Almost three years ago I wrote an editorial for this website titled Spielberg and DreamWorks: To 2000 and Beyond. DreamWorks, which had had a dubious beginning in the area of feature films, was just really getting on track, and good things were on the near horizon. The fate of the Katzenberg helmed Television Division was extremely uncertain, however. The only successful TV show they had produced up to that point was Spin City with Michael J. Fox. The television industry has seemed almost like the stock market, and DreamWorks has been an unlucky trader.

In 1996, 2 years after the studio was founded, DreamWorks produced four different TV shows: Spin City, High Incident, Ink, and Champs. The last show on the list (Champs) was never even given a chance to show on boob tubes across the country. It was to be DreamWorks first television show (After a show called Dear Diary was dropped, but more on that later), and like the brand new Third Rock From the Sun, which was supposed to premier during the same time, Champs was hyped as a new comedy that was different was the rest.

Ink, which DreamWorks co-produced with ABC, cost $1 million dollars an episode, and aired on CBS after the first 4 episodes were canned, a new producer was hired, and the storyline and style were revamped (The fact that ABC was routing for a show on CBS demonstrates just how odd the industry is). The comedy, starring Ted Danson, was about a divorced couple, Kate (Mary Steenburgen) and Mike (Danson), who are both journalists. 10 years after their divorce Kate becomes Mikes boss. The shows marketing was mainly criticized as being fueled by Dansons star power, much in the same way as a movie is advertised. The problem was that television shows are required to attract the same viewers week after week over a long period of time to become successful, unlike movies which really need to just get a bunch of people in the seats of the theater once, money paid up front. To make a long story short, the show flopped big time, despite the improved critical response that the rewritten script had inspired.

High Incident, a fast paced look at life for the officers of the El Camino Police Department, lasted two seasons on ABC. The show had a loyal, if relatively small, following, but despite attempts by fans to petition and protest, the show was thrown away. Some attribute its failure to t¡te-š-t¡te competition with NBCs endlessly successful comedy series Friends. Spin City, the one real success from this initial group, is still going strong on CBS, and it is almost no mystery why. Michael J. Fox probably attracted the early interest in the show. After all, not only had he achieved icon status through the Back to the Future trilogy, but he had also starred as Alex P. Keaton in the very successful 1980s comedy sitcom Family Ties. Then the great cast (including many familiar faces), along with great writing, kept the audience coming. The fact that the show has remained successful since Fox left says a lot.

One interesting tidbit to mention at this point is that DreamWorks Television won an Oscar at the end of this first crucial year. Their first sitcom failure was a show called Dear Diary, starring Bebe Neuwirth, who played Lillith on Cheers and Frasier. The show never even piloted, but the producers were sure that the work that had been completed did indeed deserve merit. T he pilot was released theatrically only in L.A., just in time to be eligible for an Oscar nomination. Dear Diary surprised Hollywood by receiving DreamWorkss first ever Oscar nomination, and then winning (Best Short Film-Live Action [1997]). So, paradoxically, Dear Diary was both the green companys first failure and first success.

All that the year 1997 saw for DreamWorks TV was another flop. The comedy, called Arsenio, starred the former late night talk-show host Arsenio Hall (oooh oooh oooh!), who played an on-air announcer for an all-sports cable network. Variety called the show good-natured but laughless. ABC said sayonara to the show after a few airings brought in poor ratings and tepid reviews.

In 1998, the WB premiered the DreamWorks animated mini-series Invasion America. The series continued the young companys determination to push the envelope. The series went down in the history books as the first animated dramatic series to air on U.S. primetime television. Critics hailed the production of Invasion America for its revolutionary blending of traditional cell and developing computer animation techniques. The sci-fi storyline was centered on a 17-year-old boy who learns he is half human and half alien, and who must lead forces to defend earth from an extraterrestrial threat. The show had decent ratings, and a loyal fan base after one season, but Warner Brothers still decided not to pursue further installments.

Note: I.A. won an Emmy for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore) in 1999

In 1999, three more sitcoms came and went. In fact, Anna Says, produced by Michael J. Fox and starring his wife, Tracy Pollan, did not even come, and disappeared into limbo. Its Like, You Know lasted one season, and was a parody of L.A. that many called the Seinfeld of the west coast (Peter Mehlman, a former Seinfeld producer, produced the show). On the show, Jennifer Grey (Dirty Dancing) played herself. Grey hit the spotlight in real life when she got a double nose job (whatever the heck double means). Among other things, the show played off this plastic surgery. The program received a positive response from the critics, as well as decent ratings, but was junked when ABC decided to add three extra hours of Who Wants to be a Millionaire per week.

The biggest surprise to me was when NBC decided to discontinue Freaks and Geeks without even giving it a chance to last. I think the shows producer (Judd Apatow) summed up the current state of television when he said, One show can actually change an entire network's success, which is bizarre. Its a terrible trend for shows like Freaks And Geeks because we are never going to change television. TV stations these days are looking for the quick fix, and not nurturing or giving new smarter shows a chance. Back in the day when Seinfeld was just starting up, shows that received good critical response were given a longer runway to take off from. Shows like Cheers and Seinfeld are notoriously known for their slow starts (believe it or not Cheers ranked briefly at the bottom of all programs in its first season). When news hit the stands that Freaks and Geeks would be cancelled after one season, fans of the show bought a full-page ad in Variety urging another network to pick up the program (New York Magazine, May 15, 2000). In an attempt to appease everybody, NBC aired a Freaks and Geeks marathon that won its time slot in the ratings. However, the show, a fresh victim of the Saturday death slot, was not picked up for another season.

The year 2000, the start of a new millennium, brought no fresh start for DreamWorks television. Two more television shows were destined to a quick death. Battery Park, a sitcom by David Gary Goldberg, who had produced both Family Ties and Spin City, was picked up by NBC and aired for only 6 weeks. The comedy, often described by critics as a comedic, brightened NYPD Blue, was not well received, despite an overhauled pilot. The Fonze, Henry Winkler, was initially nominated for an Emmy Award for his guest appearance on the show, but the episode that had been originally set to air in April, was pushed back to June, past the Emmy deadline, when the network decided to put away the show. So, once again, DreamWorks television became a part of history when an actor of one of its TV shows had his Emmy nomination stripped.

The Others seems to have been a victim more than to have deserved its fate. Of course, one hour long genre television shows of the creepy psychic variety are not guaranteed to attract droves of people, but it doesnt help when the show is aired at 10 Oclock on a Saturday night, and out of its initially planned episodic order. There was a lot of hype previous to The Others pilot airing, but after that, nothing. I dont remember seeing any advertisements, and I remember having a heck of a time figuring out where and when it was on. The show, with its great cinematography, had a strong (cult) following, despite its low ratings. James Wong (Final Destination) produced the show, Spielberg was directly involved, and high profile directors such as Tobe Hooper (Poltergeist) directed individual episodes. Its a shame the show did not make it past the premiere season.

2001 brought better things for DreamWorks television. The Spielberg-Hanks produced mini-series, Band of Brothers, which aired on HBO (10 Episodes), received rave response from viewers and critics alike, and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Mini-Series made for Television. The series, the most expensive TV drama ever, told the story Easy Company of the 101st Airborne Division who parachuted into France on D-Day morning. Instead of going on about the project, Ill just sum it up with one word: Amazing.

The Job, with Denis Leary, is very funny, has received an incredibly positive response from critics, and looks to be very promising if it can conquer the ratings slump its in (Its gone head to head with The West Wing). Kudos to ABC for holding onto the show; lets keep our fingers crossed. Off Centre, a show that aired in the fall on the WB, was brought to us by the creators of American Pie. The show takes place in New York City, where to guys share an apartment and try to pick up girls using two different approaches.

Undeclared (on FOX) looks to be heading the way of Freaks and Geeks, once again despite its critical approval. The shows premiere was at the top of the ratings on its opening night, but dramatically slipped in subsequent episodes. Type in the title of the show into a search engine on the web, and most likely the results will bring up petitions to save the show. At least this show has fared better than Semper Fi, which quietly aired as a TV movie on NBC, and then disappeared into TV wasteland.

Finally, this year, 2002, will see at least 2 new television productions from DreamWorks. With Otherwise Engaged, produced by Michael J. Fox, the company will enter the realm of Lifetime TV. The comedy will follow a recently engaged couple through marriage and married life. Taken, a mini-series set to show on th e SciFi Channel, looks to be very promising. The series is being executive produced by Steven Spielberg, and it will be told in 10 parts. The production will rotate around alien abductions over the past 50 years, and focus on 3 families over 3 generations. The UFO mini-series has been described by its creators as a 20 hour-long movie. Personally, I cant wait to see this.

Looking back over DreamWorks Televisions history, it seems almost impossible to predict how successful the company will be in the future. These days, the sitcom industry almost seems opaque. TV execs are more transparent; they want big ratings quickly. TV shows like Survivor, The Weakest Link, and Who Wants to be a Millionaire are mere novelties that explode and then die. Theyre almost comparable to the strategy in Hollywood today to create a super blockbuster that makes all its money in the first week (or two weeks if its lucky) and then drops radically in the box office. TV network execs are too impatient today, and expect instant monetary compensation. Its this environment by which DreamWorks TV has been most victimized. DreamWorks is at its best when creating mini-series that have a movie feel to them. However, they must be greatly respected for the risks they have taken, and their trend to be unconventional. Itll be interesting to see how the company does in the next ten years in this extremely volatile industry that is television. So, lets support the company by watching the great line-up of shows it has out there right now, and lets hope DreamWorks avoids the Saturday night death slot in the future.