An Age-Old Question Persists in Television

Older people in Hollywood are pretty ticked off. Not in a cute way, like that old lady (it’s actually producer David E. Kelley’s late grandmother) shouting “You stinker!” during the closing credits on “The Practice” and “Ally McBeal,” but really ticked off, and plenty frustrated.

Just consider what happened last week. On Oct. 23, 28 members of the Writers Guild of America announced a class-action law suit against the major networks, studios and talent agencies, citing a “systematic” pattern of age discrimination denying older writers employment. The same day, the Screen Actors Guild unveiled plans to study ageism in prime-time television, examining the casting and portrayal of characters age 40 and over.

Dick Van Dyke--star of CBS’ “Diagnosis Murder,” the oldest-skewing show on network television based on its audience composition--subsequently told AP Radio that he intends to retire after this season. “Tastes have changed. Television’s going--as far as I’m concerned--downhill, and I’m an anachronism,” lamented the actor, who will turn 75 in December.

Though Van Dyke--who noted last year in a letter to The Times that he remains fully capable of kicking my butt, only one reason he is treated deferentially in this space--later softened those remarks, he was clearly articulating a viewpoint shared by many of his contemporaries.

What’s most notable about this push for recognition and opportunity, however, is how strongly the youth-obsessed tide keeps flowing in the opposite direction. The big story within executive suites during the new television season, in fact, has focused on the graying of ABC’s audience--almost entirely due to what once appeared to be the network’s savior, “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.”

The rap on game shows in industry circles has always been they attract an older audience--including such popular franchises as “Wheel of Fortune,” “Jeopardy!” and “The Price is Right”--meaning such programs are less lucrative and desirable to advertisers than series with a smaller overall audience reaching more young adults.

In its initial stages, “Millionaire” stunningly bucked that trend--reeling in hordes of kids, teenagers and adults under the age of 35.

The show was such a juggernaut last spring ABC opted to expand it to four weekly editions. As the new TV season began, Jessica Reif Cohen, a Merrill Lynch analyst who tracks entertainment stocks, estimated “Millionaire” could become prime time’s first billion-dollar show, calculating potential revenue from 200 episodes (remember, it plays four times a week, compared with one “ER” or “Friends”) over an entire calendar year.

For ABC parent Disney, a not-so-funny thing happened on the way to the bank. Viewing of “Millionaire” has dropped roughly 30% compared with last season, and--most significantly from a financial standpoint--the show’s younger audience is jumping ship even faster.

All of this has led to gleeful talk by the other networks regarding median viewer age--referring to a program’s audience midpoint, meaning an equal number of viewers falls above and below that line.

NBC has led this charge, noting that although overall viewing is down for its revised “Must-See TV” schedule, the programs are skewing younger than a year ago, meaning a higher percentage of “Will & Grace” viewers are in their 20s and 30s than was the case with former Thursday anchor “Frasier.” Even CBS--long caricatured as network TV’s resident Methuselah--joined in the chorus after tasting from “Survivor’s” fountain of youth, introducing the network to millions of MTV-generation viewers who associate “60 Minutes” with the time lapse between lunch and sixth period.

To the networks, this is hardly an academic discussion. CBS averaged more viewers than NBC in prime time last season but sold hundreds of millions of dollars less in advance advertising because its audience was appreciably older.

Small wonder so much buzz has surrounded “Millionaire,” whose median age has slipped from 44 last November to 48 when it came back as a series in first-quarter 2000 to 55 this fall. (The aforementioned “Diagnosis Murder,” facing the unenviable assignment of clapping on opposite “ER,” rings in at a median age of 60.)

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On an economic level, then, “getting older” is about as pejorative a phrase as any network suit is apt to hear. Rival executives contend if the current drift continues, ABC could end up squandering a considerable portion of unsold advertising time providing free spots to “Millionaire” sponsors, known as “make-goods,” to compensate for the ratings shortfall.

Age thus has a direct impact on network profitability and the longevity of executives empowered to hire older writers and actors. So while these industry veterans have a legitimate ax to grind, until there’s a fundamental shift in the existing system, it’s hard to see how studies and lawsuits will bring about any real change. Even shame, which proved moderately effective in encouraging racial diversity last year, seems unlikely to compel programmers to be more hospitable toward writers and actors who first think of David Janssen when someone mentions “The Fugitive.”

A few can at least laugh at their plight. In a recent piece for the WGA’s magazine Written By, writer Steve Young (no, not the former quarterback) outlined strategies for youth-challenged scribes, among them purging their resumes of any pre-1997 credits. “You want to be hot, not legendary,” he advises. “Unless you’re Larry Gelbart, drop ‘MASH.’ ”

If the clucking about median ages sounds suspiciously like the networks’ latest means of spinning ratings data--”Sure, we’re losing, but we’re No. 1 among near-sighted women 35 to 49 with one leg shorter than the other!”--it highlights the emphasis on youth that gives rise to ageism. And as long as profit-conscious executives presume 20-somethings are best able to write for and appeal to 20-somethings, they’re more apt to risk parting with a little pocket change to settle lawsuits than muster the courage to employ their disenfranchised elders, for whom the ultimate goal remains the chance to work, not welfare.

So if you’re over 40 and want to be a millionaire in the TV industry, the present options appear sadly limited to the following: Discover a vaccine to halt the aging process; get a good lawyer, and if all else fails “accidentally” trip in the lobby at Time Warner or Viacom; be a millionaire already, and take a seat on the ottoman alongside Dick Van Dyke.

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Brian Lowry’s column appears on Wednesdays. He can be reached at brian.lowry@latimes.com.