7/27/2019 "You're Invited" - Feature on TV weddings
2/2
By Frank Lovece
do you part?You do - because nomatter how much of agimmick they
may seem,no matter how obvious agrab for the ratings bou-quet, we
watch TV wed-dings with as much hopeof something new andbright and
wonderful aswe do the real-Iife ceremo-nies.That's not so weird -e
invest ourselves emo-tionally in TV charactersno differently than
earli-er generations did withcharacters from novels,plays and fairy
tales.We've always wanted ourfrctional friends (and"Friends") to
live - howdoes that saying go? -haooilv ever after."^l^ can truly
identifug-ith 'Friends,' sincethat's g'hat it was like
.noe, when I firstto New YorkCity," says Larry Jones,general
manager and ex-ecutive vice president ofthe nostalgia cable
chan-nel TV Land. "But after afew vears. we all startedto s6ttle
down and frndmates. The series is em-bracing what hap-pens in real
life."'You get toknow these peopleas family mem-bers," says
Dr.Robert Thompson,director of TheCenter for theStudy of
PopularTelevision at Syra-cuse University."With some of
thelong-runningshows, there's awhole generationof people whogrow up
withthem. And just asvou'd like to see"your o*n familymembers
gothrough the ritu-als of weddinss ar
EARLY BELOVED, we are gathered here to-night for the wedding of
Monica Geller andCliandler Bing ("Friends," WNBC /,4 at 8).
Mar'riage, says the gospels, is a sacred vow, not tobe entered into
lightly, except during sweeps.-
be "enter6d into-lightly, except during sweeps.It is the union
of two souls and several million viewers,sathered toeether in the
presence of the TV set, as aSymbol of loie, commitmerit, and a
spi-lle in the ratings-- Do you, dear viewers, take TV weildings to
have andto hold, till cancellation
als of weddings and other family events' we want ourfrctional
family to do this as well."
couple of years ago, I had a call from a woman in Aus-tralia wh6
was planning an'Addams Familyl wedding,and wanted to fnow wliat the
cake looked like" on thewedding-fl ashback episode.Thus-it has been
since even the days of live black-and-white TV, when high school
science teachei Robin-son Peepers (Wally Cox) wed school nurse
Nancy Rem--ington (Patricia Benoit) on the sitcom "Mr.
Peepers"(NBC, 1952-55). Aside from being the first mqjol TVwedding,
the May 23, 1954, event also launched thevideo veision of the
June-bride tradition: TV weddingsin the audience-counting sweeps
months of November,
And not just in America: The British comedy--drama"Cold Feei,"
running here on Bravo, earned near-record ratings in its home
country with its Dec. ?6,2000, wedding of Adam (James Nesbitt) and
Rachel(Helen Baxendale - yep, the same actress who helped"Friends"
score its own ratings coup playing Emily,Ross'bride, in the 1998
wedding episode)."Its about character-resolution," says Marisa
Keller,co-author of "TV Weddings: An Illustrated Guide" (TVBooks,
1999). "But it's also a chance to see people puton nice clothes and
to comment on wedding dresses' A
sagging show. When the ratings for "Get,Smatt"beEan slipping in
season four, Aggntq 86 (DonAdams) and 99-(Barbara Feldon) got
hitched in No-vember 1968 - but would you believe (as 86 usedto
say) that NBC canceled the show that seasonanyvray? (CBS picked it
up for one more season).Photo T*";li yeais liter, Maddie Hayes'
(Cybill Strep-herd) marriage to a man who wasn't David
Addison(Bruce Willis)-on "Moonlighting" similarly failed to
setratings afrre; the show lasted only 14 more
ep-isodes...."If-writers do it to shore up ratings," says Keller,
"itdoesn't work. If they do it ai a natural progression ofthe lives
of characters we've come to know, it canwork."There are, in fact,
lots more reasons than ratings forthrowing a TV wedding. "When a
series has been on along tim"e, it becomes i challenge for the
people work-ing on it to keep it fresh," says,Jones. 'Yeah,
writersant show rtrnners may change, but the characters are
Wamer Bros. Photo / Danny Feldll's no coincidence TV weddings
are scheduled forratings sweeps months. Above, Thutsday's
"Friends"wedding; left, Rhoda and Joe tie the knot on
"Rhoda."February and, especially, season-finale- rich May.Ratinis,
certainty, at" i big impetus for TV wed-dings --with the
unfortunate effect of makingthem often seem like last-ditch efforts
to save a
zm=ho--{Ic1@o
-!NooSee WEDDINGS on 88
