It may sound like a topic suitable for "Seinfeld," but the American people are actually living it.
We've run out of good stories to tell.
People have been predicting it for awhile, but few actually thought they would see the day come. Television production companies are scraping the bottom of the proverbial barrel as far as good ideas go.
Granted, there are those out there who would say that there never was anything good on TV. But now it seems safe to say that we are seeing some of the worst ideas in history hitting television.
Last week, while CBS was hyping the Olympics, Fox found its own way to take a piece of the action -- "Breaking the Ice (The Nancy and Tonya Interview)." For those of you who didn't hear about it, Fox got Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan together for the first time since 1994.
In 1994, Harding was implicated in a plot that lead to Kerrigan being clubbed in the knee just before the 1994 National Figure Skating Championships. Kerrigan was unable to compete to retain the title of National Champion. The two went on to the 1994 Winter Olympics (with endless ridicule by the comic geniuses at "Saturday Night Live"). Both were outshined by then-13-year-old Michelle Kwan.
That was four years ago.
Since then, neither has done much figure skating -- Harding is under a direct ban from the National Figure Skating Association. The American public seemed fairly content with the two women's disappearance from the spotlight. However, Fox felt the need to bring them back into the public eye.
Did we really need an hour-long special with Kerrigan skating and Harding continuing to deny that she had anything to do with the 1994 crime? Television's other great contribution to entertainment in recent weeks: "Bad As I Wanna Be: The Dennis Rodman Story." Is there actually someone out there who needs to see this one?
Rodman is just a basketball player. He's a good basketball player. Not legendary. Not fantastic. Just good. His outlandish behavior is a cry for attention -- attention that network television keeps giving to him.
There was a time when TV movies were reserved for people who had changed the world ("The Ryan White Story") or suffered from rare disorders ("Sybil"). From time to time movies were made from exceptional books (or just about anything written by Jackie Collins).
Rodman doesn't fall into any of these categories. In fact, there probably isn't much in Rodman's story that serves any purpose other than feeding his ego further.
These two are just a sample of what has been passing as "quality entertainment" lately.
It seems hard to believe that there aren't any better stories out there. Anyone who has taken Society, Ethics and Technology (SET) can tell you that there are 5 billion people living on Earth. It's safe to assume that at least one of them has a story to tell that is more interesting than Rodman's.
This is a problem that used to be reserved for half-hour sitcoms. It's not easy coming up with heart-warming stories that have comedic potential, involve a family with nice kids and a wacky next-door neighbor and can be resolved in 22 minutes (44 if you want to go all out and do a two-parter).
That's why so many of them have done the plot line where (enter misguided kid's name here) gets his/her head stuck between the vertical slats of a fence/banister and tries to find a way to get it out before dad finds out.
Now, there seems to be a lack of stories for TV specials as well. The phrase "TV special" gets used for a reason. It implies that this will be something different. It implies that this will be something you will be excited to see. Most of the "specials" on television recently don't fit either of these criteria.
The simple solution to all this would be to stop watching TV all together. But that doesn't save television (which is still an important part of our culture). There has to be a way to save the medium before it dies out completely.
There are still good stories out there waiting to be told. There must be. Hollywood can still come up with one once in a while. New books are being published every day. Every so often, even television has something good to offer.
Production companies just need to focus less on the speed and volume of their output of these so-called "specials" and more on the quality. A renewed commitment to quality does not just mean spending more time finding talented actors and scriptwriters and directors. It means finding better stories -- stories that need to be told.
The world is full of interesting people. There are people who are out there every day making a difference in the world. These are the ones who deserve to have their story told, not the over-paid, outlandish people who never really did anything more than be famous.
There is no reason to reward behavior that would be considered "deviant" and "appalling" if they weren't famous.