CHANNEL SURFING
'Arliss' director thanks friend for tip

Psychology's loss is entertainment's gain, as Northeast Philadelphia native Michael Grossman is a director for HBO's sports-oriented comedy "Arli$$."

By LAURA NACHMAN
Courier Times
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Michael Grossman and "Arli$$" star Robert Wuhl.
Psychology's loss is entertainment's gain, as Northeast Philadelphia native Michael Grossman (Temple '81) is a director for HBO's sports-oriented comedy "Arliss." Grossman's other credits include HBO's "From Earth to the Moon," WB's "Angel," with fellow Delaware Valley native David Boreanaz, Nickelodeon's "Cousin Skeeter" and "The Chronicle" on the Sci-Fi network.

Pretty good for a guy who only took a film-making class to fill his schedule.

"I totally owe my career to a friend at Temple who told me about the course. I fell in love with making movies and immediately switched my major from psychology."

After moving to L.A. post-graduation, Grossman started as a production assistant and steadily worked his way up the Hollywood ladder. "Being a director is like working at a summer camp. You work on a project, become close to the cast and crew, and then move on when it's over. It can be somewhat of a gypsy lifestyle."

Though his projects always change, a constant for Grossman is his partner of almost 20 years, Michael Ludin, and their daughter Alicia, 9. Next for Grossman: a possibility of directing an episode of HBO's latest hit series,"Six Feet Under."

FALL GUY

Jim Fall, who attended Temple University in the early '80s, will be directing the musical remake of "Footloose" for ABC set to air in May. Fall directed the independent movie "Trick" with Tori Spelling and Christian Campbell in 1999. Fall's brother, Pete, is an associate producer at KYW-3.

BIRD BRAINS

Now that football is back, former Eagles fan favorite, Irving Fryar joins WIP's Angelo Cataldi as the new co-host of Comcast SportsNet's aptly titled "Angelo Live with Irving Fryar' every Monday during the football season at 7 p.m. "Post Game Live," immediately following every contest, returns with the team of Michael Barkann, Ray Didinger, Vaughn Hebron, Ed Rendell and Derrick Gunn. CSN will carry Andy Reid's weekly press conference live Mondays at 12:30. Former linebacker Bill Bergey tackles "SportsNite" on Mondays at 6:30. And the voice of the Eagles, Merrill Reese, shows his face every Monday on "Spotlight" at 11 p.m.

Other Eagles programming includes "The Andy Reid Show' Saturdays at 10:30 p.m. on WB17 and "The Donovan McNabb Show" at 11 a.m. on KYW. When is Hugh Douglas getting his own show?

FALL SHUFFLE

Here are some lineup changes for the fall for the local stations. Jerry Springer jumps from NBC 10 to WB17, airing at 9-11 a.m. "The Ananda Lewis Show" takes Jerry's 2 p.m. timeslot on NBC 10. For WB17, jump into a "Ricki Lake" at 7 a.m. and 1 p.m., Mr. Connie Chung, "Maury," runs at 8 a.m. and noon, and "Just Shoot Me" makes its syndication debut this year on WB17 at 7:30. It's girls vs. boys as ABC's "The View" on battles copycat "The Other Half" on NBC 10 at 11 a.m. Psychic John Edward hosts "Crossing Over" at 9 a.m. on KYW-3. The family feuds seen on "Sally Jessy Raphael" are replaced by the game show, "Family Feud" on KYW-3 at 10 a.m. "Everybody Loves Raymond" makes its syndication bow on Channel 57 weeknights from 7 to 8 p.m.

HEAVY TRAFFIC

And in the worst news for fans of curly-haired women since Felicity cut her hair, Dorothy Krysiuk and Metro Traffic has been cut by NBC 10, replaced by the Traffic Pulse Network. The new girl stopping traffic for NBC 10 is Amber Rupinta.

WB17 news anchor Mike Dardis and his wife are the parents of a baby boy, Alec Michael Dardis, born Sept. 21.

Alec joins sister Haley, 11/2... "It's Your Call with Lynn Doyle" logged more than 21,000 attempted calls the week of the terrorist attacks on America.

The nightly talk show airs on CN8 at 9 p.m.

 

 

Thursday, September 27, 2001