Queasy Does It

Engaging in a form of cultural carbon-dating, pundits assign themes to each new television season and even whole decades--trying to gain a handle on what popular entertainment tells us about the public mood at a certain time.

Such assessments are invariably a bit simplistic, but they promise to be especially so for this year’s fall TV lineup, which based on a preliminary sampling offers more intrigue behind the scenes than in any of the trends played out before the cameras.

Just to review, the 1950s earned an enduring designation as the golden age of drama, although those years also gave birth to the modern sitcom and a posse of westerns that rode triumphantly through the next decade. The ‘70s evoke images of jiggly, escapist fare like “Charlie’s Angels” and “Fantasy Island,” plus the social comedy of “All in the Family” and “Laugh-In.” The ‘80s became associated with the Reagan era’s conspicuous consumption (think “Dynasty” and “Dallas”), but also marked the transition to the grittier dramatic style exemplified by “Hill Street Blues” and “St. Elsewhere.”

Today--with thoughts of terrorism never too far away, high-flying Internet companies grounded and millions suffering from stock-market hangovers--even the Cosmopolitan-sipping protagonists of “Sex and the City” might reach for a new kind of cocktail.

Welcome, then, to the Maalox Millennium.

Certainly, any theme for the current TV climate must recognize the encroachment of corporate sponsorships--a trend propelled along by series such as “American Idol,” which clumsily integrated Ford and Coke into the action. Seeking a hedge against remote controls and devices such as TiVo that facilitate zapping through commercials, harried executives seem increasingly willing to let advertisers ooze into the shows themselves.

As for Maalox, what better (legal) product could one choose to capture the apprehension that has crept into the industry, where tolerance of failure resembles that exhibited by the villains in James Bond movies.

Two broadcast networks, after all, jettisoned top programmers earlier this year, and even top-rated NBC underwent a high-level shift days after the last TV season concluded in May. Given that, it’s no wonder members of that elite network club approach their jobs like contestants on the elimination games they broadcast--programs with appropriate titles like “Survivor,” “Fear Factor” and “Dog Eat Dog.”

Nor is it lost on TV industry veterans that modern network entertainment chieftains wield less authority than their predecessors did a mere decade ago--a function of industry consolidation that has stacked studios on top of networks, with the extra layers of management tamping down the power of those ostensibly in charge.

That corporate structure is hardly a prescription for risk-taking, which helps explain why this season’s main thematic element is a surplus of crime shows. Granted, one can argue that it’s partly attributable to a hunger for good guys and security post-Sept. 11, but it probably has as much to do with job security, as executives seek to prolong their careers by churning out “brand extensions” of what’s already successful.

Put those forces together, and it’s so long, touchy-feely ‘90s dramas; hello, spinoffs and knockoffs of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and “Law & Order.”

Based on such examples, the programming gestalt in the Maalox Millennium no longer lends itself to facile appraisals, because each network--indeed, almost every facet of the TV industry--enters the season with its own complex, underlying set of headaches and back story.

From that perspective, no one has more to worry about than ABC, which saw the bill come due faster than anticipated for riding the “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” gravy train into the ground. Top officials haven’t done themselves a favor, either, by characterizing the coming year as a make-or-break proposition not just for the network, but parent Disney, bringing an almost operatic quality to such mundane questions as whether anyone wants to see a new sitcom starring John Ritter.

With the vultures circling, ABC has also handed critics and headline writers a wealth of metaphorical ammunition, ordering “Dinotopia,” a show about dinosaurs (insert extinct network joke here), and another drama for later in the year titled “Miracles,” sure to provoke snide comments about what might be necessary to stem the network’s ratings slide.

Although ABC’s fate will be examined in minute detail, competitors have their own reasons to slug a soothing gelatinous liquid right out of the bottle. Fox, for one, ran second in the futility department last season--a fact obscured by its blockbuster ratings for the Super Bowl and World Series; the critical plaudits showered on new programs “The Bernie Mac Show” and “24”; and all the energy the press exhausted on bashing ABC.

The outlook for the 2002-03 season suddenly appears somewhat brighter thanks to the prospect of a second “American Idol,” but the network nevertheless enters the fall minus two long-running signature shows, “The X-Files” and “Ally McBeal.” In addition, questions linger around one of its highest-profile new series, “Firefly,” a sci-fi concept from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” creator Joss Whedon. An expensive two-hour prototype was deemed too convoluted to introduce the program, feeding speculation about the likelihood of a fast flameout.

One might think NBC enters the season feeling smug and sassy, having booked a record $2.7 billion in preseason advertising sales. However, the network must clear a series of hurdles to sustain the good times--none bigger than its lack of a clear replacement for “Friends” heading into what has been billed as the show’s final year. Even if the cast relents, concedes that movies are a crapshoot (thank you, “Serving Sara”) and agrees to another year, past misfires in nurturing new comedies will be reflected in the sky-high sticker price.

Moreover, “The West Wing” becomes a free agent after this season, meaning NBC faces a tough negotiation to renew the show beyond 2003. With hungry competitors scratching at the door, at a minimum the Warner Bros.-produced series is sure to command a massive raise in the fee NBC pays for it.

It’s also worth noting that beyond “Friends,” “Must-See TV” looks a bit musty. “Frasier” opens its 10th season surrounded by sitcoms of dubious appeal, “Will & Grace” has proved vulnerable to CBS’ “CSI” battering ram, and there’s reason to wonder if the departure of Anthony Edwards, as the soulful Dr. Greene, is one “ER” cast defection too many.

CBS, meanwhile, has clearly bolstered its status--although some of its strides Thursday with “CSI” and “Survivor” have been offset by a weakened roster on Sundays, once its most formidable night.

Still, the network has no shortage of Maalox moments ahead--beginning with morning program “The Early Show.” Bryant Gumbel left in May, and after rotating hosts throughout the summer, CBS stations expect the latest overhaul of the long-suffering franchise to provide less feeble resistance to NBC’s “Today” and ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

CBS could also spend more than its share of time dealing with public-relations snafus, mostly of its own making. Thus far, the network has stated plans to broadcast a miniseries about Hitler’s early years (a project that generated criticism during the script stage) and picked up rights to a Victoria’s Secret lingerie fashion-show special. When ABC televised last year’s show, it drew solid ratings but also prompted a complaint to the Federal Communications Commission.

Even the Masters golf tournament has pitched CBS into a PR sand trap, with a women’s organization pressuring the network to drop coverage because the organizing club has never admitted a female member.

Just focusing on the major networks, however, only scratches the surface of the unsettling elements in TV’s alphabet soup, from MTV--with “The Osbournes” under a cloud because of Sharon Osbourne’s cancer--to MSNBC, which after a much-ballyhooed overhaul with “Donahue” as a centerpiece has watched ratings drop faster than the Dow Jones industrial average.

Other general issues contribute to TV’s collective malaise. Entertainment stocks have taken a drubbing, to the point that muttering the word “options” around AOL Time Warner executives can trigger uncontrollable weeping.

The advertising market rebounded from its tech-driven swoon in 2001, but no one is sure how long that will last. As it is, sources say networks and production companies have used the downturn as an excuse to try reducing the fees paid to writers, who have already seen the number of lucrative contracts studios once bandied about to secure their services dwindle and disappear.

The pain has trickled down to the industry’s rank and file as well, with the emphasis on cost-cutting fueling the migration of production to Canada and other international locales where filming is less expensive.

Television station employees have equal reason to fret about their fate because of the advent of “duopolies”--a setup in which one company owns two stations in the same city, spurring layoffs of overlapping staff.

These are just a few of the plots and subplots provided by the fiscal TV year that begins Sept. 23, to be played out in the months ahead. Until then, all that network executives, studio tycoons, producers and crews can do is try to be optimistic as they await the season’s first official plop-plop, fizz-fizz cancellation--brought to you, no doubt, by Alka-Seltzer.

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Brian Lowry is a Times staff writer.