Must See TV


September 20, 2002


BROOKE GLADSTONE: From WNYC in New York this is NPR's On the Media. Bob Garfield is away -- on vacation. I'm Brooke Gladstone. And this week we were struck by what seems to be unprecedented unanimity in Hollywood over what America wants. For years we've heard about our aching need for more family-friendly programming, and now we've got it -- in Spaces. The In-Laws, Life with Bonnie, What I Like About You --shows about going back to high school and remakes of old sit-coms like Family Affair --seems like most networks are just trying to create a safe place where families can nest together. James Poniewozik writes about television for Time Magazine and he joins us now. Welcome to the show.

JAMES PONIEWOZIK: Oh, thanks a lot.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: So what do you think about all this nostalgia fare?

JAMES PONIEWOZIK: I think that the networks have a sense, or at least had last fall when these shows were conceived, that Americans longed to sort of vicariously return to simpler times -- if one can actually call the Cold War when we feared imminent death by nuclear annihilation a simpler time. Last fall, for instance, we saw the reunion special for the Carol Burnett Show surprisingly draw 30 million viewers, and a lot of people attributed that and the success of similar reunion specials last season to the notion that people wanted to return to the past. I think that's part of the reason that a show like American Dreams made the schedule. [SOUND TRACK FROM TV SHOW PLAYS]

ANNOUNCER: [CALLING OUT] 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 --

CHILD: Wait!

CHILD: Don't [...?...]!

CHILD: Hi, Mrs. Flaherty!

MAN: To announcer--

ANNOUNCER: Welcome to American Bandstand! Now here's your host, Dick Clark! [MUSICAL FLOURISH]

BROOKE GLADSTONE:Now every year we check out the TV guide for trends in the new season's programming. This year there actually is a bona fide trend and enormous unanimity among the networks to go for the same slice of the audience - that slice that wants quote/unquote "family-friendly programming."

JAMES PONIEWOZIK: Yeah. I mean I think that there are a few different factors behind that -- not just September 11th. I think there is also a sense on the part of the networks that when in recent years they have tried to go edgier and more daring it has turned around and bitten them places where they don't want to be bitten.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:Let's talk about a new show on ABC starring John Ritter called 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter which is pretty self-explanatory. Now this program was developed with funding from the Family-Friendly Programming Forum which is a group of advertisers that decided they wanted to have more influence on the programs that they were advertising around, and they produced the very successful Gilmore Girls. So this is another effort. How do you rate John Ritter's chances?

JAMES PONIEWOZIK: You know I think the show has a fairly good chance if for no other reason than network programming has been kind of light on domestic sitcoms and people are familiar with John Ritter and like him. It's one of the most old sitcom formats on television -- you know beleaguered dad is trying to figure out what these crazy kids are about nowadays. [SOUND TRACK FROM 8 SIMPLE RULES TV SHOW]

JOHN RITTER AS FATHER: I think you missed the word "under" in "underwear" because I can see your bra and that sling shot you're wearing under your pants. [LAUGHTER]

ACTRESS AS DAUGHTER: It's a thong.

JOHN RITTER AS FATHER: It's floss.

ACTRESS AS DAUGHTER: We're the Thong Generation!

JOHN RITTER AS FATHER: Well maybe that's why your generation is so angry! You're always walking around with a wedgie! [LAUGHTER]

JAMES PONIEWOZIK: A lot of critics, myself included, tend to be a little suspicious of any programming that people label quote/unquote "Family" because we worry and, and often our worries are, are well-founded that it means de-fanged, bland, lowest common denominator pablum.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:You say you-- you tend to be suspicious of anything called "family programming," and, and it turns out that ABC is pretty shy of using the phrase too. They prefer to use the euphemistic and rather ambiguous "Happy Hour" instead.

JAMES PONIEWOZIK: Right. ABC has come out with this branding notion that from 8 to 9 o'clock on Monday through Friday they'll have a block of programming for all age groups, and I sort of think the term "Happy Hour" is, you know, ironic because-- [LAUGHTER] it's TV as slightly more healthful version of coming-home-and-forgetting-your-problems with a, a fifth of vodka.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:What did you mean when you wrote "If we are really backtracking culturally out of anxiety, that's not necessarily something to be proud of."

JAMES PONIEWOZIK: Yeah, I mean in a way I think that if people really do want to lose themselves in the past and you know not see shows that take chances and break new ground, I think it's kind of sad. I think we will have lost something, because that really seems to be what a depressed society that sees its better days behind it does. Frankly I, you know, I think that the networks' sense that the viewers want to turn back time is really a, a product of a national zeitgeist that's several months old. But you know I think what one has to remember is that when Americans were eating up nostalgic programming in November around the time the Carol Burnett Special aired for instance, that was really at the height of American fear and anxiety after September 11th. That was when people were still, you know, opening their mail with latex gloves for fear of anthrax. And in the intervening time we've seen The Bachelor, for instance, and the Osbournes, which are not strictly feel-good, touchy-feely nostalgic programs, but, but shows that do push the envelope.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:I don't know if this question's going to make it to air but I can't resist using the "S" word just once. [LAUGHS] Do you think Sopranos falls into this nostalgia category or is it a category all by itself?

JAMES PONIEWOZIK: I think that the Sopranos is really more an example of the many ways in which pop culture hasn't changed. The idea was that after September 11th we would want to see softer-edged programming that brought us all together and that didn't look at characters that were morally ambiguous and so forth. And at least the numbers for the debut of the Sopranos have proved that wrong.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Yeah, and they did deal with September 11th.

JAMES PONIEWOZIK: There was of course that very funny scene where Tony is sitting with one of his henchmen at a - at a bar-- [BOTH SPEAK AT ONCE]

BROOKE GLADSTONE: He says that Quasimodo predicted it all.

JAMES PONIEWOZIK:Says [LAUGHS] Quasimodo predicted it all, and, and I'm sure a, a year ago a lot of us would have said well you could never joke about September 11th that way, even obliquely and--turns out you can, because that's one of the ways that we deal with any kind of tragedy.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Well thanks very much!

JAMES PONIEWOZIK: Thank you!

BROOKE GLADSTONE: James Poniewozik writes about TV for Time Magazine. [MUSIC]