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TV Land heads to the movies

Network broadens programming

By JOHN DEMPSEY

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TV Land, the network to go to for old TV series ranging from "Gunsmoke" and "Bonanza" to "Mash" and "The Munsters," has scheduled the first movie night in its 11-year history.

"We want to broaden the boundaries of our programming lineup," said Jaclyn Cohen, senior VP of programming and acquisitions for TV Land. "Friday Night Movies" is the umbrella title, kicking off this month with, in successive weeks, "White Men Can't Jump," "Weekend at Bernie's" and "Basic Instinct."

TV Land may be hoping that the movies shake things up. Its lineup of golden-oldie series has begun to slump in the Nielsens. For the first quarter, TV Land's primetime lineup fell off by 10% in total viewers, by 37% in people 18 to 34, by 14% in 18-49 and by 12% in its demographic target of 25 to 54.

The first batch of movies Cohen has bought are comedies, with forthcoming titles like "Caddyshack," "National Lampoon's Vacation," "The Blues Brothers," "Beetlejuice" and "Young Frankenstein."

TV Land will pay small dollars in license fees for these titles because most of them are older pictures that have run constantly on various cable networks over the years. Also, TV Land will get the movies for short windows, sometimes only a couple of weeks, allowing the studios to keep the money flowing in by selling the titles to other networks.

Cohen said TV Land will not seek to buy theatricals in their first network window because of their high cost. TV Land doesn't need fresh movies because its viewers are used to watching old reruns. The newest picture in the first batch of TV Land purchases is the 1998 "Pleasantville," tailor made for the network in its theme of a contemporary family thrust back, through their TV set, into the artificial black-and-white landscape of a 1950s sitcom.

TV Land has bought movies from all of the major studios, and Cohen says the network is committed to keeping the Friday-night franchise running at least through 2010.