Charlie Rose

Charlie Rose, an award-winning journalist and former host of CBS' "Nightwatch" hosts this one-on-one talk program on PBS weeknights. This is the best talk television has to offer, with a range of guests from actors and writers to politicans and musicians. Check your local listing-(New York-WNET 11:00 pm)

While Charlie Rose seems to be a very intelligent interviewer, after watching his show for many years, I come away with the impression that he's quite biased, unless he's in a foreign capital interviewing some tyrant who could easily arrest and jail him if not that he were a famous American talk show host. With guests that he clearly adores, he's overly compliant, and with those whom he quite obviously differs, he's overly scrappy.

Two examples will hopefully illustrate this. When Thomas L. Friedman is the guest (as he has been countless times) , I sit and wait for the moment when Charlie is going to bend forward to kiss Friedman's ring, as if everything Friedman says is as epochal as a papal homily. Contrast that with when someone from the political left is the guest (hardly ever, of course). When Noam Chomsky was the guest several years ago, Charlie attacked from every direction everything that Chomsky said, and that was after Charlie fessed up that Chomsky was one of the most requested guests ever by the viewers.

And lastly, two of my pet peeves. After asking a question of a guest, as soon as the guest begins to answer, Charlie compulsively interrupts with a further refinement of his question. Some guests then just keep talking, leaving Charlie no choice but to button up and listen. The other peeve is how Charlie talks with his left hand, and leaves it frozen in the air in front of the camera after his voice trails off. I want to say to him, "Charlie, put down your hand!"

I enjoy Charlie's interviews greatly--they represent a rare oasis on television, a quiet half-hour or hour devoted to intelligent, thoughtful conversation. How rare is that?! But it kind of breaks down when Charlie is interviewing celebrities, particularly famous actors. Charlie kind of loses it with those people, becoming a bit fawning and, it would seem, a bit envious. I don't know what accounts for this--perhaps Mr Rose always wanted to be an actor, I don't know.

But this perception usually leads me to skip his interviews with actors, unless it's someone who I haven't heard from before. But there were even a couple of such programs where I couldn't get through the whole show because of Charlie's going ga-ga within minutes of the start. In those times I think of Charlie as a red carpet interviewer before the Academy Awards, except the people who do THOSE interviews usually maintain a better emotional balance.

Life must be boring as Charlie and I think this show really shows you that. As I said to my mother one time when I was watching Charlie Rose (which I barely ever watch due to its boringness!) that his background is black because he's so poor he can't afford a real background like other hosts (like David Letterman or Conan O'Brien). My college Conan O'Brien, from Late Night with Conan O'Brien, said you know Life is like a box of chocolate you never know what your gonna get. He wrote that line for Forest Gump said it on TV and they stole it from him. Just like Charlie Rose stole his theme song from Paul Shaffer ( Late Night with David Letterman). I hate Charlie Rose's show because if it got any more boring I would die! My mother loves it. Sad enough that means I have respect that show!

The ruminations on this "show" like other PBS offerings are meant more to ease the troubled brow than to inform. Which is too bad, because one thinks they're getting insight into high profile personalities; the movers and shakers of North America. But alas, it's not so. It's more or less a program designed to appease the hyperactive mind.

I recall Bill Buckley being interviewed and saying how tired he was of life. He wasn't. I remember a number of entertainment figures making similar comments that might seem to give us insight into their minds. He never did, and never will.

Well, the nation has its share of nut cases. But, when a program such as this is needed to sooth the alleged "disturbed minds", is it not time to take stock of what the values of good "emotional health" really are? Is it not the case that perhaps that which is being medicated is a matter of justice, and not a matter of medicine?

Oh well.

Watch it if you must, but you'd be better served watching mainstream broadcast sound bite media than this garbage.

In plainer language, it's more Mental Health TV.

It's an outpatient "facility" aired on PBS.