In reality, TV has been pretty good this year

BYLINE: Robert Bianco
Reality. Can we escape the concept?

Not any time soon, I fear -- no matter how exhausted we all may be after a TV year dominated by reality in all its facets, from games to electoral gambits. It seems we spent half our time just watching people count votes, from Palm Beach to Pulau Tiga.

Like it or not, the reality trend is not abating. The stratospheric success of the year's two most popular reality series, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and Survivor, would be more than enough to guarantee a continued onslaught of shows placing real people in contrived situations.

Add the threatened end-of-the-season strikes by writers and actors, and the genre would seem to be at least momentarily unstoppable -- despite the collapse of such rip-offs as Dot Comedy and Big Brother. Apparently, the reality of failure is one of those inconvenient facts the networks prefer to ignore.

Yet no one -- including network executives -- should get the idea that non-fiction programming is some panacea for network ratings. In the long run, the continued health of network TV will depend, as it always has, on the strength of its dramas and sitcoms. Television is essentially a storytelling medium; its ability to attract and hold an audience will always be determined by its ability to tell a good story.

On that front, it was a mixed year for TV, as sitcoms remain stuck in a definite slump. Our best shows -- Friends, Frasier and The Simpsons -- are no longer at their best, and none of their top competitors, such as Will & Grace, Malcolm in the Middle and Titus, has reached a dependable, comparable level of achievement. As for this year's sorry crop, most were so pitiful that it's hard to believe their creators have ever seen a sitcom, let alone have the slightest idea of how to make one.

Happily for viewers, the dramatic form continues to shine. To a slate that included such strong holdovers as The West Wing, The Sopranos, NYPD Blue, The Practice, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, ER, Once and Again , Ally McBeal and Law & Order, TV added such promising newcomers as Gilmore Girls, Ed, Boston Public and Queer as Folk.

In fact, if this weren't the Year of Reality, it would have been the Year of the Writer. On a weekly basis this year, viewers were able to choose from the unflinching realism of David Milch (NYPD Blue), the mobster grit and depth of David Chase (The Sopranos), the Dickensian frenzy of David E. Kelley (The Practice, Ally McBeal, Boston Public), the soaring romanticism of Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing), the tingling wit of Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel), and the everyday lyricism of Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick (Once and Again).

When you look at it that way, it was a great year. Really.__USA TODAY (December 26, 2000)