THE TV COLUMN : Naked truth about Lear: PBS unclear on its nudity
Posted on Tuesday, July 22, 2008
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — You know it’s going to be a weird press-tour panel session when Paula Kerger, president of PBS, dodges a question about the naked parts of Sir Ian McKellen.
You remember McKellen. He played Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings movies.
McKellen also turned in a riveting performance in the Royal Shakesperean Company’s limited run of King Lear on Broadway. PBS plans to film the play in London for a future Great Performances.
One problem. McKellen has a scene featuring a raving Lear pulling off a full Monty. Yup. McKellen drops trou.
Whoa, there, Nellie. Thank goodness we have the evervigilant FCC watchdogs around to prevent the privates of a 69-year-old Brit from corrupting American public television.
Kerger gave the assembled critics a lengthy rundown of all the wonderful and marvelous goodies PBS has coming down the road. She promised, “We will continue to focus on the three genres I’ve made my priorities: public affairs, the performing arts and children.” She covered everything from planned comprehensive election coverage and some nifty new Masterpiece productions, to three new children’s series and a sweeping Ken Burns series on the national parks. But when the floor was opened, the appearance by King Lear’s family jewels was the first question.
“McKellen does a full-frontal nude scene on stage,” one TV critic observed. “How are you going to deal with that on the screen ?” Kerger didn’t move a muscle, but she was mentally tap dancing as fast as she could.
“I haven’t actually seen the final version yet, and it will be broadcast next year. We’re actually going to bring it to press tour in January, so you’ll have a chance to see it then.” That’s a nonanswer answer. The bulldog reporter bored in, approaching from a different angle.
Tappity, tap, tap. “Let’s talk about this in January, OK ?” No. No ! It’s not OK ! America wants to know right now how PBS is going to handle this seminal moment in the history of American television. What does Kerger know, when did she know it and what does she think about airing it on PBS ?
“Well, it’s what I think about it and also what the FCC will allow,” Kerger finally said. “We’ll bring it to you in January. Ask me the question again, and I promise you — “ My readers can’t wait that long,” the writer blurted.
“Oh, yes, they can.” Kerger quipped, now slightly amused. End of discussion. Later, Kerger acknowledged having seen King Lear on Broadway and finding McKellen’s nude scene “powerful. His entire performance is quite powerful.” There you have it, America — a future smackdown showdown between the forces of prurience and decadence disguised as art and the ever-vigilant monitors of decency who safeguard our airwaves from the full-ventral exposure of sexagenarian thespians. Love, love, love: One of the perks of the press tour is that occasionally we get visited by a living legend. Such was the case when PBS brought out the team behind On Record: The Soundtrack of Our Lives. More on the sweeping eight-hour series later. I’ve got time — it won’t air until the fall of 2010.
The series will be hosted by Sir George Martin, the genius music producer who gave the world The Beatles. A savvy panel planner will always try to put a big name on the stage to spice up a session.
Sir George, 82, was fascinating and articulate and didn’t forget where he was.
“I really don’t like American television very much, sorry to tell you this,” he said, “but I love what PBS does and I watch it all the time.” There goes his chance to be a mentor on American Idol. He’d turn them down anyway.
“I know it’s enormously popular, but it’s not my cup of tea.” Let’s face it — if you have Martin on a panel, he’s going to get Beatles questions. Plenty of other questions covered On Record, but after the fifth or sixth one dealing with the Fab Four, Martin sighed and complained, “My favorite Beatles song ? My God, can we get away from Beatles and talk about the program ? My favorite Beatles song is ‘ In My Life. ’” By the way, later that evening Martin received a career achievement honor from The Recording Academy’s Grammy Foundation. According to the Associated Press, Martin “spent the bulk of his award acceptance speech talking about The Fab Four.” Will Huckabee watch ?: Another way to ensure your session gets press coverage is to have your panelists say something outrageous or controversial. Such was the case with the PBS panel on Nova’s November presentation of The Bible’s Buried Secrets. Nova says the film has “new discoveries that shake the foundation of biblical archaeology.” The two-hour special will delve into the origins of the Israelites to explore their slow transformation into a monotheistic people. It attempts to uncover who wrote the Hebrew Bible and whether it’s history or parable. Two of the biblical experts on hand were authors Thomas Cahill and William Dever. Each has a tall stack of credentials.
One question from the assembled TV critics contained a reference to Mike Huckabee.
“Dr. Dever,” the writer asked, “we had a guy who almost got nominated for president who believes that the world started 6, 000 years ago. How is one TV movie going to change the beliefs of people who don’t really understand science ?” “It won’t,” Dever said. “It’s a waste of time to argue with fundamentalists. And this film doesn’t do it. It’s designed for intelligent people who are willing to change their mind. And of course, one film is not going to change religious life in America, but it will give intelligent people who want to read the Bible in a modern way a chance. If we insist on reading the Bible literally, in 25 years nobody will read it any longer.” Suddenly, most of the critics were furiously taking notes. Cahill, who was educated by Jesuits, added fuel to the fire a few minutes later.
“One of the interesting things about [Bible ] literalists,” he opined, “is that they’re always selective literalists. I don’t know why that is. They hang onto one thing or another that they preferably want to shout at you, and they forget all the other texts.” I suspect the usually outraged will be outraged as usual over this Nova presentation. I suggest watching it first before getting out the pitchforks and torches. The TV column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. mstorey@arkansasonline. com
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