Now not just for propping up the edge of the couch, books can be read as well.
Honestly, if we put as much time into reading books as we do finding out who is the next person to be voted off the island, we would be a much more pleasant society. Not that I have a problem with TV. I just think it is the center of intellectual decay of our society. And before a bunch of parents pipe in that they only watch quality programming on it, let me remind you that you just told me who is having an affair with whom on the latest reality TV catastrophe. Honestly, do you know as much about what’s going on with your kids and their friends as you do with the strangers on TV? Before it was soap operas, now this.
Quality programming, hah! You mean the Discovery Channel? While they do occasionally show a nature or historical show worth watching, they have cashed in on Reality TV in a big way. Let’s see A DATING STORY followed by a WEDDING STORY followed by a BABY STORY. What next? A DIVORCE STORY followed by a MARRIED TO ANOTHER LOSER STORY followed by A MY DAUGHTER IS ADDICTED TO CRACK AND HOOKING ON THE STREET STORY. Sorry, that last bit belongs on the A&E original INTERVENTION, because, as we know, when you have a problem in the family you want nothing more than to have millions of strangers tuning in to watch it.
A&E, there’s another channel needing to change their name. There are certainly no Arts on it anymore. When I was in college I had the great fortune to tape SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE, a taped musical starring Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters. It was fabulous. I have watched it so much the tape is fuzzy. That it is almost 15 years old doesn’t help. I really hope someone will have the good sense to release it on DVD, but I doubt it. It’s too highbrow for audiences nowadays that want to see people roughing it with a film crew in tow.
Castaway – the BBC show that Survivor is based on was a celebrity camping in the wild for a week and they had to run the camera on a tripod. Still it’s light years better than the American tripe. So are a ton of the comedies from across the pond that American producers get a hold of and try to cast for a show here. Problem is, they cut out everything that made the original a success.
Take COUPLING for example. The BBC version is wonderful. The American version lasted, what, two episodes before being tanked? Why? Because they mucked about with it. It was no longer funny. Shows about single, rich, white people in the city are played out. Normal people are in. Which is what the original COUPLING was about. A show about normal looking, average, not overly attractive, people (with the exception of two or three additional characters) living their lives in London. Period.
But we get more of the REALITY TV crap. Sigh. I’m going to go read a book. At least fiction has to make sense.