As so often seems to be the case, producer Steven Bochco has gotten his way once again. And ABC has once again clearly demonstrated that it has no compunctions about airing adult-oriented material when tens of millions of children are still awake and watching TV.
Bochco made no secret of his displeasure over ABC's plans to move "NYPD Blue" to Wednesdays at 9 p.m. directly opposite NBC juggernaut "Law & Order." (Last week's episode of that show was the second-most-watched in its 11-year history — an amazing feat for a show that old.)
But given the problems ABC has been having with its Tuesday-night lineup, "Blue" won't be changing nights after all. But it will be changing times, moving from 9 to 8 p.m. when it returns for its 10th season on Nov. 6.
ABC is making several changes to shore up its deeply troubled Tuesday lineup. After tonight's episode, the Jason Alexander sitcom "Bob Patterson" will be exiting Tuesdays altogether. In an effort to protect the struggling show, beginning Oct. 24 it will follow "Drew Carey" on Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m. Not that a change in time slots will solve "Patterson's" problem — it's just plain awful.
(Actually, ABC is moving "Patterson" back a half-hour to 8:30 p.m. tonight, flopping it with "Spin City," which moves up to 8 p.m.)
The "Patterson" move knocks Denis Leary's comedy "The Job," which debuted this past spring, off the schedule for the immediate future — it's now slated as a midseason replacement show.
The Tuesday schedule will be a bit unsettled for the next couple of weeks — ABC will double run "Dharma & Greg" at 7 and 7:30 p.m. and "Spin City" at 8 and 8:30 p.m. next week, and there are some Halloween specials scheduled for the week after. And "NYPD Blue's" Nov. 6 return will be a two-hour episode that airs from 8-10 p.m.
But once things settle out, ABC will air "Dharma & Greg" at 7 p.m.; "Spin City" at 7:30 p.m.; and "NYPD Blue" at 8 p.m., leading in to Bochco's new legal drama "Philly" at 9 p.m. And the producer could barely contain his enthusiasm.
"I think it's actually one of those rare instances where everybody wins. It's good for 'NYPD Blue,' good for 'Philly,' and, I think, good for ABC," Bochco told the AP.
Well, not quite everybody, Steve. Ask Joan Cusack if she thinks everybody wins — ABC has canceled her low-rated sitcom "What About Joan." But as long as it's good for Bochco, well, does anything else matter?
And the general viewing public may also be a loser in all of this. ABC — and Bochco — have long maintained that "NYPD Blue" is a show that should air in the last hour of prime-time (9-10 p.m. Mountain and Central; 10-11 p.m. Eastern and Pacific) because of its adult content. But that theory, apparently, flies out the window in the face of the horror of competing with "Law & Order."
Let's make this clear. "NYPD Blue" will now be seen at 8 p.m. Mountain/Central, the same time that the most innocuous of network fare airs on the East and West coasts. (Not that there's a lot of innocuous network fare anymore.) And, just like "Blue" opened the door to raw language and nudity in other broadcast network programming, moving it up an hour will open the door to airing such programming earlier in the evening.
It's worth remembering that ABC is owned by supposedly family-oriented Disney.
STAYING PUT: Speaking of big whiners, ABC's rescheduling will leave Barbara Walters with less to whine about.
Walters had a hissy fit when ABC took "20/20" off Fridays and moved it to Wednesdays. And an even bigger hissy fit when the original plan called for it to disappear altogether for seven weeks as the network shuffled "NYPD Blue" back onto the schedule in November.
Well, what with recent developments, "20/20" will stay put on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. And Walters will have to find something else to complain about.
TROUBLED "MOLE": ABC may not be done making changes. The ratings for the second season of "The Mole" have been extremely disappointing on Friday nights, and the rumor is that it may soon be yanked.
If that happens, it could be relaunched sometime in early 2002 — or possibly held for next summer.
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com