corner.
Then there's ABC, trying to approach its "Millionaire" audience levels with a new version, "Super Millionaire," complete with Regis Philbin.
"Super Millionaire" will run almost the entire week, starting Sunday night at 9 p.m. (yep, against "Sex"). There have been a few changes, most for the better: The network has reinstated the qualifying phone game, a good start, and it's upped the top prize to $10 million, which would be the biggest prize ever awarded on TV. Indeed, the promos promise "a new dimension" of play if players get to a certain prize level.
It's been said that quiz shows are notoriously difficult to program; once the ratings go into decline, they're almost impossible to bring back up. It's also been said that lightning never strikes twice in the same place. The latter isn't true. ABC is hoping the former isn't, either.
On screen
• Meg Ryan plays a boxing promoter and Omar Epps one of her charges in "Against the Ropes." It's based on a true story. Opens Friday.
• You've got a president (Gene Hackman) and a plumber (Ray Romano). Both want to be the mayor of Mooseport, Maine. The plumber has an on-again, off-again girlfriend (Maura Tierney) who's dating the president. The president has an ex-wife (Christine Baranski) he divorced in office. It's all happening in "Welcome to Mooseport." Opens Friday.
• Lola (Lindsay Lohan) was the popular girl at her Greenwich Village high school. Now she's in suburban New Jersey and somebody else is the popular girl! Horrors! Who will end up more popular? "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen" opens Friday.
On the tube
• With the Oscars a little more than a week away, there's time for just one more major celebrity awards function. That would be the 10th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, which honors the best acting of the year. 8 p.m. ET Sunday, TNT.
Sound waves
• After a string of hits in the early '80s, Rick Springfield took some time off to spend time with his family. He returned to the music scene in 1999 with "Karma," and now comes "Shock/Denial/Anger/Acceptance" (Red Ink), an album that takes a blunt look at what must have been a tough period in Springfield's life. (Sample titles: "Shoot Your Guru," "My Depression," "Wake Up Screaming.") Due Tuesday.
• The NFL didn't want him, but JC Chasez isn't cowed; his new album, "Schizophrenic" (Jive), comes out Tuesday.
Paging readers
• Jasper Fforde loves playing with words. His mystery novels, featuring detective Thursday Next, take place in an alternative world where fictional characters and syntactical phrases are as real as the paper of a book. His latest, "The Well of Lost Plots" (Viking), is set for release Thursday.
• Art restorer and spy Gabriel Allon, the hero of Daniel Silva's espionage thrillers, makes another appearance in "A Death in Vienna" (Putnam). Due Tuesday.
