Produced by critical favorite Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing), NBC’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is another primetime soap opera with an interest in serious issues, this time set behind the scenes at a network television sketch comedy program. The cast is strong and reasonably likeable despite their characters’ largely amoral and power-mad nature, and the show has some intentionally funny moments. The discussion of issues is laughably earnest and elementary, as in Woody Allen’s non-comedy films and Sorkin’s other work, but it’s reasonably diverting to watch wealthy, influential people discuss how they should use their power. In that way it’s a good deal like The West Wing.
Television
Jericho Premiere on CBS: Capsule Review
The new CBS program Jericho (Monday nights at 10 p.m. EST is set in small Kansas town after an atomic explosion has hit Denver. The premiere episode seems to blame the U.S. President’s zeal in combating terrorism as the cause of the attack, but it also shows the small town mayor’s political rival trying to use the situation to gain advantage, in a manner reminiscent of national Democrats regarding the Iraq War. That shows an admirable nonpartisanship on the producers’ part. Later in the show, the townspeople find out that Atlanta has been hit also. As is common for these programs, the crisis brings out both the best and the worst in people. Mysterious benefactor characters and unexpected heroes arise with near-cliché frequency. In this one, a visitor from St. Louis fills the first role, and the mayor’s prodigal son is the latter. The crisis creates divisions among the townspeople, but they pull together when they have to—with obvious analogies to and lessons for post-9/11 America. Interesting and worth watching.
Football Rules the Box Office
For the second time in the last month, a football film is the weekend’s top box-office attraction. The Gridiron Gang, starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, led the way in weekend receipts with an estimated total of $15 million. The Gridiron Gang is another in a long line of sports movies that show how troubled individuals develop character by participating in sports, where excellence is the pursuit and achieving real, visible results is the only way to succeed. An important aspect of these films is the leadership brought by a coach who has battles of his or her own to fight. Mentorship and the responsibility of each generation to train the next one are central concerns of such films. Movies such as Invincible, The Replacements, Friday Night Lights, The Longest Yard, and The Ice Princess all pursue this approach, and the underlying concern is the same: redemption. As such, they can be quite moving despite their often formulaic story lines. (In fact, a great deal of their power is the direct result of their formulaic nature, about which we will write more in due course.) The Brian DePalma crime story The Black Dahlia brought in a lackluster $10 mil in its
CBS Premieres New Show “Jericho” on Web Before Broadcast Debut
In another manifestation of the trend of major media outlets using the internet to promote their programs, CBS has authorized yahoo.com to show the entire premiere episode of the new TV series Jericho, on demand on the web, commercial-free, for several days before it appears on broadcast television. The program premieres on Wednesday, September 20, and until then you can see it on the Web here. The page also includes clips and promotions for other CBS shows premiering this fall. The network’s decision to show an important program on the Web before its broadcast debut appears to me a rather significant event in the development of the internet as a broad-based medium. And in entertainment and aesthetic terms, the premierie episode of Jericho is well worth watching.
Dick Van Dyke, Master Detective
Season one of one of the most appealing and enjoyable TV mystery series goes on sale today, as the DVD set of Diagnosis: Murder becomes available. Starring Dick Van Dyke as Dr. Mark Sloan, the series ran for several seasons on CBS during the 1990s. The first season, released on DVD today, is the best season, but the show was always very entertaining. The mystery plots were fairly strong during this first season, and often played reasonably fair, giving enough clues at least to keep the viewer guessing, even if there weren’t enough actually to solve the mystery. Van Dyke’s character is immensely likeable, with a puckish sense of humor and an evident joy in life—so different from the glum protagonists of most network TV mystery-crime shows today! His supporting cast—including his son Barry Van Dyke as Mark’s son Steve, Victoria Rowell as pathologist Amanda Bentley, and Scott Baio surprisingly good as up-from-the-mean-streets Dr. Jack Stewart—is likewise appealing. It’s interesting that Van Dyke was so well cast in this show, as it is a strange fact that comic actors often make very good TV mystery sleuths. Consider, for example, just working from memory here: Rock Hudson and Susan St.
The Need for Moral Courage (ABC’s Path to 9/11, Part 2)
Part 2 of the ABC miniseries The Path to 9/11, which aired last night, was, if anything, more critical of the Bush administration’s obliviousness to the threat of al Quaeda than it was of the Clinton admin. Yet I hear no complaints about it, nor any threats of censorship. The film’s critique of the Bush administration is basically that it didn’t get up to speed quickly enough (which is rather to be expected when the enormous White House bureaucracy switches parties) and was too devoted to political correctness prior to 9/11. Regarding the former, then-National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice comes off as manipulative and unprepared to run a big office. That may be true or it may not be, but it certainly does not suggest that she is responsible for 9/11. Hence: no harm, no foul. Regarding the Bush administration’s continuation of the previous team’s concern for political correctness, throughout the narrative leading up to Sept. 11, 2001, a concern over "racial profiling" prevents the nation’s defense and policing agencies from picking up and holding obvious terrorists. This was a huge error, of course, and was something many people had warned was posing a serious danger. Now we know. In
ABC’s Path to 9/11: Analysis
Part 1 of ABC’s The Path to 9/11 two-part docudrama aired last night, and reactions from political types were largely as expected. Supporters of former president Bill Clinton complained about some scenes in advance copies of the program (which were altered before airing, to reflect their concerns), some on the political right were disgusted by leftists’ calls for censorship and retaliation against ABC, and others on the right took what they apparently considered to be the high road, claiming that the film’s condensation of certain events into dramatic scenes was outrageous. The latter included Bill Bennett, Bill O’Reilly, John Podhoretz, and John Fund. Fund, in his Opinion Journal article on the film, even goes so far as to say that it is fundamentally dishonorable to make docudramas: "Their rules simply aren’t good enough when dealing with events that are still fresh in the minds of so many. At worst, they can be used by ideological gunslingers like director Oliver Stone, who smeared the reputations of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon in paranoid fantasy films." That seems to me to be a serious overreaction to this film, as indeed were the reactions of the Democrat opponents of the film. The rules
ABC Continues Edits on 9/11 Miniseries, Will Air It Despite Dems’ Protests
E! Online reports that ABC is carrying on with its Path to 9/11 miniseries despite complaints by former president Bill Clinton and threats of retaliation from high-ranking Democrat politicians: Don’t believe the hype. Or believe it. Either way, don’t decide either way until you’ve watched all five hours. That’s pretty much the gist of ABC’s message to potential viewers of the network’s two-part miniseries The Path to 9/11, which airs commercial-free Sunday and Monday. (Ironically there will now be a 20-minute break Monday at 9 p.m. to accommodate a speech from President Bush. While ABC has stated that the $40 million production is still in the editing process and is being slightly tweaked in response to concerns that it unfairly attacks the Clinton administration for failure to act on terrorist threats in the years leading up to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the network has not bowed to pressure from former Cabinet members and left-wing groups to "dump," "yank" or otherwise pull the movie from the schedule. ABC has altered at least some of the scenes that have been criticized: According to reports, a scene alluding to the idea that then-National Security Adviser Sandy Berger put the kibosh on an
Perry Mason Season 1, Volume 2 DVD Announced
CBS Home Video has announced that volume two of season one of Perry Mason, the popular 1950s-’60s TV series based on the character created by Erle Stanley Gardner will go on sale on November 21. The five-disc set will include the last twenty episodes of the first season. Volume 1 included the first 19 episodes. That is all the information about the new DVD set available at this time. For information on the Perry Mason Season 1, Volume 1 DVD, click here. For more on Perry Mason and author Gardner, see my Weekly Standard article on "The Case of the Bestselling Author" here. For more information on the Season 1 Volume 1 DVD and an important addition to my Weekly Standard article, see this Karnick on Culture post. Here’s the cover art for the DVD edition:
Senate Dems Join Push to Dump ABC 9/11 Miniseries
In a furor echoing conservatives’ continuing claims of left-wing bias among the media, Democrat Sen. Harry Reid (NV) and other senate Democrats have joined former U.S. president BIll Clinton in pressing ABC to cancel its showing of The Road to 9/11, the network’s docudrama based on the 9/11 commission report and other factual sources. Reuters reports: Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada denounced the five-hour television movie, set to air in two parts on Sunday and Monday nights, as "a work of fiction." Reid and other leading Senate Democrats wrote to Robert Iger, president and CEO of ABC’s corporate parent, the Walt Disney Co., urging him to "cancel this factually inaccurate and deeply misguided program." Chronicling events leading to the September 11 attacks, the movie suggests the Clinton administration was too distracted by the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal to deal properly with the gathering threat posed by Islamic militants. The furor comes as Democrats and Republicans jockey for political position in advance of the November 7 congressional elections over who can best secure the United States from another attack. . . . In recent days, former members of the Clinton administration also lodged complaints with Iger, urging ABC and
Bill Clinton Protests ABC 9/11 Miniseries, Demands Revision or Shutdown
The New York Post reports that former President Bill Clinton has sent ABC president Bob Iger a letter protesting the network’s depiction of his administration’s response to terrorist threats as shown in the upcoming miniseries, The Path to 9/11, to be broadcast by the network this coming Sunday and Monday at 8-10 p.m. EST. The Post reports: A furious Bill Clinton is warning ABC that its mini-series "The Path to 9/11" grossly misrepresents his pursuit of Osama bin Laden – and he is demanding the network "pull the drama" if changes aren’t made. Clinton pointedly refuted several fictionalized scenes that he claims insinuate he was too distracted by the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal to care about bin Laden and that a top adviser pulled the plug on CIA operatives who were just moments away from bagging the terror master, according to a letter to ABC boss Bob Iger obtained by The Post. The former president also disputed the portrayal of then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright as having tipped off Pakistani officials that a strike was coming, giving bin Laden a chance to flee. "The content of this drama is factually and incontrovertibly inaccurate and ABC has the duty to fully
Are You Ready for Some Football?
The college football season started last week with a great set of games, and continues this week with a showdown between no. 1 Ohio State University and no. 2 Texas. And the NFL season starts tonight, with a game between the reigning Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers and the up-and-coming Miami Dolphins. The Steelers will be without the services of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, recovering from an emergency appendectomy. The Dolphins, under second-year coach Nick Saban, are attempting to return to respectability after a long drought. With Daunte Culpepper at quarterback, they should be better, even though the former Minnesota gunslinger is still recovering from knee surgery. Tonight’s game aptly represents one of the great strengths of the NFL as a sports entertainment venture: parity. Parity—the relatively small gap in ability between the league’s best and worst teams—in the past decade has made the NFL in some ways an even more exciting proposition than before. Only one team in the NFC, for example, has reached the playoffs the last two years in a row (the Seattle Seahawks). Hence in week 1 nearly everybody starts out with both optimism and great concern: we can almost imagine that anybody might end up anywhere.
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