Is TV too pretty for its own good?
How do you reboot a long-running series with a signature star? Add a ghost! Jared Padalecki stars in the new series “Walker” (8 p.m., CW, TV-PG). He’s a Texas Ranger still mourning his wife, who returns to Austin to find change.
Among the innovations is his new partner, the improbably gorgeous Micki Ramirez (Lindsey Morgan), one of the first women in Texas Ranger history.
In an odd twist, Walker’s dead wife, who appears frequently in flashbacks, is played by his own, real-life wife, Genevieve Padalecki.
Both met on the set of the long-running WB/ CW series “Supernatural,” where Jared played Sam and she was Ruby. Going from a demon to a dead woman shouldn’t be that much of a stretch.
After “9-1-1: Lone Star,” starring Rob Lowe, “Walker” is the second recent series to star an uncharacteristically good-looking guy as an Austin-based hero. Time was, you didn’t have to look like a model to be a TV cop. Detectives Joe Friday (Jack Webb), Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) and Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) weren’t exactly cast for their chiseled cheekbones.
All of them were veteran character actors with the ability to grow into memorable roles. It didn’t matter that they didn’t look like Robert Redford. Casting pretty leads generally makes a show forgettable. Padalecki certainly had a good, run on “Supernatural,” so anything’s possible.
Chuck Norris, the original “Walker, Texas Ranger” was presumably cast more for his martial arts prowess than his looks. But trying to describe Chuck Norris’ face(s) over the decades is a bit of a moving target.
As “normal-looking” character actors get phased out of police work, there’s still room for “faces” on sitcoms, like “The Conners,” where the acting chops of masters like John Goodman and Laurie Metcalf still hold sway. Television’s gorgeous ghetto makes a series like “Call Me Kat” (9 p.m., Fox, TV-14) seem like a breath of fresh air. Not everybody has to be a beauty pageant winner.
Curiously, beauty pageant types have pretty much taken over the world of “news.” This is not a recent phenomenon. The ball really got rolling with the elevation of former American Junior Miss Diane Sawyer on ABC. News correspondents of yesteryear like the legendary Chet Huntley and Walter Cronkite would look like gargoyles next to the pretty faces that now sit in their old anchor chairs.
Reality television was once a refuge for the ordinary-looking and even “colorful” faces like “Dog the Bounty Hunter.” But a casual glance at cooking and shelter shows reveals encroaching beautification.
This wasn’t always the case. Abnormally pretty people, much like the rich, were once the objects of ridicule and even pity. Think of “The Millionaire,” the Howells on “Gilligan’s Island” and Marilyn on “The Munsters.”
The persistent casting of the needlessly pretty may say more about the insecurity of TV producers than the desires of viewers. Why else do people stream billions of hours of YouTube videos featuring faces not quite ready for prime time?
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
› Zoe trades college for a job on “Grown-ish” (8 p.m., Freeform, TV-14).
› Carisi challenges a judge on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (9 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
› Medieval monsters arrive on the third season premiere of “Legacies” (9 p.m., CW, TV-14).