"Two critics on the shows and movies that got us through 2020" PBS NewsHour 12/28/2020
Excerpt
SUMMARY: Even though most theaters remain closed, a regular lockdown conversation starter begins with “so what have you been watching?” Lorraine Ali of the Los Angeles Times and Ann Hornaday from the Washington Post help Jeffrey Brown sort out the year’s best entertainment in TV, movies and streaming.
SUMMARY: She had an iconic smile and laugh, but actress and comedian Mary Tyler Moore was also a revolutionary. The Oscar-nominated actress famously played a single career woman next door and a quirky housewife, changing how women were portrayed. Jeffrey Brown reflects on her life with Cynthia Littleton of Variety; and Dick Cavett, a former friend of the late television icon, who died at the age of 80.
JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour): It was sitcom television that signaled and helped push larger cultural change, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” in the 1970s, in which the actress played a single, 30-something working woman, Mary Richards, a TV producer at a local Minneapolis station, here with her boss, played by Ed Asner.
ED ASNER, Actor: You know what? You have got spunk.
(LAUGHTER)
MARY TYLER MOORE, Actress: Well …
ED ASNER: I hate spunk.
(LAUGHTER)
ED ASNER: I'll tell you what. I will try you out for a couple of weeks and see how it works out. If I don't like you, I will fire you.
MARY TYLER MOORE: Right, right.
ED ASNER: If you don't like me, I will fire you.
(LAUGHTER)
MARY TYLER MOORE: That certainly seems fair.
I will get a towel from the kitchen.
JEFFREY BROWN: In the '60s, Moore had been a beloved figure in a more traditional role for women, as the frazzled, but often hilarious wife of Dick Van Dyke on the show bearing his name.
MARY TYLER MOORE: Snow White lived.
(LAUGHTER)
DICK VAN DYKE, Actor: Oh, what a day.
(LAUGHTER)
JEFFREY BROWN: Over the years, she won seven Emmy Awards for her television roles, and an Oscar-nominated performance in the 1980 film “Ordinary People,” the story of a disintegrating family following a son's death.
Moore wrote and spoke of her own struggles, a battle with alcoholism, and with the diabetes she lived with for some 40 years. She was also a champion for animal rights.
Mary Tyler Moore was 80 years old.
A short time ago, I spoke with Dick Cavett. He interviewed Mary Tyler Moore a number of times over the years, and was a good friend.
SUMMARY: Called the nation's "satirist in chief," Jon Stewart’s comedic rants and skewering of the daily news have had far-reaching influence on media and politics. Now he's leaving "The Daily Show" after 16 years. Jeffrey Brown looks back at Stewart’s impact.
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour): One last zinger, one last laugh, one last bow. Jon Stewart takes his leave of “The Daily Show” tonight.
Jeffrey Brown has our look.
JON STEWART, Host, The Daily Show With Jon Stewart: Whose team are we on in the Middle East?
(LAUGHTER)
JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour): Jon Stewart has been called the nation’s satirist in chief, and recently he went at it, once again, with the commander in chief.
JON STEWART: We’re fighting with Iraqis to defeat ISIS, along with Iran, but, in Yemen, we’re fighting Iran with Iraqis and Saudis.
(LAUGHTER)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: That’s not quite right, but that’s OK.
(LAUGHTER)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: But, look…
JON STEWART: Whose team are…
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Look, here’s…
JON STEWART: Who are we bombing?
JEFFREY BROWN: It was President Obama’s seventh appearance on Stewart’s “Daily Show,” and his last.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I’m issuing a new executive order that Jon Stewart cannot leave the show.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
JEFFREY BROWN: But Stewart is leaving, after 16 years of a kind of faux newscast that took daily events and gave them a comedic, often pointed twist.
JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour): “In my 90-plus years, I have lived a multitude of lives,” so writes Norman Lear about a life that’s including bombing emissions over Europe in World War II, the founding of a leading political advocacy organization, and the consideration of some of the most seminal programs in television history, most famously “All in the Family.”
CARROLL O’CONNOR (actor): What are you kicking about? Ain’t you your wife always telling me that coloreds and whites ought to work together?
(LAUGHTER)
ROB REINER (actor): Not to stop Puerto Ricans from moving next door!
(LAUGHTER)
JEFFREY BROWN: It’s all captured in a new memoir, “Even This I Get to Experience.”
Norman Lear joins me now.
Welcome to you.
NORMAN LEAR, Author, “Even This I Get to Experience”: Thank you. I love being here.
JEFFREY BROWN: You had been writing television from the ’50s on. Were you dissatisfied with what television was doing? Did you want to blow it up in some sense?
(LAUGHTER)
NORMAN LEAR: No, actually, I was writing for live television. And I said to myself, someday, soon as I can, I have got to do a situation comedy.
JEFFREY BROWN: And when did you decide though that it had to be a different kind of situation comedy, something that was tackling something really not seen before?
NORMAN LEAR: I don’t ever recall making such a decision.
I read about a British show called “Till Death Us Do Part” about a father and son not unlike Archie and Mike. And I said, my God, that’s me and my dad. I have got to write about this.
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour): In two closely watched technology cases, the Supreme Court placed limits on law enforcement and on streaming video services. In a unanimous decision, the court decided police officers need a warrant to search cell phones. And, separately, six of the nine justices sided with broadcast networks against an Internet startup that sought to share their signals without paying a fee.
For more on today’s decisions, we turn as always to Marcia Coyle of “The National Law Journal.”
That first case, Marcia, sounds a little bit like, when is a cell phone not a cell phone?
(LAUGHTER)
MARCIA COYLE, The National Law Journal: Well, it was a fascinating case, a very straightforward decision by the chief justice.
Actually, it was two cases, Gwen, one from Boston and one from California. The cell phone owners had been lawfully arrested, one for concealed weapons and gang-related activity, the other for drug-related activity. One cell phone owner had a smartphone. The other had the older clip phone.
As you know and as we have talked about, a search is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment, generally, if police have a warrant, but there are exceptions to the warrant requirement that the court has recognized over the years. And that exception — one of the exceptions played out in the case today.
Police can search you after you have been arrested, generally for two reasons, one, to look for any weapons that might endanger the officer or the public, and also to preserve possible destruction of evidence — preserve destruction of evidence — preserve evidence that might be destruction.
Sorry about that.
GWEN IFILL: I got it.
SUMMARY: The Supreme Court heard a request by television broadcasters to shut down Aereo, a TV streaming tech startup that has potential to alter the business model of traditional broadcasting. For more on the case, Jeffrey Brown talks to former Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal and Gary Shapiro, CEO of Consumer Electronics Association.
JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): The major broadcast television networks have something to celebrate. Each has at least one new prime-time entertainment series that's drawn at least 10 million viewers. This comes as cable networks like AMC are drawing comparable or better ratings with series like "Breaking Bad" and "The Walking Dead."
But there's another important trend. The latest data show growing numbers of viewers watching shows on a delayed timeline through their video recorder or computer. Tonight, we look at the role of viewers, as seen by a pair of writers who have long chronicled the media business.
Hari Sreenivasan has the latest conversation in our series on the future of TV.
HARI SREENIVASAN (Newshour): So far in this series, we have heard from a disrupter named Aereo and we have heard from one of the established players, Comcast.
Today, for a perhaps 10,000-, 20,000-foot view, we're joined by Ken Auletta from The New Yorker and David Carr from The New York Times.
So, is this period now a transformative time for the viewer when it comes to television?
SUMMARY: Today's technology lets consumers watch shows without a cable connection or even a television. What's next for broadcast networks, cable providers and their places in the media market? Hari Sreenivasan talks to Brian Roberts of Comcast about staying competitive and the legal battles with companies who stream TV for free.
JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): Broadcast TV networks, no surprise, are clamoring for new viewers this fall. But beyond the traditional scramble for ads and ratings, the networks and the companies that own them are also preparing in to do battle with an entirely new set of competitors.
Hari Sreenivasan gets the perspective from one of the industry's biggest players tonight, part of our occasional series on the future of TV.
HARI SREENIVASAN (Newshour): With all the new ways to consume media, phones, tablets, laptops, you can now watch TV shows without a television set or a cable connection.
But established companies are reluctant to give up their hold on the media industry, among them, cable giant and owner of NBC, Comcast. It's the largest cable company in the U.S., and one of the biggest broadband Internet and home phone service providers. In 2011, it acquired NBC Universal, making it a major content player in the market.
HARI SREENIVASAN (Newshour): You can still shop for a TV at your local electronics store. And you can still use it to watch network and cable TV.
But that traditional model is just one in a dizzying array of options these days. On larger, thinner and, increasingly, HDTVs, viewers set their DVRs or TiVos to record their favorite cable and network shows. Or, using devices like a Roku box, Apple TV, or a gaming console like Xbox, consumers stream video from online subscription services like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu, which increasingly are creating their own shows.
By one estimate, the online video market attracts an average of 75 million viewers every day and streams nearly 40 billion videos each month in the U.S. alone. In fact, the future of TV increasingly doesn't even involve a TV, as more people turn to cell phones, tablets and laptops to view content.
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| Gwen Ifll (left), Judy Woodruff (right) |
I am in the business of slapping together what we call the first draft of history every day, so it has been a little jarring to suddenly be making history myself.
But that's what Judy Woodruff and I will be doing a little of beginning in September, when we combine forces to co-anchor the PBS NewsHour.
Each of us has spent decades covering Washington, especially its politics. Both of us have fielded our share of questions about what it's like to be a woman in the news business. But I can safely say our intent this time was not to make history. It was to continue to make a good news program.
Still, I have been taken aback -- and gratified -- by the response of so many to our new roles. At a gathering of television critics this week, Judy and I were asked to comment on whether what we are doing is historic.
Herewith, my response:
We would like for the day to come when it's not news anymore, when two women sitting side by side, who have the depth of experience that Judy and I bring to the subject at hand and to the task at hand, would just be another thing that girls see every day, but they don't see it every day right now. And I know we're both really proud, and I've gotten amazing reaction from young women who are touched by the idea that this is break-through for them, that they're going to see something different. So we want to live up to that.
And here is what Judy said:
We all talk about wouldn't it be great to be in a day and a time when it's not remarkable anymore, but it's still as exciting. This is a kind of a glass ceiling. Clearly, women have come a long way in journalism and in television news, and this is one more barrier that's been broken down. So we celebrate that, but now it's time to get to work.
And, Judy added, we're not the first anyway. Amy Poehler and Tina Fey broke that barrier on Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update." We're just doing it for real.
We are turning a page here at the PBS NewsHour -- expanding the program to seven days (with weekend anchor Hari Sreenivasan), freshening the look and the feel of the broadcast, while not sacrificing what we know to be important.
Hari put it this way:
Over time you're going to say, 'You know what, who is going to make sense of this for me at the end of the day,' whether it's a lean-back or lean-forward experience on a weekday or a weeknight or on air or online. 'Who is going to help me understand what just happened and why it happened?' Because I think, in my opinion, opinion is cheap. Fact is expensive, and we're still in the fact business, and I think that over time you're going to see that, while we can't get to the plane crash as fast as somebody who was on the plane crash, we can help you understand why it happened.
Opinion is cheap. Fact is expensive. I warned Hari that I intend to steal that line, because it perfectly sums up what is essential about programs like the PBS NewsHour and Washington Week (where I will continue to spend my Friday nights).
There are plenty of places on television to find out what other people think about the issues of the day. But if you're looking for news programs designed to help you decide what you think, the pool of destinations continues to shrink.
That's where we come in. And if we make a little history on the way to that destination, so be it.
SUMMARY: There's money in the banana stand, but what about in streaming entertainment? Traditional TV shows are showing up on online-only venues, including "Arrested Development," which is getting a second wind on Netflix after being canceled in 2006. Gwen Ifill talks to show producer Brian Grazer and Eric Deggans of the Tampa Bay Times.
SUMMARY: Internet television service Aereo uses free signals from local stations and streams content online for a small fee. But several traditional broadcast companies, including PBS, Fox and CBS, have sued Aereo over copyright violations. Hari Sreenivasan discusses the details with The Washington Post's Cecilia Kang.
JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): Now we look at new efforts to bring television online in a way that could alter the broadcast landscape.
It's about a company called Aereo, which picks up free signals from local TV stations and streams them for a small fee. Some broadcasters, including FOX, Univision, NBC-Universal, CBS, and PBS sued, accusing Aereo of copyright violations. A federal court of appeals recently ruled that Aereo could provide network shows.
This week, FOX and Univision fired a warning shot in response, suggesting that they may one day provide television programming only through cable.
SUMMARY: The Supreme Court dismissed fines against broadcasters who violated FCC indecency policies but did not address whether the government has the authority to regulate indecency on broadcast TV. The justices also said unions must let nonmembers object to unexpected fee increases that all workers are required to pay in a closed-shop.
RAY SUAREZ (Newshour): It was a day of big decisions at the Supreme Court. The justices issued three major opinions, but the fate of the highly anticipated health care and immigration cases won't be known until next week.
Marcia Coyle of The National Law Journal was in the courtroom today and is here tell us more.
And, Marcia, on the big broadcast indecency question, the justices called the FCC rules vague. They sided with the broadcasters. But did they take on the big First Amendment questions having to do with the regulating of content on broadcast television?
MARCIA COYLE, The National Law Journal: No, they didn't, Ray.
A Mike Wallace* interview was often harsh, unsympathetic even. The "60 Minutes" icon was never reluctant to confront the feared or the famous -- from Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini to Malcolm X to pitcher Roger Clemens. Wallace, 93, died Saturday. Morley Safer and Jeff Fager of CBS reflect on Wallace's career with Jeffrey Brown.
MIKE WALLACE, "60 Minutes:" I don't understand. They must be ashamed of something.
MAN: What is this?
MIKE WALLACE: This is "60 Minutes."
KWAME HOLMAN (Newshour): The Mike Wallace interview was legendary as the answers it elicited. And his career was indelibly linked to "60 Minutes," the pioneering CBS News program he joined at its inception in 1968.
Reality television needs reformation.
As a longtime fan of even the louchest reality shows — “The Bachelor,” “America’s Next Top Model,” you name it — I never thought I’d say that. Reform, I long believed, would cost the vaudeville genre its freaky and subversive status as a fact-fiction hybrid. We’d lose all the surprises, comic and dramatic, generated by reality’s artful and mischievous line-walking.
But the suicide of Russell Armstrong, a middle-aged investor with financial problems who appeared as a rich middle-aged investor on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” on Aug. 15, has convinced me otherwise. I should have said something sooner. The whole genre needs an overhaul. The longtime modus operandi of reality television has damaged the shows’ participants, the TV business and the public trust.
