Flailing Fox Clings to "'70s"
Looks like Fox is still stuck in the '70s.
The net announced Monday that it had reupped its bell-bottomed series That '70s Show for an eighth season--minus stars Topher Grace and Ashton Kutcher.
The show's return is something of a surprise, as its seventh season was widely expected to be its last, due to flagging ratings and Grace and Kutcher's expected decampment.
However, Fox Entertainment President Gail Berman said she believed that the show "still has life in it."
"We've got some real fun ideas," Berman said of the upcoming eighth season at the Television Critics Association press tour.
Grace and Kutcher's exit from the series was no shocker--both thesps had expressed their plans to move on at the end of the current season in order to focus on their movie careers and, in Kutcher's case, various hidden-camera shows.
However, both actors will reportedly return to their small-screen disco-era roots in cameo appearances.
"Both Ashton and Topher would expect to visit That '70s Show for a number of episodes during the course of the year," Berman said.
All of the show's other cast members agreed to return.
In other Fox news, the network suffered in the ratings this fall, landing in fourth place in total viewers after focusing on a heavily reality-based schedule.
"I think in the case of fall, we drifted from the balance too much on the unscripted side," Berman said.
Fox faces a yearly struggle each fall when October's Major League Baseball championships impede the network from rolling out its complete inventory of new programming.
This year, the net attempted to head off the problem by launching original programming year-round, but the solution met with mixed results.
Summer releases Method and Red and North Shore were poorly received and kicked to the curb, while the fall medical drama House performed decently for the network and will return for midseason.
Berman acknowledged that Fox had made mistakes when switching over to its year-round original programming format.
"We attempted to do too much too soon," Berman said. "That said, somebody had to start somewhere. The audience is really smart. We are guilty of confusing them to a certain extent. We have to be clear going forward."
Some of that "forward" motion includes a return to past successes. Berman announced that the net would air its first original episode of Family Guy since 2002 on May 1. The network announced that it was reviving the animated series last May because of viewer demand and through-the-roof DVD sales. Nearly 3 million copies have been sold, making Family Guy the fourth-highest selling television series, per Fox.
American Dad, another animated comedy from Seth MacFarlane, will premiere following Family Guy on May 1. The network will also roll out Life on a Stick, a sitcom about teenagers working at a mall food court, on March 23.
A spate of high-profile talent is also slated to guest-star on various series. Billy Campbell is set to appear on several episodes of The O.C. beginning March 3; Albert Brooks will be a guest voice in the 350th episode of The Simpsons on May 1; and Tom Petty, Shannon Elizabeth, Brendan Fraser and Jason Bateman will lend their voices to episodes of King of the Hill this season.
Berman was enthusiastic about the network's immediate future, given the strong fourth-season premiere of 24, the return of a reworked American Idol and next month's Super Bowl.
"We expect January to be a good time for us, even anticipating some declines for Idol," Berman said.
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