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Tuesday, November 04, 2003
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REAGAN UBER ALLES
Although he can no longer spell "CBS", former President Ronald Reagan has risen triumphant over the "Tiffany Network." CBS was planning to air a mini-series, "The Reagans" during November sweeps. But then they did something stupid....they allowed the shooting script to be leaked.
The film, starring "Pensacola: Wings of Gold" bohunk and Striesand lapdog James Brolin, has A) the President cheerleading for AIDS (in fact, as Governor of California and as president, Reagan was critisized by his right wing for allowing homosexuals on his staff. Besides, he spent most of his life in Hollywood. Everyone knows that everyone in Hollywood is gay except for Scott Baio and Billy Idol.)
B) Reagan is shown declaring himself to be "the Anti-Christ." Everyone knows Reagan isn't the Anti-Christ....I am! Besides, I'm pretty sure the Anti-Christ could avoid the horrors of Alzhiemer's if he really wanted too.
C) The film shows Nancy Reagan hitting her daughter and compulsively popping pills. Not that I find anything wrong with that...but lots of people do.
D) Reagan is shown compulsively swearing in the Oval Office. Again, not something I particularly object to, particularly considering some of the other stuff that's gone on in that office since Reagan was last there.
None of the incidents have ever been verified by anyone involved in any capcity with the Reagans.
Ronald Reagan was never a particularly popular guy in Beverly Hills.But, in a particularly Beverly Hills way, they forgot that Reagan was very popular everywhere else. Oddly enough though, I do remember Striesand getting more than a little upset when her political enemies accused President Clinton of being a drug running murderer on specious (at best) evidence.
And so CBS caved. They released this statement this morning:
"CBS STATEMENT REGARDING 'THE REAGANS'
CBS will not broadcast THE REAGANS on November 16 and 18. This decision is based solely on our reaction to seeing the final film, not the controversy that erupted around a draft of the script.
Although the mini-series features impressive production values and acting performances, and although the producers have sources to verify each scene in the script, we believe it does not present a balanced portrayal of the Reagans for CBS and its audience. Subsequent edits that we considered did not address those concerns.
A free broadcast network, available to all over the public airwaves, has different standards than media the public must pay to view. We do, however, recognize and respect the filmmakers' right to have their voice heard and their film seen. As such, we have reached an agreement to license the exhibition rights for the film to Showtime, a subscriber-based, pay-cable network. We believe this is a solution that benefits everyone involved.
This was not an easy decision to make. CBS does tackle controversial subjects and provide tough assessments of prominent historical figures and events, as we did with films such as 'Jesus,' '9-11' and 'Hitler.' We will continue to do so in the future."
I love it when the mighty fall.
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