COMMENTARY
Alan Pergament: 'Boston Legal' takes on an age-old debate
It was one of the more memorable experiences during one of the 50 or so television critics press tours I’ve attended over 25 years. Many, many years ago, an advertising executive spoke to critics about demographics — the age groups that have been so important in decisions about what TV shows have been made for decades.
At one point, the ad executive joked, “The average age of a CBS viewer is dead.”
Critics roared. His point, in the pre-“Survivor,” pre-“CSI” era, was that CBS series attracted older viewers, which advertisers didn’t care about all that much.
The advertising meeting came to mind while watching the semifinal episode Monday of “Boston Legal,” which addressed the scarcity of programs aimed at viewers 50 and older.
You have to give ABC credit. It allowed writer-producer David E. Kelley to take several shots at the direction broadcast television is heading. The teleplay, written by three people including Kelley, had a subplot in which attorney Carl Sack (John Larroquette) took a case inspired by Catherine Piper (Betty White) that concerned broadcast television’s belief that viewers over the age of 50 are irrelevant.
Sack argued passionately before Judge Clark Brown (Henry Gibson) that broadcast television’s refusal to make shows that appeal to older viewers is discriminatory because the airwaves are a public trust. He added those viewers don’t want to watch the reality shows, the game shows and the sex-crazed shows aimed at younger viewers that appeal more to advertisers.
“Old people, the ones with intelligence don’t want to watch that crap,” argued Sack. “We’re fed up. The networks might think we’re dead but we’re not. We’re very much alive, with working brains. Give us something to watch, damn it.”
At one point, Sack was about to say that “Boston Legal” is the only TV show “unafraid to have its stars over 50,” but he stopped himself. “I can’t say it because that would break the wall,” said Sack, alluding to the imaginary fourth wall that separates the audience from the action of a performance.
Of course, characters in “Boston Legal” often come close to breaking the wall by indirectly discussing things that pertain to the show. In the closing scene Monday, Alan Shore (James Spader) and Denny Crane (William Shatner) indirectly discussed the lack of promotion for the show.
Judge Brown, noting that there are 87 million people in the demographic the networks ignore and they spend more time watching TV than younger people, allowed the case to proceed. (Remember, it is a TV series, where reality doesn’t have to get in the way of law).
“If I am to assume that the industry is not run by a bunch of idiots, I can only conclude that it is dominated by prejudice,” ruled the judge.
He was making a big assumption. As that advertising executive told critics years ago, advertisers theorize that older viewers are more likely to have decided the brand of soda, cars or detergent they buy, so trying to persuade them to change is less fruitful than enticing younger people who are still deciding their product preferences.
That’s why network television shows primarily appeal to viewers ages 18 through 49. For a while, CBS tried to make Sack’s argument that older viewers were more valuable because they had more money to spend. But once “Survivor” led the way to attracting younger viewers, it stopped emphasizing that message.
“Legal” will end its absurd, comically rich, award-winning, five-year run with a two-hour finale Monday that is isn’t exactly being heavily promoted. ABC gave Kelley 13 episodes to wrap things up after he allowed other writer-producers to remake “Life on Mars” after the network didn’t care for Kelley’s original pilot.
In the “Legal” finale, the financially struggling firm of Crane Poole and Schmidt is seeking a buyer; Shore is heading to the Supreme Court of the United States to ask it to allow Crane to have access to a non FDA-approved drug that would slow down his rapidly progressing Alzheimer’s; and Sack and Shirley Schmidt (Candice Bergen) apparently are heading to the altar.
ABC, meanwhile, has announced its long-term plan to replace “Boston Legal.” At 10 p. m. Monday, March 9, ABC will replace “What Would You Do” with “Castle,” in which Nathan Fillion plays a mystery novelist who learns that a copycat killer is staging murder scenes that have been depicted in his novels. It co-stars Lackawanna’s Ruben Santiago-Hudson and has a mix of veteran and younger actors, which suggests ABC won’t be ignoring older viewers after all.
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