The Stuart News from Stuart, Florida • 39

ACCENT SECTION THE STUART NEWS Accent desk: 221 4236 Monday December'14 1992 reunions History character to Ian Mcewan Channel 5 news rides high in ratings Bob Botcher Special sections editor Parenting Lawrence Kutner New York Times News Service cal television market comprises Palm Beach Martin St Lucie Indian River and Okeechobee counties In the evening Wheel of ortune spins successfully for WPEC at 7 pm beating out Cheers reruns on WPTV CBS prime place during the alkland Islands war were liberators for me" he said allowed me to find a way to make history one of the moving elements in a novel one shaft of light or color almost another character to play On the other hand they propelled McEwan a quiet reticent man right into the maw of Hollywood an experience he described with equal parts amusement and distaste as a kind of perpetual Dunkirk for the English from Britain line the road from Heathrow to the center of town like the columns of the defeated" he said In fact McEwan is turning out screenplays faster than Joe Eszterhas two of them for the film versions of The Innocent and The Cement Garden which have recently finished filming Over the years McEwan has taken a certain amount of abuse from critics as well some of whom find his work unsavory He can recite the list of charges rapidly: write to shock I'm perverted or I'm a psychopath" Or worse critics have said that I'm profoundly he said clearly aggrieved think the books can be quite time programming (8 to 11 pm) via WPEC clobbers NBC on WPTV race continues to get closer and closer We arc extremely pleased with our improvement in the said Donn Colee station manager Colee points to 1 1 pm news cast which is within a hair of overtaking WPTV in one rating survey and how rat ings have reflected" the of new anchor Tim Malloy who replaced Steve Wolford In the battle of the talk shows he road to evil lies right outside Ian doorstep in the Languedoc region of rance Trail No 74 in the national hiking system known as the Grande Randonnee winds across the Causse du Larzac a limestone upland whose wildness surprises visitors accustomed to the soft countryside of Burgundy or the Dordogne It is an appropriate setting for theterrifying encounter that gives Black Dogs latest novel its title The dogs enormous and wild appear like an apparition in front of June Tremaine an idealistic Communist hiking through the countryside with her new husband Bernard in 1946 encounter a quick sickening glimpse into savagery and chaos changes her forever Slje can no longer believe in science and reason or in her husband also a Communist whose political program seems absurd to her The two drift apart The course of postwar European history insures that the philosophical rift between them remains an open wound At the end of the novel Bernard by now a leftist intellectual and talk show Grandparents treat their grown up children as if they were adolescents Psychotherapists report that concern about family gatherings over the holidays is one of the most common complaints they hear this time of year come into the holidays expecting that this year will be different: year we get into the same routine as last said Dr Alan Entin a family psychologist in Richmond and a past president of the division of family psychology of the American Psychological Association when families get together the middle generation automatically lapses into the same routines and relationships they had when they were adolescents and left the he said Occasionally the older generation returns to old habits as well A mother may remind her grown daughter to wear a sweater A father may correct his 35 year old table manners The comments are almost always well intentioned but in the heat of the moment they can bring out old angry and immature feelings arc times when my mother says two wrong words to me and I feel like she hasn't recognized my said Hanson who added that her perception of her 26 year old son as an adult is helped by the fact that he too is a chef my mother's eyes still the teenager who gave her the most In many families the generations' perceptions of each other are out of synch The strongest memories of their adult children date back to when they lived together in an inherently unequal parent child relationship or most it was a time of adolescent rebellion and emotional sensitivity The success in their adult lives is overshadowed by the memories of arguments over homework and hair styles The memories of their parents are distorted as well No longer can they be seen as all knowing Their frailties and failings are more obvious when seen through adult eyes even though their children may not wish to see them are the holidays so difficult for so many asked Dr Eugene VBeresin an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard University because we live up to our image of the ideal family We grieve for that ideal family we Blindly maintaining the holiday traditions contributes to the feelings qf anxietv and disappointment To avoid such problems the members of each generation must choose what appropriate for them and what they will give up as their children and grandchildren mature Therein lies a paradox amily members sometimes unthinkingly cling to traditions as a way of maintaining family closeness But those rituals can breed anger and resentment from others in the family who feel no emotional connection i to them i This is a particular problem for families that include stepchildren Both they and their parents may feel like outsiders if the holiday gatherings continue unchangedafter they have joined the family rom the perspective it is as if their differences and histories are being ignored as if they do not matter regular still insists that human aft airs can be described in materialist rational terms that human beings can improve even as he falls victim to an attack by German skinheads not far from the collapsing Berlin Wall June something close toa mystic seems better equipped to understand the human horrors that erupt without warning inspiration was the said McEwan interviewed recently in his Manhattan hotel room referring to a half ruined sheep barn that he recently began renovating near St Privat and that June and Bernard buy in the novel was half thinking half dreaming what it would have been like if one's parents had acquired it and fixed it up so the book began as a fantasy about how that house might have been The fantasy developed into a psycho philosophical novel told in "the form of a memoir The narrator is Jeremy Bernard and son in law whose peculiar personal history related in a preface to the memoir harks back to the fearful post reudian terrain that MacEwan has made his own in novels like TheCemcnt Garden and The Comfort of Strangers The device is odd wanted Donahue continues to beat out Regis and Kathie Lee at 9 am The rating services arc split on who wins at 10 am with Nielsen giving it to WPEC for its Sally Jessy Raphael show while Ar bitron crowns Maury Povich the winner on WPTV WPB Channel 25 (Adelphia Cable 10) the troubled ABC station which wit nessed its two main anchors exit recently continues to lag well behind in third place in virtually all time periods including local news To illustrate weak news audi ence ratings indicate more people watch ull House reruns at 6 pm on WLX Channel 29 (Adelphia Cable 11) than flagship newscast Another anemic time period for WPB is its two hour 9 am movie During the second hour ratings indicate even watching The highly touted You Bet Your Life with Bill Cosby has done little to help WPB out of the 7:30 pm doldrums In fact the station is doing worse now than it did with amily eud last year Channel Jeopardy! continues to dominate with Entertainment Tonight running second A few WPB bright spots: WPB runs second between 7 and 9 am with Good Morning America At 4 pm Mat lock beats out tabloid shows Hard Copy and Inside Edition and Court at 5 pm comes within a hair of Live at ive newscast NBC Nightly News is the most watched 6:30 pm network newscast in the market with CBS second and ABC third Nation ally the viewing pattern is reversed with ABC on top followed by CBS and NBC By William Grimes New York Times News Service he results of the November are in and once again WPTV Channel 5 dominates the local television dial Channel 5 the local NBC af filiate remains number one sign on to sign off which is a measurement of viewers from 6 am to 1 am Additionally Channel 5 continues to pull in the most viewers for the heavily promoted local newscasts at 6:30 am 5 5:30 6 and 11 pm As an illustration of Channel strength the 6 pm news has a higher rating than all other local newscasts in the market combined according to just released Nielsen and Arbitron surveys Channel 5 is owned by Scripps Howard which also owns The Stuart News Port St Lucie News The CBS station WPEC Chan nel 12 (Adelphia Cable 9) as usual finds itself positioned in second place in the above mentioned important local news slots despite making some improvements over previous rating periods WPEC con tinues to improve in local news and key time periods throughout the day news for instance wins hands down at noon due in part to the powerful lead in of The Price Is Right that WPEC enjoys from CBS at 1 1 am Chan nel 5 is saddled with the weaker but im proving Jane Whitney Show at 1 1 am as its hews lead in Conversely Channel early evening newscasts continue to benefit by the im mensely popular Oprah Winfrey Show lead in at 4 pm and the popularity of Live on ive anchors Kent Ehrhardt and Kelly Dunn WPTV News Director rank Verdel said he is once again grateful that people in all five voted the sta tion the best overall news station The lo Dreading holiday In its engagement with European history and politics Black Dogs recalls Ian previous work The Innocent set in cold war Berlin to give the appearance of a proper McEwan said I also wanted the narrator who is for most of the novel a passive recorder to emotionally declare his Jeremy left adrift at an early age after the death of his mother and father becomes a lonely teenager who dotes on his much younger sister and attaches himself to his friends' parents Hence his abnormal interest in the lives of June and Bernard "1 wanted a yearning so that his search is not just the pursuit of the truth but the pursuit of a i In its engagement with European history and politics the novel (published by Doubleday) recalls McEwan's previous work The Innocent set in cold war Berlin It was a departure from the introverted psychological dramas which unfolded in settings stripped of any precise identity turning point came when 1 began writing screenplays" McEwan said "1 was feeling a little confined not by my subject matter but the intense inwardness of the In 1982 he wrote a script for Tle Imitation Game a television drama set in an army code breaking center during World War 1 1 and soon after wrote The Ploughman's Lunch a state of England film that takes New York Times The inspiration for Ian novel Black Dogs was a bergerie a half ruined sheep barn that he recently began renovating near St Privat in the Provence region of rance vw nr hen Karen Hanson I recently asked her cooking students how they felt about their coming holiday celebrations their responses were full of dread 18 were anticipating family complaints about where the gatherings took place who did the cooking or who was consulted about the said Hanson a caterer in Ridgefield Conn who teaches at the New School for Social Research in Manhattan Their anxieties were predictable While the holiday season is heralded as a time of joy many family gatherings are peppered with feelings of anger resentment and unmet expectations Young children become overexcited Adults regress into immature dependent or antagonistic relationships with other family members i 2 CINEMA CLOCK 2 UP 3 CLASSIIED Ratings: A happy ending WSTU (1450 AM) which normally is known for the most reliable and complete local radio news in'Martin and St Lucie counties tripped up last week when it incorrectly proclaimed WPEC the most watched station at 6 and 1 1 pm The WSTU reports which ran numerous times Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning went on to say that it was an historical occasion that Wi EC finally toppled long time leader WPTV On air banter followed with News Director Tom Teter and morning man Barry Grant But it just so That of course upset the folks at No 1 Channel 5 including Treasure Coast bureau chief Mark Kahler and photographer Thomas ranklin 1 he phonelines between TV5 and WSTU sizzled After learning of the error WSTU quickly ran on air corrections And to further make amends the TV5 duo was invited to appear with Grant and Teter live riday morning for in person apologies And appear they did The 35 minute gig ended with some good natured kibitzing on both sides Kahler even cut loose with a pretty good imitation of President Bush The visit was cut short because the television fellows had to run to cover a fatal wreck in St Lucie County on Turnpike But the visit went a long way to soothe WPTV Reports of television and radio ratings are sensitive stuff I should know A tew months ago I made a similar error involving WSTU sister station WHLG I telt very bad about that as much as I'm sure WSTU did about this recent flap It was good to see WSTU's Grant and Teter handle the matter with grace WL.