No sooner was the new Standup Comedy Television (SCTV) cable channel announced than “people were dropping off their resumes and show ideas,” said program director Peter Kimball, one of the first executives hired last summer when brothers Joseph and Avi Fox began assembling a team for America’s second full-time, 24-hour comedy channel.
A staff of 50 to 60 will be in place and ready to roll when SCTV launches next January over cable and satellite. Hiring will begin this summer and original show production is already underway at Studio Stages in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and Phoenix.
“I want our community to be involved in this. All the principals are Chicago guys and we all want to make it a success,” said television station veteran Kimball, whose official title is SVP/executive in charge of program development and production.
The staff of 11 moved March 1 into the 17,000-sq. ft. River West studios originally owned by retired ace tabletop shooter Peter Elliott (as exclusively reported 2/24, see Archives).
The Studio Stage currently being constructed in the new facility is a both a comedy club and a full-scale TV studio where regular acts perform before a live audience. Similar venues will be constructed in the other three cities.
Target market is the underserved, loyal and affluent 38-57 age group. Projections are to reach three million customers the first year and grow it to 30 million by the fourth year.
At its launch, Kimball said, 40% of SCTV’s content will be originally-produced programming from its Studio Stages and 60% will be purchased, such as classic comedy shows and movies. In four years that number will be reversed, with 60% original programming and 40% acquired.
Starting out, SCTV’s “main core programming will be Friday and Saturday shows, called ?Laugh Out Live,’ that alternate from our different locations, all commercial-free,” Kimball said.
Programming will include an ?Entertainment Tonight’-kind of interview show with stand-up stars, comedy game shows, talk and news shows and events, classic shows and movies, he explained.
Kimball’s programming “wish list” includes working with local producers, such as animator Kelli Bixler on a best-of-animation show called “Cutting Edge,” a scripted improv show with Charna Halprin of Improv Olympics, and a possible “Comedy Writers Workshop” with Harold Ramis.
He’s received “about 150 resumes from L.A. people who want to return here to work with us.”
Helping to guide the new venture with entertainment program ideas is a creative advisory council comprised of Tim Kazurinsky, Charna Halprin, Steve Zacharis, Bill Kurtis and Harold Ramis, “who’d like to do a 13-week series called ?Inside the Comedy Mind,'” Kimball noted.
Internet pioneers Joseph and Avi Fox are co-chairmen of parent company, Entertainment Capital Management Inc. (ECMI). They were founders of the online brokerage firm, Web Street Inc. that they sold to E-TradeFinancial Corp. for $45 million.
The Foxes are confident their $25 million investment to launch the network is adequate, since they project additional revenues from advertising and sponsorships and Studio Stage ticket sales.
On the management team are Stuart Cohn, EVP/chief counsel, legal & business affairs; Jonathan Rosenberg, COO/president, SCTV Studio Stages, Inc. and Jim Skvaril (Production Craft partner), SVP/television operations and systems, who is outfitting the studio.
Wendy Miller, L.A.-based comedy expert and former Chicagoan has been hired as creative director to guide visuals and marketing.
SCTV continues to look for a network CEO/president, an on-going search since the team was formally organized last summer.
SCTV is located at 1115 W. Washington St.; phone, 312/442-9000; Email info@standuptv.com, see www.standuptv.com.
