Gone In 60 Seconds

By JEANNE McDOWELL

Sure, you'll sit through Friends. But what about the lousy show that follows it? This week NBC launches an experiment to try to keep viewers glued to the set from show to show. It's the one-minute movie: mini-shows that will air during commercial breaks in two 30-second installments on succeeding shows. The first will air this Thursday, the opening half in the season premiere of Will & Grace and the conclusion during the new sitcom Coupling. In the first mini-movie, The Pussycat Dolls, Carmen Elektra plays a dancer who gets involved in a jewel heist. Ten mini-movies are already completed, with stars like Michael Richards and Tom Arnold. The executive producers are Paris Barclay and John Wells, who usually lends his talent to more substantial fare (E.R., The West Wing). "John has thrown his full creative weight behind this," says Mitch Metcalf, NBC's senior vice president of program scheduling. He insists the mini-movies are more about innovative programming than trying to retain viewers: "They're pure entertainment." What does that make Coupling? --By Jeanne McDowell