There were many schedule changes for
the airing of the pilot shows.
They were first scheduled to air in
March, but that was pushed back to September.
On Friday September 15, 1989 at
about 5:10 pm CST, we received a call from our Entertainment Lawyer.
He said that we had to pull the show from the air immediately! Our
show was scheduled to air that Sunday at 11:30pm on KTVT. The reason
he wanted us to pull the show was because he had just got off the
phone with one of the representatives of NBC. Apparently they felt
that our show was too similar to Late Night With David Letterman.
They said that the parodies could no longer be over 10 minutes or
they would interfere with the Copyright Infringement Act of
Television. What this meant for us was that if we declined to pull
the show from the Sunday Night Schedule of KTVT, then NBC was
threatening a 30 million dollar lawsuit for punitive damages. It
would have been broken down as follows: They would sue KTVT for $10
Million for showing it, they would sue Texas Christian University $10
Million for being accociated with project, and finally they would sue
the company, Numberman Productions for liability.
This meant that we had to act fast
and make immediate changes!
We were successful in reaching KTVT
and having the show pulled after we explain the scenario to them. We
called an emergency meeting and started to brainstorm for ideas. We
had signed a contractual agreement with KTVT to produce and air six
30 minute shows. We did not want this to be the end of our dream, so
we made immediate changes to the shows format so we could continue
our project.
First we had to get rid of the Top
Ten, and use a different idea in its place. Next we had to get rid of
Michael Numberman, because it was too much like David Letterman.
Instead we decided to use Mike's real name which was Mike Austin.
This also resulted in some changes to some of the personnel, like
Paul Waffer and Larry Bud Mailman. Finally we had to change the name
of the show because TCU Late Night or Late Nite would not due.
Everyone agreed on the name Lights Out, because for one, it almost
was lights out for the show, and secondly it was good name for a late
night type show.
New proposals were drawn up and new
guests were booked. The writers had to come up with new material and,
we had to find time to use the studio.
