It’s hard to celebrate anything even vaguely frivolous while the entire country remains in a virtual state of shock. Since Tuesday morning’s tragedy at the World Trade Center, the entertainment and sports industries have delayed almost all of their programming and events. In addition, the schedules and release dates for TV shows and movies are being rethought-and the content carefully screened for anything inappropriate.
A look at the latest:
NBC and ABC have pushed their fall premiere weeks back to Monday, Sept. 24. The other two networks-CBS and Fox-are still debating the matter. The WB, which has been running regular prime-time programming all week, will kick off its new season tomorrow. Reports said Fox was leaning toward debuting its new shows on Monday, Sept. 17, as scheduled.
Execs are also taking a close look what they’re planning to air. Turns out “The Agency,” a CBS drama set to debut next week, contains a reference to Osama bin Laden. “The Rats,” a made-for-TV movie in which millions of critters take over New York City, won’t run on Fox on Monday as planned. NBC has announced they will delete scenes of the World Trade Center in the opening credits of “Law & Order: SVU.”
Fox’s real-time CIA extravaganza “24” presents more serious problems, since it concerns a terrorist plot to assassinate a presidential candidate. It’s uncertain whether the network will rework the show before late October, when it’s set to debut. In the meantime, most promos for the program have been pulled.
Major League Baseball has canceled 45 games since Tuesday and announced today that they will resume again on Monday. Similarly, the National Football League has decided to delay its 15 games this weekend. NASCAR’s New Hampshire 300 race, scheduled for this Sunday, was also postponed.
Studios are paying careful attention, not only to the upcoming movies on their slates, but the way they are advertised.
“Sidewalks of New York,” a drama set in Manhattan starring Leonardo DiCaprio, will be delayed from Sept. 21 to late November. “Collateral Damage,” a thriller concerning terrorists set for release on Oct. 5, has been pushed off indefinitely and has also had all its advertising removed. The ads for the Oct. 12 DreamWorks prison story, “The Last Castle,” will be altered; instead of an upside-down American flag, the campaign will focus on stars James Gandolfini and Robert Redford.
The trailer for Columbia’s “Spider-Man,” set to open in May 2002, has been yanked from theaters and from the Internet. It contains a scene (not in the film) of bank robbers getting caught in a giant web between the twin towers of the World Trade Center.
And Columbia has said it will change the ending of next summer’s “Men in Black 2,” since it concludes with the former landmark as a backdrop.
As for the immediate future, the films “Hardball” and “The Glass House” will still both be released tomorrow. But it’s unclear whether audiences will be familiar with them, considering there’s been so little advertising on TV this week.
New York’s theater world remained dark Tuesday and Wednesday, but was set to resume Thursday night. The 23 current Broadway shows canceled three performances each, including the Wednesday matinees. That cost the business about $3 million. Besides strikes, it was the longest interruption on Broadway in nearly 40 years. The last time they took such a great pause? The death of President John F. Kennedy.
