Though billed as a mystery, the broadly satiric eighth entry in PBS news anchor Lehrer's One-Eyed Mack series (Kick the Can
, etc.) contains no crimes as such—unless one counts the antics of zany Oklahoma governor Joe Hayman (aka Buffalo Joe or Chip), who announces on radio's popular Sooner Sam Screams at Noon
show that he intends to privatize the entire state government. Mack, Oklahoma's lieutenant governor, is prepared to run against Hayman in the next election, but he's sidetracked after undergoing a heart-bypass operation, one intended for another patient, which leads to a juicy malpractice trial in Washington, D.C. While recuperating from surgery, Mack does his best to keep Oklahoma from falling apart. In taking aim at such subjects as the health care system, the courts and talk radio, Lehrer is more likely to evoke wry grins and the occasional chuckle than anger or outrage. (May)
