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^ 9 W ' ^ ...,, > ^.rs^ *? ???* ?.... MHKv^W fSSH^HBHs^HSHISK pilftliillM^V^ IPW I1 l I | kaiiffillppliiiSli^^ *vflHfl^I^^HB ^Hm 1^ I f M .1 f uonaid Sutherland The importa mediocre: Ne By Glenn Rawls Gamecock Staff Writer Tliis is the second in a series of three articles on television. Imagine a man coming to your door and telling you, proving you, and certifying you as being completely and indubitably average ? no worse than anyone else, but absolutely no better either. You are average. In every way, shape, and form, you are completely miaaie-oi-uie-road, mediocre and destined neither to burden society or to help it along any. You would be a Nielsen family. You would own the car that most Americans owned, have 2Mj kids like everyone else (the wife is under Nielsen contract to remain a steady months pregnant) and whenever you watched a show on television, you would be watching the same thing as 15 million other Americans. Right? Wrong. But don't tell the networks. Shows live and die, stars live and die and network vice-presidents live and die on what show this average American human being flips on at 8 every night. Never mind that the TV might get flipped on accidentally or that the set was left on by accident ? that determines the rating for a show, and a rating determines whether that show stays on or not. If two Nielsen families go on vacation at the same time, some shows lose 30 million viewers and heads begin to roll. The writing must have been bad. Or the blurb in TV Guide wasn't appealing. Or (gasp) The Other Network had something better on. Quick! Fix it! Juggle the cnKarlnla on/4 />V>on?n ?? 1 ovuvuuiv unu VHU1151; uic tasi ?oumciuung must D6 wrong. Meanwhile, the "30 million viewers" went to the beach to see Aunt Martha. Imagine the situation you are in. All of your neighbors know that YOU are a Nielsen family ? the ones that make shows successful or kill them off. Do you REALLY want to face the invalid Mrs. Brown across the street if YOU help cancel her favorite show? And, by the same token, are you going to let your neighbors think that YOU aren't intellectual? Better flip that TV on PBS before you leave to go bowling, and if you REALLY get off on Charlie's Angels, maybe you should go watch it at Barney's. The set at home can show Great Performances to your armchair and Rover. r,->? u 1 * ? 1 * :r *f?-i? * iu uc uium ituuui ii. u muuey ouici ui ou lvunuies showed up at your door and asked you, on nationwide television, what shows you watched each week, would you really tell them that you would never watch 171 Oil? By David Baker Entertainment Editor A funny thing happened in the middle of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Just as I was about to fall asleep, the movie began to get very good very fast. Philip Kaufman's update of Don Siegel's 1956 cult classic spends so much ? -1-i ? Ivuiiv ocmn5 up pitxcs ui pun uiai the viewer is not prepared for the effect those pieces have when they finally begin to fall into place. Both versions of Invasion of the Body Snatchers are based on the novel The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney, which tells the story of an organic assault from the cosmos that threatens to turn mankind into a race of catatonic drones with no feelings, no thoughts and no desires. The space-travelling plants accomplish this feat by I replacing people with pod-grown alien duplicates. Whereas the 1956 film was set in a sleepy little Midwestern town in the 50s, the 1978 version is set in San Francisco in the late 70s. This urbanization is the key difference that makes Kaufman's film superior to its predecessor. The nee of being ilsen and TV Roots, despise Edith Bunker, and live only for the Godzilla Power Hour? To be or not to be a Turkey; that is the question. Then again, what if you simply love Paper Chase but can't bring yourself to cancel Little House on the Prairie by saying so? These poor, average Americans, terminally mediocre, are faced with just such problems. And j even 11 mey tinaiiy gave up and just watched whatever THEY wanted, who is to say that the rest of the country has such average taste? But as the old saying goes, it may not be the best system, but "it's all we got." A few years back, an employee of the Neilsen company found himself madly in love with Carol Channing and also found himself tabulating some very poor ratings for her first TV special. No problem; Channing's special suddenly got much higher ratings and a few shows got cancelled. Never mind that the employee was discovered and fired a year later ? the damage had already been done. The ratings are God. There are some rare exceptions. Paper Chase, for example, was retained by CBS despite its bottom-ofthe-heap stance in the ratings. Some executive CAtVIoil/horo #'1 nni rln/J f V% r? # A ? * I? T 4 1 0V1I1VITIIV1 V uwiucu uiai nil ia 1V1U1C Ulipurmill anu said to hell with the ratings. But if he can't generate those ratings in the half-season left, Art will get cancelled. The Dick Van Dyke Show, for example, became a black and white classic and is still considered some of the best comedy television ever produced. What most people don't know is that The Dick Van Dyke Show was cancelled in its first year, and Carl Reiner and Van Dyke flew to New York to beg that they be given a second chance. At the last moment, a series called II 1 r T-V-.l I 1 L!- _1 nuwir was uiuppcu <tuu van uyiie nau ins cnance. Howie remained canned for more than a decade, but never let it be said television is wasteful ? those scripts were revised to create The Paul Lynde Show a few years back. Paul Lynde was another ratings oddity ? it ranked Top Ten its first year and, with absolutelv no format or cast chance, ranked 60th the next year. Ah, well, the game goes on and the malady lingers. Nielsen means, first and foremost, complete mediocrity of viewers, tastes and households. And THAT is what television is all about. NEXT: GODZILLA MEETS THE PTA matchers' grabs er's attention characters in the first film were a two employees of the San Franvery unexciting lot. For the most cisco Department of Health, part, all they did was eat and sleep. Leonard Nimoy as an unbelieving When they were replaced by the psychiatrist, and Jeff Goldblum emotionless alien clones, it was and Veronica Cartwright as a hard to tell the difference and couple who discover a growing pod almost impossible to care. in their place of business. Two The characters in the new film, cameo roles are filled by Kevin however, are much more vibrant McCarthy and Siegel, the star and and alive. They can be identified director of the first Invasion. with. Once the viewer seens what is The performances are all enhappening around them, he begins joyably quirky, even though to fear for their safety, which is Nimoy's role is terribly unexactly what should happen in any derwritten, and Adams does not good horror movie. quite fit her part. Adams isn't bad, As the suspense mounts and you understand, but her muchKaufman's camera anirlpc heralded hemitv pIiiHoo mo D BV. J ?VVW ?"?"J . increasingly more eccentric, the Invasion off the Body Snatchers is viewer is tempted to run from the a very satisfying thriller that theatre in search of tranquilizers, easily ranks among the year's The film stars DonalH best. I just wish its first hour could Sutherland and Brooke Adams be a little more exciting. 1 Nighthawks Spur 2 Martin Mull Great South East Music Hall, Atlanta 3 Heart, Firefall Greensboro Coliseum 3 Bohannon, ADC Band, Peaches & Herb Carolina Coliseum 4 Heart, Firefall Charlotte Coliseum 4 Bohannon, ADC Band, Peaches & Herb Fox Theatre, Atlanta 5 Nina Simone Fox Theatre, Atlanta R Hparf JTirofall ? * " ' v, * uv>?>. oavannan ^ivic uenier 8 Pockets Russell House Ballroom 8 Parliament, Funkadelic Greenville Memorial Auditorium 9 Sea Level Tillman Auditorium, Clemson 9 Parliament, Funkadelic Greensboro Coliseum 10 Louisiana's Le Roux Great South East Music Hall, Atlanta 12 Englebert Humperdinck Fox Theatre, Atlanta 15 Rush Township 15 Jimmy Buffet Gailliard Auditorium, Charleston 16 J.J. Cale Great South East Music Hall, Atlanta MARCH 4 Bob Dylan Littlejohn Coliseum, Clemson 17 Liza Minnelli Fox Theatre, Atlanta 23 Lettermen Township Contemporary hairstyling for 1 I AArt - - - ? inert oc women I & .\JxHj -- ;?!? El Centre f |? 1801 Main c~..? I ?-- uvu&i JV/l I, v^CJUOI K I Sjp BSBSl Columbia, South Carolina 29201 I 1%| SBBI Telephone: (803) 779-8325 I 1 ESPECIALLY ^ . Mr iCxREDKEN I V * * ? * V.4.* 4 . <