THE TKTV NEWSLETTER
Season 2, Episode 17 aired April 26, 1999

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CONTENTS
1. Intro
2. Letters from the viewing audience
3. "Homicide" is being murdered
     -by guest writer Martha Tanner
4. Don't miss
5. TV Trivia
6. Favorite quotes of the week
7. A totally unrelated link

1. Intro

UPN hasn't given up yet. They are premiering their new animated show tonight between the successful (relatively) "Dilbert" and their most popular show, "Star Trek: Voyager" (which is showing a special episode on Monday even though it's usually on on Wednesdays). The new show is called "Home Movies," and in short, it's about a mother of two kids trying to lead her life after a divorce. Sounds a little serious, eh? Well, apparently it's a comedy. I think the best thing that can be said about it is that it features the voice of Paula Poundstone, a very successful comedienne who is famous for her one-woman shows. If you have nothing better to do at 8:30 tonight, give it a try.

As for the newsletter, we have a brand new guest writer this week. Please welcome Martha Tanner, who writes about "Homicide." If you think the title of her article is cheesy, blame me, not her. She submitted it without a title, and I was in a weird mood, so this is what we ended up with.

The newsletter also has a new feature, TV Trivia. Contributions are welcome, so if you have a good suggestion for a trivia question, feel free to send it in.

"Mad About You" is finally back with new episodes. In fact, NBC is showing TWO new episodes tonight. Why take the show off the air for months and then show two new episodes in one night? I guess they're gearing up for the series finale during May sweeps. We're going to have some amazing series finales during May sweeps this year, including "Mad About You" (written by Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt and directed by Helen Hunt), "Home Improvement" and the ever-spectacular "Melrose Place." It's going to be a busy spring.

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2. Letters from the viewing audience

From Alex:
My husband noticed the Salinger grave reference in The X-Files too. Given the fact that he is much less of a Party of Five fan than I am, I was hyper-impressed.

Can I just say that recently, the writing in the X-Files has been showcasing Mulder's sense of humor. I love it! He has had some of the quirkiest lines. Of course, I can't think of any off the top of my head right now, but it has made my X-Files viewing even more enjoyable than usual.

Now that I think about it harder, there was that scene last night when Mulder made Scully switch positions with him during a conversation because she was arguing from his usual point of view and he was being the rational one. I think he said something fairly witty at the time, but, of course, I don't remember what it was.
From Daphne:
I keep meaning to send you my ode to Sports Night, but it seems several people have beaten me to it. So let me just say this: I love Sports Night because Dan and Casey are the kind of guys who'd weep floods of tears (as I did) while watching Wayne Gretzky's last game yesterday.

And on that note, a resounding thumbs down to Fox Sports for not broadcasting the whole game. I have cable, so I was able to watch all five hours of MSG's coverage of it all -- but it should have been on a major network. It's not every day that the world's greatest athlete hangs up his skates forever.

Apropos of absolutely nothing, I miss your advertising commentator. Perhaps she could enlighten me as to the meaning of these new "ikdykygdyk" coke ads. I am completely baffled -- what the hell does that mean???
Letters from the viewing audience are always welcome. Please email any opinions, questions, comments, or random thoughts to TK at tk@tktv.net with the subject of "letters." Letters may be edited for length or content.

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3. "Homicide" is being murdered by Martha Tanner

It's sad when you don't care whether or not your favorite show returns for an eighth season. I'm talking about "Homicide: Life on the Street," which NBC has not yet decided to renew for next year. Many of my fellow fans are waging campaigns to make sure it returns, but I find that I can't muster up the enthusiasm, since many of the things I loved about it have all but disappeared. Based on a non-fiction book by David Simon, a journalist who followed the real Baltimore homicide unit for a year, the series originally challenged many conventions of crime drama: murders resulted from petty differences between people who knew each other, rather than from plots devised by a criminal mastermind; murders were solved based on physical evidence, witness statements, or confessions, and the motive very rarely mattered; and sometimes, even the most heinous crimes remained unsolved, even after the series traced them over several episodes. Beyond this, perhaps the most important element of the show was the fact that the cops themselves were real people, whip-smart but still flawed, and never possessed of superhuman strength, physical or emotional.

This season, however, the show has pretty much departed from all these premises. Many episodes have centered around a single crime, often a story "ripped from the headlines" rather than drawn from the mean streets of Baltimore, and the crime has been neatly solved within one or two episodes, sometimes with a "shocking" twist. Of course, these are not necessarily bad traits; either one could describe a tightly-plotted episode of "Law & Order," and I'd give that show high praise. But on "Homicide," this has meant that the multi-faceted characters which used to make the show so compelling have all but disappeared. One might say this is due to the departure over the years of some of the show's strongest actors, including Ned Beatty, Reed Diamond, and Andre Braugher. But the bigger problem is that the show no longer does much with the actors it has left (Kyle Secor and Clark Johnson are the most criminally underused). Instead of having realistic cases which serve as vehicles for character development, any revelations about the characters now seem shoe-horned in between sensational crimes. All the veteran detectives really get to do is answer the phone and occasionally interview a witness.

So I started to wonder -- is this kind of decline inevitable, once a show departs from its original formula? "Homicide" is not, after all, the only show to hang on past its prime. But other shows have successfully outlived dramatic changes in cast and crew. How about "NYPD Blue"? I don't watch it, but reliable sources tell me it survived David Caruso's departure, and now it seems to have done the same without Jimmy Smits. "Law & Order" has *none* of its original cast left, but it's as vital as ever.

And there are shows that not only keep going, but actually change for the better: witness the current season of "The X-Files." Except for those dealing with the ongoing mythology of the show, almost every episode this season has been somewhat high-concept: Mulder goes back in time on board a ship in the Bermuda Triangle; Mulder and Scully go undercover as a married couple; Mulder lives the same day over and over again. But as the plots have gotten somewhat more outrageous (well, okay, they weren't exactly realistic to begin with), this has given the actors a chance to stretch in new directions, toward, for example, romance and humor. Nearly every week has been a bold experiment. True, on the rare occasions that this doesn't work, it *really* doesn't work -- I, for one, found the Christmas ghost episode nearly unwatchable -- but when it works, it stretches our expectations too, and makes us eager to see what else they can do. No show can keep up the momentum forever, but it's nice to see them make the most of it for now.

TKTV is always looking for new guest writers. Do you have an idea for an article? Write to TK at tk@tktv.net with the subject of "guestwriter."

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4. Don't miss

For details and lots more fun TV to look forward to, see
http://www.tktv.net/index.html?/upcoming.html

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5. TV Trivia

Welcome to the TKTV Newsletter's newest feature, TV Trivia (if anyone can think of a less boring name for this section, please let me know). Every week there will be a new trivia question for your mind-bending pleasure. Since this is the first time I've tried doing this, please let me know if you think the questions are too hard, too easy, or I'm a genius and have the skills to start a new feature every week without even trying.

What is the name of the actor who can currently be seen in a recurring role on NBC's "Providence," and also guest starred this season as a love interest for characters on both "Cupid" and "Dawson's Creek?"

C'mon folks, this one sounds hard, but considering that TKTV has sites for all three of the shows mentioned, you should just be able to look it up if you need to. Send answers to TK at tk@tktv.net with the subject of tvtrivia.

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6. Favorite Quotes of the Week

From "Ally McBeal"
"It must be hard being human. I wouldn't know, 'cause I've never tried." -Ling

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7. A totally unrelated link

http://www.razworld.com

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In the big inning