'ER' EPISODE UNDER FIRE

Published: November 22, 2003

By Guy Dixon

Bob Newhart's vision-impaired character on the TV series ER shouldn't have killed himself.

So says the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, which fired off a strong press release this week, a few days after the episode in question was aired. The institute which provides support, prevention and advocacy services for the blind also wrote letters of complaint to the series' executive producer, NBC, and its Canadian broadcaster, CTV.

But the question is how receptive TV producers and networks are to these kind of complaints, particularly with aging hits such as ER looking to edgy storylines to maintain their ratings.

Newhart's character on ER was losing his eyesight due to age-related vision problems. Depressed by his illness, and after cutting his hand with a knife while trying to prepare a meal, he shoots himself.

“The message this show sends is alarming,” the CNIB president Jim Sanders said. People with this condition, age-related macular degeneration, still lead “healthy, active, productive lives. This episode is so potentially damaging because 80,000 new cases of AMD are diagnosed in Canada each year.”

The CNIB isn't the only one taking issue with ER these days. An American group, the Center for Nursing Advocacy, recently launched a letter-writing campaign aimed at NBC and the show's producers, complaining about the portrayal of nurses and their roles in hospitals.

A Warner Bros. spokeswoman in Toronto declined to comment on the CNIB complaint, and an NBC spokesperson in Los Angeles wasn't immediately available. CTV said it has no control over the storylines.

Some large-scale boycotts targeting sponsors have gone so far as to push shows off the air, said Richard Gruneau, professor of communications at Simon Fraser University. But with a particular grievance such as the CNIB complaint against one plot line in one episode of one series, prospects of a response are small. “There are no mechanisms for that,” Gruneau said.

The next question is whether there should be.

The Globe and Mail