Rusty Saber: Stress levels high for viewers of 'Oprah' show

Joe McAdoo is former chairman of the communication department at Drury University.

Readers may ask why Rusty Saber so often covers more than one topic. That is an easy one to answer. At crunch time a.k.a. deadline I may have more than one thing on my mind, and if I can't decide which one to use, I use them all.

This week's column covers one topic television with some subtopics. It is only fair to preface this with a confession: I have never cared a whit for daytime television, especially talk shows. I once tried out Phil Donahue's daytime talk show. I concluded that watching the TV test pattern was more informative and entertaining. Otherwise, I am limited to having twice watched parts of the Oprah Winfrey show, both times sitting in TV-equipped waiting rooms. Both times "Oprah" was crying about something.

I heard a short item on the radio that said a survey has found that more "Oprah" viewers suffer from stress than non-"Oprah" viewers. I spent a lifetime in a research-driven profession, and I have concluded that if only 10 human beings remained on earth, two of them would be researchers studying the behavior of the other eight.

According to the study, 5 percent of the country's adult population, or 9 million people, said they feel so much stress that they can no longer cope. Half of those said they were fans of the show.

The study was commissioned by Hale Dwoskin, author of "The Sedona Method." The study also found that 76 percent of fans said they wished their lives were calmer, almost 20 percent higher than non-fans. Fans of the show were also twice as likely as non-fans to say that they were unable to cope with the stress in their lives.

The results cause me to wonder if watching Oprah cry on television causes stress, or if stressful viewers are attracted to Oprah's crying? I will never know. I'm not carrying around a big load of stress; I don't want to take on any more of it.

Speaking of stress, CBS executives were feeling so much stress that they pulled the plug on a $16 million mini-series on the life of former President Reagan. This action followed a firestorm of criticism when some people saw previews of the show that pictured the former president, who at age 92 is battling Alzheimer's disease, as a buffoon, totally dominated by Nancy Reagan. I cannot recall an upcoming television program drawing so much stress-producing criticism. Even the show's writers admitted they had invented dialogue for dramatic effect. (Translation: They made up stuff.)

Beyond the contents of the script, the fact that actor James Brolin was cast in the role of Reagan is a harbinger of the show'sintent. Brolin is married to singer Barbra Streisand, who is up front about her strong political views. Her husband playing Reagan would be like casting Rush Limbaugh to play Bill Clinton in a mini-series.

The one sure element of television is money. Threats of massive boycotts seemingly grabbed the lapels of potential sponsors and CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves. Although he had previously approved the show for CBS, he withdrew it, not as a result of the controversy, according to him, but because it did not present a balanced portrayal of the Reagans." Was it balanced when he approved it?

The program will be shown on Showtime, a cable movie outlet owned by the parent company of CBS. I guess the program is too unbalanced for CBS viewers, but not too unbalanced for cable viewers. Go figure.

Speaking of cable television (notice the smooth segue between topics), I wonder if cable television is up to simultaneously covering three major court cases? Think of itScott Peterson and movie star Robert Blake on trial for murdering their wives, while basketball superstar Kobe Bryant faces sexual assault charges.

Normally, any one of these would rate 24-hour coverage. Can the news outlets and Court TV squeeze in all three? They will need to have endless reports covering all possible angles, which will be augmented by experts trial lawyers by the dozens, retired judges and police officers galore analyzing every minute detail of the cases.

Will there be enough experts to go around? Are there more celebrity scandals than television can cover 24-7? No. Television is up to the challenge.