Will Missing Persons Survive?
The fate of Missing Persons, an hour-long weekly ABC television series inspired by the activities of missing-persons investigators in the Chicago Police Department, is up in the air. ABC programming brass are expected to decide by November 15 whether to kill Missing Persons or order more than the 15 segments they’ve already paid for, which would keep it on the air through the end of the year. Series creator and executive producer Gary Sherman and his production team have almost finished that first batch of episodes, shooting them entirely on location around the city. For Sherman, a native Chicagoan who has spent the past several years getting to know members of the Chicago police force and honing his concept for Missing Persons, it’s a difficult moment. “I feel fortunate to have done this show,” he says. “It will be very sad if we lose it.” Now a resident of Los Angeles, Sherman has returned to his hometown frequently over the years to work on other projects, including the film Poltergeist III and the short-lived television series Sable.
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As is almost always the case in television, ABC’s decision about whether or not to keep Missing Persons will be heavily influenced by the show’s ratings. Though the series has demonstrated significant ratings growth since its September debut, last week’s Nielsens still put Missing Persons fourth nationally in its Thursday time slot–it’s on at 7 PM central time–behind programming on NBC, CBS, and Fox. Missing Persons pulled a 14 share (the percentage of TV sets turned on that are tuned to a particular show), while such competition as The Simpsons scored a 23 and NBC’s Wings managed a 25.
New Jazz Joints
The jazz club business is jumping. In the past couple of months two new clubs with different concepts have opened to vie for acts and audiences: Yako’s, at 1330 N. Halsted, is aiming for a younger crowd with what owner Ed Marshall calls a “New York dingy romantic” ambience, while John Dubiel is trying to attract both young and old with a menu of jazz and reasonably priced food at the Jazz Buffet, 2556 W. Diversey. “People are growing older and looking for more sophisticated music such as jazz,” says Dubiel. The new clubs, of course, mean increased competition for those already established, such as John Moultrie’s 18-month-old Jazz Oasis, at 343 W. Erie. Moultrie claims he’s not worried. “I hope all the new activity isn’t just a fad,” he says. Dave Jemilo, who’s run the Green Mill Lounge for seven and a half years, thinks the new clubs will keep the old ones on their toes. “I would rather have competition, so I don’t get lax in how I run my own club,” he says. Moultrie points out that some clubs and promoters–the China Club, the Cubby Bear, Jam Productions–have mostly abandoned jazz recently. He maintains that the big-name acts are inclined to play smaller clubs these days because it makes better business sense: “When a well-known jazz act plays a small venue, it’s a guaranteed success, whereas the act might lose money in a larger space that the act can’t fill.” Marshall, a former rock band drummer with college degrees in marine biology and English, wants to put Yako’s on the map quickly by booking name acts. Up later this month are Daniel Benoit and Stanley Jordan.
