Dear Toni,

For several seasons, prime time has been filled with actor-less reality shows. In addition, over the past 10 years, I've seen TV acting roles written overwhelmingly for younger actors. This is not only a perception coming from my growing older, but also a real, objective phenomenon. There are not a lot of older roles on sitcoms, except for those rare few who already have stellar careers (e.g. Peter Boyle and James Garner). But the future isn’t all that bleak. While it's true that the most desired audience (25-40) are those raising families with credit cards loaded with interest charges, soon older generation money will start to be spent as many post-WWII baby boomers enter retirement with their accumulated savings and pensions. Do you see any objective data that show a growing number of older acting roles aimed at the baby boomers, or is it still too early for their influence to be felt?

Jim Hudson

Dear Jim,

I don’t know any older baby-boomers with accumulated savings. You might be the only one! I know that television right now has taken a tremendous turn with all of these reality shows. How interesting that our United States population has become real voyeurs. My standing joke to my friends is, “I know I’m really depressed when I take a lunch break to watch the Jerry Springer Show”. However, I must admit that as a hypnotherapist I learn a lot about people watching this type of show. From my viewpoint we all could use a little help no matter what background you come from. So, I think that these reality-based shows make people feel better about themselves. This doesn’t help actors who have been well trained and dedicated to this profession for as long as you have. With commercials using stars like Gene Hackman, Robert Deniro and Patricia Heaton, the middleman who used to make a living doing commercials is now cut out. This trend has also influenced television shows because actors who were once in the star, guest-star and co-star categories on television shows are now being replaced by actors who were once famous movie stars or rappers. However, I am still an advocate of positive thinking and I think the baby boomers influence is definitely soon to be felt. There are a lot more baby boomers than “boom-boomers” who want to see intelligent, funny, informative and entertaining shows.

Thank you for taking the time to write.
Toni Attell

Toni Attell is a hypnotherapist and acting coach. For people interested in her acting classes please call (818) 787-8685. For hypnotherapy go to www.hypnosis4you.net