Television
is a truly
amazing medium. Its presence in our lives is remarkable, a kind of great
equalizer uniting the largest number of people, giving them a common frame of
reference, and reducing them into one category: television watchers. Sounds
simple, doesn’t it?
In the tumult of the civil rights movement in the mid-Sixties, LIFE magazine
ran a photo essay on inner-city living. One frame showed some black children
watching television, prompting a reader to write in and question the level of
poverty implied in regard to the presence of the TV set. My mother angrily
replied to that letter and LIFE printed it. Sometimes the only light in
those lives, Mom wrote, comes from the glow of the tube.
I have thought about that letter many times, especially now that I am
considerably older than she was when it was penned in a heat of anger over 30
years ago. Her statement bears a stamp of na�vet�, but it also
carries a basic tenet that any light is better than cursing the darkness. That
seems to be a good attitude, allowing for the vagaries of programming but being
kind to great masses of people.
It’s always interesting, then, to see the emergence of a celebrity like Tiger
Woods at the Masters Tournament recently on CBS Sports (Ch 5). Two weeks ago,
Woods was a contender; today he has fame and Nike commercials. As the famous
tournament progressed Saturday, the buzz was heard
everywhere from
Wheatsville’s produce section to Waterloo’s used CD bin. So I went home and
tuned in to a golf tournament.
So did hundreds of thousands across America. This is notable because this
sport, usually distinguished by geriatrics outfitted in pastels and sponsored
by laxatives, is not very sexy and pulls only marginal viewing audiences. It
is, however, astonishingly lucrative for advertisers because the viewership is
generally more monied. What is also worth noting about this year’s tourney was
that in the ratings taken from 36 major Nielsen markets, the final round
averaged a 15.8/32 for CBS Sports — that’s an increase of 65% from last year’s
Sunday rating. Even Saturday’s coverage was up 43% for CBS viewers.
I don’t think any of that matters to the new young black champion of old white
men’s favorite sport. Woods’ head may have to be carted around for him soon
enough, but at the moment he seems to be well-grounded. Still, it’s not too
hard to figure what’s gonna be next: Endless sports coverage. Pictures with
Dennis Rodman. Appearances on MTV. The late night talk show circuit. Magazine
covers. More Nike ads. A feature movie or guest spot on Friends.
Whatever it is, you can be sure we’ll be seeing more of him — just stay tuned.
[Tiger Woods appears on Oprah Apr. 24.]
I Want My Empty-Vee: Remember when 101X morning show hosts Ernie and Jane barricaded themselves in
the deejay booth and threatened not to come out until MTV (Ch 34) decided to do
a Real World season in Austin? What did we get — a sorry-ass episode of Road
Rules. Well, guess what? Forget about the Real World and watch for Austin
Stories, according to a West Coast source. “TV Eye” could not get confirmation
on this at press time, but MTV did say a publicist would get back to us,
which leads me to believe this “slacker slice of Austin life” as it was
described is in the works. More, as the talk shows say, to come.
Retribution and Redrum: As video does for film, television sometimes offers a second chance. That’s why
it is heartening to see The Shining getting a second chance on ABC. As a book,
I was so terrified by King’s vision of horror I slept with the lights on for
days after finishing it. The 1980 Stanley Kubrick film was bitterly
disappointing to us King fans — the director monkeyed with its depraved facets
of terror and took so many short cuts, the result was a frantic pastiche of
garbled fear that bounced all over the place but never hit home. That was
ironic, since the 1979 made-for-TV version of Salem’s Lot was very well-done,
and featured one of the scariest vampires seen on screen since Max Schrenk’s
Nosferatu, even if it also featured David Soul. (Kubrick’s flamenco
dance on The Shining wasn’t nearly as big an affront as when the film
version of Firestarter changed Rolling Stone to The New York
Times.) This new six-hour version of Stephen King’s The Shining stars Stephen Weber and Rebecca DeMornay, and Melvin Van Peebles as Dick
Halloran, and will run for three nights Sun. Apr. 27, Mon. Apr. 28, and Thu.
May 1 at 8pm, and promises to deliver some retribution for Kubrick’s sins. I
was poking around ABC’s rather elaborate website for it at
http://www.abc.com/theshining/ and found the usual publicity hoo-hah, with King
looking all goofy and aw-shucks about having over three dozen filmed versions
of his works, plus fun little extras, like “Six Degrees with Stephen King,”
“backwards” e-mail, and “Greetings from the Overlook” e-postcards. Hope this is
indicative of the effort they’ve put into The Shining itself. We like
Stephen King in made-for-TV movies because his horror is not so much alien as
it is a 90-degree turn from reality. Sitting at home in our living rooms, dens,
bedrooms, or wherever the screen happens to be — these are the settings for
his brand of fear.
“Last night I dreamed I was at Manderley…”: PBS (Ch 9) has the second part of two of Mobil
Masterpiece Theatre’s Rebecca on Sun. Apr. 20 at 9pm. It’s a mystery of
classic proportion — not a whodunnit, but rather a flawless piece of literary
suspense, and compares most favorably to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 version of it.
That’s a pretty good trick because not only were the leads well-cast, with
Laurence Olivier reportedly whispering obscenities into Joan Fontaine’s ear to
illustrate his disapproval of her casting, but Judith Anderson’s portrayal of
Mrs. Danvers is positively bone-chilling. Diana Rigg as the formidable
housekeeper is likewise cold and intimidating in this Arthur Hopcraft adaption
of the Daphne du Maurier classic. The only difference in this version is that I
never imagine Vivian Leigh as the never-seen but oft-cited Rebecca.
This article appears in April 18 • 1997 and April 18 • 1997 (Cover).