Was listening to a segment on what the new TV season will offer for this fall over the weekend. The tie in for the segment was Labor Day weekend and the ongoing strikes by the writers and actors groups. This is the time when the pain of entertainment deficit will be felt by the consuming public.

Since basically the FDR days and the growth of mass entertainment through the medium of radio we have had Labor Day as sort of a commencement day for a new year of entertainment shows. The logic of Labor Day as the starting day is because weather would be getting cooler, days getting decidedly shorter and the new phenomena of children going to 12 years of education all came together around Labor Day. It was the end of summer.

And so the new entertainment year for radio and to some degree movies started. That tradition has continued pretty much since then, although it has lessened in recent years. Still come September, people head indoors and look to the entertainment industry to fill in the hours they are no longer spending in farms and gardens. 

But this year because of strikes in the entertainment industry the desired new season will not happen. As the program I was listening to informed me the bill of fare for the year will be “quiz shows and reality TV.” Ugh! Most quiz shows suck except for a few. And “reality TV”? I think they are now called “reality competition” but no matter what they are called they are pretty boring.

However, there were a couple of reality shows that have been very successful over the years. Way back in the 1950s there was something called “the Army – McCarthy Hearings.” McCarthy in this case was Senator Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin who was riding wild allegations of communists infiltrating government into bringing lots of eyeballs to the TV to watch the combative hearings live on the new technology of television. 

About a decade later Americans sat glued to their TVs as they saw the reality of a young president assassinated. In the aftermath the public saw his funeral, They saw his family deal with the incredible grief. And they saw the first live murder on their TV screens. Reality TV that allowed America to share its grief.

Then about another decade later TV had gone from a black and white medium to living color. And the thing that people wanted to see in living color was the hearings surrounding the sitting president’s administration answering questions concerning a White House headed criminal conspiracy. Even though most of he hearings were during the day, people found a way to watch.

As they watched, they heard explosive testimony as they saw the evidence metaphorically tighten a noose around a guilty president. It was most certainly must see TV and reality TV at its very best. 

That sort of reality TV took a break for a good long while until once again another president using the White House as a criminal operation center in a blatant attempt to overthrow our form of government. Once again hearings were held and were broadcast on TV. 

Despite the fact that the broadcast spectrum has vastly expanded from four choices to hundreds and audiences were fractured like a broken mirror, the fractious audiences came together to once again watch the reality of a congressional investigation. 

While the thought of the so called “reality competition” genre leaves me cold, the thought of live courtroom drama featuring the king pins who tried and (at least so far) have failed to overthrow our government coming being broadcast on my TV this fall is very exciting. Watching criminals get what they deserve is exciting.

As with the other examples above, since there is no script, we can expect real surprises. Already as the investigations have unfolded we hear almost daily of some new twist. We all know that members of congress were pretty openly involved but have not as yet been investigated. Expect that to be hopefully be a subplot that will really bring the reality into many folks states and districts as they hear that their congress member of senator were involved.

hobnobbing with criminals?

In Iowa we still have the unanswered question of “Just how deep was Chuck Grassley involved?” His denials and non-answers have done little to assuage the thought that he was deeply involved. 

Just Wednesday the question of Grassley’s involvement surfaced again in the unlikely place of a hearing to disbar John Eastman in California. As Kyle Cheney at Politico reported Thursday morning:  

“John Eastman, testifying at his own disbarment trial, sidestepped a question Wednesday about whether he and others in former President Donald Trump’s orbit discussed the possibility that Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) — rather than Mike Pence — would preside over the Jan. 6, 2021, session of Congress.

During several hours of sworn testimony in a California disbarment proceeding, Eastman said discussions on that topic were protected by attorney-client privilege. When pressed about which client of his he was referring to, Eastman replied: “President Trump.”

{{skip}}

Grassley’s role generated significant intrigue in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6. The Constitution requires the vice president — who also serves as the president of the Senate — to preside over the counting of electoral votes to certify the presidential election. Historically, however, this job has at times fallen to the “Senate president pro tempore,” typically the most senior senator in the majority. In 2021, Grassley held that position.

{{skip}}

Grassley started a furor on Jan. 5, 2021, when he told reporters of Pence “we don’t expect him to be there, I will be presiding over the Senate.” His comments prompted an urgent rush by Pence’s staff to correct the record, eventually resulting in a statement from Grassley’s office indicating the senator had been “misinterpreted” and was merely saying he might fill in for Pence during some portions of the proceedings that day.

Despite the current prospects, there may be some real interesting “reality TV” this fall and winter. And who knows, our own Chuck Grassley may see his own star rise as Americans search for the truth.