Overdoses of reality TV may be aiding the networks’ demise.
Luster. The diminished Big Three broadcast networks used to crave it, but now only HBO has it.
TV’s gap between class and crass widened to a canyon early last week. On Dec. 7 HBO launched its exquisite six-hour “Angels in America,” which received uniformly rave reviews from both TV and movie critics.
On Monday night, NBC infected prime time with a “Fear Factor” Christmas special and the padded, putrid two-hour finale of “Average Joe.” That’s the show during which vapid former cheerleader Melana Scantlin learned the true meaning of inner beauty before predictably picking dreamboat Jason over tugboat Adam. NBC already has a sequel ready for January.
In midweek, ABC’s two-hour presentation of “Trista and Ryan’s Wedding” further decayed the network’s rotting reputation. Spotlight-hog Trista Rehn married poor sap firefighter Ryan Sutter after they incubated their relationship on “The Bachelor.” Both were paid for getting hitched on ABC, which once was home to “Roots,” “Eleanor and Franklin,” “The Winds of War,” “The Thorn Birds,” “North and South” and other bona fide big-event productions that deservedly earned both acclaim and supersize Nielsen ratings.
NBC has had jewels in its crown, too. “Shogun,” “Centennial,” “Holocaust” and, on a lesser scale, “Gulliver’s Travels” gave the network something to brag about at Emmy time. And CBS once knew the glory of “Lonesome Dove,” “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,” “Playing for Time” and a Dustin Hoffman-led version of “Death of a Salesman.”
Alas, these were times when pride still mattered. ABC, CBS and NBC used to aspire to greatness, at least once in a while. Cloaking oneself in glory was part of the overall business plan. Damn the cost, we’re occasionally going to rise above the bilge because it’s simply the right thing to do and creates good will, too. It lets us look in the mirror in the morning and like what we see.
That hardly ever happens anymore. Viewers now have to pay for their patina and most of it can be found on HBO. “Angels in America” is the latest masterstroke on a network that also has brought forth money-on-the-screen giants such as “From the Earth to the Moon” and “Band of Brothers.”
While HBO seeks further honor and glory, ABC, CBS and NBC sink further into their bottom-line muck. Luster? Don’t make them laugh.
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(c) 2003, The Dallas Morning News.
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AP-NY-12-15-03 0621EST
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