MCN - February 3, 2008

It was Christmas time in 1985. Thom Beers was living in New York City, coming out of a disastrous romance, drowning his sorrows in drink and shooting ad spots for what was then called the small screen. Beers, now one of cable’s biggest hit makers, had just landed three commercials. “The first one was California pitted prunes.

• Content
• Black History Programming
• Hit and 'Miss'
• Fans Go Zowie For 'Zoey 101'
• Screen Test
• Screen Test

• Customers
• Charting the Blogosphere
• History's Test
• Quick Hits

• Face2Face
• Face2Face

• Interaction
• Access
• How Not to Get Whacked by Creatives
• Scan Forward
• The Price of Discrimination
• Volume Control
• Volume Control

• Newsline
• A New Spin on Day and Date
• Oscars Are Left Hanging
• Comcast Apologizes for Channel Shift
• Liberty Rings Diller’s Bell
• Verizon Heads Toward Top 10
• MTV and Verizon Dance
• Microsoft Throws Yahoo $44.6B Bouquet
• Upfronts May End
• Coda
• Coda

• Platforms
• Calling New CEO
• Translation Please
• What If These Two Things Happened …

• Rules
• McDowell’s Doubts
• DirecTV Tackles Rural Station Concern

• Scoreboard
• IPO: A Current Plan
• Mouse Roars

• Through the Wire
• Through the Wire