Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Wednesday, May 4th, 2022
It's been one of those days....
Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Wednesday, May 4th, 2022.
My apologies for the lateness of today’s newsletter. It’s been an unexpectedly busy afternoon.
THE CHANGING FACE OF THE NETWORK UPFRONTS
The conventional wisdom about television is that in 2022 it is more diverse, more willing to tackle uncomfortable moral and social issues.
And while that is often the case, it's also true that television - especially broadcast television - has grown more gun shy about certain issues since the 1970s. It's impossible to imagine a number of All In The Family episodes airing on a first run series in 2022. Or a show such as Good Times, which is set in public housing, being a ratings hit. And then there are the real outliers, such as two-episode 1972 Maude story arc about abortion that not only managed to get on the air, it was a ratings success.
"Maude's Dilemma" aired just a few months before the "Roe V. Wade" Supreme Court decision and while abortions had been legalized in New York State in 1970, the procedure was still illegal in large part of the United States. And although several daytime dramas had at least mentioned terminating a pregnancy, it wasn't an issue that had been previously been tackled in primetime television.
The original premise of the episodes was to center around a friend of Maude's learning that she is pregnant. But after reading the script, producer Norman Lear decided that Maude had to be the one who discovers she is pregnant:
In the first draft of the script, it was Maude's best friend who had the pregnancy and the abortion and the friend's unseen husband who thought about a vasectomy. But that script, although relatively safe, was also dead. “I realized the only way to engage the audience's interest was to let Maude get pregnant,” says Lear.
So the 47-year-old Maude learns she is pregnant and even though she was a feminist who supported legal abortion, she struggled with the decision. As did her husband Walter (played by Bill Macy), who wrestled with the decision to get a vasectomy.
Maude’s liberated daughter, Carol (Adrienne Barbeau), a divorced single mother living at home, was the first to suggest that her mother had a choice: ”You don’t have to have the baby…. Abortion was a dirty word; it’s not anymore.” Later, in the gentlest way possible, Maude’s husband, Walter (Bill Macy), said, ”In the privacy of our own lives, you’re doing the right thing.”
At the time, Norman Lear was as powerful a producer as anyone on television. He had three hit shows on the air on CBS and that provided him an enormous amount of leverage. And he apparently needed all of it to get the episodes produced and on the air. CBS executives pushed back hard on the idea and insisted the episodes add a character who was anti-abortion to even out the discussion. But despite all of the pushback, the finished two episodes (credited to Susan Harris, Austin Kalish and Irma Kalish) are a textbook study of the perfect way for a television comedy to tackle a difficult subject. It's funny without being lightweight, it makes serious points without preaching. It's an impressive two hours of television and it's also impossible to imagine an abortion story arc featuring a character on The Neighborhood orThe Goldbergs.
For that matter, the two abortion-centric episodes of Maude barely managed to get on the air. A few days before the episodes were set to be filmed, CBS executives told Lear the network wouldn't pay the production costs. Lear's response was that if the network followed through with its threat, he would refuse to produce ANY new episodes of the show. Faced with a revolt by their prized producer, CBS caved and let the production of the episodes continue.
While two CBS affiliates decided against airing the episodes, the ratings of the show went up for those two episodes. But the controversy wasn't over:
CBS received hundreds of calls and 7,000 letters protesting the episodes, and that wasn’t the end of it. The furor erupted again nine months later when ”Maude’s Dilemma” was rerun. Twenty-five CBS affiliates refused to air the shows, the network received 17,000 letters, and only one 30-second commercial was sold—the result of pressure on advertisers by antiabortion groups.
And the result was a story arc that may be on the highwater marks of Lear's astounding career, along with the All In Family episode "Edith's 50th Birthday," in which a man pretending to be a detective attempts to rape Edith.
Modern day television is brave. But not when it comes to tackling subjects that might bring a pushback from some viewers or that might be perceived as having some political slant.
PEACOCK CANCELS 'SAVED BY THE BELL'
Deadline is reporting that Peacock has canceled its reboot of Saved By The Bell after two seasons:
Deadline understands that the cast and crew were told yesterday.
It comes only a month after the reboot of the classic NBC comedy won Outstanding Comedy Series at the GLAAD Media Awards.
The second season of the show dropped in November after the first season reportedly performed well for the streaming service.
Before we talk about the cancellation, I wanted to mention this horribly generic statement about the move from an unnamed Peacock spokesperson. Not even taking the time to slap some executive's name on the statement is more than a bit tacky.
"We are so proud to have been the home of the next iteration of Saved by the Bell for both new and OG fans. Saved by the Bell has been a cultural mainstay for more than 30 years and the new series, led by Tracey Wigfield’s superfan enthusiasm and signature witty humor, seamlessly continued the show’s legacy, all while allowing more audiences to feel seen. We’re grateful to Tracey, Franco Bario, our partners at UTV, the beloved cast, and the fans who have continued to champion one of the most iconic shows of all time,” said a Peacock spokeswoman.
I am not at all a proponent of the "it's the fault of a woke culture" theory of why shows might fail in 2022. But the Peacock statement - which references "superfan enthusiasm" and "allowing more audiences to be seen" is indictive of the problem with many of Peacock's originals - particularly reboots of shows such as Saved By The Bell or Bel-Air. They end up being well-done, but there doesn't seem to be a natural audience for them. Bel-Air had some great moments, but it ironically was creatively constrained by the premise of the original series. It would have been a much better show with an original story and starting point. Although I'm pretty sure a lot fewer people would have paid attention to it.
This new take on Saved By The Bell had a similar problem. It had a mix of old, familiar characters and new actors. The tone wasn't straight, but it wasn't the awkward wackiness of the original series. It always struck me as a show that seemed almost genetically engineered to please everyone about half the time.
All of that being said, we have no idea how Saved By The Bell had been doing in the ratings. Peacock doesn't release viewer numbers, so we not only have no idea how many people might have been watching, we have no way of comparing those numbers to those from other Peacock originals.
WAS CBS MORNINGS PROTECTING DAVE CHAPPELLE?
I happened to be watching the CBS Morning Show coverage of the attack on Dave Chappelle this morning, and the show spent several minutes showing the clip of the attack, along with comments from Chris Rock and other comedians. There was much discussion from the anchors about how funny the response to the attack was from the comics, and they highlighted Chris Rock's "was that Will Smith?" quip. Everyone talked about how important it was for comics to find the humor in the situation, etc.
One thing the show didn't mention was Chappelle's first comment after being tackled by someone from an audience. "I think that guy was a male trans," quipped Chappelle.
It feels like an important bit of context for the story.
WHAT'S NEW FOR WEDNESDAY
Here's a quick rundown of all the new stuff premiering today on TV and streaming:
Disney Gallery: The Book Of Boba Fett (Disney+)
El Marginal Season Five Premiere (Netflix)
40 Years Young (Netflix)
Gorgana: Snake Prison Island (Smithsonian)
Meltdown: Three Mile Island (Netflix)
Moon Knight Season One Finale (Disney+)
Save My Skin Season Premiere (TLC)
See No Evil Season Premiere (ID)
Summertime Season Three Premiere (Netflix)
The Circle Season Four Premiere (Netflix)
Click Here to see the list of all of the upcoming premiere dates for the next few months.
SEE YOU WEDNESDAY!
If you have any feedback, send it along to Rick@AllYourScreens.com and follow me on Twitter @aysrick