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Fall Season is Almost Here

© F. Colin Kingston

News and notes from the world of television...

CLINTON SPEECH CAUSES PROGRAMMING DILEMMAS: Last week¹s four minute speech by President Clinton in which he admitted his sexual relatinship with a former White House intern caused many programming problems for the various television networks. Each broke into their regular programming to cover the event live.

ABC-TV had a live pre-season football game on MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL between the Dallas Cowboys and the New England Patriots. They temporarily moved the game over to their ESPN2 cable channel so they could cover the speech. NBC preempted two scheduled episodes of CAROLINE IN THE CITY.

CBS-TV faced a rather interesting dilemma. They had a live broadcast of the MISS TEEN USA PAGEANT. Programming executives decided to tape the event and delay the broadcast of the pageant (and winner) to the following evening. However, they were worried about losing ratings because the winner would be already known.

According to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER they actually considered filming three different endings with three different winners. The real winner would be shown on the broadcast the following evening.

Thankfully, sanity prevailed and they decided not to do that. One anonymous executive told THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER that they decided it would be "tough emotionally" on the two girls who did not win. "It seemed to be a little too much to do just for ratings," the source added. Only "a little" too much?

DEATH ON THE SET OF THE CROW Tragedy struck the set of the new syndicated series THE CROW last week. Veteran stunt man Marc Akerman was killed when debris from a special effects explosion struck him in the back of the head. He was standing behind the shot, just five feet from the director of the episode. Apparently, the force of the special effects explosion was stronger than anticipated. The series is based on the movie which starred the late Brandon Lee.

This marks the second death on the set of THE CROW. As many fans know, Brandon Lee, son of martial arts legend Bruce Lee, was accidentally killed during filming of the motion picture version of THE CROW.

UPN Science Fiction Movie Update The UPN network has announced the premiere date for their weekly science fiction movie series. I MARRIED A MONSTER, starring Richard Burgi, will premier on October 8th from 8 to 10 p.m.

UPN also announced several other made for TV titles which will air on Thursdays this fall in their weekly two-hour science fiction movie block. Other UPN titles include, 30-YEARS-TO-LIFE, CHAMELEON, INFERNO and RIDDLER¹S MOON.