We are spoiled for choice this week about just what to feature. Such a big week for the small screen.
We could start with the mundane TV news. For some reason, the networks have decided actually giving new shows a chance to gather a following isn't such a great idea. So CBS cancelled the slow-building crime drama Smith, NBC cancelled the superbly acted Kidnapped (someone please give Dana Delaney a show that lasts for more than three weeks), Studio 60 and The Nine are faltering in the ratings despite superb casts and scripts, and inexplicably, Men in Trees is still on the air. And the networks wonder why we watch cable.
Into this slash-and-burn atmosphere come the return of NBC's former mega-hit Medium, now on Wednesdays; CBS's new series about brain surgeons, the horrifically named 3 lbs. (Grey's Anatomy with more blood); and ABC's new drama , starring Taye Diggs (Groundhog Day with a twist).
Okay, that's over. Tune in if you have nothing else to watch, like The Wire (with not one, but two queer characters) or The Nine, before it's cast into the back lot, or Heroes, the show that has almost replaced our previous great TV love, Buffy, the Vampire Slayer ("save the cheerleader, save the world").
Now to the real stuff: There was no bigger story than the shift in power in Washington. We have never enjoyed election night coverage as much as we did on November 7. Watching the pins fall one by one was just so satisfying.
The most comprehensive coverage was ABC, followed by NBC and CBS pulling up the rear. We tuned in briefly to Fox, but it was too depressing. And CNN was CNN: all repetition, all the time.
First: The Democrats won. They didn't almost win, or win because the Republicans decided to give up and let them have a turn. They won. But you'd never know that from some of the coverage. ABC's George Will opined that the House would look more conservative than it did before the election. Larry Kudlow, that right-wing hound-dog from MSNBC, asserted that the "changeover in the House may well be a conservative victory, not a liberal one." In what parallel universe?
Let's look at Claire McCaskill, who wrested Missouri out from under Republican incumbent Jim Talent in the Show Me state. McCaskill was smeared with the "liberal" label from one end of the state to the other in TV ads. Michael J. Fox did a commercial supporting her because of her strong stance on stem-cell research. Rush Limbaugh claimed Fox was acting like someone with Parkinson's Disease. That spurious comment led to a two-week news cycle of Limbaugh vs. Fox.
Well, looks like the ditto-heads lost that round, because not only did McCaskill, who has a 98% progressive platform, win, but so did Missouri's stem-cell research ballot initiative.
Then there was Pennsylvania, now former home of Republican golden boy Rick Santorum, third-ranked Republican in the Senate. Rick's the one who said same-sex marriage was akin to man-dog love, and that queers marrying was the greatest terrorist threat in America today. Take that, al-Qaeda! Santorum, a two-term senator, was ousted in a slamming defeat by Bob Casey, Jr., who supports civil unions for queers.
Another Republican taken down by TV was George Allen of Virginia. The former Presidential hopeful never was able to shake the "macaca" statement he made at a meeting of his faithful. The racial slur was tossed at a man of Indian descent who was tracking Allen for his Democratic challenger's campaign. Looks like he got him, too.
Our fave winner was Bernie Sanders, the white-haired socialist who ran as an Independent and won in Vermont (home of the first queer civil unions in the country). He'll be voting with the Dems in the Senate. Try labeling him something other than progressive.
Most of the races looked just like that. But the media continued to spin the notion that the new Democrats were very conservative. Not exactly, guys. And we do mean guys. Election-night coverage remains a man's world. Katie Couric put her glasses on, but she was the only woman in the spotlight on election night, utterly upstaged by sitting with Bob Schieffer, his usual astute self. ABC even brought Peter Jennings back from the dead, with some clips that served only to creep us out.
If TV had smell-surround like some theatres, you could have smelled the fear and blood on George Bush as he staggered out into the press conference on November 8, looking more dazed and confused than usual. His handlers apparently hadn't prepared him for a loss. It was a sad scene. We almost felt sorry for the guy. Almost. He was like the Wicked Witch of the West screaming, "I'm melting, melting, melting."
Every joke fell flat. No one laughed. Then he actually said that he was surprised by the turn of events. Bush was by turns angry and looking like he was going to cry. He didn't want to answer questions, but did. Reluctantly. Then it was over.
But not completely. There was the return later in the afternoon with the fired — uh, resigning — Donald Rumsfeld. You could almost see the sword he'd fallen on for the team. He quoted Churchill to the group, then Bush introduced Bob Gates as the new flunky.
What was most compelling about these staged TV moments was how they reflected democracy. No coup, even though it was clear Bush would have liked to just refute reality. Rumsfeld wasn't beheaded in the public square. And a smooth transition of power. Say what you will about America. When push comes to shove, as it so often has with the Republicans in charge, we manage to hold onto democracy, even if by a thread.
The hero of the piece was a surprise as well: Nancy Pelosi, our San Francisco treat. While the right was making fun of her, we were reveling in her refusal to back down from her previous statements about Bush. When ABC's Terry Moran interviewed her on November 8, he asked about her having called Bush incompetent. She said he was, on the war. She gave no ground on that one, although she did promise to work with the other side. Nevertheless, most people know she has an agenda she intends to muster through the House. Finally, a leading Democrat with backbone. We haven't seen that since Clinton left Washington.
Now the games begin, and Pelosi has taken charge, with her soigné suits and prim good looks. She's got the stature of Thatcher without the gristle. We look forward to seeing her on the tube.
Jimmy Kimmel commented on the lunch meeting between Pelosi and Bush, "Nancy Pelosi had chicken Cordon Bleu and asparagus tips, and President Bush had his usual meal of Lunchables and a big plastic mug of Sunny D."
On the topic of Rumsfeld's dismissal, Craig Ferguson said now Rumsfeld would become the angry old man of the neighborhood. If you went into his yard he'd yell, "Get of my yard," then attack a kid who didn't come into his yard to show the kid who did he meant business.
Disgraced liar, deceiver and former head of America's evangelicals Rev. Ted Haggard is taking the trip so many others of the fallen have taken. He's going into rehab. But this is a different form than most. It's spiritual rehab, with the laying on of hands for three to five years from other men in the church. As Jay Leno noted in his November 10 monologue, "If you think having a bunch of guys lay their hands on you for three to five years is going to cure you of being gay, think again."
Is it our imagination, or is lesbianism the new black on the tube? We saw no fewer than five lesbian storylines on various shows this week, from 30 Rock (funnier than it was initially; sadly, Tina Fey took the funny with her when she left Saturday Night Live) to Close to Home . There was full-mouth girl-on-girl kissing on the November 10 episode of Law & Order. Lesbianism seems to be everywhere except on All My Children, where Bianca is back, but naturally unattached. Sigh.
Oprah redeemed herself (somewhat; we do hold a grudge) from her Bill O'Reilly gaffe with her November 9 show. Challenge Day at Monroe High School revealed a student body rife with racism, sexism and homophobia. We were moved by this show, which highlighted what kids go through in high school (not like we don't remember, we just don't want to) when they are different. By far, the kids who were most bullied were the gay kids. They were wonderfully articulate about that, and about their need for acceptance.
It was a painful hour, but also informative, and life-altering for the kids involved, who, with the help of teacher-facilitators and reporter Lisa Ling, realized how their biases were hurting other kids. This is the kind of thing Oprah has always done well. It's her strong suit.
Memento mori
The sudden death of Ed Bradley on November 9 was a real loss to TV. He was such a man of firsts and quiet elegance. He spent 46 years at CBS, never changing networks, with 26 of those years at 60 Minutes . Bradley was the first black White House correspondent and the first black war correspondent for CBS. He was nearly killed in Cambodia during the Vietnam War when he was hit by a mortar and almost lost his arm. He crossed the line from dispassionate reporter to engaged citizen when he helped rescue some Vietnamese boat people who were drowning. He said it might have made him less of a reporter to do so, but more of a man.
Bradley won 19 Emmys in his long career, many for his hard-hitting interviews on 60 Mins, where he was always the bulldog who would not back down. He also did less hard-news interviews, many related to music. He was the voice of Jazz from Lincoln Center on NPR for decades. Bradley said it was Liza Minnelli who talked him into getting his ear pierced, which became a trademark.
Bradley was 65 when he died of leukemia. He made TV news history, not just because he was black, hip and had an Afro in the 60s, but because he brought a strength of purpose and conviction to his stories that just get more rare. We still wish CBS hadn't chosen to scrap his report on the alleged weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that was due to air before the 2004 election. If they hadn't, we might have a different President today.
Bradley was a very private man. He never made much about the racial barriers he broke down, but his colleagues knew that he worked hard to get more blacks into TV. He put hundreds of kids through college on his own money, a real civil-rights worker to the end. He will be sorely missed, particularly in these days of no-risk reporting. Stay tuned.