Television Reviews : Objectivity Is Caged in ‘Backstage at the Zoo’

It’s all happening at the zoo . . . everything noble and gee-whiz wonderful. Or so the superficial, promotional “Backstage at the Zoo” would have you believe.

A four-part series of half-hours, starting tonight at 7:35 and running through Friday on Channel 28, “Backstage” has all the depth--and softheadedness--of a prolonged commercial. The repeated message: Zoos are playing a great part in animal conservation. This is neither a probing nor balanced look at the role of zoos.

Produced, written and annoyingly hosted by Palo Miller (actor Bruce Boxleitner superfluously “introduces” each episode), “Backstage” doesn’t address questions such as how captivity affects the well-being of animals. It’s too caught up pretending that zookeepers are practically heroes.

Through its own inanity, “Backstage” reveals that this isn’t always the case. For example, there’s the moment in Thursday’s episode when one of the praised keepers says he likes to “agitate (a male gorilla) every day about a half-dozen times” and, laughing, demonstrates how he does so--antagonizing the caged animal until it slams a glass partition hard with its arm and runs off to another corner of its close quarters.

We do see ample proof of many zoos’ good works--particularly impressive (if saddening) when they involve species that now exist only in zoos. But these facts are presented by Miller in such a vexing way that viewers will find themselves identifying with that harried gorilla. Miller keeps spouting slogans--both of these, for example, in one show: “Zookeepers--they’re the front line in the battle against extinction.” “Zookeepers--they used to be the one person (sic) at the zoo you never saw.”

These are irritating not only because of the ad-like phrasing but also because they’re highly questionable. Are zookeepers--rather than, say, in-the-field conservationists-- really “in the front line”? And when were they so hidden from the view of zoo visitors?

Zoos are more than diversions for fauna-gawkers. But visiting one is a mixed experience for many. It’s fun to see healthy, happy, well-cared-for animals; it’s distressing to see those who are clearly suffering in confinement. Animals in the wild aren’t the only ones that are endangered--but you only get a sense of that by accident in this disappointing series.