Television in 1998, as if you needed to be told this, was the year of Monica and sex.
That’s right. Monica Geller, the “Friends” character high school boys would most like to be alone with in the dark, came into her own on the veteran NBC sitcom, getting an energizing story line in which she and fellow Friend Chandler Bing are having a clandestine affair.
The surreptitious lovers even have a confidante: Joey Tribbiani, sort of the Linda Tripp figure in the scenario, albeit with better hair and motives.
I mention Linda Tripp because there was also some news, informed sources tell me, about another Monica and sneaky sex on TV in 1998. Sure, the tube also made room for John Glenn and Jerry Seinfeld, Ally McBeal and Jack Kevorkian, Viagra and digital TV, Harry Caray and Oprah Winfrey, network ratings woes and Winter Olympic blahs, Jerry Springer and Peter Arnett, Howard Stern and Michael Jordan.
But mostly, inescapably, there was smiling Monica of the jaunty beret, she whose taste in girlfriends was the only thing lower than her taste in men.
Television has seen tabloid-flavored news events dominate its coverage for extended periods of time before, something O.J. Simpson and Louise Woodward were discussing just the other day at the grave site of Princess Diana.
But the tawdry saga of the thong-wearing intern and the Leader of the Free World who liked to talk dirty with her over White House phone lines, among other shared passions, tops them all. Yes, Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky made Americans, with the possible exception of cigar smokers, feel good about their own peccadilloes.
More important, their hallway encounters became not just a tacky little embarrassment for the Democratic president but, as raw meat tossed into the wood-paneled cage of the Republican-majority Congress, the quickies that could change the course of empire.
The year of sorting through dirty laundry, sometimes literally — ABC News’ scoop on the presidentially stained blue dress was scoffed out of the discourse, you’ll recall, until it turned out to be true — offered further proof that TV news operations can be single minded in their pursuit of a story and schismatic in their justifications for doing so and their interpretations of its meaning.
Because one now-inevitable feature of media bingeing is the subsequent bout of purging, a bulimia enacted in interminable forums on how the press behaved, many people in 1998 attempted to explain the media, a sloppy term that most often seems to be shorthand for TV news and opinion providers. I think I have finally hit on the perfect metaphor for that behavior.
If you have not ever coached or seen 8-year-old boys attempt organized basketball, it works like this. They will play a perfect zone defense, just like you draw it up for them, each little lad standing right where you put the X on the play chart.
Then the ball comes across half-court.
And all five defenders abandon their posts to swarm around the poor youth with the ball. Should he somehow complete a pass to a teammate, a concept almost as foreign to an 8-year-old as reflection is to a Sunday talk-show opiner, the defenders then run over to that spot. And so on for four rugbylike quarters dominated by turnovers and fouls and usually ending in a final score of something like 9-5.
Watching the TV pontificators, this past year, scurry like 3rd-graders from scrum to scrum has been a case study in men and women who know where, according to proper perspective and skepticism and ironical distance, they are supposed to stand but simply cannot resist the impulse to go to the ball or, in their case, the position du jour.
Yet none of their posturing, from calling for resignation to impeachment to censure to resignation, changed the mind of a public seemingly resolute in the belief that no man can or should have to endure being Starred and feathered.
That’s not to say the public wasn’t watching. CNN, to cite one example of a telecast operation that let Monica tote its bales, saw its ratings for the year up 19 percent.
In the most singular moment of the blanket coverage, all the stations, from the cable news outfits to the big networks and even many local independents, blew out a morning’s worth of regularly scheduled programming (soap operas, in the most appropriate cases) to show us the president’s videotaped grand jury testimony in September, replete with the commander-in-chief’s opinion as to why fellatio does not count as sexual relations.
Everybody could agree that presidential sex talk was a big story, but the TV outlets were much less monolithic on the actual meaningful result of all of this, the impeachment hearings in the U.S. House in December. Those you could find live mostly on the cable channels, and even there, with the exception of C-Span, the stations seemed more interested in their own commentators’ takes on events than the events themselves, quite willingly talking over the Gentleman from Wherever’s explanation of his vote.
I’d love to go on about this (have I mentioned Matt Drudge parlaying his Internet Monica scoop into his own Fox News Channel talk show? The strange dance TV news twice had to do between Clinton-ordered foreign bombings and scandalous D.C. events?), but it was not the only show on TV this year. Honest.
In local programming (i.e., these days, local news), the biggest change was NBC ridding WMAQ-Ch. 5 of the vestiges of the Jerry-Springer-on-a-News-Set debacle. Gone were General Manager Lyle Banks, News Vice President Joel Cheatwood and, in a bold move by new GM Larry Wert, Springer’s show itself (which WFLD-Ch. 32 eagerly snapped up).
WMAQ saw its laxative efforts rewarded with good news for its once-declining news ratings. It certainly did not move into first place in the November sweeps period, but it held viewership steady from last November while first-place WLS-Ch. 7 and third-place WBBM-Ch. 2 lost viewers.
On the national front, it was another troubled year for the traditional networks, whose audience share continued to decline. Not helping was the departure of “Seinfeld,” which lost a little respect with its exceedingly ballyhooed and disappointing May finale.
The WB network found its place in 1998, programming at teens and adults young enough to remember, with savvy dramatic series like “Dawson’s Creek,” “Charmed” and “Felicity” joining “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” Start-up rival UPN, meanwhile, was last seen in a Cleveland bus station; if anybody knows its current whereabouts please phone the National Association of Broadcasters.
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“Ally McBeal” became a deserved hit for Fox (and prompted healthy debate about whether every TV woman had to be self-assured to be a good feminist), while “Everybody Loves Raymond” did the same for CBS.
Newsmagazines in general multiplied like sea monkeys, with “Dateline NBC” now colonizing prime-time hours on an absurd five nights, ABC offering three hours of “20/20” and even venerable “60 Minutes” adding a second edition come January. The goal, of course, is to make America scared half to death of its minivans and everything in them.
CBS finally got NFL football back, taking a second mortgage on the summer place to correct perhaps the biggest network blunder of the decade. And the network’s ratings have been on the upswing ever since, with a narrow season-to-date lead in late December.
The so-called Tiffany Network was not, however, able to make much out of the Nagano Winter Olympics in February, a television event hampered by uncooperative snow gods and the failure, prior to the competition, of one leading figure skater’s goons to whack another leading figure skater on the knee. Not even a Canadian snowboarding champ getting caught with, like, cannabis in his blood could coax viewer interest.
With programming innovations like the desultory “Howard Stern Radio Show” Saturdays on CBS-owned stations, people spent the year looking away from the networks to meet their televiewing needs. Cable was there to fill the void with, as always, whatever it could find. It drew viewers with everything from the relatively high-toned USA movie “Moby Dick” to the headscratching phenomenon of professional wrestling revivified.
The segue from pro wrestling to Jerry Springer is not one of the great challenges in writing, so I will leave it, more or less, unwritten. In the talk-show world, Springer’s producers pledged to stop the fighting, a prospect I compared at the time to airport nachos without runny cheese product;the promise, of course, turned out to be empty. And although it didn’t do much for his movie, Springer’s show continues to ride a popularity wave, confounding the predictions of cultural optimists (I figured he had peaked last May) and challenging Oprah for daytime talk-ratings supremacy.
Winfrey didn’t rest on her now-highbrow laurels. She announced she would be part owner of a start-up cable channel aimed at women, to be called Oxygen and begin in 2000. But she got more publicity, of course, for her movie “Beloved,” for signing a talk-show contract that will finally give her financial security, for facing down Texas cattlemen in a court of law and for taking her program down a path more thickly strewn with rose petals and religious aphorisms than ever before.
Winfrey’s new direction, and Springer’s old one, were some of Our Least Favorite Things in 1998 television. Also on the list: Dennis Miller and George Carlin putting on the blue eyeshadow and stiletto heels to shill for telephone companies; Harry Caray and Jack Brickhouse dying before the end of an amazing Cubs year; Steve Allen aligning himself with extreme cultural conservatives, in a TV-is-Satan published ad, to get his name in the papers again; Peter Arnett lending his credibility but not much of his reporting to a debunked CNN-Time magazine report; digital TV coming into view but remaining very murky, potentially complicating everybody’s viewing choices still further; the Emmy Awards failing to offer a host and the Oscars running over three hours; and everybody conveniently forgetting to recall, as he approached the home-run record, that Mark McGwire had a little help from performance-enhancing substances.
A few of Our Favorite Things: John Glenn returning to space at age 77, a pretty vigorous rebuttal to all the talk this year of old guys and Viagra; Sammy Sosa, except at the very end of the season, when the Cubs could have used more punch from his bat; brown-paper packages tied up with string (on the sneakily seductive HGTV channel, of course); crusty WLS newsreader Floyd Kalber going out on top by retiring in March; the arrival of an actual V-chip machine to give teeth to the TV ratings; Ron Magers landing on his feet at WLS, if not in the 10 p.m. first chair he ought to occupy; documentaries on an Iowa farm family, a megalomaniac prairie architect, the slow birth of slavery in America and an angst-ridden professional wrestler; Michael Jordan’s glorious and possibly final championship, not to mention all the extra time I’ve had this fall with no NBA to follow; and the 15 minutes passing so quickly for Magic as talk show host, Sue Costello as sitcom star, “Desmond Pfeiffer” as both TV show and racial controversy.
And while we make busy preparing to party like it’s 1999, let us also not forget that 1998 brought us, in the most successful British invasion since The Beatles, the “Teletubbies.” Bye-bye, Tinky-Winky, and keep that TV set in your tummy turned on. “The Farmer’s Wife” (PBS). A true-life American epic told by a filmmaker who got virtually inside the skin of a farm couple on the edge of financial and romantic ruin.
“The Larry Sanders Show” (HBO). TV’s best-ever comedy for the media-wise segment of the population went almost eloquently into retirement in June, ending with the title character leaving his talk show and a plaintive “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?” sung over the credits.
“The Simpsons” (Fox). TV’s best-ever comedy in a broad sense continues in eminently rewatchable reruns and with original episodes that still crackle with wit and pop-culture savvy.
“Seinfeld” (NBC). Yes, the last episode missed not only the bull’s-eye but the entire dartboard. But in its final year, it still deserves recognition as a series that captured the cynicism and self-infatuation of a decade.
“Friends” (NBC). Who would have thought that this series, after its annoyingly white-hot beginning, would wear so well? No groundbreaker, but an almost perfectly realized sitcom that gets better with age.
“Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows” (A&E). A sensitive story of a showman’s struggle for his soul, set in the cartoon world of professional wrestling. It was true. And it had a surprise ending!
“Sports Night” (ABC) / “SportsCenter” (ESPN). Name the last time a spinoff product has been as good, but in its own unique way, as the original. That’s the case with “Sports Night,” a Disney comedy-drama that breaks format rules to demonstrate half-hour TV can have both a heart and a brain. It is a fictional look backstage at a show very much like “SportsCenter,” a Disney sports highlight show that demonstrates sports reporting can have a brain too.
“Space Ghost: Coast to Coast” (Cartoon Network). The perfect program for these talk-show-centric times, this program, featuring a ’60s cartoon superhero recycled as the host, parodies the genre and celebrity culture with loose-limbed glee.
“Homicide: Life on the Street” (NBC). This gritty, psychologically penetrating crime series makes the list on the strength of its first half of 1998, Andre Braugher’s final episodes with the show. Since September, however, it has been floundering.
Near misses: “The Upright Citizens Brigade” (Comedy Central), “Law & Order” (NBC), “Africans in America” (PBS), “Merlin” (NBC), “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” (NBC), “The American Experience” (PBS).
STEVE JOHNSON’S 10 WORST OF 1998
1.”The Howard Stern Radio Show” (syndicated, via CBS). Voyeurism and degradation get a Saturday-night forum on what was once known as the Tiffany Network. “We meant Tiffany, the mall pop-singing queen,” a CBS executive should have explained.
2. “The Jerry Springer Show” (syndicated). Change Your Wife TV rolls on — amassing ratings, taking blows from critics bearing blunderbusses, and serving up new and belligerent examples of inhumanity bearing tales of base behavior, real or scripted.
3. “ESPN College Basketball” featuring Dick Vitale (ESPN). The blowhard of the hardwood pretends to love the game but almost always ignores the contest unfolding in front of him to display his own knowledge and stylistic tics.
4. “Costello” (Fox). Simply the worst series of the new fall season, this look at a violent, foul-mouthed Boston barmaid was, amazingly, the first cancelled. More amazingly, the chief programmer who put it on the air also got the hook.
5. “Wind on Water” (NBC). A series positing Bo Derek as matriarch of a lusty, inarticulate family died quickly. Imagine that.
6. “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” (NBC). Jay: Call off the unctuous campaign for mayor of late night already, and maybe some of us who used to love your standup comedy can go back to watching the show without blocking our nostrils.
7. “Conrad Bloom” (NBC). The ultimate example of factory comedy from the comedy factory.
8. “Bad As I Wanna Be: The Dennis Rodman Story” (ABC). His (Calculated) Outrageousness pleads for sympathy in this TV-movie life treatment.
9. “The Roseanne Show” (syndicated). Like the host herself, her talk show is a big, sloppy mess. That it is occasionally interesting and often anti-establishment does not keep it from being, on balance, a pretty darn bad TV program.
10. “The Magic Hour” (syndicated). Somebody believed in Magic Johnson enough to give him a show, but it didn’t take a Masked Magician to reveal the basketball star’s talk program was creakier than Willis Reed’s knees.
ALLAN JOHNSON’S TOP 10 SHOWS OF 1998
“The X-Files” (Fox). Fare that is a dash more lighthearted, some serious deepening of the relationship between agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully (David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson), and smart writing and directing by, among others, series creator Chris Carter, have turned what could have been a quality-depleted sixth season into one of the show’s best so far.
“Nothing Sacred” (ABC). Unfair controversy dogged this quiet, effective study of a Catholic priest in the 1990s. Chicago-area native Kevin Anderson is one of the best series actors of the year for his sensitive, believable portrayal of Father Francis Xavier “Ray” Rayneaux.
“NYPD Blue” (ABC). It closed the year strongly with the illness and death of Bobby Simone (Jimmy Smits in a wonderful farewell performance), and the continuing mystique surrounding Simone’s replacement, Danny Sorenson (a capable Rick Schroder).
“Sports Night” (ABC). One of the best of the rookie series this season isn’t just about sports; a talented ensemble cast explores workplace relationships and questions of ethics and morality.
“The Practice” (ABC). While one David Kelley law series was grabbing headlines alleging anorexia, the producer-writer’s other law show churned out powerful storylines, Emmy wins for best series and supporting actress (Camryn Manheim), and decent ratings at 9 p.m. on Sundays.
“Ally McBeal” (Fox). David E. Kelley is off base in putting more emphasis on laughs in this comedy-drama, and real-life stories concerning star Calista Flockhart’s weight have been diverting. But “Ally” still succeeds as a meaningful portrait of a quixotic young woman.
“The Chris Rock Show” (HBO). A strong, stripped-down and brilliant talk show fronted by a sharp and honest-speaking star and skits that are edgy and provocative.
“Seinfeld” (NBC). It’s unfortunate many will remember the show for its limp last episode, but the ones leading up to the finale were spirited and polished.
“Merlin” The networks have been lagging behind cable in the movies and miniseries department, but NBC came up a winner not only with “The Temptations” but especially this, a treat thanks to nifty special effects and terrific performances led by Sam Neill as the famed magician.
“NewsRadio” (NBC). This excellent daffy comedy has managed to keep its psychotic wit intact, despite the loss of star Phil Hartman, who was murdered earlier this year.
ALLAN JOHNSON’S 10 WORST OF 1998
1. “Living in Captivity” (Fox)
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2. “Holding the Baby” (Fox)
3. “The Army Show” (the WB)
4. “Costello” (Fox) (above)
5. “The Wayans Bros.” (the WB)
6. “You Wish” (ABC)
7. “America’s Greatest Pets” (UPN)
8. “Reunited” (UPN)
9. “Timecop” (ABC)
10. “Encore! Encore!” (NBC)
10 TELEVISED MOMENTS FOR THE AGES
Jan. 26: Early on in the whole mess, Bill Clinton looks straight into the camera, wags his finger and proclaims, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”
May 14: The Seinfeld finale fritters away one of series television’s largest-ever audiences with a dissolute episode of warmed-over material in a thinly veiled highlight-show format.
June 7: In a year of ethical gaffes across journalism, TV contributes one of the whoppers. The first on-air pairing of CNN and Time produces a vigorously retracted story asserting that the U.S. used deadly nerve gas in an attack on its own Vietnam War defectors.
Sept. 8: Mark McGwire raises his son Matt in the air after breaking Roger Maris’ single-season home-run record, and Sammy Sosa, the epitome of the good sport, trots out of right field to hug him.
Sept. 21: All networks cancel their regular lineups to show the president of the United States, in videotaped grand jury testimony, explaining exactly what he means when he says “sexual relations.”
Sept. 22: The ABC special “Sex with Cindy Crawford” finishes last in its time period.
Oct. 29: John Glenn, 77, returns to outer space in a lift-off telecast live. America may not have wanted him as president, but it was certainly ready to celebrate him as a geriatrics-in-zero-gravity guinea pig.
Nov. 3: TV misses the big story on election night, not catching on until very late that a former pro wrestler, Jesse “The Body” Ventura, has actually won the Minnesota governorship.
Nov. 22: “60 Minutes” becomes the most profound forum yet for Dr. Death, as Jack Kevorkian apparently offs one of his “patients” on videotape, and the venerable newsmagazine airs it.
Dec. 19: In a series of votes covered live, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives invoke the preidential impeachment option for only the second time in the nation’s history.
— Steve Johnson