Fall TV season could get ‘real’— real bad
HOLLYWOOD — When reality,
politics and sports collide: Ouch,
what a prime-time mess.
A confluence of television trends
and issues — the presidential cam
paign, the Summer Olympics, cor
porate takeovers, reality TV fallout
and a looming writers strike —
could make the 2000-2001 season
one of the most volatile and unpre
dictable in history.
Even scheduling the start of the
season has been subject to more
than the usual debate. With NBC
carrying the 2000 Olympic Games
(Sept. 13 through Oct. 1) and, with
it, the potential for huge ratings re
wards, its network competitors con
vinced Nielsen Media Research to
delay the start of the fall season un
til Oct. 2.
The result? A staggered intro
duction of new shows, which is
sure to confuse and frustrate an al
ready fragmented audience with
splintered viewing habits.
And it doesn’t end there.
According a recent front-page
story in the industry trade paper
Daily Variety, the considerable
buzz created by CBS’s record-set
ting “Survivor” and ABC’s “Who
Wants to Be a Millionaire” have
put viewers in a heightened state of
awareness about new network fare
— about twice as high for CBS and
ABC, but with almost every net
work benefiting.
But what kind of television — on
the networks, cable, PBS and syn
dication — are viewers in for? And
who or what will have the greatest
impact?
“Survivor"’ mania might be his
tory for now (the next million-dol
lar challenge in Australia begins in
January, following the Super
Bowl), but the ripple effect on the
industry has been substantial.
Despite a full slate of sitcoms
and dramas with big names — in
cluding Bette Midler, bad boys
Charlie Sheen and Robert Downey
Jr. joining the casts of established
shows such as “Spin City" and
“Ally McBeal” and big projects
such as the revival of “The Fugi
tive” series — reporters at the an
nual industry preview meetings
stuck almost exclusively to reality,
wondering whether so-called real
TV would take over television.
With talk of a strike by the Writ
ers Guild of America in the near fu
ture, one network insider says, “If
that happens, it’ll be wall-to-wall
reality shows.”
This time last year, National As
sociation for the Advancement of
Colored People President Kweisi
Mfume lambasted the four major
networks, calling their prime-time
schedule a “whitewash” that failed
miserably to represent people of
color.
“Change is happening, but it’s
not enough," said Mfume in a
statement. “Television is showing
more people of color on-screen,
but most important is off-screen,
where very little has changed.”
This season, expect to hear from
Latinos. A recent report. “Still
Missing: Latinos in and Out of Hol
lywood.” by the Tomas Rivera Pol
icy Institute and sponsored by the
Screen Actors Guild, argued that,
“Old stereotypes and lack of un
derstanding of Hispanic social,
economic and cultural diversity
are key reasons why Latinos re
main one of the most under-repre
sented groups in television, movies
and other entertainment.”
Although ABC has John Good
man playing a gay father in a show
called “Normal, Ohio.” Showtime,
underscoring the perplexing differ
ence between broadcast and cable
standards, plans to launch an Amer
icanized version of British import
“Queer as Folk” in December. The
series is a provocative and unblink
ing drama about a group of gay men
and lesbians living in Pittsburgh.
Distributed by the Los Angeles Times
Washington Post News Service
Slug Queen
continued from page 2D
to love it. I admire anyone who can
get through [the program],
Q: If you could only choose one
Eugene event to attend other than
the Eugene Celebration, what
would it be?
A: It would have to be the Coun
try Fair. How could you not go to it?
Because of the vaudeville energy
that is central there, it is totally
amazing. It’s like a circus, really
cool! I really like it and definitely
don’t get enough of it.
It’s only three days, too short, but
it’s quite spectacular. It’s like a vor
tex of talent.
Q: What prompted you to com
pete for the S.L.U.G. Queen title?
A: I have a group called Accor
dion Anonymous and we’re accor
dion addicts. We work through the
12 steps of accordion addiction. We
were rejected by the Eugene Cele
bration to perform.
But when “we” — I’m taking the
liberty of using the royal we — are
in charge, it’s a totally different ball
game.
Q: What are your plans for the
actual Celebration?
A: One of our enablers contacted
the would-be powers of the Eugene
Celebration and suggested that now
that there was a queen in the group,
we should be playing. But we were
rejected again, causing much con
troversy among the group.
We went into a trance to ponder
our next action and decided “we
don’t need them,” we can do our
own show whenever and wherever
we please.
I get the float [in the parade] and
the accordion players are my court.
We’ve marched in the human pow
ered parade that happens in Eugene
in June and have been in the Eu
gene Celebration parade twice.
I wanted to do a human powered
parade. Because of “our” royal sta
tus, we’ve gotten a commitment
from Kinetic Sculpture Race out of
Corvallis to bring this monster bike
down. It takes eight pedalers [pis
tons] to power it and it has a plat
form that can hold 10 people. I’m
excited to use this — we’re having
a “floatilla” of human-powered ma
chines.
I’d like to see the Eugene Celebra
tion parade be completely human
powered. That would be really cool
and less smelly.
Q: What importance does the
color green have to you? (Accor
dionna’s costume, as well as her
outfit during the interview, were
green.)
A: It's the general consensus
around Eugene that slugs are green
— though I think actually slugs are
brown but they love green stuff.
And I love everything green. So it’s
a wonderful chance to. represent
the symbolism of things I love best
— nature.
And since ‘‘we’re” queen, we are
trying to fulfill our duties. This is
where we get oxygen from. Com
mon sense should dictate one
should totally exaltify the color
green.
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