ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 23, 1997 TAG: 9704230021
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FRAZIER MOORE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Does seven days without TV make one weak? Try it and see.
That is, if you think you're strong enough. After all, National TV-Turnoff Week happens to coincide with the tantalizing first round of the networks' May sweeps.
Among the attractions, Ellen DeGeneres's character Ellen Morgan will pronounce herself gay and Tori Spelling's character Donna Martin will finally lose her virginity. (Please note: These events happen on two different series.)
Thursday, you can watch back-to-back episodes of ``Diagnosis Murder.'' Friday, see a ``Dukes of Hazzard'' reunion movie.
And there's more, much more, as any viewer knows. The networks are promoting their wares like crazy.
Meanwhile, Henry Labalme has other ideas for what you should watch: Nothing. Must See TV? He's calling for seven days of Don't See TV.
Labalme is executive director of TV-Free America, a nonprofit organization that encourages Americans to reduce the amount of television they watch, and reminds heavy viewers that the natural state of a TV set is off - or should be.
Of course, most debate about the effect of TV dwells on content. A typical argument: An hour of PBS is better for you than an hour of Fox. But this line of reasoning, says Labalme, amounts to concluding that a pound of Twinkies doesn't weigh the same as a pound of tofu.
``The discussion of whose shows are better than whose obscures the larger problem: the huge amount of time Americans spend in front of the tube, and what television, regardless of its content, displaces in terms of creativity, productivity, physical exercise and civic involvement.''
The third annual National TV-Turnoff Week, starting Thursday and going through next Wednesday, is rallying a clean break from the tube, whose temptations snare adults an average of almost five hours a day and have children mesmerized a daily average of 3 1/2 hours.
``We thought, if we're really going to snap Americans out of the TV trance, we have to get them away from all TV,'' Labalme says. ``It's Gestalt therapy for the couch potato.''
TV-Free America claims 3 million people took the challenge in 1996, and says it has registered thousands of families, schools, libraries and other groups to pull the plug this year (for more information, contact TV-Free America's World Wide Web address: essential.org/orgs/tvfa).
But when midnight arrives tonight and you extinguish Dave or Conan in mid-sentence, what then?
According to Labalme, you may find yourself saying things like this:
``I'm more relaxed. I'm getting to sleep earlier. I'm feeling better.''
``I'm talking to my kids more. I'm doing all those things I've put off for months or years.''
``I'm dealing with my life, rather than escaping from it or living it vicariously. I have real friends instead of watching `Friends.' I'm making my own discoveries instead of watching the Discovery Channel.''
``I'm having more fun.''
Labalme launched this movement as a former environmentalist concerned not only about the effect of TV on each viewer, but on the planet overall.
``TV is the driving force behind the whole global consumer culture,'' he says from his Washington, D.C., office. ``Its message is that happiness, friendship, a feeling of belonging all come through the acquisition of the `right' products - that all of those nonmaterial needs can be met in a material way.
``This leads us down a very nonsustainable path, one that puts so much pressure on the use of natural resources.''
Labalme is looking for viewers to relieve some of that pressure with the press of their ``off'' buttons.
A week later, he says, ``You'll find out if you're as dependent on TV as you thought you were. You'll find out what else is out there in the big, wide world. You'll find some answers.''
And Ellen can take care of herself.
LENGTH: Medium: 76 linesby CNB