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Interview With Lisa Bernhard of 'TV Guide'

Aired July 12, 2002 - 14:44   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: You've heard why they call TV a medium -- because it's neither rare nor well-done. Well, Fred Allen said something like that years before. The head of the FCC, no less, proclaimed TV a vast wasteland.

Far be it from us, then, to dispute there's lots of bad shows out there. And joining us to talk about some of the worst is Lisa Bernhard of "TV Guide."

Hi, Lisa.

LISA BERNHARD, DEPUTY EDITOR, "TV GUIDE": Hi, how are you?

PHILLIPS: I have to tell you, I was pretty bummed out to see some of these shows make the list. However, I wasn't bummed out -- well, you know what? We're going to get to those in a minute.

First I want to know, before we give away the bad shows, what was the criteria to judge these shows?

BERNHARD: Oh, there were bad, bad shows. There were good bad shows. There were guilty pleasures. You have to be really terrible in some aspect. And we confess, though, some of these are shows that we really love. You know, I mean, this is a great -- this when, you know, one of times when having this job is so much fun.

We all go at it at a story meeting and we all come armed with, you know, our favorite either guilty pleasures, like I said, or something where we just -- we've been waiting all these years to say, how could they put that on TV? And we really battle it out. It's all in good fun.

PHILLIPS: All right, well, now we can see it. Howard Stern, voted one of the worst. How does this guy get a TV show? Ugh!

BERNHARD: I know. It's one of these things where, you know, I guess you don't want to look, but you look anyway. Or, you know, he is so -- he tries to push the envelope and be shocking. I mean, we took him to task because we said, at this point, you know what? He's predictable.

He wants to shock people. And you sort of see it coming. You know, and there's blurred breasts, and there's things where we just know that this is, you know, not really uplifting to humanity. So we had to take him down a peg and take him to task for that.

PHILLIPS: There you go. About time somebody does. OK, "Praise the Lord." This is another one, "PTL."

BERNHARD: "PTL," yes.

PHILLIPS: Aren't there good things on here? I'd rather my kids watched "PTL" than Howard Stern.

BERNHARD: But, you know, when you have Tammy Faye Bakker, I'm sorry. It's kind of hard to avoid. I mean, the makeup alone. I mean, there are certain things where you're just kind of asking for it. I have to say, you can't put this all on us.

PHILLIPS: That's true.

BERNHARD: You come out looking a certain way, you're going to take a couple of knocks.

PHILLIPS: All right, now, what about some of the really popular shows, like "Barney"? Barney, I mean, this was so popular among the kids.

BERNHARD: I know. You know, a lot of kids love "Barney." But I think a lot of parents would like to give Barney a big punch in the face.

(LAUGHTER)

BERNHARD: I mean, not to get violent here. We're talking about a children's show. But, "I love you, you love me," that song -- you could make a torture chamber, I think, and put somebody in that as an adult and, you know, like the Chinese water torture. Hearing that song over and over again could drive you crazy. And those kids, they're just a little bit too cheerful, those kids, don't you think, on that show?

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: It's a little too perfect.

BERNHARD: It is, exactly.

PHILLIPS: All right. Now, some old shows. I mean, "Hogan's Heroes," so popular years ago. How could something like this make the worst TV list?

BERNHARD: Top 10 worst show, no less, "Hogan's Heroes." You know, I think what happened was, a lot of these shows, we thought, they just don't stand the test of time. I mean, "Hogan's Heroes" ran for six years, this is true. But you go back and you go, you know what, what's so funny about a Nazi POW camp?

PHILLIPS: True.

BERNHARD: I mean, funny Nazis? We weren't buying it anymore. And so -- you know, you have to throw a couple of controversial choices in there. And some of them, like I said, we admit that we watched them and we loved them. But you look at the them so many years later and you kind of think, doesn't cut it, doesn't hold up.

PHILLIPS: So, do you think TV has gotten better or worse over the years?

BERNHARD: Well, I am an editor of "TV Guide."

PHILLIPS: You better be politically correct if you want to keep your job, Lisa.

BERNHARD: To justify my existence, my livelihood and what we're all doing right now, I will say that it's gotten better. I mean, there are so many more choices out there, which actually means there's more opportunity for a lot of bad TV as well.

But I think that there's a lot of really, really good TV. And, you know, you can kind of look around. I mean, look, we picked a show like "Baywatch," which, how many -- I mean, so many shows on this list were on for years and years and years. That was the most popular show in the world.

But, you know, you're not watching it for the scintillating dialogue, really. You know why you're watching some of these shows. And sometimes it's just to watch pretty people. And you know? That's OK.

PHILLIPS: Yes, they're pretty, all right. I want to rip their hair out.

OK, finally, No. 1 on the worst TV -- the list of worst TV shows, of course, we probably all knew this: Jerry Springer.

BERNHARD: Oh, yes, Jerry Springer. You know, again, a show that's still on the air and still popular. But, you know, you come up with some of these topics alone and I don't have to say anything more. You know, I married my sister's boyfriend's husband's ex-transsexual and so on and so forth. I mean, they just kind of -- it just writes itself, you know?

Again, the car wreck, you find yourself watching it. You hate yourself for watching it. But he gets a lot of viewers. And it's just that fascination of these people that come out. They want to tell these stories. You know, not the most uplifting side of humanity.

PHILLIPS: The next worst show for you would be Howard Stern and Jerry Springer, Lisa. That would be one to critique.

BERNHARD: There's a one-two punch right there.

PHILLIPS: Lisa Bernhard with "TV Guide." Thanks so much, Lisa.

BERNHARD: Thank you. PHILLIPS: OK. So, do you agree with "TV Guide's" list? Well, starting Monday you can vote for your choices for worst TV shows on "TV Guide's" Web site. That's at tvguide.com.

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