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Last week, David Boreanaz sat next to Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest on Live! with Kelly and Ryan to promote his new series SEAL Team, one of a series of similar “special ops killing bad guys overseas…. rah!” series that are on the broadcast networks this fall. The line of questioning, some from Seacrest but mostly from Ripa, centered on how hard it is to play a Navy SEAL, with the physical demands, stress, etc. etc.
For his part, Boreanaz tried to deflect, saying in preparation for the part he had spoken to real SEALs who put their lives on the line and they’re the ones who protect our country and go on missions no one can know about. But, after the group saw a scene where Boreanaz’s character rips into one of his subordinates after they completed a mission, she said a line that made my spine squeeze together:
“Are you a hero?”
Ugggggh. Don’t get me wrong: most of the time I like Kelly Ripa; I think she has a snarky sense of humor that belies the happy tone most morning shows plaster onto their viewers. She may have a bright smile on her face, but we know that the words coming out of her mouth are dripping with sarcasm. That could have been the case here. But this time she was likely sincere. And that’s a big, big problem.
Let me give a pro tip to people who are interviewing actors on these military shows this fall: These people are not in the military. They’re just actors. They’re not putting their lives on the line when they film these scenes. They may be filming scenes in extreme conditions, but they’re still just pretending. They don’t have military training; they don’t know how to really handle themselves when faced with someone pointing an automatic weapon to their faces. When their “battle” is over (i.e. the director yells “cut!”) they likely go over to the craft services tent and eat a doughnut. They are not actually going into battle.
To even snidely say to David Boreanaz (a guy who played a sulky vampire in the not-so-distant past) that he’s a hero devalues everything that the Navy SEALs do. They’re the ones in enemy territory, executing top secret, super-sensitive and highly dangerous operations that save lives. When they’re done with their missions they have to go through what Boreanaz’s character, Jason Hayes, has to go through on the show — namely PTSD issues, devestating injuries, and other traumas — except they have to suffer for real while Boreanaz just goes home from his location shoot (which is not overseas) and/or raises a coffee mug with Kelly and Ryan.
This seems to be something that’s endemic of almost every morning show on television, from national shows like Live! to local Good Morning, Pismo Beach!-type programs. The pressure to do “happy talk” makes otherwise intelligent and trained journalists and hosts into blathering dolts. Most of the time, that blather is harmless (though folks who have been guests during Megyn Kelly’s first week as a daytime talk host might beg to differ), but when hosts ask actors questions about the serious professions they portray, morning TV drifts into dangerous territory.
Ellen Pompeo can’t perform an appendectomy. Taylor Kinney can’t fight fires. Bob Odenkirk can’t defend someone on trial. Mariska Hargitay can’t investigate a sexual assault. And David Boreanaz can’t fly into a terrorist safe house and rescue hostages. The sooner we all acknowledge this, the slightly better this world will be.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.
