THE TV COLUMN : CBS’ pendulum swings toward soapy Swingtown
Posted on Thursday, June 5, 2008
Did those swingin’ ’ 70 s pass you by ? Me, too.
The first part of the decade found me in the service in hot and nasty places that weren’t then and are not now conducive to swingin’.
The last half of the 1970 s was graduate school, buying our first home, and just starting work here at the paper. There wasn’t a whole lot of discretionary income with which to swing.
Not, mind you, that we would have swung had I even been aware that swingin’ was going on in the ’burbs. Looking back, I suspect that I might have known a few swingers, but I just dismissed them at the time as effete, party-loving potheads. I never realized they were on the bold cutting edge of a cultural revolution.
Thank goodness for CBS. If you missed those happy-golucky days of big hair, shag carpeting, open marriages, spouseswapping and rampant hedonism, look no further. Swingtown debuts at 9 p. m. today for your vicarious thrill-seeking entertainment pleasure.
It has happened before.
I still recall the titters created by the prime-time drama Peyton Place. The half-hour soap ran while I was in high school and college (1964-69 ) and seemed so very, very scandalous for its day. Just like those early James Bond novels.
The series was more or less a standard soap opera. It just happened to air in prime time and not in the afternoon.
The show gave us Ryan O’Neal and Mia Farrow and such sultry, come-hither prime-time vixens as Leigh Taylor-Young, Lana Wood (Natalie’s younger sister ) and Barbara Parkins (who played Betty Anderson Harrington Cord Harrington ).
All those actors are in their 60 s now and could guest star as the parents of the uninhibited gaggle on Swingtown, who are comfortable Chicago suburbanites in their early 30 s to mid-40 s.
The pilot episode could easily be titled “The Seduction of Susan and Bruce.” The action takes place in 1976 (note the smoking and drinking ) and begins when Susan and Bruce Miller (Molly Parker, Jack Davenport ) trade in their Leave It to Beaver life for a more chic home and swankier neighborhood outside Chicago.
Instead of their old barbecuing buddies, Janet and Roger Thompson (Miriam Shor, Josh Hopkins ), the Millers soon find themselves in the bewitching clutches of Tom and Trina Decker (Grant Show, Lana Parrilla ).
Tom and Trina have an “open” marriage. They’re swingers. They’ll casually swap spouses for the evening or participate in a foursome if the other couple is willing to experiment. This is theoretically all part of the sexual, social and cultural revolution that was going on back in those wild and crazy waning days of the Gerald Ford presidency.
Susan and Bruce take up Tom and Trina’s invitation to drop by their little party and it’s readily apparent they aren’t in Mister Rogers’ neighborhood anymore.
The Millers find themselves oddly attracted to this new adventure. Their love life had become perfunctory and Trina’s description of the freeing effects of sexual swinging are very persuasive.
The press folks at CBS spin it this way: “Swingtown portrays the ever-shifting ‘swing’ of the pendulum that reflected the change in America’s collective value system — morally, politically and socially. Two generations of friends and neighbors forge intimate connections and explore new freedoms.”
Two generations ? I almost forgot. The Millers and Thompsons have kids. Kids at an impressionable age.
“As the adult couples evaluate whether to embrace or avoid newfound personal freedoms, the curious Miller and Thompson children begin to discover and assert their own morality and sexual identities as they come of age in a world on the precipice of change.”
Yikes ! “Curious” teens who are “discovering” and “asserting their own morality.” Sounds ominous to me.
Swingtown’s pilot is top-heavy with characters and forced anticipation. Once we get past all the empty titillation and into the real conflict that such dramatic change inflicts, we might have something meaty to gnaw on. Otherwise, it’s just another soap opera without the benefit of (be still my heart ) Lana Wood.
Be afraid. It’s tonight when NBC’s new horror anthology finally kicks in. Fear Itself debuts at 9 p. m. The 13 stand-alone episodes will be directed by some well-known film directors.
Tonight’s episode, “The Sacrifice,” comes from Breck Eisner (Sahara, Thoughtcrimes ). It’s about four criminals who face off against a trio of seductive sirens in an abandoned fort. Meerkats are back. Those cute little Kalahari critters have returned to Animal Planet. Meerkat Manor: The Next Generation premieres at 8 p. m. Friday.
The high-stakes drama continues. You’ll recall last season when beloved and fearless matriarch Flower was bitten by a snake and died. Fans wept. It was awful. It was as bad as if a real person had died. This season, Rocket Dog is the new queen of the Whiskers clan. But her sister Maybelline was having none of that and formed her own mob, the Aztecs. The claws (and fangs ) came out. Tension mounts this season as the rival mob, the Commandos, makes its move while Whiskers is divided. Action, romance, seduction, betrayal, drama — If you don’t care for Swingtown, here’s all the soap opera you’ll need. And all the stars are already naked. Stockard Channing joins this season as narrator. The TV column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. E-mail:
mstorey@arkansasonline. com
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