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Tuesday, May 19, 1998 By Tony Norman, Post-Gazette Columnist
Imagine NBC's dilemma if, in doing things his way, Frank Sinatra had died while the network was broadcasting the final episode of "Seinfeld." Would NBC have interrupted one of the most watched programs this decade with a news bulletin that an American icon was dead?
Would honoring Sinatra have been worth jeopardizing the lucrative stream of commercials that attended a show about Nothing?
With "Seinfeld" cross-promotional fluff ready to run at the top of the 11 p.m. broadcast, how easy would it have been for WPXI to carve out a dignified segue for Ol' Blue Eyes that wouldn't detract from its self-congratulation at being an affiliate of the Nothing Network?
I would've paid cash to hear the news director and anchors debating how to open the broadcast: Sinatra or "Seinfeld"? Something or Nothing?
Alas, Sinatra died at 10:50 p.m. Pacific time, so the debate never took place. The East Coast papers had already completed their print runs when word of Sinatra's death came early Friday morning.
Consequently, Friday's editions had no Sinatra news or obits. But there were plenty of "Seinfeld" postmortems. It was not a pretty sight as millions of non-fans, angry at being conned into watching the final episode, confronted true believers at office water coolers with scathing reviews of the show.
Perhaps a weird guilt over Sinatra's death gave the "Seinfeld" backlash an added intensity. The chasm between the show's jokey nihilism and Sinatra's middle American artistry yawned like the Grand Canyon across our collective consciousness.
But Sinatra wasn't a saint. As weekend tributes to the singer made clear, he often exhibited a kind of crudity in his personal life that the characters on "Seinfeld" had to work at. Some commentators went as far as to say they loved Sinatra the artist but despised the man. He was called a thug and a reactionary by folks who claimed to have admired him, which makes you wonder whether universal acclaim is all it's cracked up to be.
But we have not come to praise Sinatra, but to bury him. We'll always remember his sincerity and genius, as well as his bad press. Most of all, we're grateful his death spared us from another Friday morning filled with talk of Nothing.
Tony Norman can be reached by e-mail at tnorman@post-gazette.com
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