Cable network rebranding is nothing new. It’s a changing world and TV changes right along with it.
Example: Basic cable’s ABC Family channel began life in 1977 as part of Pat Robertson’s Christian television ministry. By 1990 it had evolved into The Family Channel.
It was sold in 1998 to Fox and morphed into Fox Family Channel. Disney, parent company of ABC, bought the outfit in 2001 and changed the name to ABC Family.
In 2006, the channel reinvented itself to target young adults. The result was edgier “family” programming such as The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Switched at Birth, Baby Daddy, Pretty Little Liars, Twisted and The Fosters, which features a loving married lesbian couple raising five kids.
The new slogan in 2006: “ABC Family: A New Kind of Family.”
Another example is how The Nashville Network (TNN) became The National Network, then rebranded into Spike, targeting young males.
Or, as the Parents Television Council puts it, “In 2000, Viacom turned the country music channel The Nashville Network into the sex-and-scatology-obsessed, frat-boy Spike TV.”
Fox Soccer Channel rebranded in September to FXX and (according to PTC), “will handle FX’s sleazy, gross-out comedies, while FX concentrates on ultra-violent, gross out dramas.”
Rebranding, I suppose, is in the eye of the beholder.
Al Jazeera bought Al Gore’s Current TV and replaced it with Al Jazeera America in August.
There are other examples, but let’s move on to UP TV (formerly GMC TV), which was launched in 2004 as the Gospel Music Channel.
UP (short for Uplifting) rebranded in June and may be the closest thing cable now has to the original intent of the old Family Channel with its goal of “diverse, family-friendly programming.”
UP isn’t everywhere, but is available on Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Charter and Cox Communications, as well as DirecTV, Dish Network and Verizon FiOS.
UP programming includes such saccharin fare as Heartland, 7th Heaven, The Waltons, Touched By an Angel and feel-good movies.
One of those original movies airs at 6 p.m. today and has a roundabout Arkansas connection.
The Town That Came A-Courtin’ is based on the novel of the same name by syndicated columnist/author Ronda Rich. Her book was loosely based on an experience she had during a Rotary Club speaking engagement and visit to That Bookstore in Blytheville in 2002 and its then-owner, Mary Gay Shipley.
In the book and movie, fictional Bliss, Miss., subs for Blytheville. The movie was filmed in Fort Langley, British Columbia, so ignore the Mississippi “mountains” in the background, the dearth of black folks (I counted only three) and the hokey Southern accents from many in the supporting cast.
Concentrate on the charmand warm and fuzzy sentiments.
The Town That Came A-Courtin’ stars Lauren Holly (NCIS), Cameron Bancroft (24, Beverly Hills: 90210) and Lucie Guest (Blackstone) and features Valerie Harper (Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda) in a small part as the owner of the local bed and breakfast.
Harper, 74, announced in March she has terminal brain cancer, but has continued to work and as late as November said she was feeling “pretty good.”
Holly plays successful author Abby Houston. Bancroft is Mayor Spencer Alexander, the town’s most eligible widower. The movie follows the town’s bungling efforts to get the two together. Comedy and brief drama ensue.
Look for a cameo by Rich as a patron waiting to have a book signed. “I see so much of myself in her books,” she quips.
BIG NIGHT
Sundays are now almost impossible to keep up with. Not only is Downton Abbeyback on PBS, but True Detective and Girls are playing on HBO and Shameless, House of Lies and Episodes are on Showtime. Now comes even more.
Sherlock. Benedict Cumberbatch and The Hobbit’s Martin Freeman return as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson when Masterpiece Mystery! debuts Sherlock Season 3 at 10 p.m. today on PBS and AETN.
How did Sherlock fake his death with a leap off the roof of St. Bart’s Hospital? Find out in tonight’s two-hour “The Empty Hearse.” As usual, Season 3 will only have three episodes, airing on subsequent Sundays.
The Following. Too dark for some (rated TV-14 for violence), Season 2 of Fox’s The Following will have a special preview today about 9:30 p.m. following the National Football Conference Championship game between San Francisco and Seattle. The series then airs at 8 p.m. Mondays starting Jan. 27, replacing Sleepy Hollow (which ends its first season Monday).
Kevin Bacon stars as Ryan Hardy, now a teacher, who gets roped into the investigation of a mass murder on the subway with connections to the Joe Carroll cult.
Program reminder: Check today’s TV Week insert for my preview of Monday’s swell miniseries Klondike on Discovery.
The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email: [email protected]
Style, Pages 50 on 01/19/2014