Week of November 4: Forgetting the "Independent Woman" and Remembering Gil Cates

By Sylvia Gurinsky

PBS' "America In Primetime" series got off to an inauspicious start with part 1,
"Independent Woman."

Some parts were good: Segments on "The Good Wife," "Murphy Brown" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." But there was too much focus on modern-day cable characters who are not truly independent, and are also bad role models.

Meanwhile, the program managed to ignore the following:

*First lady of television Betty White, the only person to work in the medium for more than six decades.

*Carol Burnett, still the only woman to host a successful weekly variety show.

*"One Day at a Time," Norman Lear's groundbreaking sitcom about a divorced woman, which starred Bonnie Franklin.

*"That Girl." While many women are ambivalent about Marlo Thomas' cheerful actress Ann Marie, the fact remains that she laid the cornerstone for the career woman.

*"Maude." This omission is inexcusable - particularly for the groundbreaking stands the show took on political and social matters.

*"The Golden Girls" - Also inexcusable because of its portrayal of the independent mature woman.

*"Cagney and Lacey" - Still the best depiction of women juggling career and personal lives.

*"Designing Women" - Also a fine mix of political and personal.

The show also left out any mention of the lack of shows featuring African-American, Asian-American and Hispanic women as lead characters.

It doesn't leave one optimistic about the remaining three parts of the "America in Primetime" series.

If PBS wants a good, comprehensive documentary series about the history of television, they might want to ask Ken Burns to do it.

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Gilbert Cates, who died earlier this week at age 77, was best known for his producing role at numerous Academy Awards telecasts and other specials. But Cates was also a producer and director of various made for television movies, including "A Death in the Family," (PBS, 2002) "Call Me Anna," starring Patty Duke in the film based on her autobiography (ABC, 1990), "After the Fall" (NBC, 1974) and "The Affair," which starred real-life couple Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood (ABC, 1973).

Some are available on DVD. Here's a look at the beginning of "The Affair," which is one of them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWfxYmexfl0

Cates was one of those credited with a 1990 telecast that saved the Academy Awards after an abysmal 1989 broadcast. So was Billy Crystal, who would work with Cates other times, including 1992, the year of "The Silence of the Lambs":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9cERvUX6sE

In Cates, Hollywood has lost some gold.

See you next week.