Why Alex Trebek’s death was the top TV story of the year
While the constant barrage of new shows via streaming dilutes the overall quality of television, leading to fewer “must-watch” programs, Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO, Showtime, Hulu, and others, including newcomers Peacock, Disney+, and Apple+ gave shut-in viewers, prohibited in general from going out for movies and theater, a reliable flow of entertainment to occupy them and help to make up for the amount of time people suddenly had in
2020.
Another new network,
Discovery+, enters the mix next Monday, Jan. 4, and, of course, there is always the fare found on myriad cable stations and the original over-the-air networks.
The surprise to me is the glut of programming yielded so few outstanding shows and series.
In a way, I don’t know why that is so astonishing considering gluts usually lead to mediocrity. I guess I just expected more because before rampant streaming, television, cable series in particular, often offered the best and most consistent fine writing in any entertainment medium, even superior to the immediate (and therefore non-medium) theater.
Considering the most significant circumstance in television for 2020, no individual program or series, and no news coverage, neither of the coronavirus outbreak nor the presidential election, eclipsed in my mind the death of “Jeopardy!” host, Alex Trebek” in terms of impact and long-lasting effect.
Television showed its mettle and even earned some respect in its presentation of COVID stories. It was the place people turned early in the pandemic to get news and try to make sense of all that was happening in terms of infection, contagion, science, death, and lockdowns. As the corona story lingered, as it continues to do, television coverage became typically lazy and relied on increasing incidence and death statistics without going deeply into larger stories behind them.
I was equally disappointed in the basic level of election coverage.
Once upon a time, including in columns from the ‘80s before or in the infancy of 24hour cable news, I would bemoan the absence of political coverage on television news. My opinion was the subject was too hard or complex for most commentators to keep it interesting.
Talk about being careful of what you wish! Politics now dominates news everywhere, primarily on the cable behemoths.
Unfortunately, most of what is provided is not news. Its opinion, argument, bias, sophistry, and worst of all, partisan to the point of propaganda.
As early as the ‘90s, I mourned the tendency of anchors, especially on CNN, which hadn’t yet encountered the full competition of Fox News Channel and MSNBC, to editorialize and attempt persuasion in the introduction, let alone the presentation, of stories.
Eventually, I declared news on television to be dead in the Nietzchean context and stopped watching it.
So the passing of Mr. Trebek becomes, to me, the most important event in television this year. Mr. Trebek stood for the urbane, for the professional and the genuine. He changed his style over the years to attain the status of being smart and respectable. Just as I mourned the 2008 death of Tim Russert as the end of reliable news coverage, I mourn Alex Trebek for the dignity he and only he, at this time, brought to his show and his craft.
Of course, there were other achievements. While outstanding series were few, with gaps of excellence in between, this season of “Ozark,” with the astounding performance of Laura Linney as Wendy Byrde and the plots twists that consistently save themselves from absurdity to become grand and significant, makes me long for the next skein filming now and due to air in the spring.
“Fargo” took a different turn, but in the end, had depth in the way it approached how powerless people strived for power, choosing each other as adversaries and rivals instead of using their ingenuity to compete with those who wouldn’t let them in.
Among interesting, yet unsung, series were “Mrs. America,” which let a conservative woman have a voice and showed how that voice affected the designs of others, and “The Great,” which had the right note of lampooning comedy. “Hollywood” was the opposite, an idiotic, allegedly politically correct look at an interesting subject handled cheaply.
In general, television acquitted itself well. News may be dreadful, but the variety of programming keeps people entertained. I’m currently having a good time binging the series “Shameless” and enjoyed reviewing all seasons of “The Crown” before the latest aired. I intend to watch all of “Ozark” again before the new shows debut in the spring.
Even when I’m down on aspects of television, such as news presentation or diminished product, I value a lifetime of having television as a source of entertainment and treasure it every minute.
As I expect to do, again, in 2021.
Ring in the New
Year on your favorite channel
Crowds may not be cheek by jowl in Times Square, but the famous ball will drop from the old New York Times building at midnight to signal the coming of a new year.
For people who watch this ritual annually, little has changed in spite of a rampant surge in coronavirus cases. There will be New Year’s Eve variety shows on NBC, ABC, Fox, and CNN, and each of them will cut to the ball as it makes it descent to illuminate “2021.”
The longest running of Thursday’s year-welcoming programs, ABC’s “Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve,” begins at 8 p.m., locally on Channel 6, with Ryan Seacrest, who counts Mr. Clark as one of his heroes, as host.
Among guests appearing with Seacrest is Jennifer Lopez.
Competing for audience on NBC, Carson Daly presides over a program that features Gwen Stefani and her co-judge from “The
Voice” and fiancé Blake Shelton as hosts. Included as guests are Sting, Jason Derulo, Busta Rhymes, Kylie Minogue, the Goo Goo Dolls, Doja Cat, and Pentatonix. Daly’s show appears locally at 8 p.m. on Channel 10.
Meanwhile, Steve Harvey helms Fox’s “New Year’s Eve Toast and Roas, which begins, locally, at 8 p.m. on Channel 29, and best friends with the same initials Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen take charge of a CNN celebration and will be joined by Christina Aguilera, Shania Twain, 50 Cent, and Keith Urban.
For those who wants to see the New Year dawn in several places and the celebrations that go with it, YouTube.com is taking viewers on a 2021-greeting tour with looks at Korea, Japan, India, the United Kingdom, and here. Please check times to see when each individual visit to a particular place is scheduled.
For movie buffs who want to see an early Hollywood history of sorts, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is showing 1974’s “That’s Entertainment” and 1976’s
“That’s Entertainment II,” back to back starting at 8 p.m. Thursday. Dance masters Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly are the hosts of documentaries that show some of the great stars, scenes, and musical numbers from the first 70 years of movies.
Viewers in the mood for vintage binging can tune into TCM at 9:15 a.m. on Thursday and watch the entire “Thin Man” series with William Powell and Myrna Loy as witty socialite detectives Nick and Nora Charles from the first 1934 film to the last 1947 entry. Powell, Loy, and some interesting supporting players, including James Stewart, will lead directly into the “That’s Entertainment” screenings.
Night owls can keep going through to New Year’s Day on TCM with a 12:45 a.m. showing of 1994’s “That’s Entertainment III” followed by 1985’s “That’s Dancing.” Friday continues to be a treasure trove with the Marx Brothers in “The Night at the Opera” at 6 a.m., Irene Dunne and Cary Grant as reluctant divorcees in “The Awful Truth” at 10:15 a.m., the original, non-musical Mel Brooks classic, “The Producers” with Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder at 12 p.m., and Judy Holliday, Broderick Crawford, and William Holden in “Born Yesterday” at 4 p.m. (Miss Holliday received the 1950 Best Actress Oscar for this movie despite competition from Bette Davis in “All About Eve” and Gloria Swanson in “Sunset Boulevard.”) Two Doris Day movies, with a W.C. Fields classic, “It’s A Gift” between them, and James Garner and Sally Field in “Murphy’s Romance” following the second, complete the day.