Word: toning
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...upbeat, sometimes preachy tone of the series has annoyed some. "Bill seemed to want the family to be good, and to me, good isn't funny," says Earl Pomerantz, head writer for the show's first eight episodes. Others complain that the series slipped a bit last season, with some segments being especially flimsy and plotless. A few critics have raised more substantive issues. One charge is that the well-to-do Huxtables are hardly representative of the vast majority of black families in this country. (Or many white ones, for that matter; no problem with child care in this...
There were memorable moments, of course -- usually serious, often sentimental, occasionally silly. One of John Paul's most eloquent sermons was delivered to a glittering gathering of 1,500 executives and entertainers (Charlton Heston, Bob Hope, Loretta Young) in Los Angeles, summoning them to lift the moral tone of their media. "Seeking to satisfy the dreams of millions," he cautioned, "you can become lost in a world of fantasy." In downtown Detroit, he challenged an affluent nation: "You may choose to close in on yourselves, to enjoy the fruits of your own form of progress and to try to forget...
...tone for the season had been set earlier...
...office. So the trick for any modern would-be Grimm is to blend the warring moods of fantasy and cynicism. The story must create a land of outsize heroes and villains yet comment ironically on the unhappy state of a land that needs them. The tone must be grandly facetious to accommodate believers as well as skeptics. William Goldman tried all this in his 1973 novel The Princess Bride. His narrative had all the proper ingredients and all the right new moves: he deconstructed his text and undercut it with the cadences of a Borscht Belt raconteur...
...quiet grounds, she headed for the chapel where she and Dole were married 13 years ago. Sitting on an outdoor bench, she reflected on her marriage and her career. "I couldn't help thinking back over the years, and all the experiences and joys," she recalls, a wistful tone creeping into her honeyed Southern accent. "This is a time now when, you know, I have to really come to that . . ." She trails off for a second, unable to utter the word "decision," then sets a firmer, more businesslike course. "It's a situation where the public responsibility and private obligations...