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Adults find place in TV's kiddie crush
(Excerpt)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - October 25, 1999
In a world filled with natural disasters and man's inhumanity, it's hard whomping up sympathy for magazine editors.
Still, one of journalism's tougher assignments is manufacturing trend stories to slap on periodical covers. The
current TV Guide points up the problem. For weeks, that magazine and other TV publications have shouted at us that,
on the tube this fall, it's keen to be teen. Anyone past 25 was approaching TV geezerhood. Indeed, way too much of
the prime-time schedule is aimed directly at the young and restless - and mindless.
But look at what TV Guide's current cover and two big inside stories are shouting about fall's new programs:
"Grown-ups are back!" Trend-spotters got whiplash.
But on the TV screens of millions, adults never left. The mature could watch at least half of last season's top 15
Nielsen shows without checking their brains with the remote control. These included, from No. 1 down,
"ER," "Friends," "Frasier," "Touched by an Angel," "60 Minutes,"
"Everybody Loves Raymond," "20/20," "The X-Files," "Home Improvement" and
"NYPD Blue." If I tossed in "Monday Night Football," I'd get groans, but I'm tossing.
Many groaners would be the beneficiaries of the season's real trend: shows for and about adult women. They're the
principal target for three of the fall's pleasant ratings surprises, "Once and Again," "Judging
Amy" and "Family Law." Millions of women also are watching the season's best new show, "The West
Wing," and the satisfactory "Law and Order" spinoff, "Special Victims Unit."
While the formulaic seams sometimes show in "Amy" and "Family Law," all five rookies generally
are intelligently written, well-acted hours that no one, including those sensitive males who like relationship
dramas, need feel ashamed to watch (or hassled, if "Family Law" keeps its male-bashing under control). How
nice that their networks have ordered full seasons (22 shows) of "Amy," "Family Law" and,
especially, "The West Wing."
Copyright © 1999 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. All rights reserved.
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