Why Viewers Are Fleeing Networks

The pair of articles about producer Steven Bochco’s thus-far rejected “R-rated prime-time series”--the first by John Lippman, the second by Rick Du Brow--raise two separate issues. The first is that cable TV “is pulling away bored network viewers with its adult-themed programming” (as Lippman wrote in “ABC Frustrates Bochco Plan for R-Rated Series,” Business, Feb. 14). The second is that Bochco’s proposed series represents what the networks need to meet that black-cloud threat. Both are troubling and somewhat erroneous assessments.

It’s quite true that network shares of television audiences have dropped as cable TV has proliferated. Statistics bear this out.

But cable is “pulling” away “bored” network viewers with its adult-themed programming? Not quite true. As a longtime and voracious TV consumer, and child of the small-screen, I need to scream “WAIT!” and let the network powers-that-be know that we haven’t defected over the years out of “boredom” but rather out of rage and frustration.

We haven’t been running to cable. We’ve been running away from the networks throughout a decade of Chicken Little programming that (a) didn’t promote viewer loyalty, and (b) didn’t maintain a schedule-wide identity with which viewers could affiliate. It left us dazed, confused and betrayed--not bored. As a friend of mine says, “I have a full-time job during the day; I don’t need a part-time one at night--and that is what network-TV watching has turned into.”

Imagine trying to hop a ride to work each day on a city bus that changed its route and its schedule every week, and you’ll begin to get a grip on what it’s been like out here trying to watch network TV since the early 1980s. We gave up and took our cars. That’s cable TV.

What’s also not quite true is Lippman’s suggestion that cable’s lure is its adult-themed programming. As of March, 1991, the top 10 basic-cable networks were ESPN, CNN, TBS, USA, Nickelodeon, Discovery, MTV, C-SPAN, TNT and the Nashville Network--hardly the repositories of “adult” themes.

The premium channels (HBO, Cinemax, Showtime) do offer racier fare, and they are bolder in what they both buy and produce, but their original programming is their calling card, not necessarily the R rating.

Bochco does have a point: TV needs to try to be as grown-up as its audience. But though I defer to his experience and admire the man and his work, I disagree with his conclusions that becoming more adult “is one of the ways you compete” against cable, and that his “R-rated drama” proposal was rejected at ABC because “it scared them” (as he told Du Brow in “Can the Bochco-ABC Marriage Be Saved?,” Calendar, Feb. 15).

If the first assumption is to be believed, why, then, are “Cheers,” “Unsolved Mysteries,” “Roseanne,” “Full House,” “60 Minutes,” “Murphy Brown,” “Northern Exposure,” “Major Dad,” “Murder, She Wrote,” “The Simpsons” and “Married . . . With Children” among the most popular shows on television? And why are “Twin Peaks” and “thirtysomething” off the air?

Maybe we don’t want good sex and realistic violence and frank language--of which I’m a fan--interrupted by commercials for tampons and peanut butter. That’s why we watch uninterrupted movies on HBO or at the theater. (That was also one of the things wrong with Bochco’s otherwise interesting “Cop Rock” series: rap and ballads and heated criminal exchanges, PLUS commercials? No thanks.)

Bochco, who has already used a bare tush or two in his day on screen, states that “it is no longer good enough to be good . . . being good doesn’t mean anything anymore.” Explain that to those who make “Cheers,” “Northern Exposure,” “Roseanne” and “The Simpsons.”

Bochco said, “The extent to which (the networks) have lost a significant part of their viewing audience says we haven’t changed enough in taste and viewing habits.” Really? I think some in the viewing audience would disagree. I sometimes think the industry has changed too much when it comes to taste and viewing habits.

Trying to become more adult in programming and “keep up” with cable has produced tastelessness in primetime and elsewhere. Look at some of the results: “L.A. Law’s” oh-so-cute reference to douching, “Saturday Night Live’s” recent incredibly racist Mike Tyson courtroom sketch, “Uncle Buck’s” infamous “you suck” retort. Wow. How incredibly clever, witty and progressive.

This is not about what doesn’t belong on TV. It’s not about “R-rated drama” (a term I think is half the problem). I long for more realistic and mature material and ideas. “thirtysomething,” for one, offered both with grace and intelligence and irreverence and insight.

“Adult” material should always be welcome, because adults watch TV. What this is about is realizing that the viewing audience is not clamoring for nudity and frank language on network TV. That isn’t the reason we tune into cable.

Adult material should be part of a package, not the package itself. Simply imploring a need for nudity and language to usher us into the ‘90s doesn’t wash.