This month, while
NBC is broadcasting the 17-day Winter Olympics, the other networks will air
mostly reruns.
It’ll be weeks
before we see new episodes of CBS’s various “CSIs” and “NCISs,’” ABC’s “Modern
Family” and “Cougar Town,” or Fox’s “House” and “Bones.”
It hasn’t always
been this way.
Before the
networks began hibernating during the Winter Olympics, they aggressively tried
to woo viewers from the games.
Twenty-two years
ago tonight, while ABC was airing its ninth night of Olympics coverage from Calgary,
NBC launched “James Clavell’s Noble
House,” a $20-million adaptation of the author’s best-selling saga of corporate
intrigue in the Orient.
The four-night,
eight-hour miniseries starred Pierce Brosnan as Ian Dunross, the “tai-pan” –
Cantonese for “supreme leader” – of Straun and Company, a prestigious Hong Kong
trading firm on the brink of ruin.
John Rhys-Davis
co-starred as Quillan Gornt, Dunross’s longtime rival, and Deborah Raffin
played Casey Tcholok, the hero’s love interest. The cast also included Ben
Masters as Linc Bartlett, a wealthy American who conspires to bring down
Dunross’s “Noble House,” and Julia Nickson as Orlanda Ramos, whom Gornt hires
to seduce Bartlett.
Critics raved,
comparing “Noble House” to NBC’s previous Clavell adaptation, the 1980 hit “Shogun.”
“‘Noble House’
is great. It is the salvation of the miniseries,” wrote People’s Jeff Jarvis. The
Washington Post’s Tom Shales called it “the most satisfying fit of lavishness a
network has had in years.”
Viewers were
less enthused.
“Noble House’s”
first installment was seen in 15.8 million homes, beating its time-slot
competition – ABC’s Olympics coverage and CBS’s “Bring Me the Head of Dobie
Gillis” reunion movie – and finishing 16th for the week.
The miniseries continued
over the next three nights, but only the final installment cracked the weekly
top 20.
ABC, of course,
went on to win that week, placing six Olympics broadcasts in the top 20.
OK, so maybe
NBC’s gamble didn’t work as well as it probably hoped – but at least the
network tried to give viewers an alternative to the games.
Elsewhere
on Television
TV Guide listings for February 21, 1988:
8 PM NBC FAMILY TIES (CC)
Alex (Michael J.
Fox) soon regrets encouraging Lauren (Courtney Cox) to quit work on her thesis:
she turns into a Stepford girl friend, watching soap operas, clipping recipes
and devoting herself to Alex’s every need.
…
And in the News
New York Times excerpts from February 21,
1988:
U.S.
to Use Tortilla Packages To Send Amnesty Reminder
HOUSTON, Feb. 20
– The government is sending message in tortilla packages to remind illegal
aliens about the deadline to apply for immigration amnesty.
The Immigration
and Naturalization Service has printed 80,000 Spanish-language reminders on
4-by-6-inch pieces of paper, and next week it plans to send them to tortilla
factories in Brownfield, Odessa and Lovington, N.M., where they will be
inserted into packages.
The note says
the deadline for applying for amnesty is May 4. “For more information,” it adds,
“please contact your local legalization office.”
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