TV REVIEW : Jane Pauley’s ‘Real Life’ a Summer ‘Funumentary’

Jane Pauley to a member of America’s white-collar brigade: “When’s quittin’ time?”

“Quittin’ time” was some time ago for the serious network documentary. It got its gold watch and a pat on the back along with early retirement: Nice job, but you’re out of touch, creaky and passe, no longer needed. We’re replacing you with the summer funumentary.

The NBC summer series “Real Life With Jane Pauley” comes under that category. The first of these five specials debuts at 10 tonight on Channels 4, 36 and 39, and, like host-reporter Pauley, much of it is quite pleasant. No pain here.

The lead piece--Pauley’s look at the hectic routines of three families--is by far the thinnest, a short step up from one of those local sweeps series that race by you like the wind without having an impact. When Pauley asks a very pregnant homemaker if she’s ever tired, you suspect you’re in for a long hour.

Actually, you’re wrong, for Keith Morrison takes a highly amusing look at the inability of many Americans to fully operate their VCRs, then Pauley returns with a moving human interest story about an adopted woman’s search for the mother who gave her up at birth, and Boyd Matson concludes with a cheery little travel piece.

Pauley is a good narrator and, unlike Connie Chung, who was NBC’s summer funumentarian before switching to CBS, never allows herself to overshadow a story. That’s a nice quality in a business that grinds out epic egos.

In its marathon quest to give its news division a regular presence in prime time, NBC could do much worse than making “Real Life With Jane Pauley” a permanent part of its schedule. Of course, it could also do much better, by using this time to address compellingly some of the serious global and domestic issues that get short shrift in regular newscasts.

It remains to be seen if NBC’s July 31 special anchored by Deborah Norville, “Sex, Buys & Advertising,” has more teeth than tonight’s.

Pauley has said: “I want to address questions about today’s lifestyles.” Fine, except to join that teeming ghetto, she’ll have to get in line behind Oprah, Phil and Sally Jessy.