TV tunes out actors, viewers of a certain age
For evidence of how ambivalent television can be about baby boomers, consider the story of “Hot in Cleveland” star Wendie Malick.
At 61, she’s at the heart of the boom generation, defined as those born between the mid-1940s and the early ’60s. And she’s a bona-fide TV veteran, with key roles in sitcoms that include HBO’S “Dream On” in 1990 and NBC’S “Seinfeld,” “Frasier” and “Just Shoot Me!”
Before she landed in the oasis of “Cleveland” ’s success in 2010, her agent advised her to look through scripts for male roles she might want to play, figuring they could ask writers to change the gender.
That’s because for women of her certain age in Hollywood, pickings were seriously slim.
“It was getting to be a very bleak landscape,” said Malick, who started in the early ’70s as a model for the Wilhelmina agency. “We’re talking no characters over age 40. Which is why we feel vindicated (by ‘Cleveland’ ’s success). It reminded people of all ages how interesting women of a certain age truly are.”
Even as some celebrate the success of certain boomer icons on TV — 63-year- old Steven Tyler captivating the kids on “American Idol” or 60-yearold Mark Harmon leading TV’S highest-rated scripted show, “NCIS” — there’s evidence the story is more complex.
While some older stars have found visible new roles on television, there’s also evidence that TV is turning away from baby boomers as the youngest of them begin to age out of the typical group television always has focused on: viewers 18 to 49.
According to figures from the performers’ union AFTRA, from 2009 to 2011, just 36 percent of TV roles covered by their contracts were filled by an a character over age 40 (AFTRA contracts cover about 80 percent of TV productions). For female characters over age 40, that number dipped to 12 percent.
It’s worse for women this TV season. Among the shows airing on network TV as the new season started last fall, AFTRA found just 8 percent of roles went to women older than 40.
This occurred in the year the youngest boomers turned 47. How could perception and reality be so different? The 2010 U.S. Census lists those older than 40 at 46 percent of the population; women older than 40 comprise 24 percent.
“I harken back to the days when ‘The Golden Girls’ was successful on TV, and it seemed all of a sudden, more women over 40 were getting work,” said Ray Bradford, national director of equal employment opportunities for AFTRA.
“In fact, when you look at the hard numbers, women over 40 are still facing a tough road,” Bradford said. “There may be some performers who are working, and that’s great for them. But there’s still an issue; there’s still a bias.”
But besides Malick — who now appears in a show featuring 90-year- old Betty White, 51-year- old Valerie Bertinelli and 50-year- old Jane Leeves — there seem to be few big names available to discuss the issue openly.
Representatives for 60something actors Kathy Bates, Ted Danson, Tom Selleck and Craig T. Nelson all declined interviews for this story.
“Normally, we get the adjunct roles: friends, judges, whatever,” Malick said of boomer actors. “On this show, we get to be the center of the universe; the young people come visit, and they have to leave. We’re not giving up our chairs to anybody else.”
Mike Royce, who co - created the TNT show “Men of a Certain Age” with sitcom star Ray Romano, learned a little about TV’S tortured relationship with boomers while writing their show, which focused on three close friends who all turned 50 in the course of the show’s two seasons.
He doesn’t blame ageism for the show’s cancellation earlier this year or its inability to find a new home when TNT put it down after two seasons. But he saw how TV’S tension with boomer subjects played out as they struggled to retain younger viewers who tuned in expecting another funny Romano sitcom.
“Right away, guys in their 20s were saying, ‘No, thank you. Don’t need to see that yet,’ ” said Royce, laughing. “I think a lot of those people didn’t even try it. People would constantly classify these guys as losers who want to kill themselves ... but they’re guys leading normal lives, having normal feelings about things.”
Even as today’s boomers lead vastly more unsettled and active lives than the generations before them did at their ages, younger audiences have a tough time accepting the change.
NBC ratings expert Alan Wurtzel coined the term “alpha boomers” to describe these folks, between age 55 and 64, at the heart of the baby boom and living life very differently from their predecessors.
Statistics from the Nielsen Co. show that this group is just as likely to switch consumer brands as younger people, spends more time online than teens and early 20-somethings and has a comparable buying rate.
“Old is not old anymore. ... Every seven seconds, someone turns 55, and they’re more likely to be a first-time parent,” said Steve Lanzano, president and CEO of TVB, a trade association that represents all local TV stations across the country. “They’ve got $2 trillion in disposable wealth, and they don’t think of themselves as old.”
The problem: Younger generations still see them as old. And that’s who the big broadcasters cater to.
“(Younger viewers) don’t want to see things that remind them of advancing age,” Lanzano said. “They like nostalgia, but without the gray.”
That’s one reason this fall’s crop of new shows featured two new series focused on the early 1960s — ABC’S “Pan Am” and NBC’S “The Playboy Club” — allowing producers to cast young actors in nostalgic settings. Alas, “Playboy Club” has been canceled.
ABC’S hit comedy “Modern Family” isolates 65-year- old Ed O’neill among a cast filled with younger actors; his wife is played by 39-year- old Sofia Vergara.
So even as more Americans live more active lives in their older ages, TV