Achy breaky doc

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Jun 8, 2001

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Would you believe Billy Ray Cyrus of Achy Breaky Heart fame cast as a New York City doctor? Don't laugh. Cyrus, 39, plays the lead on Doc, seen Sundays at 7 p.m. on PAX TV. Fitting in with other PAX fare, it's a sweet family show that's a throwback to medical dramas of yesteryear like Medical Center and Marcus Welby, M.D.

"It's something that a whole family could turn on -- for me, going back to the days of Andy Griffith, when a family could set down and watch a show and not have to worry about seeing somebody getting their head blown off or cussing out their grandmother," Cyrus said.

Doc is set to test the worldwide syndication market this fall through the same company that markets Baywatch. The show is Cyrus' latest move to extend a career that was written off by many critics almost immediately after his breakthrough hit Achy Breaky Heart became a phenomenon in 1992. Doc gives him another way to reach fans with his music, and it appears to be working. Cyrus songs are worked into many Doc episodes as background, though he has yet to sing a song in character as Dr. Clint Cassidy.

Cyrus used the pilot of Doc to show he has a sense of humor about the rather silly song that made him a star. During a scene set in Montana, Achy Breaky Heart comes out of a truck radio. Cyrus/Cassidy offhandedly remarks: "I hate that song."

Getting it while the getting's good

LOS ANGELES (NYT) -- The NBA doesn't just want cheering -- it wants clicking, too. With fan excitement at a feverish level as the Lakers slug it out with the Philadelphia 76ers for the world championship, the league is looking to draw in some of those faithful, along with their wallets. Though the games sold out long ago, the NBA hopes to increase viewership via its Web site, NBA.com.

Luring in tech-savvy fans with gizmos like customizable highlights reels, on-demand replays and multilanguage narration, the site is an excellent revenue generator, according to Brenda Spoonemore, the league's vice president of Internet services. "The bottom line is more eyeballs," she said. "Any time we can aggregate a mass international audience, it's going to help our business."

The thinking is that if fans log onto the site, looking to scope out the courtside views of the arena, they'll also be more likely to stick around and buy things. So after watching Shaq or Iverson slam home the winning basket, fans can click their way to the store and take home his jersey for $140. Though Spoonemore declined to release financial numbers, citing league policy, she acknowledged that the site hustles up business nicely.

"We try to sell contextually, so if there's a particular player who has a great night, we try to make his jersey easily accessible," Spoonemore said. "That's best for the fans, since demand spikes when performance spikes."

A new home for the Goose

McMINNVILLE, Ore. (AP) -- It was airborne for only one minute, skimming just 70 feet above the water on a fall day in 1947 before billionaire Howard Hughes landed the world's largest plane for the last time. The Spruce Goose -- dubbed the "flying boat" -- returned to the limelight Wednesday as more than 3,000 visitors came to see the restored wooden airplane during the Evergreen Aviation Museum's grand opening.

Once the brunt of aviation jokes, the Spruce Goose was built in the mid-1940s to fly troops across the Atlantic Ocean because German submarines were sinking too many carrier boats. The federal government had given Hughes and ship builder Henry Kaiser $18 million to build three "flying boats." The planes had to be built without using critical war materials, including aluminum and steel. Hughes' plane was called the HK-1 -- the first Hughes-Kaiser plane ever built -- but critics and reporters nicknamed it the Wooden Wonder, the Flying Lumberyard and the Spruce Goose. During its only flight, the plane's hull and wing floats were filled with hundreds of beach balls to give it extra buoyancy.

"We don't know if it could have flown farther," said Tracy Buckley, museum curator. "Hughes never flew it again and it's a mystery as to why."

More than 100 volunteers spent eight years restoring the Spruce Goose after it was barged to McMinnville, Ore., in 1992 from Long Beach, Calif., where it had been stored for 45 years. The 3.5-acre Evergreen Aviation Museum was built across the street from the old museum to house the plane, which has a wingspan wider than a football field and weighs 400,000 pounds when fully loaded. The facility also displays 36 other historical airplanes from 1921 to the present.

Cowboys harbor blackout fears?

IRVING, Texas (NYT) -- The Dallas Cowboys held a Pick-A-Ticket promotion Monday, when 428 season tickets were sold and more than 4,000 fans showed up at Texas Stadium to obtain autographs and watch a two-hour practice. Many new faces will be in the lineup for their Sept. 9 season opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Texas Stadium. Cowboys officials don't even like to consider the possibility of the first television blackout in Fort Worth-Dallas since 1990. Yet, the fact that the Cowboys are marketing the team with an added fervor suggests the possibility exists that they might not sell out every home game 72 hours before game time, as is required for a team to be shown on TV in its home market.