Aaron Barnhart's TVBARN.COM

Welcome to the spoilsport lounge

Hmmmmm. Seems my ticket to the Malaysian Borneo got lost somewhere in the FedEx. Or could it be that CBS simply didn't invite me to join its press junket to the remote tropical island where its new reality game show "Survivor" is going on? Maybe that had something to do with that story we published last month in which we not only reported the name of one of the contestants, but the fact that he was spotted around his Mission Hills, Kan., home — having obviously been eliminated early.

Now, in the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, we learn that my story (with some crucial reporting from two of my colleagues) forced CBS to change its policy regarding contestants on "Survivor." Sayeth EW in its Apr. 21 issue, "Even before The Kansas City Star reported that local man B.B. Andersen was the first Survivor participant to get ousted from CBS' desert-island-based game show, the Eye decided to sequester the final five losing contestants (out of 16) to guarantee there'd still be some intrigue left in the 13-week series." Actually, I'm not sure that wasn't always the show's policy: after all, it's these five contestants — plus two others — who form the final council to decide which of the two remaining players will be awarded "Survivor's" top prize of a million bucks. It makes no sense to slingshot them back to the States 10,000 miles, then back again a few days later for the final vote. The article adds, "But CBS feels not even the spoilsport press can ruin this one."

At any rate, the Associated Press sent a reporter on this grueling journey to a tropical ocean paradise; here's her story. (The AP story mentions a contestant whose sexist remark got him ousted early. Was that B.B.? Again we say hmmmmm.) And the New York Post didn't send anybody to cover "Survivor," but the ever-resourceful Adam Buckman wrote a column about the show anyway.

Pick To Click: Unabomber Pen Pal

What sets Errol Morris' new series "First Person" (10:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Bravo) apart from his feature films is that his subjects are not discovered by Morris so much as interpreted by him. Case in point: tonight's profile of Gary Greenberg, a psychologist who got some national press last year when he corresponded with Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber), then wrote about it for a small magazine called McSweeney's.

This half-hour is not much more than a dialogue between Greenberg and Morris, who as usual is not seen but heard calling out his questions loudly and shrilly, as though he knew nothing about good audio technique. Morris uses various visual tricks, like cutting to black or moving the camera a few degrees.

But he didn't need to resort to gimmicks with Greenberg, who is a compelling character and sufficiently detached from his pursuit of Kaczynski to retell his tale with humor and perspective. From the start Greenberg is disarming, as when he admits that his original motive in contacting the Unabomber was to get himself published. This, he quickly adds, wasn't much different from Kaczynski's motive in mailing out bombs.

The daily digest ... for April 19, 2000: Proof that everybody loves the roller-coaster ride, CNBC scored its highest-ever rating on Monday, averaging 564,000 households during the bear-to-bull trading day/ Variety sez that's 16 percent higher than its previous all-time high — set just two weeks earlier, when the Microsoft antitrust ruling was announced ... ABC finally confirmed what most suspected: "Boy Meets World" is ending. The coming-of-age sitcom ran seven seasons and closely mirrored "Ozzie and Harriet," another long-running Friday program, in that its characters aged in real time (and relations between all seemed unnaturally sturdy). As was true for all of ABC's teen-oriented "TGIF" shows, "Boy's" teen viewership was down sharply, sez Variety. ABC has already unloaded "Sabrina" onto the WB and would now seem poised to shut down the joint altogether ...

Those Delta Burke appearances on "Any Day Now" must have scored with viewers: Lifetime announced Tuesday they're giving Burke her own talk show, beginning in early 2001 ... Speaking of women's channels, AMC spinoff Romance Classics is airing a new special from "Daily Show" co-creator Lizz Winstead called "Women and Their Shoes: A Love Story." It airs 8 p.m. Saturday on Romance Classics.

Previously on TV Barn:
18 April: Second thoughts on Zehme, Takei
17 April: Sitcoms bomb
14 April: Ellen's new show
13 April: Reader mail
12 April: "Freaks and Geeks"
11 April: "Star Trek" protests
10 April: Zehme on Letterman
7 April: CBS's loaded sked; "Phantom Menace" on video
6 April: ReplayTV and TiVo
5 April: "Wonderland" protests; Fox hits new low
4 April: "Falcone" v. "Sopranos"; new sci-fi stars
3 April: iCraveTV; BET v. Univision
31 March: Video kiosks; Tavis Smiley; Peabody Awards; quit griping about Oscar

Coming up next ... subject to last-minute changes:
Thursday: Reader mail

On this date... in 1955, Zenith engineer Eugene Polley creates the "Flashmatic" — the world's first wireless TV remote control. The device sends a signaling beam of light to a series of four photo cells attached to the front of the set to adjust your sets settings. Unfortunately, bright sunny days can send the tuners out of control, so the Zenith engineers start experimenting with ultrasonic technologies, and will have the "Zenith Space Command" in production by fall of 1956. -- Tom Heald