LOOK WHAT 10 YEARS HAVE DONE TO TV

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 23, 1993                   TAG: 9302230113
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium
LOOK WHAT 10 YEARS HAVE DONE TO TV
We have reached the halfway point in the tenth anniversary of the 1982-83 TV season. What, it sounds silly to celebrate something like that? These days, the anniversary of everything is celebrated, usually with a TV special.
The important thing about the '82-'83 season is how much better than the '92-'93 season it was. A tattered copy of the 1982 Fall Preview issue of TV Guide tells the story. Among the miniseries and specials slated for the season were: ABC's mammoth "The Winds of War," CBS's semi-mammoth "The Blue and the Gray" (with Gregory Peck as Lincoln) and ABC's lush and romantic "The Thorn Birds."
This season, the best the networks could come up with in the miniseries department have been on CBS: "Sinatra," which was good and engrossing but not especially spectacular; and "Queen," the just-concluded miniseries supposedly based on writings of Alex Haley which, though high-rated, was really just a lot of melodramatic balderdash.
Among the TV movies of the '82-'83 season: ABC's courageous "The Day After," a shattering visualization of a nuclear attack on the United States and what that would entail. ABC weathered heavy advance criticism from kook groups and the defections of advertisers but stuck to its guns and aired the show. Don't hold your breath waiting for a network to go out on a limb like that today.
Indeed, ABC's hat trick of "Winds of War," "Thorn Birds" and "Day After" in a single season is unlikely ever to be duplicated by a network again, since they don't think that big or dare that big anymore.
As always, many new series premiered in the fall of '82 and many would be gone by the spring of '83. Forgettable junk included "The Devlin Connection," "Bring 'Em Back Alive," "Tales of the Gold Monkey" (it was the season of the "Indiana Jones" ripoff), "Gavilan" (Robert Urich's annual failed attempt at a hit show), and "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers."
Most of these were so awful they don't even show up now in reruns on cable. At least "Seven Brides" was a novel idea, a weekly drama with musical numbers, and featured what turned out to be three future biggies in its youthful cast: Peter Horton (later of "thirtysomething"), Richard Dean Ander- There are lots more networks now - all those cable channels - and yet the pickings on a given night often seem slimmer. son (later "MacGyver") and River Phoenix (later a big movie star).
But also premiering that fall were shows that went on to run for years and years: "Newhart," Bob Newhart's second series, on CBS; "Silver Spoons," the Ricky Schneider sitcom, on NBC; Gary David Goldberg's "Family Ties," with Michael J. Fox, on NBC; "St. Elsewhere," the groundbreaking medical drama, on NBC; and, also on NBC, one of the greatest sitcoms in TV history, "Cheers."
America will raise a final glass to "Cheers" in May when the show ends its long and glorious run.
Will any of the new shows premiering this season be around in prime time in ten years? The idea seems preposterous. NBC's "Homicide," a midseason starter, is as revolutionary a cop show as "St. Elsewhere" was a medical show, but the network has given it a hopelessly inappropriate Wednesday timeslot and its future could be brief.
In the sitcom department, "Mad About You" (NBC), "Love & War" (CBS) and "Hearts Afire" (CBS), all have their attributes and their fans, but it's hard to imagine any of them lasting three seasons, much less 10. NBC's "Seinfeld," now in its third season, looks like a show that could have a long and happy life except that its writers already appear to be running out of ideas.
Ronald Reagan asked voters in 1980 if they were better off then than they were four years earlier. Are TV viewers better served than they were ten years ago? There are lots more networks now - all those cable channels - and yet the pickings on a given night often seem slimmer.
One more sad note comparing then & now: Among the TV movies that aired in the '82-'83 season were two about a fairy-tale affair - ABC's "Charles and Diana: A Royal Love Story" and CBS' "The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana." Ten years can be a long, long time.

Tom Shales writes about television for The Washington Post.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB