BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., July 14 Fox will tackle the comedy-series crisis by taking meetings with sitcom writers at their homes, or in restaurants of their choosing, to make them more comfortable, the head of Fox Entertainment told TV critics at Thank God I'm Working Summer TV Press Tour 2008. And one of the stars already has been recast on J.J. Abrams's new Fox drama series, "Fringe." Meanwhile, the slings and arrows of TV critics bounced right off Karl Rove (who appears to lack nerve endings) during a Fox News Channel Q&A session. But they appeared to land on Chris Wallace, who was rattled by the questions and comments directed at on-air talent and a network exec. About the sorry state of comedy series on network TV, Fox Entertainment division chief Kevin Reilly said: "I can't even go to the platitude of 'it's cyclical, it's going to come back.' "A lot of confidence has left the creative space on a day-to-day basis. I see really talented people coming in, very skittish, not knowing what to pitch and what will sell. I see executives trying to figure out where is that nerve to hit." The solution? "We're not going to take most of our pitches in our office," Reilly said. "We're going to go out and meet the writers on their own turf. And that could be a restaurant, that could be -- if they want to do it in their house, we'll do it in their house. Anything that gets it out of a sterile environment and try something different." Reilly said he's heartened by the whole Sarah Silverman-having-sex-with-Matt Damon/Jimmy Kimmel-having-sex-with-Ben Affleck dueling-video thing, and all the stuff comedy writers put on YouTube and other Web sites during the writers' strike. It appears comedy writers still know funny and now all they have to do is figure out how to shove an ad break in every seven minutes and, presto, you've got a sitcom revival. To that end, Fox is going to throw some money at comedy writers to go out and shoot something before they even come in to pitch it -- or, more accurately, meet Fox suits in their family room to pitch it. "Go shoot something and then put it in the machine, even if it's not for air -- we've got to do anything to mix it up," explained Reilly, who said he had high hopes for one of his midseason comedies, "Boldly Go Nowhere." He described it as " 'The Office' in space -- petty jealousies and incompetencies on a long-term mission to wherever they're going." With regard to the "Fringe" recasting: We're speaking, of course, of the cow that, some critics believe, steals at least one scene in the pilot. (You can see a bootlegged version online, though it's not the finished product.) The cow had to be recast when the sci-fi-ish show moved from Vancouver, B.C., where the pilot was shot, to New York. The cow was not permitted to travel, the show's producer told TV critics, without elaboration. But pilot director Jeff Pinkner told critics they've had conversations about using makeup on the new cow if viewers notice its spots aren't in the same place in the second episode. You can just imagine the mythological implications.
I would love to trade places with the porn dudes here