PASADENA, Calif. -- Utah won't remember "Grapevine," the show David Frankel created, produced and wrote for CBS back in the early 1990s, but Frankel certainly remembers Utah.
"They took it right off the air," he said. "It was Salt Lake and someplace in Texas or North Carolina. The station in Salt Lake and one other station that would not air it at all."Indeed, then-CBS affiliate KSL-Ch. 5 declined to air the six-week summer series that focused on the love and sex lives of a group of friends in Miami, citing its too-adult content. And when the show returns to CBS as a midseason replacement series sometime during the upcoming season -- most likely in the spring of 2000 -- it will be somewhat toned down from what it was in 1992.
"I mean, I know the show originally had a real sexy edge," said Frankel, who won an Oscar for his short film, "Dear Diary," in 1997. "So I'd say the dramatic difference between the show then and now is, it was sexier then and it's got a more romantic quality now."
CBS screened the new pilot for critics, and it does seem to be a more watchable show now than it was seven years ago. It's also not your average, cookie-cutter sitcom -- it's a one-camera show shot on location (no studio audience or laugh track) that quick-cuts from one scene to the next. Also, the principal characters talk directly to the camera about what they're thinking and feeling. HBO's "Sex and the City" uses a similar approach, but remember, "Grapevine" was there first.
"It was way ahead of its time then," said CBS Entertainment President Nancy Tellem, who championed the show at the network and gave it the midseason order. "And we feel it is the right time to bring it back now. I watched the old ones, because I didn't watch it in '92. And it really feels way ahead of its time."
And she also feels the updated version is an improvement.
"It focuses less on the sexual aspects of relationships and more on the relationships," Tellem said. "I responded to it. It was fresh, it was different, it wasn't your typical sitcom."
The fact is the entire landscape of television has changed in the past seven years. What is acceptable now was not as acceptable then -- proven by the fact that KSL doesn't bat an eye in 1999 airing episodes of sitcoms like "Mad About You," "3rd Rock from the Sun" and "Friends," all of which are far more sexually suggestive than any 1992 episode of "Grapevine."
"Don't forget, you're talking about a long time ago. When we did the pilot, it was 1991," Frankel said. "I mean, this significantly predates 'NYPD Blue' and a lot of stuff that's on HBO. I remember taking the show over to executives at ABC well before 'NYPD Blue' and they're going, 'Gee, how did you get this on the air?' The shows were sexy, not because of what we showed, but because people talked intimately, directly to the camera. The stories involved romantic triangles, and sometimes it made people uncomfortable.
"Hopefully, we won't lose that completely. But we're not trying to make people uncomfortable. We're trying to tell really fun stories."
It's fairly amazing that the network would bring back a failed show that few even remember seven years later. (It will actually be closer to eight years by the time it gets on the air -- and a full nine years since the original pilot was shot.) And it's fairly amazing that Frankel was even out pitching the show.
"I thought, well, how many new innovate, creative, resonant ideas can I come up with. Maybe I could just do that one a little better," he said. "This is a little more on the regular characters. The other one used the regular characters to tell stories about their friends."
The ensemble cast includes Kristy Swanson (who was not going to return to her role on "Early Edition" even before this came up) and George Eads ("Savannah"). And Steven Eckholdt, who starred in the original "Grapevine" and is now a member of the cast of the ABC sitcom "It's like, you know . . .," is also in the new "Grapevine" pilot.
"Steven Eckholdt will be available for a couple more episodes, and then we're going to be introducing new characters," said Tellem, who more than lightly suggested that perhaps Eckholdt will be seen on more than a couple more "Grapevine" episodes.
"My guess is, hopefully, he'll be back very soon," Tellem said.
(It wouldn't exactly be a big surprise if ABC doesn't hang on to "It's like, you know . . . " for terribly long this coming season.)
Why would the people at CBS be so bullish on a show that failed the first time around? Tellem pointed to the fact that, since 1992, non-traditional shows -- from "Ally McBeal" to "Seinfeld" to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" to "The Sopranos" -- have caught the attention of TV viewers.
"I think the viewers are much more open-minded," Tellem said. "People are much more receptive to different ways of doing TV shows."
But she didn't want to throw the show into the maelstrom of fall premieres, when viewers are trying to sort of nearly 40 new series and dozens of time-slot changes. Where, exactly, "Grapevine" might fit into CBS schedule and how the network will relaunch the series is currently the subject of much discussion within the network.
"That's a good question. That's something that we're really struggling with right now," Tellem said. "We love this and we really felt fall was not the right time. It really does take special attention to launch this, and we really kind of, frankly, are rolling up our sleeves and trying to think of how best to get this thing going. We're all very committed to doing so."
And Frankel isn't complaining about his show's midseason status.
"It's such a jungle out there. It's great that we'll have a chance for people to take notice," he said. "And, also, we wouldn't be ready for the fall. It's a very complicated show to make. We're glad to have the time."
He's also at least a tiny bit relieved to learn that CBS has switched stations in Salt Lake City since 1992 -- and that the network owns KUTV-Ch. 2, so "Grapevine" will definitely air in Utah.
"Oh, good," he said. "That's great."