Earlier this year, CBS programmers thought so much of "Cybill" that they gave the show "Murphy Brown's" Monday time slot, annointing the Cybill Shepherd sitcom as a mainstay of the future.
Now, CBS programmers think so little of "Cybill" that they're yanking it off the air for two months.As of Jan. 5, "Cybill" is off until late February - following the Winter Olympics. The show has become a bit of a black hole for CBS on Mondays, losing a huge chunk of the viewers who watch "Cosby" and "Everybody Loves Raymond" (more than 1.5 million viewers, on average) and hurting the shows that follow - "George & Leo" and "Brooklyn South."
"Cybill" long ago confused crass and vulgar with funny and has suffered as a consequence.
Joining CBS's Monday-night lineup will be "Style & Substance," a new comedy that stars Jean Smart ("Designing Women") as Chelsea Stevens, who's sort of a Martha Stewart clone - a "one-woman cooking, decorating and entertaining machine (who) oversees a media empire as America's reigning queen of domesticity."
Nancy McKeon ("Facts of Life") co-stars as Chelsea's new producer, who tries to shore up her boss's personal life. "While Chelsea has no trouble whipping up a gourmet dinner for 12, she doesn't know 12 people who would care to eat it with her."
(What's sort of ironic about this is that Martha Stewart's television ventures are produced by Eyemark Entertainment - the syndication arm of CBS.)
As of Jan. 5, "George & Leo" moves up a half-hour to 8 p.m. "Style & Substance" will air at 8:30 p.m.
DR. QUINN, HIATUS WOMAN: CBS is also looking to improve on the performance of the weakest show in its Saturday lineup - "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman."
The good doctor is going on hiatus at the end of the year to make room for a more male-oriented Western - "The Magnificent Seven," based on the movie of the same name. (Which was, in turn, based on the movie "The Seven Samurai.")
"The Magnificent Seven," the story of "seven men committed to justice, no matter what the cost," debuts on Saturday, Jan. 3.
"Dr. Quinn" will also return at a date to be announced.
IS THIS A GOOD IDEA? Take a wild guess - who do you suppose is appearing in an upcoming episode of "Veronica's Closet" as a love interest for Kirstie Alley?
Why, it's Ted Danson, of course.
Alley and Danson, you'll recall, co-starred on "Cheers" for five years. In the episode of "Closet," scheduled to air in February, Danson appears as Ronnie's old high school boyfriend. They're still very attracted to each other, they're about to get really serious - when a glitch in Ronnie's divorce proceedings threatens the relationship.
This episode is just about guaranteed to do big ratings, but it could well be as lame as the episode of "Frasier" that Danson guest starred on. (It was arguably the worst "Frasier" ever.")
Perhaps it would be better to just leave us with our memories.
VERY EERIE: "Eerie, Indiana," the short-lived series NBC canceled almost six years ago, is being revived . . . as a Saturday-morning show on Fox.
The Fox Kids Network has ordered 15 episodes of "Eerie, Indiana: The Other Dimension," which is scheduled to begin production today in Toronto and begin airing on Fox in February.
The show has had, shall we say, a rather odd history. NBC programmed it on Sunday nights in the fall of 1991, and - despite generally favorable reviews -the quirky show about the strange goings on in a small Midwestern town was a big-time bomb.
But Fox pulled the show out of the vault and added it to its Saturday-morning lineup back on Jan. 18 - and it became a big hit.
"The Other Dimension" will feature Mitchell and Stanley, two new youngsters who "notice some weird things going on around town, but they don't know why. When they encounter Marshall Teller and Simon Holmes (original lead characters in "Eerie, Indiana"), Mitchell and Stanley learn that the strangeness from Marshall and Simon's dimension of Eerie is beginning to invade their own world. Like Marshall and Simon, Mitchell and Stanley now must complete the mission of saving their Eerie from becoming the center of weirdness for the entire universe."
If this sequel is half as good as the original, it's worth making.