The Other Glass Teat

Rating:
Summary: Great as either a historical document or a modern criticism
Review: Written in 1971 when television was even worse than it is now (mostly because there were less channels so that one good show out of a thousand was even harder to find) Harlan Ellison's columns for the Free Press were some of the most dead-on impressions of televions - the business, the message, the medium - ever. From political commentaries to the muted lives of television executives and their "helpful suggestions" to youth-oriented programming, Ellison took no prisoners and never let up on his criticism of an industry that made him prosperous. For anyone whose ever seen him on Politically Incorrect telling a conservative radio host to shove it and cheered this is one of those books that you just need to read.

This is the second book of columns and the only one that I read. Highlights include a discussion on a new fuel additive that was supposed to save the environment but didn't really do much, a disgusted commentary of children's beauty pagents (which were televised at the time), criticism of the new television series (dismissal of The Mod Squad as an overreaching appeal to youth market, praise of All in the Family, praise of a bunch of shows that never lasted, attacks on more shows that also died out), vivisection of the treatment for a case worker show, and discussion of The Young Lawyers complete with a full screenplay and a couple of columns about getting it on the air and then hating the final product. The most hilarious one would have to be his story of being a contestant on the Dating Game and promising the poor woman that as bachelor # 3 his perfect date would be to go to the landfill and shoot rats.

Sometimes the criticism gets to be too much and you wonder if there is anything that Harlan Ellison likes. Sometimes he's a little too blinded by his own sense of right and wrong to give anyone else a chance. But at heart this is a man who still has a capacity to be disappointed in the human race and what the human race puts up as entertainment. While reading Ellison gives you the feeling of reading a Pit Bull's memoirs, you can't dismiss him.

The only caveat is that his script sucks. Maybe it was just the time and the restrictions that he worked in, but this is the man who did the quintessential Star Trek and whose original script still surpassed the television version. But it's one of those lawyer having trouble adjusting to his ex-girlfriend's drug habit and user-ways. It seemed to be a waste of pages, and even though the televised version was much worse, the stuff that he was upset about being cut - wasn't that great. It was better than most television scripts but that's not saying much.

And if upon reading this book you want to shoot your television, Mr. Ellison has succeeded. However, remember that there is the happy ending of Ellison being the consultant for Babylon 5 - a show that never compromised to the networks and became the greatest science fiction series of all time (unless of course you note that it's spinoff Crusade also never compromised and got cancelled by TNT and is still in Limbo). After reading this book you might want to read J. Michael Straczynski's book on screenwriting which gives a slightly less disgusted view of television.