The Glitz Is Gone - TV Series, Movies Are Reflecting The New Economic Reality

Maj. John MacGillis, better known as “Major Dad,” had to moonlight at a convenience store a few weeks ago. The Seavers have become the foster family to a homeless teen-ager on “Growing Pains.” On “Perfect Strangers,” newlyweds Larry and Jennifer can’t afford the payments on their new house and have asked Balki and Marianne to live with them and split expenses.

The Thacher clan of “Life Goes On” are all pitching in after the family restaurant went up in flames. Gary Ewing is about to go belly up on “Knots Landing” after a bad financial investment.

Times are tough even in the make-believe world of series television. Gone are the glitzy, glamorous 1980s, when TV audiences wallowed in the lives of the rich and famous denizens of “Dallas” and “Dynasty.”

Turn on the TV these days and you’ll quickly notice that the recession has hit prime-time.

Television movies also are dealing with the economic slump. This winter, CBS has scheduled two dramas--”Face of a Stranger,” starring Tyne Daly and Gena Rowlands, and “Christmas on Division Street,” with Fred Savage and Hume Cronyn--that deal with the plight of the homeless.

Even ABC’s four-hour “Dynasty: The Reunion,” airing tonight and Tuesday (see related story), is downscaled to reflect the post-Reagan Administration decade.

“I don’t think you can portray a ‘Dynasty’-type reality in 1991,” said Ron Cowen, creator and executive producer of NBC’s drama series “Sisters.” “I think it would appear silly unless you are doing it for humor.”

“Dallas” creator David Jacobs said that the series would be very different if it was premiering in 1991. “The execution would be different,” he said. “It would be much more about the soul of the participants than their wallets.”

“There was this false glitz in the 1980s,” explained Rick Hawkins, executive producer of CBS’ popular comedy “Major Dad.” “We said, ‘We are Americans. We are the most successful.’ I think that wasn’t reality. I think the ‘90s are going to be about paying for the 1980s.”

Unlike “Dallas” and “Dynasty,” CBS’ prime-time soap “Knots Landing” is thriving in its 13th season. “ ‘Knots Landing’ will run forever because the economy doesn’t affect the show,” said Jacobs, who created the series and serves as its executive producer. “I remember very consciously being told to get the show out of the cul-de-sac--that it was too middle-class. So we made Abby richer and had fabulous beach houses. But now we are getting back to family stories.”

Said Jacobs: “I don’t think we sit around and say, ‘The economy is changing. Let’s reflect it.’ But Gary Ewing is losing all of his money this year and losing it in an honorable way.”

Cowen believes that series can still be entertaining while addressing current economic issues. “These are very insecure times,” he said. “It plays an enormous part in people’s lives, no matter what your socioeconomic level. In our series, everybody is on different places on the economic scale. Teddy is virtually homeless. Frankie is one of those young highly successful overachievers. John lost his job and Georgie had to go to work in real estate.”

“These are economic hard times,” said Michael Braverman, executive producer of ABC’s dramatic series “Life Goes On.” “We reflect our society during these economic difficulties. We even said the word recession on our show. Our characters live close to the edge, almost paycheck to paycheck, as do most Americans. We try to stay current. We work about 8 to 10 weeks ahead.”

Dan Wilcox, executive producer of ABC’s long-running comedy series “Growing Pains,” said that TV has grown up a lot from the naive, cheery “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” era of the 1950s. “There was a pretty big window of change in the 1970s with all the Norman Lear shows, which were about nothing but issues,” he said. “Then suddenly things shut down for about 10 years and now they seem to be opening again. It may have been a left-wing move (in the 1970s), followed by a right-wing counterrevolution. And now the pendulum may be starting to swing back.”

This fall, Wilcox introduced the homeless 15-year-old Luke (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) on “Growing Pains.” “I had a couple of talks with Kirk Cameron, whose character of Mike over the years had been a con-artist,” Wilcox said. “He wanted the character to grow up. I looked for a way to bring a young teen-ager into the show to whom Mike would become the primary parent. The quickest way I thought of doing that without introducing a relative was to get a homeless kid off the street who had no family and bring him into the Seaver household.”

Despite best intentions, television often looks at the plight of the homeless with rose-colored glasses. Remember when Hope worked at the clean, uncrowded shelter on “thirtysomething” last year?

Wilcox admits “the truth is much worse than what we are showing. There’s a lot of teen-age prostitution and drugs. We are showing a relatively clean kid who has found a way to exist on the street.”

The show that consistently casts its satirical eye on economic and social concerns is Fox’s irreverent comedy series “In Living Color.” One of its most popular characters is the homeless wino Anton Jackson, played by Damon Wayans. Tamara Rawitt, producer of the Emmy-winning series, said that the show wouldn’t have been embraced during the “Dynasty” and “Dallas” era.

“I think the show has enormous social impact and it is born out of the conscious-raising which has culminated over the past decade,” she said. “I think people know that problems have existed and they have got to be repaired and healed. We need to listen and look at what is going on in this world. Anton has become a great spokesperson for comedy, but also for the plight that is pervasive in this country.”

“I think Americans are more sophisticated now,” Hawkins said. “In the past they wanted TV to be fantasy. Now they like to see it reflected in their lives. We dealt with the Gulf War last season and all the response from the viewers was (that) they appreciated it. We are the first half-hour military family comedy based on reality, though we do at times exaggerate reality for humor. We have tried to reflect in small ways, in every episode, the actual life of (Marine) officers trying to make ends meet. Our main story arc for this season is trying to save the base. I went around to a lot of different bases and we will be showing all the ways to keep their base open. Hopefully, it will be interesting in an amusing way.”

Not everyone is impressed with how television handles social and economic problems. “I think there is a certain amount of intellectual laziness involved,” said University of Southern California psychologist Chaytor Mason. “If they read the papers, they get ideas. It’s a cheap way to get an idea. I don’t think there has been an inspired piece of writing on TV in years.”

“It’s good (that) TV is doing more programs on the poor,” said Jonathan Kozol, educator and author of the current book “Savage Inequalities,” which examines inequalities in the American education system. “But television sanitizes the issue. It never shows why people are poor. It always implies the situation. They have sort of a 19th-Century approach: Lady Bountiful brings cookies to the homeless shelter.”

The only way television can improve, Kozol said, is if it gets a conscience. “They (advertisers) don’t think they can sell their products if they appeal to the best in human beings. They are reluctant to touch our hearts except in sentimental ways: ‘Here is a poor kid and Mrs. Jones will take him into the house.’ They sanitize the stories so much, it no longer represents the desperation of the poor people.”