'Knight' cops nine episodes
By Brian Lowry
July 12, 1992
CBS has picked up an additional nine episodes of the late night series "Forever Knight," which premiered as part of its "Crime Time After Prime Time" checkerboard in May.
The order brings the total to 22 episodes. The series, about a 700-year-old vampire working as a Toronto cop, is produced by Canada's Paragon Entertainment in association with TriStar TV and German broadcaster Telemunchen. James D. Parriott and Paragon chairman Jon Slan are exec producers.
The "Forever Knight" concept was originally introduced as "Nick Knight," a two-hour CBS prime time pilot starring Rick Springfield that failed to make it to series. "Forever Knight" is now produced in Toronto and stars Canadian actor Geraint Wyn Davies.
Brought to TriStar when New World TV assets were transferred there, the show's revival as a late night series, supported by coproduction partners, illustrates some of the changing nature of TV economics.
Still, in an interview Slan noted that those economics are "precarious in different ways"-- particularly on the "Crime Time" action hours, where the network covers only about a third of each show's production budget.
As a result, if a series loses one of its international partners, a U.S. network order is "no guarantee of the life of the show," Slan noted, unless that overseas participation can be replaced.
Such obstacles have beset other "Crime Time" entries -- such as Lorimar's "Dark Justice," which lost its initial Spanish partner, and Kushner-Locke's "Sweating Bullets," which has twice shifted its production, first to Israel and then South Africa -- although show has managed to overcome the snags. CBS has seen encouraging results recently for "Crime Time," which twice posted best-ever results -- averaging a 3.5 rating, 11 share -- over the last four weeks. Components of the checkerboard are "Sweating Bullets,""Forever Knight,""Dangerous Curves,""Silk Stalkings" and "Dark Justice."
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