The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, January 31, 1979, Page Page 8, Image 8
^ 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 . <