Every March the Museum of Television and Radio in Beverly Hills stages its annual William S. Paley Television Festival. For two weeks, great TV shows of the past and present are saluted with presentations — one per evening — that feature the stars and makers of those shows. In years past, I've attended some wonderful evenings there because they always pick superb shows and then assemble a spectacular array of guests to discuss their contributions…
…until now. The last few years have declined in glory but even last season, they managed a terrific evening on The Carol Burnett Show (with Carol, Harvey, Tim, et al) another on M*A*S*H (with all the people you'd want to see at such an event), one on Outer Limits, an evening with Garry Shandling…well, you get the idea. The lineup for the 2001 festival, however, is a major disappointment, dealing mainly with current or recent shows. Among them are Gideon's Crossing, Gilmore Girls, Judging Amy, Boston Public, Malcolm in the Middle and, for God knows what reason, Survivor. Some of these may turn out to be classics but they've yet to stand that test o' time, and their inclusion feels more like promotion than any earned honor. The only real "old" shows being spotlighted are Dark Shadows and a couple of specials.
One of the specials is Eric Idle's wonderful Beatles parody, All You Need is Cash, better known as The Rutles. Mr. Idle, who is brilliant and very funny, is scheduled to appear (along with others who helped him make the film) so I bought tickets for that and also for an evening with Michael Moore, about whom I have mixed more feelings. On the phone today, a lady selling tickets for the festival had a lot of trouble figuring out how to enter my order in her computer. She volunteered that this was because, though tickets went on sale last Saturday, they haven't had many orders yet. So perhaps the folks behind the Paley Fest will get the message for next year, but I'm not optimistic.
The museum's website has the whole schedule but it's a bit hard to find. Go there, click on the word, "exhibitions" at right. Then, when you get to the next screen, click on the words, "William S. Paley Television Festival." And I hope you find more there to get excited about than I did.