One week, down the tube

The man who couldn't stop watching television

As an experiment, Jack Lechner watched a week of TV on 12 screens and recorded his impressions. The result: "Can't Take My Eyes off of You"

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By Todd Leopold
CNN Interactive Books Editor

(CNN) -- When Jack Lechner decided to write a book about television, he didn't fool around.

Into his Manhattan apartment came cable installers, electricians, several tray tables and a dozen TV sets. When the room settled down, remotes at the ready, Lechner was ready for his experiment: He was going to watch a week of television, all 12 screens going at once, and record his impressions.

Lechner, his mind surprisingly lucid at week's end, turned the experience into a new book, "Can't Take My Eyes off of You" (Crown).

It all begs the question: Why?

"I had spent 15 years working as a factotum of other people's creativity," Lechner, a former executive for Miramax Films, says in a phone interview from New York. "I decided to take a break and get returned to my own."

By the time he left Miramax in 1999, he adds, he had become so focused on the film industry that he had gotten out of touch with the rest of society. Watching a week of television -- an idea he borrowed from Charles Sopkin's late-'60s book "Seven Glorious Days, Seven Fun-Filled Nights" -- was an opportunity to immerse himself in popular culture and provide a snapshot of our society, circa one week in September at the end of the 20th century.

It was, Lechner says, a trial by fire.

There were the dizzying choices of today's cable-ready universe, for one; Lechner made up a grid detailing every show he wanted to watch and he played his remote like an orchestra conductor.

And then, there was the actual content.

Lechner spent time with the major networks, the news channels, the Playboy Channel, infomercials, Jerry Springer, C-SPAN, Nick at Nite, Pokemon, and an episode of the extremely short-lived sitcom "The Mike O'Malley Show." (He may have been one of the only people in the country to see the latter.) Making cameo appearances in his real life were his wife, Sam, a handful of friends and some of their children, and Cosmo, the family pug.

But mostly, blearily, Lechner went it alone. "I sometimes felt a wrenching reconnection to our culture," he recalls.

The culture usually wasn't well reflected by Lechner's boxes. Much of what he saw was dull, shallow or bad. The 24-hour news channels, says Lechner, were repetitious to the point of absurdity, and when there was a horrific event, "there was no time to reflect on it."

But what Lechner found most irritating about TV was its self-reflexive nature. "It drove me out of my mind, especially when there's so much else in the world," he says. "Most movies are not about movies, most books are not about other books.

"And so much of America isn't represented on TV," he continues. "Most people are ordinary working people. They're not sleeping with their sister-in-law."

Moreover, so many ideas, when they weren't self-reflexive, were constantly recycled. The news of the day was endlessly debated on the nighttime talk shows, and usually without depth. The week Lechner watched coincided with the controversial "Sensation" art exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum; he saw the same video, the same talking heads, and the same viewpoints all week long.

Lechner said children's programming has improved dramatically over the decades, citing the cartoon "Arthur" as an excellent example

The daytime talk shows were no better. Lechner, for example, saw three shows in a row about teen prostitution. "Now, that's a serious problem," he says. "But what was striking is they weren't talking about the problems of teen migrant workers, or teen sweatshop workers." Those topics, he acknowledged, wouldn't be the same kinds of ratings grabbers.

But Lechner was heartened by some of what he watched, particularly on children's television.

"Children's television in 1999 was a hell of a lot better than adult television, or children's television when I was a kid," Lechner says, reeling off examples from "Arthur" to the WB's Saturday morning lineup. "Some of that is due to the dogged activities of people like (children's TV advocate) Peggy Charren, and also because the baby boomer generation is running things. They had the first great American commercial childhood, so they ... have a great sense of responsibility about it."

Lechner also believes the best television today is better than ever, something he credits to both competition and the sheer determination of some producers.

"HBO has the room to do a 'Sopranos' or a 'Sex and the City,' and the networks have to compete with that," he points out.

Quality shows such as HBO's "The Sopranos" raise the bar for all programming, according to Lechner

Then why does so much television remain mediocre?

It's not the medium's fault, says Lechner. TV is just a form of communication, with no morality, positive or negative, he says.

The problem is with television's aspirations, he continues. Too often, he believes, television writers, producers, and executives settle for good enough instead of reaching for great.

"I think it's because of the pervasive cynicism of many of the people who work in (the industry)," he says. "If you get good work, it's because someone is working his ass off, and you can feel it. ('Sopranos' creator) David Chase is sweating blood to give America a great show."

Lechner's week in front of the tube had some interesting effects. He says he actually watches more television than he did before. And, as a producer with Radical Media, he's now in a position to produce television programming himself.

With his eyes now unglazed and his brain fully active again, it's a responsibility he takes seriously. "I want to give America something to appreciate," Lechner says. "Having had the (constant TV) experience, it keeps me aware of that goal."

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October 16, 2000
Candace Bushnell talks about 'Sex' and 'Blondes'
September 15, 2000
The 'Soprano'-ization of TV: Risque becomes routine
September 8, 2000
HBO singing over success of 'Sopranos'
June 10, 1999

Radical Media
Crown (Random House)

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