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Written by Knight Ridder
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Wednesday, 14 June 2006 |
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Here’s a new wrinkle for you: Old is becoming TV’s hot new thing.
At age 59, James Woods will be starring this fall in his first weekly television series , playing a hotshot attorney who doesn’t play by the rules while teaching a bunch of hotshot novices how to play to win in CBS’ “Shark.”
Another new cutthroat TV lawyer will be Victor Garber, 57, as the lead in Fox’s “Justice,” a step up from his supporting role on “Alias.”
Ted Danson, who was a more prototypical lead when “Cheers” made its debut 24 years ago, is now 58 and set to be the star of the ABC group therapy comedy “Help Me Help You.”
Then there’s NBC’s “Twenty Good Years,” a comedy starring John Lithgow, 60, and Jeffrey Tambor, 61, as longtime friends who realize they’re heading into the home stretch of their lives and want to have some fun before they hit the finish line.
It wasn’t that long ago that old TV acquaintances were forgotten and never brought to mind — save for reunion shows. That is starting to change.
Maybe it’s because there’s a move in some industry circles to push advertisers toward older viewers than the 18- to 49-year-olds over which marketers have long obsessed.
“Young people may be cool and exciting, but they don’t have the money,” Ken Dychtwald said. Dychtwald is a Baby Boom generation expert enlisted by cable nostalgia channel TV Land to make the case for what they tout as “the new power demographic” of viewers age 40 to 59. In any case, with overall viewership threatened by younger viewers replacing their parents’ addiction to the tube with surfing the Internet, playing video games and text messaging, it behooves the networks to cast a wider net.
Shows built around older characters once were a TV staple, but that changed in the 1990s with the success of “Friends.”
But the success of reality shows, such as “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race,” showcasing characters ranging from students to senior citizens has helped change the perception of what viewers of all ages will accept.
Recent years have seen the inclusion of James Caan, 66, on NBC’s “Las Vegas” and William Shatner, 75, on ABC’s “Boston Legal,” to say nothing of Shatner’s castmate, Candice Bergen, who is a fabulous-looking 60.
We’re now seeing on-air personalities such as “American Idol” champ Taylor Hicks and CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who once might have been sent to a salon for requisite dye jobs, actually celebrating their prematurely gray `dos.’
Much already has been made of the fact that when ABC News decided to replace Elizabeth Vargas, 43, as its weeknight newscaster, it turned to Charles Gibson, 20 years her senior.
When NBC needed a replacement for Katie Couric, 49, it went with Meredith Vieira, 52. “The CBS Evening News” with Bob Schieffer, 68, has been the only nightly network newscast to add viewers this past season.
But the news always has been one place on TV where talent doesn’t come stamped with expiration dates. It wasn’t that long ago that AARP-eligible Dan Rather, Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw held down the top jobs at their respective networks. Lines on the face and a touch of gray are welcome. Without retirement age correspondents, “60 Minutes” would have trouble filling an hour each week.
But in prime-time dramas and comedies, the guiding philosophy has tended to be beauty before age, especially among series leads.
Why should prime time be off-limits to those in the prime of their lives? | Only registered users can write comments.
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