A Show About Nothing...

There was a time not so very long ago when Hollywood was producing hit after hit and the television networks were producing tons of Emmy acclaimed series that were truly worth watching. But a lot has changed over the last decade in both mediums. Of course I am one to talk, since I am fascinated and amazed by big explosions and the newest CGI (computer generated images) used for visual and special effects. But, I would love to see great writing make a compe back. I feel that unless the younger generations of film and television writers are not careful we will never see classics again. I have read scripts and watched films by talented filmmakers submitted for film festivals, some of the better writers are even still in college, but the styles of their writing and the things they write about are not original concepts. From personal experience I remember struggling with my serior video project, working in a crew of eight, trying to come up with an original comcept that was realistic and "do-able" for a college project on a college students budget. But our project ended up just being another version of a story that has already been told, and even retold again recently. I believe, and even regret that almost everything currently coming out of Hollywood has already been previously made at some point in the history of film.

Repeat offenders and modern adaptations to classics have infiltrated the media market in a way that has warped the minds of younger generations. Ask almost anyone under the age of 25 "who starred in the original Manchurian Candidate or The Day the Earth Stood Still" and they will give you a blank stare. Ask them which film Steven Spielberg's Disturbia was adaprted from and most won't be able to tell you it was the classic Hitchcock film Rear Window with Jimmy Stewart. Even ask waht film is similar to the recently released Eagle Eye, and I bet most will not think of 2001: A Space Odyssey. The newer filmmakers do not neem to have the creativity that the older generations had and it is beginning to show by the excessive number of remakes about to be released. Fewer and fewer stories are original ideas, and most are just modern remakes with larger explosions, more elaborately choreographed chase sequences, scarier looking villians, and enough blood to make any horror/gorror fan cringe.

But that is just the film market. Look at what is happening to the television market. About 75% of the offerings airing on cable networks are either reality television or competitive game venues. Each year we are seeing fewer and fewer written shows. We have very few sitcoms that could truly rival Mash, Seinfeld, Friends, American Dreams, or any other series that has run longer than 2 seasons. I wish we had more creatively written stories made for television that make watching TV more enjoyable.

The next time you’re at Blockbuster, ask to rent Seinfeld season 4, disk 1, and watch episode 43 (The Pitch) where George and Jerry make plans to go into NBC and pitch the idea of a new show that would be about nothing. This episode simply says it all. Good writing with an original idea, even if it is about nothing, could become one of the greatest series ever created. Today, unfortunately, we have shows that have no substance, shows that truly have no point and yet we are drawn into their creator’s “reality” and yet reality television is not realistic. There are shows about nothing, that go nowhere, that truly have no point, yet they are still written series. Every episode has a writer credited for each and every episode. Game shows, competitive reality series such as The Mole, Survivor, America’s Next Top Model, Wipe Out, Hole in the Wall, and The Bachelor are all produced reality shows. “Reality” television like The Hills, The Real Housewives of Atlanta, Bridezilla, Real World, Big Brother, and any upcoming reality show is a very special genre called produced television. It has the full appearance of being from the real world, which we all live in and we all watch because we find it fascinating, but it is not true to real life. The characters in the show are not always video taped 24 hours a day, so when the camera crews do arrive they are given topics to discuss so that the producers and directors have the conversations needed to edit segments in order to complete episodes. The main characters are given a list of topics to be covered and told to bring them up so that the camera can capture the footage. Late things are gone through and edited together piece by piece to fine tune everything until the product is finished, which we watch on any given network on any given night.

Produced television is the new craze that is about nothing and it is very easy to become involved with it and connected to it. We all watch it and get wrapped up in the drama, some of it true, some exaggerated truths behind disagreements between friends or couples, and yet we love it because it allows us an escape from our own lives and daily troubles. We look forward to the struggles that the characters go through each week being thankful that we do not have to go through the type of drama that is being portrayed as reality. One must just keep in mind that it is staged reality that you are watching that is being marketed and promoted as “true reality”. So take a back seat in life for an hour a night and catch up on the latest fight between Lauren and Audrina or on the adventure of Survivor and Amazing Race. Enjoy the short stay in their world, but just remember to make the return trip to the real reality that we live in. Come back to smell the fresh flowers which are used to remind us that life is real and not a façade like those Hollywood uses each and every day as they pitch their shows about nothing to the viewers, for every show is truly “a show about nothing.”