If someone told me a year ago that I’d be an Ozzy Osbourne fan, I would have wondered what strange substance they were smoking. As it turns out, it’s not his music I particularly like. It’s him — his unpretentious, working-class background and repertoire of Ozzyisms — that I find endearing. Those Ozzyisms helped make The Osbournes, the first “reality sitcom,” a surprise hit last year. After much off-season media attention, the Emmy Award-winning series returns to MTV for its second season on Tuesday.
A lot has happened since we last saw the first family of heavy metal. Ozzy and Sharon dined at the White House and survived a Barbara Walters interview. Daughter Kelly launched her singing career and changed her hair color, while Jack seems to have regressed, perhaps because of matriarch Sharon Osbourne’s well-publicized announcement she has colon cancer. The specter of this news, coupled with the fact that the family is more self-conscious of their notoriety, creates a more carefully crafted opening to the second season. This doesn’t mean the show has lost the quirkiness that made The Osbournes a hit. Electronic equipment still perplexes Ozzy (this time it’s his cell phone). The f-word is still the expletive of choice. Jack still has a penchant for military garb and war toys and has great fun with fans lurking outside the family’s Beverly Hills mansion. A high-strung bird makes an appearance with Lola and the other four-legged creatures that make up the Osbourne family petting zoo. Kelly and Jack still snipe at each other, though their battles don’t seem as frequent. Of course, they’re not around each other much once Kelly begins work on her first album.
Still, the reality of Sharon’s illness has a sobering effect on the close-knit family. On everyone, that is, except Ozzy. News of his wife’s illness came a week before he went on his yearly Ozzfest tour, sending the rocker to “self-medicate” with booze. Unable to travel, Sharon insists Ozzy continue with the tour as scheduled, sending her worried husband off with Robert, a gentle, well-meaning substance abuse counselor who tries poetry reading, talk therapy, and yoga to keep Ozzy straight.
In some of the most poignant moments from the second episode (titled “The Long and Winding Road”), Ozzy laments to Sharon over the phone that the tour isn’t going well.
“I don’t want to fucking be here. I want to come home. No booze, no drugs, no wife. I’ve had enough, boo, I want to come home.”
Even when she’s not on camera, it’s clear Sharon is the rock of the family, insisting that her family carry on with their lives as she quietly undergoes painful chemotherapy at home.
“She’s my whole world,” Ozzy says plainly to the camera. “My heart was breaking every night onstage. I put on a brave face … but you can’t pretend not to have a broken heart.”
Kelly and Jack are equally candid in their response to their mother’s illness. At the same time, there’s a sanitized, “made for the camera” feel to their heartache and fear. And so what? For a family now well-versed in how to “be real,” it’s to be expected that they decide how intimately they want their very public trauma filmed.
Although there are fleeting glimpses of Sharon looking frightfully weak, in one-on-one moments with the camera, she appears vibrant, strong, and powerfully comforting.
“[Ozzy] kept saying, ‘You can’t leave me.’ I’m not going anywhere. I’m not ready to croak yet — and definitely not with a wig.”
The Osbournes‘ second season premieres Tuesday, Nov. 26, at 9:30pm on MTV.
Ten Years and Counting
Tejano Music Entertainment celebrates 10 years of producing Tejano and Latino music and public affairs programming on Time Warner Cable channel 16 with a special event next Friday. Music, an awards ceremony, and special guests will be on hand at Puro Tejano. Star de Aztlan will receive a Rising Star Award and Del Castillo will receive the Best Rock en Español Award. Rubén Ramos (El Gato Negro) will receive a lifetime achievement award for his enduring work in Tejano music. Del Castillo and Star de Aztlan are expected to give short performances, followed by an evening of dance music by Rubén Ramos. The TME 10th Anniversary party is Nov. 29, 8pm, at Puro Tejano (4914 Burleson). For more information, call 845-3136 or go to www.tmetv.com.This article appears in November 22 • 2002.