Upbeat and downbeat developments on TV

ROSE. Upbeat view of life and wit.

Shooting the breeze recently with other TV couch kamotes, we got an earful about the best and worst shows and practices currently on the small tube.

Topping the list of current golden goodies on TV is a Fil-Am’s great news that the much-admired broadcast journalist and incisive interviewer, Charlie Rose, has just gone the morning show route, by way of CBS’ “This Morning,” where one of his cohosts is Gayle King, Oprah Winfrey’s BFF, who has successfully parlayed her “reflected glory” as Oprah’s bosom buddy into her own thriving talk-show career.

Rose is already 72 years old, but his upbeat view of life and wit are deeply appreciated on the generally fluffy morning show circuit.

Too many commercials

As for the bad, worse and worst practices on local TV, they are paced by what some viewers perceive to be the excessive commercial load on some popular TV networks’ shows. Sometimes, they complain, a program segment lasts only three minutes and is followed by a “commercial break” that’s even longer!

In addition, aside from the “official” commercials, some TV shows pad their program time even more with plugs, promos, “sponsored features” and other self-serving stuff and fluff  that are further impositions on viewers’ patience and right to untrammelled content.

Another disagreeable TV practice is some TV talk-show hosts’ penchant for inviting singing stars for “interviews” during which the hosts ask them to “illustrate” their  stylistic preferences by “spontaneously” performing excerpts of their hit songs a capella. The singers accede to the seemingly endless “requests,” but we find the “jukebox” approach uncomfortable and exploitative of the singers  involved.

True, the singing stars often guest on the shows to plug their new albums or concerts, but they really shouldn’t be treated in this rudely “push-button” and “jukebox” manner.

We hope that the program hosts, who are intelligent and sensitive people, will reconsider this exploitative and even insulting treatment of their “special” guests. A couple of musical “examples” should do!