‘Frontline’ weighs cost of ‘Diet Wars’

Two-thirds of Americans are overweight. About half that many are obese. And a whole bunch of them end up caught by TV cameras, midriffs bouncing in slow-motion, in what is fast becoming the grand tradition of boy-are-we-fat television reportage.

In keeping with the conventions of the genre, PBS’ “Frontline” series airs its “Diet Wars” documentary tonight, depicting ambling herds of headless Gargantuan Americans doing the walk ‘n’ graze of shame. Recent studies show obesity to be rapidly overtaking smoking as the No. 1 cause of preventable death in the United States. Americans -- maybe even some of the ones depicted here -- are spending $40 billion a year on diet books and other weight-loss products, many of which offer contradictory, sometimes nullifying, advice. And still, despite stampeding to Atkins, Pritikin, South Beach and other diet programs, Americans, like “Airplane’s” Leon, are getting larger.

Despite the provocative title, “Diet Wars” wanders somewhat guilelessly into the fray, led by congenial “Frontline” correspondent Steve Talbot. He gives battling nutritional spokes-bots their turn at the pulpit, but his layman’s approach and zippy demeanor keep him from probing too deeply.

“Until this assignment,” says the former “Leave It to Beaver” regular, “I’d never thought much about America’s obsession with losing weight.” And it shows. (I mention Talbot’s child-actor past, by the way, only because he does, and at the first possible opportunity.) “Growing up in the ‘50s, no one seemed to care about weight,” he says, obviously blocking out the ubiquitous hamburger patty/cottage cheese combo of that era. From there, the program segues into scenes of June Cleaver contending with a measuring cup and Beaver’s friend Gilbert, played by our trusty correspondent, being asked to stay for dinner. This to illustrate how we now live in a nutritional minefield in which even Jerry Mathers, who played Beaver, could grow up to be both a spokesman for Jenny Craig and a diabetes sufferer.

Soon after learning that he is teetering on the brink of obesity -- unbelievably, it takes a physician to make the shocked Talbot aware of his surfeit -- Talbot embarks on an exploratory mission into the world of diet programs. Considering the scope and gravity of the epidemic, not to mention the fact that dieting hardly ranks as an esoteric pursuit, framing this story with this correspondent’s own maiden voyage to the land of Sansabelt trousers seems like a questionable choice.

In contrast to ABC News’ recent hard-hitting Peter Jennings special, “Obesity in America: How to Get Fat Without Really Trying,” which delved far deeper into some of the more recondite causes of the epidemic -- junk-food marketing to children, tie-ins, corn subsidies and their effect on the USDA food pyramid, marketing experts who refer to kids as “a very dynamic audience” -- “Diet Wars” seems to skid contentedly along the surface like an Arctic walrus navigating an ice floe after a 6,000-clam dinner.

Processed junk foods, huge portions, waitresses at Friday’s who keep pushing the breadsticks even after one has clearly ordered the Atkins meal and, especially, the sad effects of the early ‘90s’ “low-fat” craze are all touched on, but not terribly deeply.

Along his way, Talbot discovers shocking facts about the high incidence of Type 2 diabetes in children as young as 14, even heart disease in children as young as 12, but he seems more interested in his own journey of discovery. “Long-term major weight loss is possible,” Talbot concludes, “but few people have the discipline to keep it off, even in the supportive atmosphere of Weight Watchers. And that, scientists say, is what makes America’s weight problem so very serious. It’s an issue, I realize, that totally eclipses my own quest to lose weight.” Well, then it must really be some big, fat deal.

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‘Frontline: Diet Wars’

Where: PBS

When: 9-10 tonight

Correspondent...Steve Talbot

Executive producer (for “Frontline”), David Fanning. Producer, Jon Palfreman.