Franklin Avenue At The Upfronts

While Maria is back in Los Angeles closing escrow on the house (ohboy, our home buying process was absolutely horrible... you'll be hearing about it in the coming days), I'm here in New York covering the hype as, one by one, network execs attempt to convince us why trust us, THIS time we got it right! We just came off Our Best Development Season... Ever! Honest.

Some notes:

::Told ya so. "Arrested Development" will be back. Whew. Critics love it, fans in the know adore it... but the ratings blow. So it was hardly a shoo-in to return. But things had been looking up for the brilliant comedy, especially after Fox put repeats of it on their summer schedule. Still, it wasn't a firm go until now. On behalf of all of the "Arrested" fans out there, I hugged Gail Berman for you. Literally.

::Best thing I just discovered about New York: The 3-1-1 phone service.
Picture this: I've arrived at Radio City Music Hall, just about to watch The Jeff Zucker Peacock-a-palooza. But first, a quick call to the off... holy crap, where's my phone?
I left it in the cab. Thank God for supercool Bravo publicist who's name I can't remember at the moment (BPWNICRATM for short), who loaned me her phone and told me to call 3-1-1. The 24-hour hotline basically helps out on all non-emergency related New York questions and needs.
The 3-1-1 folks hooked me up with the Taxi and Limo commission, who managed to track down my cab driver. (Thankfully, I had saved my receipt.) The cabbie got back to Radio City Music Hall, I got my phone back (and gave him a nice tip -- hey, I'm not always a cheapskate) and I finally got inside.

::So what are the upfronts anyway? And why are they called "upfronts"?

Well, young Timmy, I'm glad you asked. In TV sales, media buyers lock in ad time before the season begins -- hence they pay for those spots in big chunks of time periods upfront. (When advertisers buy ads piecemeal during the season, it's called "scatter.")

This is the week the networks unveil their fall schedules to the advertisers, who will then go to parties, get liquored up off the networks' dime and then eventually, in a few weeks, sit down with network sales execs to hammer out those "upfront" deals.

::Reality rules. Bottom line: The networks have embraced it, and now so have the advertisers. A well-done, emotionally charged trailer for NBC's upcoming Sylvester Stallone boxing reality show "The Contender" probably drew more tears from the audience than anything else at NBC's presentation Monday (did my eyes get misty too? No comment). And like a page out of bizarro-world, there stood chef (and "Restaurant" star) Rocco DiSpirito and "Apprentice" winner Bill, back-to-back, at the party thrown by William Morris. I had to walk through the two of them to head toward the bar -- and for a moment, felt like I was in the middle of a Reality Sandwich.

::More to come!