Vince, I enjoyed our conversation this afternoon.

I came back to my desk to read this story in the clips -- it says the Frontline show is airing tonight.

I'll dig up TVA for you,
Jeannie



June 5, 2001, 1:17AM Houston Chronicle PBS pledge drive alters schedule  By MIKE McDANIEL  Copyright 2001 Houston Chronicle TV Editor  Paul Hope, like many theater fans, tuned to Channel 8 Sunday night in anticipation of the first hour of the joint PBS/CBS telecast of the 55th Annual Tony Awards.  What he got instead was a travelog hosted by Rudy Maxa. Because this is pledge drive week, Channel 8 did not air the first hour of the three-hour award show, as it has in previous years.  "Channel 8 has made Houston a theatrical cowtown by this decision," Hope, a resident actor at the Alley, said Monday.  Alley artistic director Gregory Boyd called the preempting "absolutely indefensible and shocking."  Fortunately, Channel 8 is being more flexible about a second program that it had originally decided not to air this week.  Frontline, which airs nationally at 9 p.m. tonight, takes a hard look at California's energy problems and their direct connection to Houston. The telecast includes interviews with several Houston players, including Enron's Kenneth Lay.  KUHT station manager John Hesse said Channel 8 became aware of the Frontline story, titled Blackout, and its Houston connection last week. Because of its local news value, the show will be tape-delayed and aired on KUHT at 10 tonight. It will be repeated at 9 p.m. June 12, when Channel 8 originally had planned to air the show.  "When we learned of the local significance, we obviously wanted that program to air (here) in a timely manner as in the rest of the country," Hesse said.  "We are getting a little bit of heat for the Tony thing," Hesse said. "The problem is, it's right in the beginning of our pledge evening. We had a schedule in place, and a decision was made to stick to that schedule because that was our opportunity for fund raising."  Fund drives are vital to keep the station operating and to purchase quality programming.  "When we're scheduling our pledge dates, we try to coordinate the normal PBS schedule with what we determine will do the best for us in terms of fund raising," Hesse said. "We only use about 2 percent of our air time a year in fund-raising efforts, and when we're using that 2 percent, we have to make the most of them."  That's no comfort to the folks who were hoping to experience what turned out to be theatrical history being made. Mel Brooks' The Producers -- not only the talk of Broadway but also the entertainment world -- won a record 12 Tonys Sunday night.  Most were awarded in the show's first hour -- where Tonys for director, choreographer and other categories are handed out. To diehards, the PBS portion of the Tonys exceeds CBS' in that it airs without commercials and includes behind-the-scenes interviews with directors, composers, designers and others.  Hesse explained that Channel 8's pledge-drive dates were set before the station knew whether PBS would even have the Tonys.  The first hour of Sunday's show had direct links to theater talents whose work has been seen and heralded in Houston.  David Woolard, nominated for best costume design for The Rocky Horror Show, is costume designer of The Carpetbagger's Children, which opens Wednesday at the Alley.  Doug Besterman, a winner Sunday for his orchestrations for The Producers, has done the same for the Frank (Jekyll and Hyde) Wildhorn productions that have played here.  Doug Schmidt, a nominee in the scenic design category for 42nd Street, was a designer for the Alley's Civil War and A Christmas Carol.  Hesse said, "We knew by the end of March" that PBS would co-host Sunday's show, and yet "the decision was made to stick with the schedule in place."  Because the Tonys isn't "owned" by PBS, it could not be used as a pledge show, although Hesse conceded pledges could have been sought before and after.  "There's nothing against the `rules,' " he said. "It's just been our normal method of operation here (to run the pledge drive at 7 p.m.) in terms of our prime-time evening pledge start."  In a related development, NBC affiliate KPRC will not be showing the first episode of a new comedy series bowing tonight. Kristin, starring Kristin Chenoweth, is being pre-empted by Road to Redemption, a movie funded by the Billy Graham Crusade.  Channel 2 made a decision in March to run the movie 7-8:30 tonight, KPRC general manager Steve Wasserman said. NBC has scheduled the premiere of Kristin for 7:30 p.m. and is not allowing it to air later in prime time, he said.