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'Hillary!' TV Show: Clinton Defense Secretary Rumors Thicken Plot
1 year ago
Network TV shows met their fates in May. To the dismay of television fans, several long-running series rolled credits on their last original episodes. "Lost" got lost on ABC. NBC lowered the gavel on "Law & Order." Fox decided "24" had run out of time. On a personal note, even my sister Meredith Stiehm's "Cold Case" got left in the cold after seven seasons on CBS.
Set here in Washington, however, we have a drama series playing that's not likely to be canceled anytime soon. Though made for television, this political show airs in real time, with assorted character arcs, high production values and changing hairstyles to ride the zeitgeist. As it has so many times before, the story I like to call "Hillary!" has been again renewed for the viewing pleasure of the American public.
As my colleague Eleanor Clift wrote recently, this town is buzzing with talk that this season's Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may soon step into the role of secretary of Defense (a part currently cast with her new best ally, Robert Gates). She'd still be Madame Secretary to her fans but would have a whole new lineup of supporting characters. Eleanor believes the nation's top diplomat will remain in the role of first responder to global crisis when the phone rings in the middle of the night. On the other hand, ratings could soar were she to become a radioactive symbol of female power in the Pentagon fortress.
Further down the road, Clift thinks Clinton may step into Joe Biden's vice presidential shoes in 2012 and work her way up to another lead part from there. The star of "Hillary!" knows what the people want and what keeps them coming back. The drama has been running at least 25 seasons so far.
Back when we were young, the pilot featured one Hillary Rodham of Chicago, a bespectacled, outspoken young woman who went East for an education at a Seven Sisters college and then onto Yale Law School. The archetype of a new kind of American womanhood, she and her peers expected the power establishment to make them feel at home. The plot twist in the first season was a classic conflict cliffhanger between head and heart: would she follow the sweet-talkin' and good-lovin' Bill, her law school boyfriend, home to benighted Arkansas? What about her brilliant career?
Suspense hung over the summer. But Bill was way too fabulous a character to let go. He had to stay in the picture. You'd need Aaron Sorkin to create another as colorful, and so several early seasons featured our bright young lawyer working in Little Rock married to an ambitious political wunderkind.
Over the twists and turns since, from a young mom in a headband to an "I'm in it to win it," candidate she has been a woman of the people. "Hillary!" managed to look like a different person in each of these phases, yet she somehow stayed in character, too.
Set here in Washington, however, we have a drama series playing that's not likely to be canceled anytime soon. Though made for television, this political show airs in real time, with assorted character arcs, high production values and changing hairstyles to ride the zeitgeist. As it has so many times before, the story I like to call "Hillary!" has been again renewed for the viewing pleasure of the American public.
As my colleague Eleanor Clift wrote recently, this town is buzzing with talk that this season's Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may soon step into the role of secretary of Defense (a part currently cast with her new best ally, Robert Gates). She'd still be Madame Secretary to her fans but would have a whole new lineup of supporting characters. Eleanor believes the nation's top diplomat will remain in the role of first responder to global crisis when the phone rings in the middle of the night. On the other hand, ratings could soar were she to become a radioactive symbol of female power in the Pentagon fortress.
Further down the road, Clift thinks Clinton may step into Joe Biden's vice presidential shoes in 2012 and work her way up to another lead part from there. The star of "Hillary!" knows what the people want and what keeps them coming back. The drama has been running at least 25 seasons so far. Back when we were young, the pilot featured one Hillary Rodham of Chicago, a bespectacled, outspoken young woman who went East for an education at a Seven Sisters college and then onto Yale Law School. The archetype of a new kind of American womanhood, she and her peers expected the power establishment to make them feel at home. The plot twist in the first season was a classic conflict cliffhanger between head and heart: would she follow the sweet-talkin' and good-lovin' Bill, her law school boyfriend, home to benighted Arkansas? What about her brilliant career?
Suspense hung over the summer. But Bill was way too fabulous a character to let go. He had to stay in the picture. You'd need Aaron Sorkin to create another as colorful, and so several early seasons featured our bright young lawyer working in Little Rock married to an ambitious political wunderkind.
Over the twists and turns since, from a young mom in a headband to an "I'm in it to win it," candidate she has been a woman of the people. "Hillary!" managed to look like a different person in each of these phases, yet she somehow stayed in character, too.
Americans like to watch women re-invent themselves – (think "Madonna," the other long-running series on a smart girl from the Midwest) – but, I hate to admit, at first White House "Hillary!" was a room-emptier. That year, my favorite character forgot first ladylike limits and tried to lead Congress into battle for health care reform. It was the closest her show got to cancellation.
Then when Bill strayed and was flayed in an impeachment circus, the star of "Hillary!" won the hearts of her public. People felt her pain and wondered if she'd leave Bill. High as the tension ran, this drama could not live without the stakes between them. But the balance of power between "Hillary!" and her husband shifted notably in her favor -- she got bigger scenes and better scripts.
Her story arc rose as she played "Senator Hillary!" She fit nicely with the Senate's clubby ensemble cast and tried not to act like the smartest girl in the chamber. The show was renewed, leading in nicely to the next chapter: "Hillary! Runs for President."
Talk about glass ceiling-cracking times in Nielsen history. "Hillary!" played the righteous 21st century woman who ran like hell for president and almost won the Democratic nomination. At the end of the 2008 she was re-cast as the good-girl loser who gets the guy ... to ask her to be Secretary of State. Currently, in keeping with a plot twist of "soft power" in foreign policy, the star has a touch more glamour, with longer locks and bolder colors. She's spending more time on the set in make-up and wardrobe.
No longer needing the support of Bill, "Hillary!" went to a White House state dinner unescorted in the most recent season finale, setting up a few flurries for the fall. Whatever happens, the show will go on and on.
Her story arc rose as she played "Senator Hillary!" She fit nicely with the Senate's clubby ensemble cast and tried not to act like the smartest girl in the chamber. The show was renewed, leading in nicely to the next chapter: "Hillary! Runs for President."
Talk about glass ceiling-cracking times in Nielsen history. "Hillary!" played the righteous 21st century woman who ran like hell for president and almost won the Democratic nomination. At the end of the 2008 she was re-cast as the good-girl loser who gets the guy ... to ask her to be Secretary of State. Currently, in keeping with a plot twist of "soft power" in foreign policy, the star has a touch more glamour, with longer locks and bolder colors. She's spending more time on the set in make-up and wardrobe.
No longer needing the support of Bill, "Hillary!" went to a White House state dinner unescorted in the most recent season finale, setting up a few flurries for the fall. Whatever happens, the show will go on and on.
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Does anyone think that she will quit before getting what she wants ???????
June 01 2010 at 1:49 PM Report abuse Permalink +1 rate up rate down ReplyShe has indeed has had a dismal record in her current job..Possibly a change in atmospere may high-lite her sagging diasapointments as secetary of state..I will not accept OR ASSUME any position with-in the obama cabinet..HILLARY RODEM CLINTON..LATE DEC 2008..
June 01 2010 at 11:48 AM Report abuse Permalink +1 rate up rate down ReplyAlas, we mortals cannot plan everything. As Lincoln said,
only "events" can make a president--events not under ones
individual control.
We are no longer free to express ourselves withour censorship and feather plucking? Please tell me this is America. It's ok for the "press" to strangle and misrepresent the truth when it comes to the 500+ broken treaties with the First Nation Tribes......but it is "ok" to give a forum to Ahmadinejad, and allow him diplomatic immunity, hospitality and with fresh blood dripping from his fraudulent election, and we are haunted by the face of Neda, to allow him to deny the holocaust, to do business with the ever corrupt Turks, who deny the genocide against the minority Armenians, Anatolians, Greeks, Jews and Kurds - to the tune of 1.5million defenceless souls, whilst illegally occupying Cyprus with Turk troops......and these corrupt, murderous politicians have access to the media, whilst I do not have the right to question their qualifications?.......no, dear friends, this is not a service or a democratic institution, it has all the earmarks of depriving me of the right to express my views, because they may not suit your agenda. The truth is not always "pretty", but is greatly needed to heal us of the moral bankruptcy and cowardice which is rendering society spineless and gutless.
June 01 2010 at 1:11 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyPD TOPIC PAGES
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