This morning I was reading an article in the Hollywood Reporter about NBC's decision to bring back LAW AND ORDER on the broadcast network rather than putting the originals on their PEACOCK streaming service. Of course, the following day L&O will stream on Peacock but this decision reminded me of a moment back around 2005 when FAMILY GUY was going to return to television on CARTOON NETWORK and how I intervened to bring it back to FOX prior to its run on CC.
When I arrived at FOX in June 2000 FAMILY GUY was floundering around the schedule and was about to be cancelled for, I think, the second time. The reruns moved over to ADULT SWIM on CARTOON NETWORK in 2003. FAMILY GUY became a cult hit. DVD sales of the first two seasons were huge and it was clear that there was still life left in this show.
My son, who was around 11, was a huge fan of the show and lived in a FAMILY GUY t-shirt. Wherever we went people would stop, point at his shirt and tell us how much they loved the show. I encouraged my son to write a letter to my boss Gail Berman asking her to bring the show back. I wish I saved it. It was hilarious. I was talking to Rupert Murdoch one day and the topic came around to FAMILY GUY. I mentioned the DVD sales and Rupert dismissed them not realizing how huge they were. To his credit he called me a few weeks after our conversation to tell me he was wrong about dismissing the numbers.
Given the success of FAMILY GUY it was inevitable that eventually there would be discussions by the studio (20th) about reviving the show. After several years off the air a deal was made to revive FAMILY GUY. Sound familiar? The deal was not with FBC but with CARTOON NETWORK.
My immediate reaction to this announcement was "WHY THE FUCK IS FAMILY GUY GOING TO FUCKING CARTOON NETWORK RATHER THAN FOX" Now one can make the case that the show had found a home on CN and that FOX had mishandled the show and Seth MacFarlane would be concerned that it would again suffer at the hands of FOX execs, but this is our studio and not being given the opportunity to be part of the revival made no sense to me. I get that way.
I went to see Ira Kurgan who was our head of business affairs and suggested that FAMILY GUY episodes premiere on FBC before going over to CN. We would take our second run following CN running the episodes a given number of times. We spoke to the higher ups and that's how FAMILY GUY wound up on FOX prior to its runs on CARTOON NETWORK.
Here was a fun tidbit. You know how shows run on the broadcast networks and then air on their streamers the following day? Well in 2005, 16 years ago, I had a conversation with my counterpart over at CARTOON NETWORK about how sharing the show would work. He asked me how long after the FOX run they would need to wait before they could air the episode. I immediately said "You can air it the next day for all I care". He was speechless. He thought I was kidding him. It really was not going to matter in terms of our rating.
When I read that NBC would take the initial run of LAW AND ORDER before it drops on PEACOCK the next day my only reaction was yup, that's the way you do it. things haven't changed all that much.
One footnote: I think as a gesture of good faith Seth asked my boss Gail Berman if she would reconsider airing the final FAMILY GUY episode which never aired on FOX, "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein", prior to the show returning in MAY 2005. Gail and I watched the episode and decided to air it which we did as part of a one hour FAMILY GUY holiday block of episodes in December.
The show is still on FOX and we will never know its fate had we not intervened to bring it back to network television. I even pitched an episode to Seth which he embraced called "All in the Nielsen Family" where the GRIFFINS became a people meter family. I actually get a shout out in the episode.
No comments:
Post a Comment