*** Copyright c 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1995 by Nicholas
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Television and Reality

     Is TV causing us to lose our grip on reality?
     There's some evidence it is.
     For starters, to be mesmerized by a phosphorescent tube is not
living, "being there" -- whether the pictures are of ball games or news..
     But confusion compounds. Fact and fiction blur within TV.
     Example: Real TV preachers use "800" numbers. Actor Ned Beatty,
playing Rev. Freddy Stone in ABC's "Pray TV," did also. A phony "555"
number. The phone.company counted calls.
     The result? 15,000 calls. Surprised ABC spokesman Tom Mackin
said, "It was clearly a drama."
     Who can forget the attempted assassination of President Reagan?
John Hinckley fell in love with Jodi Foster's character in the movie, "Taxi
Driver."  Neither the character nor the actor returned his love. Hinckley's
response? That of the film's taxi driver: threatened political assassination.
     Hinckley's fantasy became Reagan's reality. But the actor president
responded by quipping his way into surgery -- and our hearts -- like the
hero of the Hollywood western.
     The White House has just requested a movie set duplicate of the
White House.  The cost will be $10 million.  They say it's for Secret
Service target practice, but don't be surprised if it also shows up on TV.
     Washington TV is showing an anniversary docudrama of the
assassination March 30. Who plays the president? Clue: a former Screen
Actors' Guild president.  No, it's not Kathleen Nolan.
     Children of 14 have seen 11,000 TV murders. Reagan? Just one
more. In schools, students who thought Reagan was the good guy cried.
Those who thought him the bad guy applauded. Like we did at the movies
Saturday afternoon
     Two children thought the assassination was fantasy and decided to
reenact it Unfortunately, with no speeding limousines available, one died.
     That Monday evening the TV show called "Academy Awards" was
to air (live). It was postponed. President Reagan was on a videotape shot
before he was. Heroes shot one week can return the next The same day?
Too soon. Tuesday night he was hail and hearty.
     Psychic Tamara Rand taped a prediction, she said in January, that
President Reagan would be shot in March. It, too, was shown after he was
shot. Later, live, she confessed she taped it after the shooting.
     Examples abound. Daniel Goodwin really climbed the 110-story
west face of the Sears tower. But he did it in a "Spiderman" outfit.
     Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke won a Pulitzer Prize for her
reporting about a five-year-old heroin addict, Jimmy. He never existed.
     Not surprisingly, John Hinckley's psychiatrists told us it would take
them 60 to 90 days to decide if he was crazy or not.
     How about the rest of us?
     Many who saw the televised walk on the moon believed it never
happened.
     Fans send wedding presents to soap opera actors when their
characters marry.
     Beauticians are asked to recreate the hairstyles of TV stars.
     Kids dress as TV characters on Halloween.
     Politicians try to look like "Senator" Hal Holbrook.
     TV doesn't imitate life.  Life imitates TV.
     What is reality in an age of TV?
     The sun and air, the sea and mountains, the soil and the wildlife?
     Not for most of us. "Getting away from home" (and TV) means the
interiors of airplanes and automobiles, high-rise hotels and office
buildings, airports and covered athletic domes.
     Webster's defines schizophrenia as "a psychotic disorder
characterized by loss of contact with the environment."
     Do you like color TV? A sunset is better color. It's also better
mental health.
                                                 [ICPC March 22, 1982]
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