Dial File -- Steve Bornfeld: We are Fa-mi-ly! Or are we?

Steve Bornfeld is the Sun features editor. His television column appears Fridays. Reach him at 259-4081 or steveb@ vegas.com

Welcome to "Family Fare Feud." I'm not Richard Dawson.

Let's meet today's contestants -- their comments courtesy of Gannett News Service, the Associated Press, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Cincinnati Enquirer and cable's E!:

"There's a huge void now that 'Home Improvement' is gone. ... Family relationships are the core of most long-running shows. This is our highest priority." -- NBC programmer Garth Ancier.

"The older viewers fell away when the networks decided to get rid of them, and then the families fell away. And the decline of family viewing has far outpaced general audience viewing because there's nothing for them to watch." -- Pax programmer Jeff Sagansky.

"That audience is gone. And it should be. We have to keep evolving." -- "Dawson's Creek" creator Kevin Williamson.

"I don't know why the (abandonment of family comedies) happened. I want to stop it." -- Ancier.

"Talk to younger people and ... you'll hear them say about (traditional) sitcoms: 'They're for my parents.' " -- Fox programmer Doug Herzog.

"When I left this network in 1986 we had (pictures on the walls of) 'The Cosby Show,' 'Facts of Life,' 'Diff'rent Strokes,' 'Gimme a Break' and 'Family Ties.' Now you walk down the hall and there's one child in prime time on NBC -- the child on 'Jesse,' who speaks about three words a season." -- Ancier.

"Family-friendly programming does not have to be devoid of thought, syrupy, sugary or empty-headed." -- William Blinn, writer of "Roots."

"It feels real, like this is how families are in the '90s." -- Herzog on "Malcolm in the Middle," in which a mother breezes by topless, and "Get Real," in which a teenager has a sleep-over girlfriend.

"The sitcom is a very durable form, but you have to have people who are TV stars. You have to have a parental figure, either a mother or a father, who is great. ... We have to do a better job of coming up with those concepts." -- Ancier.

"The traditional sitcom format ... has not changed in 45 years. There's something about that canned laughter that I think is unnerving to the younger audiences who expect something a little more real and in your face." -- Herzog.

"We want to encourage responsible entertainment, and the programming that is available between the hours of 8 and 10 p.m. is not as family-friendly as we would like it to be." -- Advertising spokesperson Kaki Hinton on advertisers' plan to pay writers to develop family-oriented scripts for consideration by the WB network.

"It's a healthy gesture on their part to give us credibility to go to the creative community and say, 'We're serious about this kind of programming' -- and we have support on Madison Avenue." -- WB programmer Jordan Levin.

"I'm actually old enough to remember how many times (family) comedy has been written off. I was head of comedy at NBC, and the next year (1984) -- we put on 'The Cosby Show.' " -- Ancier.

"We're in the business of taking risks." -- Herzog.

Here's one worth taking: a family show.

Thanks for watching "Family Fare Feud." I'm not Richard Dawson.

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