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The "sophisticated sadists" of "Survivor"

Of all the so-called "characters" still populating "Survivor" island, 30-year-old Sean Kenniff has proven to be the toughest nut to crack. Now I've come across a fascinating essay by a lawyer who sees Sean as an archetype of a classic ethical dilemma.

For those of you who don't watch "Survivor" — or the newscasts of your local CBS affiliate, same difference — the show's 16 contestants can be roughly divided into three roaming packs. There are the ruthless ones, namely Richard III, Susan and Rudy, who have formed an "alliance" that has systematically picked off other contestants. There are the pacifists: cast-offs like Gervase and Greg who refused to join alliances or form ones of their own.

Then there are the castaways stuck in the middle. These contestants sure would like those million smackeroos. But they're still deciding how far they're willing to go to get it. They knew from the outset that this would not be your average million-dollar contest — a three-quarters-court free throw, say — yet only now is it dawning on them how increasingly desperate the situation will get before it's resolved.

No one personifies this dilemma more than Sean. He's declared himself, over and over, as squeamish at the thought of ousting anyone from the game. And yet he's still in the game, in part because of his publicly-stated strategy of voting off contestants based on which one is next in alphabetical order.

Daniel Murphy, who reads the show's online message boards, reports, "It's interesting to see that the consensus on Sean is shifting from Neurotic Naif to Coy Genius. I'm still not sure I'd want to be in his care if I needed a neurologist, but it increasingly seems there is a method to his madness."

Now comes an intriguing take on Sean from Julie Hilden, a First Amendment lawyer who's now senior editor at Writ, a publication of legal search engine Findlaw. In her recently published essay, Hilden compares "Survivor" to the Milgram experiments conducted at Yale — the ones where subjects were asked to administer what they thought were painful electrical shocks to other subjects, just to see how far they would go to comply with the rules of the game.

Hilden thinks Sean may be turning into a "sophisticated sadist" like Richard. Me, I'm not sure he isn't already there. To buy Hilden's thesis, you have to believe that Sean really is the Neurotic Naif he says he is.

Hilden may simply be a tad too trusting of what she sees on TV, as evidenced by what she has to say about another contestant: "Kelly — like the Milgram participants who finally stopped pushing the voltammeter upwards — is increasingly unsure whether the ethical rules of real life (don't hurt people; don't lie) also apply 'in a game' after all."

Don't hurt people? Don't lie? Solid ethical rules, to be sure, but apparently not rules that alleged husband-beater and credit-card-swindler Kelly Wiglesworth has lived by in real life. And with the outcome of "Survivor" no longer so certain, who's to say Kelly won't be there at the end, one hand on the voltammeter, the other clutching "Survivor's" grand prize?

Pick to click

I was looking forward to "Influences" (7:30 p.m. Sunday on Bravo), a new series from the Museum of Television & Radio in which today's TV stars talk about the people who most shaped their own careers. The program also promised to rely heavily on the archives of the museum, which has two showcase locations in Beverly Hills and New York.

But I found the first episode less than insightful. Instead of bringing on a seasoned interviewer, "Influences" just has the celebrity guest prattle on for an anonymous producer who sits off-camera. Their sound bites are then sliced-and-diced with footage from old TV shows and some flattering remarks from the host, Alan Alda.

That works OK when the subject is Tracey Ullman, who credits her success to the work of Lily Tomlin and Gilda Radner as well as the guidance of director James L. Brooks. But the segment with Ted Danson was worthless. At one point the "Cheers" and "Becker" star actually says, "I think my biggest influence was 'Cheers.' "

On this date...

in 1980, two stars of "Another World," Beverly McKinsey and Jim Poyner, leave Bay City for star billing in their own daytime soap opera, "Texas," where "the living is fast, the loving is free and rules are meant to be broken." Few ratings records are ever broken, however, by the "Dallas" knockoff that's scheduled opposite juggernaut "General Hospital." Everyone seems to lose with the series, particularly "Another World," which was shortened from 90 minutes to an hour to make room for the Southern sudser.

August 5: in 1998, after 136 episodes in ten seasons abroad, "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" crosses the pond with American executive producer Drew Carey taking over for host Clive Anderson. In "Party Quirks," Ryan Stiles pretends to be a foal being born in what one New Zealand TV critic names as "possibly the funniest 30 seconds in the history of television."

August 6: in 1988, accused of "being too white," MTV finally decides to cash in on hip-hop culture with two hours each afternoon of "Yo! MTV Raps," with your hosts Dr. Dre, Ed Lover and (on weekends) graffiti artist and rapper Fab Five Freddy. -- Tom Heald

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