In the early days of the Golf Channel, circa 1994, hours of airtime to fill and a dearth of tournaments at its disposal meant its executives heard pitches for a wild range of shows ? even a golf sitcom.

?On its face, it didn't seem that unreasonable,? says Bob Greenway, Golf's SVP-programming, who has been with the network since its inception. ?A pro shop is not unlike the bar in Cheers, and you could have a lot of interesting people coming and going.?

Cliff and Norm won't be gracing the channel's lineup (or the 19th hole) anytime soon. Today the network boasts nearly 100 tournaments and a variety of news and instructional shows, and those early pitches for sitcoms and golf quiz shows are company in-jokes.

ESPN, on the other hand, invested millions to produce its first original movie, the basketball-themed A Season on the Brink. Its move to original programming makes sense. As sports networks vie to expand their core audience, original sports-themed entertainment that crosses over into other genres like reality and drama is no laughing matter.

The Disney-owned programmer launched its ESPN Original Entertainment (EOE) unit early last year and has already produced more than 15 new programs, including reality series, talk shows, documentaries, quiz shows and that now notorious made-for-TVmovie. The biopic, about the University of Indiana basketball team and its fiery coach Bob Knight, received a critical drubbing but scored an impressive 3.4 rating for its March 10 premiere, not to mention considerable press for its liberal use of coarse language.

Mike Antinoro, EOE's senior coordinating producer, says the unit's next film may tackle a large-scale sporting event, just as the Knight movie centered around college basketball championships. EOE is hoping to pump out one original movie per quarter.

ESPN's original programming arm is developing a panoply of shows that Antinoro likens to MTV's first push beyond music videos a decade ago. ?MTV is an interesting case study for us, because they heard all the criticism about interfering with the brand, but clearly they have been so successful and have broadened their audience,? he says. ?Anything we do with ESPN Original will always recognize that events and news and information take precedence. But we do have a commitment from Disney to try anything we want.?

Fox Sports Net also shifted strategies last year from what FSN president Tracy Dolgin describes as ?hard-core sports for hard-core fans? to sports entertainment in the irreverent Fox mode. In addition to its regional sports reports and event-related shows, Fox already produces Best Damn Sports Show, Period, the documentary-style Behind the Glory and You Gotta See This!

?We have on the docket a whole slew of new programming that again will look at sports as entertainment,? says Dolgin, who has five entertainment shows in development ? ?all shows no one has ever done anything like before,? he promises.

Dolgin says the slate includes a fictional sports comedy show and a local/national hybrid entertainment show. ?We made a few years of mistakes of producing ?me-too? hard-core programming,? he adds.

Beyond the sports nets, HBO has developed something of a franchise and a critical reputation with its own sports-related programming. Its HBO Sports division has won numerous awards for such productions as Howard Cosell: Telling It Like It Is and talk/magazine shows hosted by Bryant Gumbel and Bob Costas.

In a recent on-air promo on HBO, Costas says he's doing his show for two reasons: ?First, it's not the kind of show you can do on network TV.? And, the quip-loving sports commentator adds: ?I continue to have mortgage payments.?

Staci D. Kramer contributed to this report.

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