A scene about midway through tomorrow night’s season finale of “The West Wing” illustrates everything that network television is capable of achieving, yet rarely does.
A scene at the end of the episode, however, illustrates something that network television does far too often and should stop doing.
President Bartlet stands alone in the center aisle of a cathedral and has it out with God. Upset over the death of his long-time assistant in a senseless car crash, the President of the United States calls the King of the Universe a “son of a bitch” and “a feckless thug.”
It’s a challenging monologue – deeply moving, beautifully written, marvelously acted, and bound to be controversial – in short, the kind of substance most of us look for in a TV series aimed at grownups.
Cut to the show’s last scene, and NBC leaves us hanging until next fall. Yes, fans, don’t all groan at once, but just like last year, “The West Wing” is ending the season in a cliffhanger, the kind of device that leaves those very same grown-up viewers feeling like they’ve been treated like children.
Hello, NBC? I’ve got some news for you: You don’t need a cliffhanger ending in May to ensure that fans of “The West Wing” will tune in for the season premiere in September. Your show is a hit – leaving the show’s fans in suspense for three-and-a-half months over a key plot point can only make them mad at you.
And isn’t the point of your business to attract viewers rather than repel them?
The big networks are doing a lot of things these days to make viewers mad. Lately, viewers have been complaining about three things: the length and frequency of commercial breaks, which are making TV shows ever-more difficult to follow; the insanity of midseason reruns resulting from the fact that there are too few episodes to fill a season anymore; and the increasing use of on-screen billboards for upcoming shows during the shows they love, including “The West Wing.”
With all these things interfering with viewers’ ability to enjoy their shows, NBC President Bob Wright has recently become obsessed with a drama series on another network – “The Sopranos” on HBO.
He recently memoed TV producers to solicit their input into how NBC can get away with making a drama series as compelling as “The Sopranos” – with all its R-rated violence, sex and profanity – without offending NBC’s viewers and advertisers.
He seems to be envious of the freedom enjoyed by HBO, a pay-cable channel with no advertisingthat has earned a reputation for pushing the envelope on program contents.
It’s a shame he feels that way because NBC currently has the best drama on broadcast television – “The West Wing.” It’s well-acted and intelligently written – a pleasure to watch if it weren’t for reruns, endless commercial breaks and distracting billboards.
These are the elements that have viewers abandoning network television – not the fact that NBC is restrained by traditional broadcast standards from featuring nudity and four-letter words.
The answer for networks such as NBC is not to find ways to imitate HBO, but to treat its own great shows – like “The West Wing” – with respect.
Respect your shows and respect your viewers, and you won’t need cliffhanger endings to get them tuning in for more.