The year in TV

(Rest in peace, Bodie.)

The year 2006 was a pretty good one for the entertainment side of television. The news side ... not so much.

Let's start with the good news. NBC, CBS, Fox and ABC brought some two dozen promising shows to the fall season meat market, a handful of which went on to become hits. The big networks reasserted themselves in 2006 as the movie studios' equals, forces of show business, driving DVD sales and compelling millions more people this year to pull the trigger on big-screen TV purchases.

And there were happy dilemmas for viewers. Without even factoring in cable, there were tough choices across the prime time schedule. Thursdays at 8 (CT), for example, offered “CSI” versus “Grey's Anatomy” versus “Scrubs.” The irony here, of course, is that a real-life medical expert would probably want you to get off the sofa and move something other than your thumb resting on the remote on your TiVo.

The Web perked up as well, as networks finally started offering full episodes of their hit shows on their Web sites, and viewers flocked there. Scheduling logjams were one reason; another was that the commercial breaks were shorter in the online telecasts.

But far away from the magical realm of Hollywood, TV news divisions had a more challenging and troubling year. NBC, the top-rated news network, even announced layoffs. Pew polls and Nielsen ratings confirmed that in this political season viewers had more of a preference for spin (Keith Olbermann) and nasty humor (Stephen Colbert) than for boring old enterprise.

In a year when the future of the nightly network news was being openly debated, two of the three newscasts undermined their own futures. In January, ABC's Bob Woodruff was injured in Iraq, mere days after his boss, David Westin, trotted Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas before the press as a new breed of TV anchor who would go anywhere to get the story. In Woodruff's case, that meant a road outside Baghdad notorious for IED attacks.

  Over at CBS, network chief Leslie Moonves guessed, incorrectly, that former “Today” show host Katie Couric could smoothly transition to telling us the hard news of the day. Couric's ratings soon slipped down to the levels of her predecessor, Bob Schieffer, and Vanity Fair printed a spread of screen grabs that suggested Couric had spent more time on hair and wardrobe decisions than on Iraq.

  In local news, Channel 5 sent an undercover agent to expose Independence (Mo.) police abuse, while inside the newsroom, Michael Scott's desk was conspicuously separated from that of his co-anchor Karen Fuller. Later, after an investigation you won't see on KCTV-5, Scott was shown the door. Meanwhile, Channel 9 won the 10 p.m. news derby for the first time in two years.

  Here now, a recap of the highs and lows of the TV year. Most of these programs, if not still on the air, are available through on-demand services or on DVD.

 

The best new TV of 2006: “The Wire,” once again reinvented for season four (HBO); “Eureka,” a kicky dramedy about a secret town filled with mad geniuses (SciFi); “30 Rock,” the best new entry in a diminished sitcom field (NBC); “When the Levees Broke,” the viscerally angry Katrina documentary from Spike Lee (HBO); “Mrs. Harris,” starring Annette Bening as Jean Harris, the unlikely killer of lady killer Hy Tarnower, played by Ben Kingsley (HBO).

  Also, “10 Days that Unexpectedly Changed America,” 10 absorbing hours about little-known chapters from history from distinguished filmmakers (History Channel); “Saved,” starring Tom Everett Scott as an aimless but gifted medic (TNT); “Heroes,” a bubbling brew of teen angst, slasher-flick horror and genuine intrigue that emerged as the best new show of the fall (NBC); “A Lion in the House,” a heroic five-year journey into the lives of kids with cancer (PBS); and al-Jazeera TV, the best new cable channel no cable company in America wants you to see.

  Honorable mentions: “10 Items or Less” (TBS), “Friday Night Lights” (NBC), “One Punk Under God” (Sundance Channel), “Jericho” (CBS), “Ugly Betty” (ABC), “Shalom in the Home” (TLC), “Doctor Who” (SciFi), “A League of Ordinary Gentlemen” (PBS) and “Nobody's Watching” (YouTube.com).

 

TV that improved with age: Full online episodes, Fox shows (“House,” “24” and “American Idol”), FX shows (“It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” “30 Days,” “The Shield”), “Survivor,” “Late Night with Conan O'Brien,” “The Colbert Report,” “Countdown with Keith Olbermann,” “The West Wing.”

 

TV that started to spoil: “Webisodes” and “mobisodes,” ABC shows (“Lost,” “Grey's Anatomy” and “Desperate Housewives”), “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,” “The Sopranos,” Adult Swim shows (“Frisky Dingo,” “Metalocalypse”), “The Daily Show,” “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” networks with “The” in their names (The WB, The CW).

 

TV that went bad: “Big Day” (ABC), “Happy Hour” (Fox), “Twenty Good Years” (NBC) and “The Class” (CBS) proved that comedy is hard, even if you're a major network with millions to spend.

 

In memoriam: Frank Stanton, the builder of Black Rock and the man mainly responsible for making CBS the luminous “Tiffany network”of our youth, died last week at 98. He joins newsmen Reuven Frank and Ed Bradley, actors Peter Boyle, June Allyson, Don Knotts, Jane Wyatt and Moose (the “Frasier” dog), broadcaster Curt Gowdy, money man Louis Rukeyser, “Croc Hunter” Steve Irwin, empire builder Aaron Spelling, your host Mike Douglas and my dear friend as well as a reporter's reporter, John M. Higgins. Rest in peace.

Comments

[Holly Kim Wilson]

I have to differ with you on one [AdultSwim]- Metalocalypse! The show had it's ups and downs. Let's face, not even the best shows have all episodes be tops. But Metalocalypse got better and the season finale kicked butt! I can't wait to see what will happen to guys in Dethklok next season. And I will be picking up both the DVD and Deth CD Brendon Small and Tommy Blacha have promised us this summer.

And, for the record, I'm a 51 year old female fan of the show. Metal is only one of the styles of music I listen to on any given day.