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Eisner told a meeting of ABC affiliates that the poor February showing was "unacceptable" and vowed it "would never happen again." To insiders, that was code language for "Heads are going to roll." Eisner and Ovitz are "evaluating the team that's in place every day," says a well-placed ABC executive, who adds that the current development season, which will determine next fall's schedule, is key. Eisner has been reading some pilot scripts himself (his favorite: Spin, a DreamWorks sitcom starring Michael J. Fox as a big-city deputy mayor). Thought to be most vulnerable among the existing...
...which satirized a Disney-style theme park where workers are brainwashed into cheery uniformity. Yet viewers could be excused for feeling a bit like outsiders at a family dinner where all the conversation consists of in-jokes. Ever since the Walt Disney Co. announced its $19 billion purchase of ABC last summer, Hollywood has looked for signs that the network of Home Improvement, Ted Koppel and NYPD Blue is being transformed into a subdivision of the Magic Kingdom. Leave it to Roseanne to get the issue out in the open...
Never before has a network been subsumed by another media company with as polished an image and as relentlessly focused a way of doing business; how this plays out, both financially and contentwise, will be one of the most watched show-biz stories of the '90s. Of course, ABC hasn't become the Disney Network just yet--and most sources insist it never will--but even casual viewers will start noticing little mouse footprints soon. Along with Roseanne, two other ABC shows--Boy Meets World and Step by Step--have traveled to Disney's Orlando theme park to tape episodes...
...Disney touch could become even more apparent by next fall. The network is planning to launch a two-hour Disney family movie on Saturday nights, with Disney chairman Michael Eisner as the probable host. Six of the 29 pilots that ABC is considering for next season come from the Disney studio--a not uncommon bit of corporate synergy now that networks are allowed to own their own programs (and now that studios like Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox own their own networks), but one that has nevertheless raised fears among other Hollywood studios that they will eventually be shut...
...their hands have been evident in a number of major moves since the merger. One of Ovitz's former colleagues at CAA, Michael Rosenfeld, has been hired as an entertainment-division senior vice president, and more personnel shake-ups are expected, particularly after a disappointing season in which ABC fell to a weak No. 2 in the ratings--and third in the important February sweeps, the same month the merger became official...