Word: mansonized
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Even for the increasingly sensational network magazine shows, the ghoulish display last week was something of a milestone. In addition to the Manson hour -- the first weekly episode of ABC's new Turning Point series -- serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and his father were brought together for a session on Dateline NBC. CBS's 48 Hours spent another hour exploring the case of Russell Obremski, convicted of two Oregon murders in 1969 and recently freed on parole. And NBC's Now served up its own creepy sociopath: a man in prison for kidnapping untold numbers of children from their...
Unspeakable is how some were describing the state of network news. TV reviewers were righteously appalled that ABC would dredge up the Manson horrors once again. Producers at all three networks were privately embarrassed at the confluence of crime stories. The warden at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Wisconsin was fed up; he banned future interviews for Dahmer, who has already talked to Inside Edition and ABC's Day One and had Sally Jessy Raphael next in line...
...that it deterred viewers. The Manson show drew a smashing 18.1 rating (meaning 18.1% of all U.S. TV homes were tuned in), which will probably land it in the weekly Top 10. The Dahmer episode of Dateline (which also included a teary Nancy Kerrigan interview) got a 15.3 rating, the show's highest ever. Undoubtedly, the crime wave will continue -- and network news producers will continue to grit their teeth and hope their old journalism- . school teachers aren't watching...
...Manson show seemed to crystallize the dilemma. At a press conference, ABC News president Roone Arledge described the in-house debate over whether to launch Turning Point with the Manson show or with another, softer program about a couple who gave birth to sextuplets. Picking Manson, said Arledge with unusual candor, was a matter of "pragmatism" -- a way to draw immediate attention to the new series...
...executives defended the Manson show, pointing out that Krenwinkel and Van Houten had not been interviewed since their murder convictions in 1971. "If TIME magazine or the New York Times had a chance to do the first interview in 25 years with the Manson girls, would they turn it down?" asked ABC News vice president Joanna Bistany. Probably not. But at a time when the network newsmagazines are close to being overrun by tabloid sensationalism, introducing a new show by recycling the most notorious murder case of the past 30 years is hardly a reassuring sign...