July 22, 2005
Will HBO snuff its hit? Are Kirstie's chances slim?
Newspaper TV critics from across the country are in Los Angeles this week to report on the upcoming fall TV season.

By Mike Hughes
Gannett News Service

LOS ANGELES -- As the giant pay-cable networks try to figure out which shows to cancel and which shows to keep, they're still struggling with a couple of questions:

How do you keep a show called "Fat Actress" with a now thinner star? And how can you really whack a mob hit?

HBO's "The Sopranos" will be back in March with 10 new episodes, which its producer-creator David Chase has said will be the last. But some days, network executives say, Chase leans toward trying another season, and some days, he doesn't.

The traditional networks know all about canceling shows, but HBO and Showtime, by comparison, order a few shows and tend to keep them around. Cancellations are rare and painful. Consider:

• "Fat Actress," the Kirstie Alley comedy. Months after its first season ended, Bob Greenblatt, Showtime's president, is still trying to decide if there will be a second. "That show was trying to do a lot of things at once," he says. "Some of the episodes were better than others."

• "Carnivale," the Depression-era drama that ran two seasons on HBO. Ever since he canceled it, says HBO chairman Chris Albrecht, he's been getting as many as 50,000 e-mails a weekend. "It is so over the top -- not just in terms of the number, but in terms of things that they say and threaten."

That rage grows because the pay-cable guys rarely cancel anything.

• "Entourage" isn't far into its second season, but HBO has already ordered a third; Showtime topped that last year, approving the second season of "Huff" before the first began.

Lately, the Emmy nominations have been semi-supportive.

The voters seemed to agree with the "Huff" renewal. The show has seven nominations, a huge number for a Showtime series. "It feels a little like we've finally been invited to sit at the adult table," Greenblatt says.

They disagreed with the "Carnivale" cancellation. The dumped show has eight nominations.

And they offered no guidance on "Fat Actress." It has zero nominations.

Next month, Showtime adds two new comedies. "Barbershop" is based on the movie; "Weeds" is based on pure whimsy.

Coming in December is "Sleeper Cell," a drama about undercover anti-terrorists.

As for "Fat Actress," before the show began, all the key people said it would thrive, even if Alley turned thin. And now? "She is down 42 pounds," Greenblatt says. "We're trying to figure out exactly what a second season would be creatively, because she isn't as heavy."

Meanwhile, HBO is back to its usual "Sopranos" guessing game.

"David was so charged after last season and the response to the show from last season, and so happy with what he's doing now, that I honestly believe that he feels like there's more to tell than just what he's got planned for this season," Albrecht says.

Another acclaimed series, "Six Feet Under," is wrapping up its final season this summer. "I understand some of the people's impatience with the show last year," Albrecht says. This year, he insisted, it is back to full strength. "The way this series ends (Aug. 21) is powerful, poignant, poetic, unique."

That will be followed by the Aug. 28 premiere of "Rome," a drama about the scheming and warfare of the ancient empire. Meanwhile, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks are producing a limited series set in the Pacific theater during World War II. "Those two projects alone cost probably $300 million," Albrecht says.

He can do that, lavishing time and money. Most network shows shoot an episode in eight days; it took HBO 14 months to make the first 12 episodes of "Rome."

The "Carnivale" cancellation ended up being a bit messy, Albrecht grants. "When they pitched us this last season, it was going to end up in a place where you didn't have to go on. In the end, they decided to kind of change that a little bit, which turned into a little bit more of a cliffhanger."

That show will keep hanging on its cliff but others are on the way to HBO. They include:

• "Big Love," premiering early in 2006. Bill Paxton plays a modern polygamist in suburban Salt Lake City with three wives (Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloe Sevigny and Ginnifer Goodwin), three homes and seven kids.

• "Extras," airing Sept. 25, alongside the "Curb Your Enthusiasm" season-opener. Ricky Gervais -- co-creator and star of the British version of "The Office" -- plays a movie extra.

• "Mrs. Harris," a movie airing some time in 2006. Annette Bening plays Jean Harris with Ben Kingsley as her slain lover, Dr. Herman Tarnower, creator of the Scarsdale Diet.

• "Yesterday," in November. It's a heartbreaking AIDS movie, set in rural South Africa.

• Stand-up comedy. There are solo specials by Bill Maher (July 30), George Carlin (Nov. 5) and Robert Klein (December). Less-famous comics are in "One Night Stand," beginning Aug. 19.

• Lots of documentaries, led by one Aug. 13. Lee Grant profiles Kirk and Michael Douglas in "A Father . . . A Son . . . Once Upon a Time in Hollywood."

• Movies still fill most of HBO's schedule. Big ones include "Spider-Man 2" on Aug. 6, "Ray" on Aug. 13, "The Terminal" on Aug. 20, "Shark Tale" on Sept. 3 and "I, Robot" on Sept. 24.

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