'Bette's' success tribute to its star Midler

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'Bette's' success tribute to its star Midler

Wednesday, January 10, 2001

By JOHN LEVESQUE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER TELEVISION CRITIC

Her People's Choice Award for favorite female performer in a new TV series may soothe the ego, but Bette Midler still says she could use a little help around the house.

Midler won at the People's Choice Awards, but her show hasn't hit the same chord with critics.
AP photo

Her CBS series, "Bette," has struggled to find its comfort zone, reviews have been mixed, and the decision to center on Midler's larger-than-life character has left her exhausted. On the set of her show in Culver City this week, Midler made it clear that changes need to be made if "Bette" is to have any chance of returning for a second season.

"What kind of star am I?" she asked, referring to her character in a show that mirrors her life as an entertainment diva. "I have no help. We need a true ensemble, with more and funnier characters."

Midler even suggested that the departing Kevin Dunn, who has played her husband on the show, could conceivably be replaced by a rotation of guest stars. "And this week as Roy, we present Fred Willard," she laughed. "And this week, Martin Short. And this week, Chris Rock."

She polled a large group of critics, who thought it was a terrific way to kick-start a struggling show. But Nancy Tellem, president of CBS Entertainment, says that won't be happening.

"We're trying to make the series as realistic as we can," Tellem said yesterday, "and we're currently looking to cast a husband and I think we're going to end up with only one."

Despite the bumpy road, Tellem's boss, CBS Television president Leslie Moonves, says there's a good chance "Bette" will be back next season.

"I think the show started off strong," Moonves said, "(but) I think it had a little trouble finding its way for a while, in terms of the direction it was going. It got a bit too broad, we felt."

Unlike Midler, Moonves says he thinks the necessary course corrections have been made. "We feel very good about the show," he said, "and we still think we have one of the best stars on TV who clearly has a lot of popular appeal."

On that point, the never shy Midler agrees. Despite the exhausting schedule, she says she'd give her first season so far a solid B, and she doesn't plan on giving up.

"I really like the idea of having a success in a medium it's so hard to get your arms around," she said.

Different but the same

One of CBS's midseason entries, premiere date undetermined, is "Me and Frankie Z," a half-hour comedy about a gay man living with a straight man in a Greenwich Village apartment. Jason Bateman, who plays the gay guy, Warren Fairbanks, says it's more like "The Odd Couple" than "Will & Grace," but no one is denying that the success of "Will & Grace" has made it OK to embrace gay characters as more mainstream.

Heck, the failure of "Normal, Ohio" this season has made it OK to ignore such shows if they're not very good. But does anybody else besides me get the feeling that these shows about embracing differentness -- homosexuality in this case -- deflect attention away from the racial inequities that continue to exist in most programming? Or maybe it's just a coincidence that most of the gays tend to be Caucasian.

John Levesque is the P-I's television critic. Call him at 206-448-8330, or send e-mail to tvguy@seattle-pi.com.