| Black Family Channel Starts 8 New Shows |
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Robert Townsend first caught the film industry’s eye with 1987’s Hollywood Shuffle, a clever satire about black actors trapped in demeaning roles. Now he wants the country to pay attention to what....
Robert Townsend first caught the film industry’s eye with 1987’s Hollywood Shuffle, a clever satire about black actors trapped in demeaning roles. Now he wants the country to pay attention to what he calls a new kind of television, entertaining but with a sense of responsibility, especially toward young black Americans.
Black Family Channel, which Townsend joined as president and chief executive officer of production five months ago, is starting an ambitious slate of eight new programs geared for children, teenagers and families.
With this network, we want to give people a sense of quality, integrity programming that speaks to them, Townsend said. We don’t want to be an old-school network where people don’t want to tune in, but we want to get back to some of those old-fashioned values.
He cites Bill Cosby (news) as an inspiration, both for Cosby’s groundbreaking ’80s sitcom and for his provocative argument that black youth is being undermined by factors including poor parenting and attitudes toward language.
Everything that Bill Cosby is saying about families working together ... (that) we’ve got to reprogram these kids and we’ve got to shake it up, that’s what we’re doing, Townsend told The Associated Press.
It’s as big a change for the channel as it is for Townsend, who moves from writing, directing, acting and producing to steering a rare minority-owned and operated TV channel (co-founders include boxer Evander Holyfield, baseball’s Cecil Fielder and attorney Willie E. Gary.)
The major competitor is BET, Black Entertainment Television, owned by media giant Viacom Inc. and criticized in the past for giving viewers more music programming flash than substance.
Townsend — whose projects have ranged from TV and film comedies (The Parent ’Hood, The Meteor Man) to drama (10,000 Black Men Named George) — figures his eclectic body of work prepared him to run a network.
While the career change is abrupt for Townsend, the channel is undergoing a more gradual transition.
Begun in 1999 as the Major Broadcasting Cable network, Black Family Channel will keep elements of the gospel programming that was part of its original mission. Music programs and documentaries also remain in place.
Following a plan of adding programming blocks, the channel was launching five new Thursday night shows this week. An urban kids programming block of three new daytime shows debuted last Saturday.
Among the new series: a talk show about teenage issues; a series celebrating spoken-word artists; and Souled Out, a critical look at the messages in music videos.
The channel also plans to reinstate and increase its coverage of football games at historically black colleges, temporarily dropped while the new schedule was developed.
Townsend, who has four children aged 4 to 14, is passionate about his belief that television can help kids make the right choices in life. He urged Gary, the channel’s chairman, to bring him on board.
My mother raised four kids on her own; my father was not there. I was watching `The Andy Griffith (news) Show’ and Opie’s lessons were my lessons. I think he taught me well, Townsend said. He reinforced what mom was teaching me and the church was teaching me.
He cites one of the channel’s new youth-oriented shows, Lisa Knight & The Round Table, as a chance to influence youngsters.
If some young kid is thinking about having sex and watches a `Round Table’ discussion and hears, `Watch yourself, don’t give into peer pressure,’ I’ve done my job, said Townsend.
Black Family Channel is available in 14 million homes and virtually all of the top black TV markets, said Rick Newberger, the channel’s president and chief executive officer.
He argues that black viewers represents a huge, untapped consumer market which, unlike the Hispanic one, is underserved by targeted channels.
Black Family Channel is sure to grow with the continuing conversion to digital c
able, which allows for carriage of more TV channels, Newberger said. Discussions also are under way for satellite distribution.
In most major cities viewers just have to call their cable operator and they can get us, Newberger said. If they have a digital box in their home, more than likely we’re there.
Industry analyst Larry Gerbrandt acknowledged there is concern among parents and others about the freewheeling content that is widespread on TV.
But Gerbrandt, head of the media and entertainment practice for Alix Partners, an operation and financial consulting firm, expressed skepticism about the growth prospects of a channel aimed at a defined audience.
You want your programming to reach a maximum audience, said Gerbrandt. The economics of television dictate that the bigger audience you can reach, the more successful you are. Limiting yourself up front limits your economics.
Townsend said the channel is not solely for black viewers and suggested it may consider a name change sometime in the future.
Ultimately, we want it to be colorless. We want it to be the human channel — human emotions, comedy, drama. If you want something you can identify with, tune in, he said.
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| Eminem Tops Charts Ahead of Holiday Season - Nov 25, 2004 19:10 IST |
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Eminem topped music charts for a second week, warming up a recent cold spell for record companies who hope the rapper and big releases from acts like U2 and Gwen Stefani will ignite a hot holiday season
It’s been soft, but things are getting better and I think we’re going to have a good fourth quarter, John Sullivan, chief financial officer of Trans World Entertainment Corp., a retail music chain operator, said on Wednesday.
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| Mississippi Author Larry Brown Dies - Nov 25, 2004 19:7 IST |
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Author Larry Brown, who wrote about the often rough, gritty lives of rural Southerners, died Wednesday at his home, his publisher said. He was 53.
Brown died of an apparent heart attack, North Carolina-based Algonquin Books announced.
I’m just paralyzed, like most people when they lose a loved one they admire, said fellow Oxford-based author Barry Hannah.
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| Sirius Shares Slip on JPMorgan Downgrade - Nov 25, 2004 18:48 IST |
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Shares of Sirius Satellite Radio Inc., whose shares have doubled over the past month, on Wednesday fell 8 percent after a JPMorgan analyst said that a further rally would make the stock expensive relative to its growth potential.
We believe Sirius is now much closer to reflecting the near-term rapid growth opportunity we foresee, prompting us to take profits, said Barton Crockett, an analyst at J.P. Morgan, who downgraded the stock to neutral from overweight.
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| Almodovar’s ’Education’ Gets NC-17 Grade - Nov 25, 2004 16:41 IST |
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Oscar-winning director Pedro Almodovar’s latest film, Bad Education, will carry an NC-17 rating, a commercially damaging tag which means that no one aged 17 and under will be admitted.
Almodovar’s film, which delves into the issue of priestly sexual abuse within the context of a homoerotic film noir, was released Friday in New York via Sony Pictures Classics. It opens Dec. 10 in Los Angeles.
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| Film Studios Win $24 Million Against Web Site - Nov 25, 2004 16:41 IST |
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Hollywood’s major movie studios said they won a $23.8 million judgment against a California company and its Malaysian owner for operating a Web site that charged customers to download illegally copied movies.
The company, MasterSurf Inc, is owned by Tan Soo Leong, and it operated a site called Film88.com, according to a statement by the Motion Picture Association of America, which represents the studios in governmental and industry matters.
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| Sony Pictures Sets Up Operation in China - Nov 25, 2004 16:23 IST |
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Sony Pictures has set up a joint venture television and film co-production unit in China, taking advantage of a loosening of restrictions on the tightly controlled industry.
The joint venture with Hua Long Film Digital Production Co. of the state-run China Film Group, which holds a majority stake, has full approval from Chinese regulators, Sony Pictures Television International said in a statement Thursday.
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| Conrad Sentenced to House Arrest - Nov 25, 2004 16:22 IST |
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Former Wild Wild West star Robert Conrad will pay a price for his wild, wild ride.
The aging action hero has been sentenced to six months of house arrest, five year’s probation and alcohol counseling for a 2003 DUI accident.
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| Beatles’ Guitar, Cobain Letter Up for Auction - Nov 25, 2004 16:17 IST |
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Rock ’n’ roll fans with deep pockets can buy a Beatles guitar or a mugshot of the pop star formerly known as Cat Stevens at what Christie’s said on Wednesday was its biggest auction of show business memorabilia.
The Gibson SG electric guitar, played by George Harrison from 1966-1969, is the star attraction among over 400 lots, ranging from Britney Spears’ book report to a handwritten 1991 letter from the late Kurt Cobain to Courtney Love.
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| Critics Blast ’Alexander’ But Novelist Defends It - Nov 25, 2004 16:16 IST |
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While critics savaged Oliver Stone’s long-waited epic Alexander, novelist and social activist Gore Vidal rallied to the $160 million movie’s defense saying it was barrier-breaking because of its frank depiction of bisexuality.
Stone’s film opened on Wednesday to near universal pans from critics who called it everything from a noble failure to an indifferent epic.
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| Police praise ’courageous’ Ozzy - Nov 25, 2004 16:2 IST |
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The singer grabbed an intruder who then jumped 30ft (10m) from a first floor window as the star gave chase at his Buckinghamshire home on Monday.
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| McCartney backs UK conservation - Nov 25, 2004 16:1 IST |
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The awards set out to honour excellence and innovation in preserving the UK’s cultural heritage.
Sir Paul, 62, agreed to fund the awards after meeting 2002 winner Ian Clark and hailed conservationists’ work.
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| Elderly ’need digital TV funds’ - Nov 25, 2004 15:58 IST |
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The Ofcom Consumer Panel is advising the government on how to make sure the vulnerable are not left behind when the switch-off happens, probably in 2012.
The UK government may have to spend £250m-400m to make sure those groups can still receive TV, its report said.
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| UK sweep up at global Emmy Awards - Nov 25, 2004 15:32 IST |
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Channel 4 won three prizes - for Brat Camp, The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off and children’s tale, The Illustrated Mum.
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| Glastonbury mulls ID card tickets - Nov 25, 2004 15:20 IST |
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The black market trade has flourished with recent huge demand for tickets.
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| US actor fined over Oscars piracy - Nov 25, 2004 15:19 IST |
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Mr Caridi, 70, who had small parts in two Godfather films, was sued for sending videos of The Last Samurai and Mystic River to another man.
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| Label withdraws McFadden’s video - Nov 25, 2004 15:16 IST |
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St Fintian’s High School says it is clearly identified in the video, while McFadden never went there.
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| Potter director signs Warner deal - Nov 25, 2004 15:15 IST |
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The Mexican film-maker, who directed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, will produce mainstream movies and smaller Spanish-language films.
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| US Super Bowl opts for McCartney - Nov 25, 2004 15:14 IST |
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Organisers have promised there will be no repeat of her nipple-baring incident that sparked thousands of complaints on US TV’s most-watched broadcast.
A National Football League spokesman said they were comfortable this show would be acceptable to a mass audience.
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| Jermaine Jackson to divorce wife - Nov 25, 2004 15:9 IST |
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The older brother of Michael Jackson petitioned the Superior Court, asking that the couple’s children, Jaafar and Jermajesty, live with their mother.
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| Stars turn out for rare Waits gig - Nov 25, 2004 15:7 IST |
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The gravel-voiced US singer played at the Hammersmith Apollo in London on Tuesday in front of a sell-out crowd.
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