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This isn't part of the article but its interesting - - - - - Gail Shister | PBS offers Oprah a 'Masterpiece Theatre' partnershipBy Gail ShisterInquirer ColumnistPASADENA, Calif. - Oprah's Masterpiece Theatre? It could happen. With PBS's crown jewel still sponsor-less since ExxonMobil bailed in December '04, outgoing network president Pat Mitchell pitched Oprah Winfrey a partnership in the franchise in an e-mail Saturday, Mitchell confirms. And if Winfrey kicks in enough green, she could get her name above the title, Mitchell says. PBS guidelines require a commitment of $8 million to $10 million a year for that to happen - tip money for the billionaire talk-show queen. "There's no downside," Mitchell said in an interview at the TV critics' winter meetings. "How can you get a better trademark, a better brand? Look how many books they sell based on her recommendation." Mitchell and Winfrey go back more than 20 years. Though Mitchell and MT executive producer Rebecca Eaton only began brainstorming the idea on Saturday, Mitchell outlined her perfect scenario: Winfrey and Eaton would coproduce some of the books to which Winfrey owns broadcast rights as TV movies or mini-series, to air on PBS under the MT banner. Winfrey's infusion of capital would dramatically strengthen the overall MT brand in the marketplace, enabling an increase in productions. Simple, right? "The fact is, Oprah could just write a check and save public broadcasting," says Mitchell. " 'Here's your budget for the next three years.' I don't think she's going to do that. She has other things on her plate. Masterpiece Theatre is a really good fit." ExxonMobil had been MT's sole corporate underwriter since its 1971 launch. PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting have been keeping it afloat, but with far fewer offerings than in the past. MT will do 10 titles this season, including an eight-hour adaptation of Charles Dickens' Bleak House that begins Sunday. "There's no way I'll let Masterpiece Theatre leave our schedule," Mitchell promises. The final decision on the Winfrey plan - if there is one - would be up to Eaton and Boston's WGBH, the producing station, Mitchell says. "It seems like a wonderful combination," says Eaton, e.p. since '85. "I feel her sensibilities and our sensibilities are quite similar." One example: Tolstoy's Anna Karenina was a Winfrey Book Club selection as well as an MT production. To Eaton, Winfrey "is huge. In another culture, she would be an oracle, like the woman in the village everyone came to for guidance." Eaton says she spoke to Winfrey's Harpo Productions two years ago about coproducing a mini-series based on her book picks, "but they said their plate was full. Now might be the right time to go back." Museum-bound. In her new job as chief executive officer of the Museum of Television and Radio, lame-duck PBS chief Pat Mitchell plans to look to the future, not the past. Mitchell, who begins March 15, says one of her top priorities is to make many of the museum's 100,000-plus TV and radio programs available on the Internet (for a fee). (Fun Fact: Mitchell downloads podcasts of ABC's Desperate Housewives and Lost. She watches them on airplanes.) Named in 2000 as PBS's first female president, Mitchell announced almost a year ago that she would leave the public network at the completion of her contract in June '06. The PBS board has allowed her to exit early, she says. The network is expected to name Mitchell's successor within two weeks. Names on the short list are said to include Gary Knell, head of Sesame Workshop; Vivian Schiller, general manager of Discovery Times Channel; and Jerry Wareham, vice chairman of PBS's board. Mitchell plans to use her new position "as a platform to talk about hugely important issues - how media influences the way we think and live, and the decisions we make." She has signed a two-year deal. The nonprofit museum, with locations in New York and Los Angeles, was founded in 1976 by William S. Paley. Mitchell says she's finding it tougher to leave PBS than she expected. After announcing her planned departure, "I pushed it to the back of my head. We were all in denial. Now that we're actually dealing with it, it's hitting home."

Ordinary

Of course, the series are just past of normal TV in Britain, some considered good, some bad, some indifferent; few are considered masterpiecesPliny 23:50, 30 June 2006 (UTC)