THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, December 5, 1994 TAG: 9412030022
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
ON A RECENT episode of ``The Gordon Elliott Show,'' which WAVY runs shamelessly Monday through Friday at 10 a.m., a dude named Richard said he never suspected that his wife, Luna, had been born a man.
They had been happily married for four years before she broke the news.
It was Elliott at his best, or worst, in the season of high sleaze - the recent November sweeps.
Striving for high ratings in a field of cutthroat competition, the producers of nationally syndicated talk programming last month built shows around people they found under rocks. No subject was too gross or distasteful:
Mothers and daughters who shared a bed with the same man.
Parents who weren't ashamed to say their kids were underage and oversexed.
A creep who played around on his pregnant wife and bragged about it.
Thanks to ``Talk Soup,'' a show on cable's E! Entertainment Television, you get to see the TV trash recycled. Over and over again during the broadcast day, ``Talk Soup'' host Greg Kinnear introduces such classy topics as Pregnant Gang Members, People Too Homely to Date, Teens Who Hate the Way Their Moms Dress and Twins With Different Sexual Preferences.
When I asked Infoline callers what they thought about the syndicated daytime talk shows, nine out of 10 said they were offended by what they saw and heard.
From Ryan Currin in Virginia Beach: ``The talk shows have hit rock bottom.''
He must have seen clips of the Ms. Bigg Butt Contest. Or maybe the segment on hidden cameras that Maury Povich trotted out. It showed a man urinating in his friend's coffee just for laughs.
Be ashamed, Maury.
Here's my list of the sweeps' top 10 sleaziest daytime talk-show subjects:
1. Sisters Who Claim Their Homosexual Brothers Stole Their Boyfriends
2. Strippers and the Mothers Who Approve of What They Do
3. 15-Year-Olds Who Get Pregnant on Purpose
4. Women Who Marry Men on Death Row
5. Newlyweds Who Cheated on Their Spouses Immediately After the Honeymoon.
6. Confessions of a Woman Who Slept With Her Best Friend's Husband
7. Teens Who Hate Their Mothers Because They Dress Too Young
8. People Who Had Planned to Murder Their Spouses
9. People Too Beautiful to Date
10. Teen Who Wants Mom to Stop Bringing Men Home for Sex Because the Noise Makes It Hard to Do Homework.
Caller Christine Maisey of Virginia Beach says this is garbage entertainment.
It's obvious that smut sells, said Maisey. Why else would station operators book shows dealing with sexual oddities or sexy fat women, which have intrigued Povich and Montel Williams?
Elaine R. in Norfolk says the TV in her house doesn't get turned on until the syndicated daytime talk shows are over.
``Until the sleaze balls pack up and leave,'' she said.
Shirley Patterson in Norfolk wrote to the producers of some of these shows to ask that they clean up their acts. When they ignored her, she stopped watching.
Pam Hall in Virginia Beach also tunes them out. ``I'm sick of talk shows that turn wacky people into celebrities for a day.''
Ian Carlson in Virginia Beach called to say that these daytime talk shows should be rated like the movies . . . as in T.O. for Totally Offensive.
``You see some pretty sick stuff on there.''
Stuff such as I Fell in Love With My Stalker and Mothers Hungry to Find Eligible Bachelors for Their Unmarried Daughters and My Fiance Sleeps With Other Men and Brags About It.
``The talk shows are both gross and engrossing,'' said Kinnear.
They are the circus sideshows come to television, said Phil Donahue.
Kinnear and Donahue know what they do - advance cheap, exploitative TV. But they keep on doing it.
What next? People Who Had Sex With Aliens and Liked It?
Or has Gordon Elliott done that already? by CNB