Bill Bennett tries to strike back at Bart
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Conservative think-tanker William Bennett has logged a lot of sound bites lately accusing the entertainment industry, particularly television, of corrupting the nation's morals. But Bennett is no Johnny-come-lately to this election-year issue. Back in 1990, Bennett, who at the time was the Bush administration's drug czar, was publicly decrying the bug-eyed Bart Simpson as an unfit role model for America's youth. Now, Bennett (who also served as Secretary of Education under Reagan) has a prime-time cartoon series of his very own -- PBS's "Adventures from the Book of Virtues," based on Bennett's hefty 1993 anthology of moral tales. Like the book, the series is earnest, wholesome, instructive and about as entertaining as Sunday school. Six years after bashing Bart, Bennett unveils his version of suitable family programming -- and it's a show only Ned Flanders could love. In fact, watching "The Book of Virtues" brings to mind that episode of "The Simpsons" in which Bart, Lisa and Maggie are placed in foster care in the tranquil home of well-meaning, church-going Ned Flanders -- the anti-Homer. There, the Simpson kids are subjected to the Flanderses' poignant brand of family fun -- Christian martyr quizzes and, for a special treat, ice milk in the least gratifying flavors. The littlest Flanders boy jumps up and down at the prospect of wintergreen. His parents opt for unflavored. With its blandly drawn, Disney-knock-off characters and plodding, "Let us now turn to the story of the fox and the grapes," pacing, "The Book of Virtues" is a classic example of why Puritanism and entertainment don't mix: We mustn't stimulate the little ones too much, or else they won't know that it's good for them. |
By JOYCE MILLMAN
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