Is 'God' Dead?
NBC's having a devil of a time keeping its affiliates from
banishing the new animated sitcom God, the Devil and Bob.
Sixteen stations in markets like Salt Lake City and Pocatello,
Idaho, yanked the modern-day Job tale (which airs at 7:30 p.m.
in mountain and central time zones) because, among other things,
it mockingly depicts God as a beer-guzzlin' hippie. ''The big
fear is that it's aimed at children, and we just felt some
things were not appropriate for the time period,'' says KSL-TV
programming manager Russ Crabb of Salt Lake City. God exec
producer Harvey Myman disagrees: ''We've received so much mail
from ministers and priests saying this is exactly what you
should be watching with the family.'' But NBC may not be willing
to give the series time to find an audience (only 6.3 million
viewers tuned in to the March 14 telecast). The most ironic
result of the boycott thus far: A South Bend, Ind., affiliate
replaced a potentially offensive God episode with the
masturbation episode of Seinfeld. Score it Jerry 1, the Almighty
0.
In Stitches
Given his penchant for on-camera pranks, who could blame you for
suspecting that Tom Green's revelation (on Entertainment
Tonight, no less) that he has testicular cancer was just his
latest over-the-top stunt. But the host of MTV's self-titled
series is indeed battling the disease. Fear not, though: His
prognosis is good after initial treatment, and he's expected to
be back suckling cow udders in no time. Green, 28, has also been
documenting his whole medical experience for an upcoming
episode, and at press time, he was even hoping to show up at the
Oscars. ''He was very upbeat, very lighthearted,'' says Green
spokesperson Marleah Leslie. The WB certainly wishes him a
speedy recovery — it's been negotiating to adopt his show from
MTV. Perhaps they should woo him by making a donation to his
start-up charity, Tom Green's Nuts Cancer Fund. We're not making
that one up, folks.
Strange Bedfellows
Who do HBO's If These Walls Could Talk 2 and the Discovery
Channel's Raising the Mammoth have to thank for their ratings
success? The broadcast networks' affiliates. That's right: In a
trend that some believe is steering more and more viewers to
cable, network affiliates around the country are routinely
allowing cable companies to buy advertising on their stations
(for a substantial price, of course). Although the spots for
Walls and Mammoth didn't contain a premiere date, they clearly
didn't have to: On March 5, Walls gave HBO its highest
original-movie rating in three years, and on March 12 Mammothattracted a record 10.1 million viewers. ''I think the networks
understand that we're in business as they are in business,'' says
Alan Bell of Freedom Broadcasting station group, which includes
ABC and CBS affiliates. ''We'll make economic decisions that we
think are in our best interest, independent of what anybody
says.'' C'mon, kids, play nice.
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