TNN’s Golden Spike…They Hope!


TNN, nee The National Network, nee nee The Nashville Network, is going to be wholeheartedly embracing their male programming orientation with a name change this June to the oh-so-phallic Spike. It’s certainly more genteel than just coming out and calling it Dong, or Dick, I guess. And probably better than Prick, or anything more pejorative. According to experts there are over 1,400 synonyms for penis, so I’d say the TNN folks had plenty of excellent choices.

There’s actually a British-born pop culture webzine called Spike already out there, but they don’t have anything to worry about in terms of people confusing the two. Take a look; the Brit Spike looks like its emphasis is above the neck, and the same probably won’t be said about TNN’s new identity.

Audience-wise, this name change can’t hurt. There’s no way TNN will ever be able to erase the Nashville connection from their initials, and there’s a good reason for that: the old TNN used to get some dang high ratings, and those people who watched are still wondering what in hell happened to their old favorite channel. Undoubtedly there were wonderful reasons some MBA proferred as to why TNN decided to abandon the country format, but in doing so they threw away something that most networks would kill to have – immense viewer loyalty.

I’m no country music fan, but you’d have to be a first class snob not to realize that something very special happens between country fans and the music. It’s more than a passing musical preference; it’s a lifestyle, an abiding affection that still seems to be alive and well, and even 21st Century over-marketing and crass commercialism don't seem to have killed it. The only thing that comes close to the same fan/performer relationship is in the soap opera world, where the soap stars seem to understand the emotional current that creates the tremendous connection viewers have to them. They understand it, and they nurture it. (To wit, look at the decent growth for SoapNet, which is definitely trying to capitalize on that unique chemistry). Somehow, deigning to grant film fans gawking rights to view movie stars as they walk down red carpets isn’t quite the same thing.

But The Nashville Network is long gone, and TNN will pound in their Spike later this year. I think the male demo is a great one to go after, and maybe they’ll finally be able to capitalize on their still-terrific WWE numbers. It must be frustrating to have a Top Ten cable show and not have anywhere to effectively funnel those viewers. (While I was at TNT, we faced the same problem at when we had blockbuster WCW wrestling ratings and nothing else remotely like it on the schedule. It kills you to have a wonderful promotional opportunity and know that those viewers don’t give a shit about anything else on your network!).

Among Spike’s programming ploys will be interstitial vignettes from Men’s Health magazine, and that’s good news. If you’ve ever read the mag, it’s got a funny, punchy, silly, sexy, irreverent and yet miraculously well-informed style (thanks to their Rodale Press origins, no doubt), and if they can translate that to TV without ruining it, expect good things. Automobile-themed segments will also abound, as well as techno-oriented movie wraparounds from Stuff Magazine, and what sound like ideas with some potential: a show about party crashers (always a fun if somewhat pathetic notion), DJ Funkmaster Flex combining cars and stars in Ride with Funkmaster Flex, guys try to win a dream vacation, and similar wish-fulfillment type programs. Hey, you’ve got to start somewhere, and using a Man Show mentality is definitely the way to go. I’m not so sure about NASDAQ updates from CBS MarketWatch, but it’s all in the family so let’s hope they’re getting ‘em cheap. They’ve also got reruns of Star Trek: The Next Generation and the subsequent Trek series (let’s see if they give that franchise up sometime in the future, but maybe not), and the original CSI, which while not a pinpoint laser match with their intended demo, will give them some broader audience exposure and I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all.

(Backstory: Evidently TNT recently and unsuccessfully tried to acquire CSI: Miami -- which went to ailing A&E for an ay-yi-yi amount of dinero -- along with getting its predecessor away from TNN. Obviously the figures weren’t high enough, plus they reportedly floated the rationale that it wasn’t a fit for TNN since it skews too female for a male-oriented service. Yeah, maybe so, but there’s more to running a series than just demos. It doesn’t hurt to bulk up the ratings, either. Hang in there, TNN…er, Spike!)

History will tell what happens with Spike, and we’ll be keeping an eye on it here. One thing I’d definitely recommend: dump the dreaded Paid Programming they currently run from 3a – 9a. I know it brings in some bucks, but nothing’s more of a turn-off to late-night, remote-wielding, potential viewers than looking for something good to watch and finding some crappy long-form commercial for phony nutritional supplements. The only possible good match here would be the Girls Gone Wild promo show, and if Spike really wants to give a woody to its audience, they’ll figure out a way to make a series out of GGW and put it on in primetime. That’s what I’d do!


Viewing Reminder: Tremors The Series tonight at 9pm on SciFi. Evidently the numbers for this series have been shrinking, while those for the Shannon Doherty-hosted Scare Tactics which follows TTS have been holding and rising. Have a little patience, SciFi; Tremors is a lot of fun!

 
He's Coming Out

Have you seen the new commercials featuring the venerable Mr. Peanut? Evidently he's given up on his dapper deco image and is embracing an alternate lifestyle in this, his 87th year. To the upbeat strains of Diana Ross's I'm Coming Out, Mr. Peanut emerges from Planter's new chocolate-covered nut and strikes a distinctly disco pose. What's next? A guest shot on Six Feet Under or Will & Grace? Please, let's hope he doesn’t show up on Queer as Folk...nobody needs to see a sex scene with those skinny Mr. P legs. Let's hope he'd at least take off his top hat!

If you haven't seen the latest from Mr. Peanut, be sure to take a look at Planter's website.

 
This Month in American History

History buffs out there will want to catch the April 1865 documentary tonight on The History Channel. Based on Jay Winik’s 2001 bestseller April 1865: The Month That Saved America, this new documentary promises to be a fascinating look at a most tumultuous time in our nation. Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inauguration had taken place on March 4th, and the Civil War was drawing to a slow and bloody close.

As a long-time Lincoln assassination buff, I’ll be most interested in the material dealing with that fateful event on April 14th - today - 138 years ago, when a weary yet jubilant President Lincoln, only five days after hearing the news that Gen. Lee had surrendered, decided to attend a play at Ford’s Theater. Though he knew that assassination was always a very real possibility, and had reportedly dreamed portents of his own death, Lincoln had no idea that a bright young actor, consumed with misguided Southern loyalty, had concocted a daring scheme that would lead to it that very night.

I’m certainly not the only one who’s fascinated by the assassination; plenty of books and websites detail this incredible tragedy, America’s first murder of a President, and as befits such a historical precedent, this one was a doozy. A larger-than-life Abraham Lincoln, at the culmination of his tremendous struggle to keep the nation together, is ready to extend a hand of grace and mercy to his strayed countrymen. And John Wilkes Booth, a handsome and famous performer, son of one of the greatest Shakespearean portrayers of the 19th century, finds his hatred for Lincoln growing into something more than mere rant and stealthy support for the South, into plans of kidnap and finally murder of the tyrant.

These two fellows certainly had their date with destiny, and almost a century and a half later we’re still talking about it. This amazing story, along with all the other historical milestones and personages that marked the gradual end of the war (and it was indeed gradual), will be part of this two-hour documentary, and it should be a riveting two hours. Start off your viewing with two episodes of the wonderful Mail Call with R. Lee Ermey, and I’d say you’ve got your primetime sewed up tight, right and full of insight.


April 1865 premieres tonight Monday 4/14 on The History Channel at 9p – 11p, with an encore at 1am – 3am. There’s another encore on Saturday, 4/26 from 8p – 10p, and check History Channel’s website for more information.

Mail Call airs tonight at 8pm on The History Channel, two episodes back-to-back. Yippee!

 
New Episodes of Manchild Premiere Tonight


In a rare instance of being just about up to speed with what’s happening in British TV, we’re getting the second season of Manchild only a few months late, and that’s not too bad. BBC America has lucked out recently with its selection of interesting and stylish comedies, including Coupling and The Office, and Manchild is definitely right in there with the best of them.

If you’ve missed the previous season…well, you haven’t missed too much. There were only seven episodes, and with a little background you’ll be right up to speed and ready to dive in to the new batch. First off, the most obvious (and promulgated by BBC America) take on the show is that it’s some sort of Sex and the City knock-off with handsome middle-aged British men instead of the hen party from SATC. That description makes SATC into the gold standard for what…any show with four main characters of the same sex? I guess they have to talk about sex, too, but even if you can’t stand Sex and the City (as I can’t), Manchild is an entirely different animal, starting of course with the fact that it’s British. If you haven’t figured it out by now, what Americans think is daring and progressive and sexy on TV probably was done years ago by the British, so we shouldn’t be patting ourselves on the back for barely catching up to the status quo.

Manchild is about four men who’ve been friends since school; all are in different relationship states but most importantly all of them are quite well off and live almost laughably posh existences in fashionable London. I think that’s one of the things I like best about the show, weird as it sounds; it strikes me as intrinsically amusing that grown-up rich guys would say, go to a runway designer fashion show, to look at girls. Perhaps the fashion world isn’t quite so ridiculous over there, or maybe it’s just that these over-privileged men-about-town can’t think of anything more real to do. It’s precisely that almost desperate behavior that gives Manchild an unexpected edge that’s somewhere beyond merely comic, not quite dramatic and certainly not melodramatic, but definitely unsettling, and that’s a very good thing.

The cast of Manchild is, as might be expected, excellent. American viewers will be most familiar with Anthony Head, who’ll be closing out his role as Giles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer later this year, and his work in Manchild will be a lovely revelation if Buffy’s the only thing you’ve seen him in. He plays James, a successful orthodontist who had major performance problems and got his willie worked on; now it’s successful, too, and he’s off and running in the mating game again. Head is terrific here (as well as on Buffy, of course), and gives us Yanks a great hook into the show.

Nigel Havers is Terry, a well-to-do stockbroker with an ex-wife who’s dating a designer (evidently not gay, much to Terry’s dismay), two sons (one of whom ended up dating the model his father had already nailed), and the lion’s share of the onscreen narration time in the show. U.S. audiences should recall him from 1984’s Chariots of Fire; he’s been a fixture in British TV and film since then, though not seen very much over here. Terry’s the one who tries hardest, and at the same time seems to be having the hardest time with growing older but not particularly wiser. He’s in the midst of a raging mid-life crisis, which in his case he’s working through with the help of fancy clothes, flashy motorcycles, and a succession of sexual encounters with much younger women. Haver’s Terry always has a glib take on the world, but it sounds better than it really is.

The character who might give Americans the most trouble trying to understand the accent, but at the same time is probably the most accessible of them all, is Ray Burdis’ Gary. He’s like a legitimate Tony Soprano, streetwise, uncultured, almost uncouth, but fabulously wealthy from his business; he’s got a pampered wife at home and a teenage kid, and even all that money can’t help him from feeling trapped and jealous of the unencumbered sexual freedom enjoyed by his mates. Burdis is a rough-edged actor who’s made a name for himself portraying criminals and assorted toughs, but it’s his soft and doughy face that often speaks volumes as Gary tries to reconcile domestic constraints with carnal longings.

The most exotic but in many ways the most fascinating member of the quartet is Patrick, patron of the arts and confirmed bachelor (which over there isn’t quite the code word for gay that it is here), whose super-suave fit-in-anywhere grace and elegance set an example for his less culturally-experienced friends. Played to erudite and witty perfection by Don Warrington, Patrick is a joy to listen to, and in fact the whole show is one big lovely wallow in those yummy English speech patterns that we just don’t have over here. If any of you are connoisseurs of British comedy, you’ll no doubt remember Warrington from his role as Philip, the African prince lodger in the brilliant Leonard Rossiter sitcom Rising Damp in the mid-1970s. Warrington’s droll and enigmatic presence is one of the high points of Manchild, and I think you’ll end up liking him a lot. If BBC America ever replays the first season (and surely they will someday soon), be sure to catch the episode where Patrick decides to pull the plug on his comatose mother. It’s quite magnificent and touching, and yes…amusing.

I wouldn’t claim that Manchild is the funniest show I’ve ever seen, and if you come to it with typical American comedic expectations you will probably be disappointed. It’s witty, it’s chic, it’s ridiculous; at times, it’s posh and crude simultaneously. Oh, and it does sometimes have bare breasts, which is always a little incentive for viewers and can’t hurt the chance for sampling. Most of all, Manchild is a glimpse into a world filled with mature (at least by the clock) men who may be facing the same middle age woes as guys over here, but with much more élan and class. If it’s sexist, then at least it’s representative of the way some fellows think, and that makes it honest, too. Give Manchild a go.

Manchild second season episodes begin airing on BBC America tonight Sunday 4/13 at 10pm, with an encore at 1am, and also on Thursdays at 10:20pm, 1:20am and 5:20am.

Check out the Manchild site on BBC America!