PBS has 'Pioneers of TV' series on Juanuary Wednesdays

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With a writers' strike delaying new episodes of most TV favorites, PBS has lucked into the ideal time to reflect on the medium's past with "Pioneers of Television" (8 p.m., EST/PST, Jan 2, check local listings).This four-week series -- one hour airs each Wednesday -- concentrates on four of TV's most enduring genres: sitcoms (Jan. 2), late night (Jan. 9), variety shows (Jan. 16) and game shows (Jan. 23).A follow-up to a previous PBS special, "Pioneers of Primetime," this new production features many of the clips and recollections you might expect, but it's more than affection for yesteryear. Every now and then the programs offer historical, contextual tidbits of note, from Lucille Ball's generosity to a guest star to the Nixon administration's plotting against talk-show host Dick Cavett.The variety hour, in particular, offers a reminder that a genre generally considered dead today may yet be exhumed. Clips from "The Carol Burnett Show" are as funny today as they were in the '70s.Pioneers interviewed for the program include Bob Barker ("The Price Is Right"), Barbara Eden ("I Dream of Jeannie"), Andy Griffith ("The Andy Griffith Show"), Arsenio Hall ("The Arsenio Hall Show"), Vicki Lawrence ("The Carol Burnett Show"), Joyce Randolph ("The Honeymooners"), Tommy Smothers ("The Smothers Brothers"), Dick Van Dyke ("The Dick Van Dyke Show") and Betty White ("The Mary Tyler Moore Show").At a July press conference for "Pioneers," White said it isn't TV that has changed as much since the early days as the audience has changed."In those days, the audience hadn't heard every joke or seen every plot," she said. "It was just this magic new box in the corner of the room, and the audience was so willing to be amused. It's not that easy now."And while the variety shows of old are no more, former variety show star Tony Orlando said the genre has returned in the guise of reality competitions."I think that people view 'American Idol' and 'Dancing With the Stars' very similarly with the same kind of energy and the same kind of thought processes as the audiences who watched variety shows. I think that's taken the place of variety shows."For talk shows and the celebrities appearing on them, the difference today may be that the public knows much more about a performer's personal life -- and his or her foibles."Nothing against what's happening nowadays, but it's so cruel," said Tim Conway ("The Carol Burnett Show"). "Somebody makes a mistake in life, and they just pound on it until they just put you out of the business. We came through a different period."For comic Phyllis Diller, being funny on TV was just a gig; she didn't set out to be a trailblazer. In a conference call with reporters earlier this month, she recalled her first public performance in front of hospital patients in San Francisco."There were four people in the audience, all four of them in bed. Nobody laughed. One guy re-enlisted. Two of them died," she said before unleashing her trademark cackle.Technology may be changing the media landscape, but White pointed out a truism that today's performers would do well to consider, whether they're performing on TV or the Internet or being interviewed on a talk show."What everybody seems to forget or lose sight of is the fact that they're still never talking to more than two or three people at a time," she said. "If there are more than two or three people in a room, they're talking to each other, they're not listening to you. "So many people these days don't have the training ground that they used to have with the Johnny (Carson) show and with the Dick Cavett show. They come on and their eyes look blank. They're not looking into the camera. They're not talking to anybody. I just miss that personal end."(Contact Rob Owen can be reached at rowen(at)post-gazette.com)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)