Can't Take My Eyes Off of You: 1 Man, 7 Days, 12 Televisions

Tanked up on coffee and Egg McMuffins, Lechner goes where few humans have ever dared--into the swirling maelstrom of network and cable TV. Taking his cue from Charles Sopkin's famous Seven Glorious Days, Seven Fun-Filled Nights, in which the social critic subjected himself to a week of watching six televisions day and night in 1967, Lechner does him more than twice better, watching 12 TVs, for 15 hours a day. Yet where Sopkin had a limited number of networks, Lechner has hundreds on cable. Such a project might tend toward either boring sociological pontificating or mindless joke making, yet Lechner, a film producer and former executive at Miramax, steers a steady course in this funny, smart, provocative book. Amid endless quips and quirky, laugh-out-loud observations (e.g., ""I turn on Court TV. A very helpful card tells us `Interracial Engagement Ends in Killing'""), Lechner conveys both his amazement and dismay at what is spinning out of control before him. But every time his task seems to be getting the better of him (at one point he is confused about whether an A&E documentary on Coco Chanel is really about Rose Kennedy), he recoups and provides highly intelligent, witty cultural criticism. His range of references is wide--a Chuck Close show at MoMA, Bob Dole's Viagra intake, Aretha Franklin and those two great American Ronalds (Reagan and McDonald) all find their place here--and his politics are sensible, pragmatic and progressive. (Nov.)