Robert Thompson Network Quotations

It is one of the few shows on American television, especially after you get past those first couple of weeks, where really little kids love it, grandma loves it. It's got the kind of wide appeal we used to see all the time on network TV that we very seldom see anymore.

Farrah Fawcett was in the prime of her big-haired, buxom beauty. She was the kind of person who could completely make 'Battle of the Network Stars' work. She was kind of goofy and she was such a huge star and you really wanted to see what she was like. And what you saw was a little peculiar and that made it fun.

The Next Action Star and Starlet were bad ideas because you can't deliver that. Even on The Apprentice, you can't turn those people into captains of industry. You can, in fact, say: We're doing a show on the Food Network and whoever wins gets a show on the Food Network. How can we do that? We're the Food Network. These are networks that can do what they promise to do.

VOD is perfect for established hits, and for reruns of shows that didn't have enough viewers to keep them on the air. 'Freaks and Geeks' had a lot of people watching, but not enough to keep it on the air. With VOD, you don't have to worry about getting a 15 share. If a show already had its network run and the production expenses are paid, anything after that is gravy.

Everyone was saying that ... network news was a dinosaur. Given the amount of attention to this story, I think it demonstrates that people still care about network news. It's not dead yet.