News & Notes

All Brent Out of Shape
When CBS Sports dropped Brent Musburger after 15 years, his leave-taking during the NCAA final on April 2 was genial: "Folks," he said, "I've had the best seat in the house. Thanks for sharing it. I'll see you down the road." Three days later, Musburger was in a different mood. On ABC's PrimeTime Live, he told Sam Donaldson that CBS' "contract negotiation. . .was a sham. It was a set-up all the way, a charade. It was unethical. They led us on all the way." He blamed a "vendetta" by CBS Sports President Neal Pilson and executive producer Ted Shaker for his firing. Asked about his next move, Musburger minced no words. "Got a job?" he asked Donaldson.

Glamour in the Slammer
HBO's coming dramatic anthology Women in Prison will feature almost as many women behind the camera as behind bars. Directors Donna Deitch (Desert Hearts), Penelope Spheeris (The Boys Next Door), and Joan Micklin Silver (Crossing Delancey) have each signed to film one segment for a three-part, 90-minute special to air next fall. A subsequent half-hour series is planned as well.

Last Day at the Beach?
John Sacret Young, China Beach's cocreator and executive producer, is still waiting to hear whether his series, which airs its last new episode April 30, will return next fall. "ABC respects it and admires it, but there's always been some reluctance," he says. If Beach, ranked 63rd in the season-long Nielsens, survives the summer, there'll be changes. "We'll plan out next year more carefully," Young says. "There'll be an overall design, whereas in the past we've just gone from story to story." One thing that won't change is the frequent turnover of cast members. "That's the reality of Vietnam — it was chancy and tricky and warpy," he says. "People got killed, people got transferred, new people came. And sometimes it's just that we've used up somebody's story."

Turt Alert
This one comes as no surprise: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will becoming to Saturday morning next fall. CBS reportedly has decided to expand its planned series from 30 minutes to an hour, and plans to air 13 episodes next season.