Television: What Went Wrong?

OK, it’s time for a little vitriol.

I consider myself to be a well balanced, fairly sane, individual.  Most of the time at least I don’t feel an impulse to take up my gun and climb a tower.  But there is something that really makes my blood boil.  In a good natured, humorous way, naturally.

Television.

Such a noble concept, a technological marvel, a magnificent means of entertainment and education.  So, where did it go so horribly wrong?

I remember a time when all that was available, in England at least, was a single channel that didn’t even broadcast all day, let alone all night.  I cannot testify as to the quality of it’s content but I feel sure that in comparison to today’s output it must have been superior. Today there are hundreds of channels pumping out thousands of hours of utter garbage.

Do I overstate matters?  Am I too strident?  I think not.

The technical expertise available today makes the early program makers seem like our early ancestors struggling with cave painting.  Digital animation, computers, green screen, stereo sound and a whole host of highly technical advances, of which I am not qualified to speak, all contribute to an industry which is at the forefront of the use of science for popular purpose.  Actors, newsreaders, entertainers, journalists and presenters have over fifty years of history to draw upon and learn from.  The technicians and support staff have all the miracles of the modern world to inform their daily work and assist them in producing wonders for the delectation of the viewing public.  And to what is all this effort directed?  What delights are conjured?  Big Brother and Eastenders.

Call me unreasonable, but as it’s my money which goes to pay for all this rubbish, I feel aggrieved.  Whether through licence fee or the increase in the price of goods to pay for advertising,  everyone pays for the television programs we watch.  Is it unreasonable then to expect to be entertained by professionals?

Before Big Brother was foisted on the public, does anyone recall being asked;  Do you want to watch a bunch of unattractive, socially dysfunctional nobodies arguing about nonsense whist locked in a house?  Oh, and do you want to watch it twenty-four hours a day?  Had our views been polled, how many of us would have answered, “oh yes please!”  I suspect that the great majority of us would have looked around for the hidden cameras suspecting a humorous set-up.  Now that it is on our screens I am quite willing to concede that many people are addicted to watching it, but then many people can’t stop snorting cocaine until bits of them fall off.  That doesn’t make the devil’s dandruff something to be admired.

Building on the banal concept of Big Brother we had Celebrity Big Brother and after that I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here and a host of other similar shows, each more painful than the last.  It was as if the producers had decided that what was needed to enliven the idea was to humiliate and embarrass a bunch of fading minor ‘personalities’ and wanna-be stars, who were so desperate for a few moments in the public eye they were willing to surrender all thoughts of dignity.  The reason these people either hadn’t made it onto decent programs or had already been passed by, was because we don’t find them entertaining.  Why should we be expected to witness their whining and bitching, their ‘look at me’ antics and their cringe-worthy lack of self esteem?  The one thing that unites them all is the misnomer, celebrity.  If ever a word was over used.

Reality TV?  I want my television to be entertaining, enlightening, informing and educational.  If I want reality I have only to open my front door.  It’s free.  I object to paying for amateur night and ‘please love me’ hopefuls demeaning themselves and me.

So much for Reality TV.  Now I wish to move on to Soap Opera, or ‘the Soaps’ as they now seem to be called.  Perhaps someone in the media finally woke up to the absurdity of calling such trash Opera.  The term was originally coined as a joke after all.

Now, I do concede that, alongside the people who simply couldn’t find other work, there are many fine actors working in this field.  After all, a regular pay check is not to be sniffed at, even in the arts.  But surely these talented individuals must cringe when they read the scripts and feel appalled at the storylines, which are either mind numbingly banal, or sickeningly ‘relevant’.

Relevant to what?  The destruction of our society?  Anyone who wasn’t either a criminal or certifiable would have moved from Albert Square by now.  I feel sure that even those poor souls who are forced to live on sink estates and run down inner city areas don’t see quite as much trauma each and every week as is supposed to take place in one ‘typical’ east London square.

What are we expected to take away from this type of program?  I should be clear, in the interests of fair play, that I use ‘Stenders’ purely as an example.  What do we get from it?  Fun?  A deep sympathy for fictional characters?  An awareness of social issues?  Let’s face it, there is very little fun.  Even parties and weddings and christenings are marred by some tragedy or scandal.  As for an awareness of social issues, surely those of us who care, or will ever care, gather our information and colour our emotional response from news and current affairs programming, not this drivel.

My comment regarding reality TV applies here too.  To put it slightly differently; If I want real life, I’m surrounded by it.  When I turn on my television I want either information or escapist entertainment which takes my mind off real life, at least for a short while.  Is that too much to ask?

OK, I’m a cynical old fool.  Perhaps an elitist, although that would presuppose that my viewpoint was elite, which I’m sure many people would deny.  I accept that there are many many people out there who actually choose to watch these programs (or perhaps their TV’s are stuck on one channel and they are house bound and forced to watch until they go blind or mad.  But I digress).  There are probably millions of you who can’t wait for each startling new episode and even watch the omnibus repeats to ensure no subtlety was missed through the laughter and tears.  To you all I can only say what the spoof presenter Suzy Blake said on a Victoria Wood show, “The BBC would like to apologise to the people in the north.  It must be awful for you”.

Oh and by the way.  Before you get angry and reach for your keyboard, a pen or a gun………

                                                    ’Don’t call in, it’s just for fun’.

Thank you and goodnight.

Paul DC