While reruns of HBO’s “The Larry Sanders Show” are headed for Bravo, the network’s other hit comedy, “Sex and the City,” won’t play in syndication any time soon — and that might be a good thing.
HBO was offering the raunchy, award-winning series about four women navigating the relationship scene in New York City to several basic cable outlets for syndication in September 2002, according to Variety magazine. But despite editing six separate episodes to show how a tamer version would fly, HBO eventually took the series off the market.
Two possible reasons for the decision: HBO was asking a steep $750,000 an episode, and HBO president Jeff Bewkes didn’t want to dilute “Sex” because new episodes might still be on the network at the same time.
(That doesn’t stop other network shows from airing new episodes while running in syndication, but no matter.)
The truth is that the bawdy language and sexual situations are part of what makes “Sex” the riot it is. The material resonates, especially when the four women — Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and especially the acerbic Samantha (Kim Cattrall) — engage in frank talk about sex and romance.
Not only is the banter wonderfully realized and brutally frank, but a lot of it is true, making it funnier.
Unlike most shows with explicit language and nature, “Sex’s” material isn’t used just for shock value. Cleaning it up would only diminish its humor and funky charm.
The new season of “Sex and the City” is expected to begin in June.
Hits and misses: UPN’s Sunday afternoon telecast of the XFL was seen by an estimated 4.5 million viewers, which is considered strong for the network.
This followed an average of 14.5 million viewers who saw last Saturday’s first telecast of the upstart football league on NBC.
One sign of the XFL’s future will come with its second telecast this Saturday on NBC. That’s because last Saturday’s game between the New York/New Jersey Hitmen and the Las Vegas Outlaws saw a steady decline in viewers as the blowout/bore-fest went on.
Meanwhile, UPN’s first prime-time XFL match is set for this Sunday.
Oh, and one TV tip for the XFL: The overhead camera that catches the action from behind the offensive line of scrimmage is neat, but when there’s a passing play, switch the cameras downfield; sometimes we can’t see how it ends.
Husband-swapping: Robert Hays (“Airplane!”) will play Bette Midler’s husband for the remaining seven episodes of her CBS sitcom. Chicagoan Kevin Dunn started the season as her hubby but left a few months ago.
Obligatory `Survivor’ news: Reuters reports CBS’ “Survivor” Web site is enjoying huge hits because of the women appearing on “The Australian Outback” edition of the reality show.
Almost 23 percent of the users are interested in pigtailed administrative assistant Amber, who hasn’t had as much face time as some of the others. Close behind is Jerri, who orchestrated Kel’s removal from the Outback last week, with vegetarian terror Kimmi, Colleen wannabe Elisabeth, and hard-bodied Alicia rounding out the top 5.
(Apparently, “Mad Dog” Maralyn’s removing her false teeth last week has turned some people off.)
Meanwhile, original “Survivor” Stacey is suing producer Mark Burnett because she says he interfered with the game last year. She claims Burnett influenced her former castmates Dirk and Sean to vote against her so that Rudy could stay on the island longer.
Stacey should sue because the show made her come off like a witch . . . hint, hint, Jerri.
When old news becomes clutter: In case you were in your own world, Kelly Ripa — Hayley Vaughan Santos of ABC’s “All My Children” — adds her name to “Live with Regis” as the show’s permanent co-host come Monday.
Hooking in laughs: Lucy Lawless plays a high-class hooker on NBC’s “Just Shoot Me” on Thursday.
“Hey, hey, hey, don’t use the `H’ word, please!” Sorry.
Lawless, star of the former hit syndicated series “Xena: Warrior Princess,” is playing what she refers to as a ” tart with a heart” on the Thursday night comedy (8:30 p.m., WMAQ-Ch. 5) whom Elliott (Enrico Colantoni) hooks up with after he and Maya (Laura San Giacomo) break up.
Seeing an action star in another genre might raise some eyebrows about whether he or she is stretching. But “Xena” is known almost as much for its forays into broad comedy as it is for its elaborate action scenes and instances when the Warrior Princess is extremely buddy-buddy with her sidekick Gabrielle (Renee O’Connor).
“A great many of the offers I’ve been given, almost all of them are comedy,” explains Lawless. In fact, not only is she a fan of “Shoot,” but also she says they’ve been after her for a few years to make an appearance.
Aside from a scene where she had to pop someone in a more “girlish” fashion (“For years I’ve been slugging them”), the New Zealander has nothing but kind words for her “Shoot” experience.
She said she always wanted to work with Colantoni, and thought David Spade at first was going to be a “rat bag,” which is slang for rascal, but found him quite charming and respectful.
Lawless had some great fun with George Segal, who, she says, didn’t know her “from a bar of soap.”
“He says, `Who do you know here?’ I went, `I beg your pardon?’ `Who do you know here? You got this job, do you know one of the producers?’ He thinks I’m some bimbo, some businessman’s handbag!
“And I said, `Well, no, they’ve been asking me for a while, it just didn’t fit in with my schedule.’ He’s going, `What schedule?’ He thinks I’m having him on!'”
