Drinking Offense

Although the bad taste and questionable decision-making associated with TV programming have nearly driven me to write the “powers that be” any number of times in the past, I have never followed through. However, a character in the CBS show “Cybill” has finally done the trick. I am speaking of Cybill Shepherd’s friend Mary Ann (played by Christine Baranski), whom CBS presents as a comically neurotic lush. The presentation of an individual who is clearly an alcoholic as a hip and comedic character is not only not funny, it is patently irresponsible. There is nothing humorous about the thousands of lives who have been damaged or destroyed by alcoholism.

Barbara B. Bergmann, Claremont