Oprah Winfrey Strikes Abc Deal To Make 6 Movies

You can’t stop Oprah Winfrey, you can only hope to contain her.

Oprah now has a deal with ABC where she will have six movies made under the “Oprah Winfrey Presents” banner. All in prime time.

The first is “Before Women Had Wings” on Nov. 2 with Ellen Barkin and, of course, Oprah. The second is a four-hour miniseries not yet scheduled. Presumably, she’ll put the other four on any time she wants.

That’s power, people.

Next, Dan the Deli Man: Oprah basically invented Gayle King, who has a syndicated talk show. The two were pals and then, what do you know, Gayle has a talk show. And she scored decent ratings by having Oprah and beau Stedman Graham on. Next up: The guy Oprah waves to at the deli will star in his own movie.

‘Melrose’ in top 10 for kiddies

Don’t ask us how they track this, but according to Nielsen, the most watched prime-time show for children ages 2 to 5 is “The Wonderful World of Disney,” followed by “Friends.”

“Melrose Place” is the little tykes’ 10th most watched show.

Somewhere, Barney is weeping into a top-shelf gin and tonic.

Leoni to Vancouver?

So David Duchovny of “The X-Files” hints he won’t come back next year unless the production moves from Vancouver, B.C., down to Los Angeles, where his wife, Tea Leoni, films her comedy “The Naked Truth.” A power ploy, sure, but short-sighted. “The Naked Truth” should be dead and buried by next season.

How to lose money

UPN’s new chief executive, good-guy Dean Valentine, has decided the fledgling network will not start its own sci-fi movie night next fall. Wise move. First, strengthen your regular shows. Then when you feel like losing money, launch the Thursday night movie slot and let NBC murder you.