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EDITORIAL: The Last Reality Show

Posted on: Monday, 17 April 2006, 18:00 CDT

By The Boston Globe

Apr. 16--A clever advertising slogan for the cable channel HBO says simply: "Not television. HBO." Like the most effective barbs in ads conceived for political campaigns, HBO's commercial haiku is wickedly negative. It is meant to dis the stodgy programming on network TV. And, just as the best political ads draw blood because they contain a kernel of truth about the competition, the genius of the HBO put-down of network fare resides in its compressed statement of what everybody already knows.

After all, if network prime time were not a wasteland of infantilizing kitsch, NBC would not be canceling "The West Wing," the sardonic and sometimes sentimental depiction of life in the White House that won four consecutive Emmy Awards for best television drama. For adults who want at least a whiff of recognizable reality in their TV entertainment, "The West Wing" stands alone.

Even if some scripts simplify complex issues of the day, much more of the real world seeps into this show than Americans have come to expect from commercial television. We see union leaders lobbying to protect American manufacturing jobs against the tsunami of globalized outsourcing. We see demagogues trying to bully skittish politicians into backing a flag-burning constitutional amendment. And the fictional president, Jed Bartlet, is even plunged into the futile endeavor of a make-believe Camp David peace conference, where plausible versions of Israeli and Palestinian leaders reenact the tragic failure of the real Camp David conference hosted by President Clinton.

Part of the secret of the appeal of "The West Wing," at least for viewers unhappy with the contemporary cast of characters in the real White House, is that for all their faults and foibles, the show's imaginary president and his advisers possess qualities that people running the country ought to have. Toby, Josh, C.J., Charlie -- these are characters who exhibit wit under pressure, the sort of cool irony that once made Jack Kennedy's press conferences boffo box office. But the ironists of the Bartlet White House also display flashes of integrity, idealism, and patriotism that partake more of an ideal realm than of political reality.

Fans of "The West Wing" don't want the show to end on May 14. They don't want to be deprived of their vicarious entree into the Oval Office merely because NBC executives who moved the program from Wednesday to Sunday night are disappointed with the resulting Nielsen ratings. Those fans want four years of Jimmy Smits as a Democratic president, and would have settled for Alan Alda as a Republican president. Either would be a welcome alternative to reality. Maybe HBO could pick up "The West Wing" next season. Obviously it is too good for television.

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Source: The Boston Globe

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