The Post's Shales needles the networks and delights readers
He has been called brilliant, thoughtful, incisive and screamingly funny. Also, vicious, infuriating, cruel and unfair. NBC President Fred Silverman no longer returns his calls. His thrice-weekly Washington Post TV column, "On the Air," syndicated in 59 other newspapers, causes teeth-gnashing in Hollywood and heartburn in Manhattan's network headquarters. Critic Tom Shales, 33, the plump, droll, sometimes zany man at the heart of all this Sturm und Drang, puts his brown-and-tan saddle shoes up on the desk in his cramped fifth-floor office at the Post and shrugs off all the fuss: "The networks don't think they should be written about. They have the lowest form of contempt for TV critics."
Among newspaper critics, Shales is the most admired, though John O'Connor of the New York Times may have more clout because of his proximity to Broadcast Row. The Shales style is a fast-paced blend of insight, humor and an almost possessive affection for the medium. He can write lovingly, as he did in "Dingbat's Demise," his column about the death of All in the Family's Edith Bunker: "Wife, mother, grandma, neighbor ... philosopher, cook, mender of socks, bringer of beers, keeper of the faith ... Edith, Edith, Edith, how could you ever up and die on us?" He can be outraged, as he was last February when the networks aired a cluster of exploitative TV movies on torture, rape, child abuse and teen-age prostitution: "Watching prime-time TV is like being trapped in Sleaze City's tackiest honkytonk. One gets a warped and depressing view of what it means to be alive."
More often, Shales stings his victims with wit. Investigative reporters who pounce on their prey in ambush interviews are practicing "bonzo journalism," said Shales. "Naturally one is reminded of the old story about the dog chasing cars —what do they do if they catch one? Wrestle him to the ground? Drag him off to the hoosegow?" Shales ridiculed Dan Rather's histrionic foray into Afghanistan last year for 60 Minutes, dubbing him "Gunga Dan," and noting that Rather's peasant garb "made him look like an extra out of Dr. Zhivago." Some viewers still cannot tune in ABC's Good Morning America Host David Hartman without thinking of Shales' tag for him: "Mr. Potato Head." The names stick. Just ask NBC's Tom Brokaw ("Duncan the Wonderhorse") or the people at ABC News ("Rooney Tunes"). Says ABC News President Roone Arledge: "He loves to make catchy little phrases that are belittling." Adds CBS News President Bill Leonard: "He uses the English language like a sword to punch holes in whatever he feels like punching holes in."
Although Shales is often acerbic about what he sees on TV, he is not contemptuous of the medium. This distinguishes him from other tart-tongued TV critics —and redeems him hi the eyes of many industry honchos. "He wants TV to be better," says M.T.M. President Grant Tinker (Hill Street Blues, WKRP in Cincinnati). Explains Shales: "People who respect TV are the ones I respect. It's the ones who wipe their feet on it whom I probably write nasty things about."