TV Movies: Screen Is Shrinking

To those who earn a living in the peril-filled world of made-for-TV movies, the last few weeks might have been titled “One Deadly Spring” or “Their Fatal Fall.”

Still absorbing the news that NBC would drop one of its two movie slots in September, producers received another blow when CBS opted to do the same, potentially eliminating the production of several dozen TV movies next season.

While most who work in the field say it’s premature to push the panic button, they acknowledge that this is the latest in a series of setbacks making truly independent producers an endangered species, or at least threatening to thin the herd.

They also understand the factors that led to the move, which include desperation to find hit series and simple economics. Sources estimate that NBC, for example, will save more than $1 million each week by ordering a newsmagazine and two sitcoms in place of its Monday movie.

Still, there’s no question that made-for-TV movies on the major networks have fallen on hard times. Not only have ratings declined, but prestige has sagged considerably from the days of such acclaimed fare as “Brian’s Song,” “The Day After” and “That Certain Summer.”

The networks have seldom approached those heights of late. As an indication, pay channel HBO--which offers more provocative topics and higher budgets--has dominated the Emmys, taking top movie honors four consecutive years.

Some say the networks have themselves to blame by ordering so many undistinguished projects that fall under the derisive heading of “women in peril” movies--featuring lithesome cast members of shows like “Melrose Place,” “Beverly Hills, 90210” and “Baywatch.”

Referring to the movies that NBC programmed on Mondays--with titles such as “Her Costly Affair” and “Mother, May I Sleep With Danger?”--one producer said that while he’ll miss the work, the franchise itself “isn’t a big loss” creatively.

Others agree that TV movies have become too narrow in their focus by seeking to appeal almost exclusively to young women.

“I’ve always felt saying, ‘Let’s just do a certain kind of movie,’ would hurt [the networks] in the long run,” said Michele Brustin, a former NBC executive who now oversees movie and series production at Scripps-Howard Productions.

In part because TV movies were so alike, in fact, Fox found a ready audience Sundays for “The X-Files” last season, making it that much harder for the three Sunday movies to score big ratings.

“ ‘X-Files’ did more damage to the TV movie business than anything else,” said Howard Braunstein, whose Jaffe-Braunstein Films produced the recent Meryl Streep TV movie “First Do No Harm” for ABC. “It hurt the Sunday movies, and that hurt the rest of them.”

Even before movie nights were eliminated, other challenges loomed. Networks have relied more on feature films, discovering that they can still do quite well with titles such as “Forrest Gump,” “Jurassic Park” and “The Lion King.”

In addition, the networks are producing more movies themselves. ABC’s corporate parent, Disney, is supplying all 16 original movies for its “Wonderful World of Disney” revival next season, including a new version of “Oliver!” and a movie inspired by Disney World’s Tower of Terror ride.

NBC has been equally aggressive about increasing the pace of its in-house production, meaning producers involved with such projects work for the network on a fee-for-services basis, as opposed to owning the movie and its distribution rights.

The irony is that more TV movies are getting made now than ever, thanks to original production by cable networks HBO, Showtime, TNT, Lifetime and the USA network. All told, more than 200 TV movies are done in an average season.

Unfortunately, producers say, they can’t support companies working solely in cable, making the shift at the major networks a real danger that will force independents to consolidate further in order to survive.

“It’s going to be tougher for the individual producers to stay on the outside [as independents] in a shrinking universe of films,” said Citadel Entertainment chief executive David Ginsburg, whose company produced the NBC miniseries “Pandora’s Clock” plus such HBO movies as “Citizen X.”

Producers do see signs of hope. Each network has said it will preempt regular programs to air miniseries, and new players continue to enter the field, with the UPN network planning to introduce a weekly “sci-fi movie” next year.

“It’s changing so quickly, but in the long run [movies] are still going to be here,” said Robert Sertner, a partner in Von Zerneck/Sertner Films. “Even if somebody does lose a night, they’re being absorbed elsewhere.”

Greater consolation, however, seems to come from the knowledge that after series fail, movies are inevitably called upon to fill the breach.

“I think short-term there’s a little bit of panic. Long-term, I would be quite surprised if they didn’t have to go back to two movie nights,” said Michael O’Hara, whose company produces a series of NBC movies under the umbrella title “Moment of Truth.” “It’s hard enough with the [series] slots they have now to come up with hits.”

Whether a reduction in the number of movies will mean better ones remains to be seen. With more competition for fewer slots, producers say they will seek any edge they can find.

“It means movie people are going to have to work a lot harder,” said Brustin, who has focused on acquiring literary properties. “And it means an advantage, I hope, for the viewer, in that the projects will have to be more of an event and more interesting.”

Strong ratings in May for the big-budget miniseries “The Odyssey” and “The Last Don” are also expected to spur the appetite for such fare. Unlike most conventional movies, those projects attracted a wide cross-section of people--both men and women.

So-called “women in peril” thrillers, meanwhile, may have lost some of their commercial luster, while softer fare is looking more viable. CBS, which toyed with dropping its Sunday movie, found recent success that night with movies such as the “Hallmark Hall of Fame’s” “Rose Hill” and “Old Man”--movies that appear more suited to following the network’s 8 p.m. hit “Touched by an Angel.”

“There’s just more of a need for individual movies to stand apart from the crowd,” said Brad Moore, president of Hallmark Hall of Fame Productions, which produces four movies for CBS annually. “People are saying, ‘We ought to spend more time on each one and make it more unique.’ At Hallmark, that’s music to our ears.”

O’Hara likened the shift to “a Wall Street correction,” where the stock market has to go through some upheaval before leveling off.

“I think we have a broader palette than we had,” Ginsburg said. “Just 2-3 years ago, we were all in a race for headline-grabbing stories.”

“Independent producers are clearly going to be hurt by the loss of movie nights, but I really think we’re going to be back,” Braunstein added. “Series come and series go, but there’ll always be a need for movies.”