Robert Kirby
CHANNELVISION
For those with a sense of nostalgia for a television show that was not only one of the first of its kind, but the product of truly immense gift in its progenitor, I pass on the knowledge that SABC2 is currently running a series of the original The Muppet Show. These half-hour gems are still the best of the Muppets, made before Hollywood hijacked the ideas and the characters but completely missed picking up the point.
Isn’t it strange how important the frame is? The sheer delight of The Muppet Show worked best on the small screen because that’s what it was designed for. Short sketches were the perfect construct and, with its fast-moving songs and dance, it was one of the closest things to true vaudeville that’s been seen in a long time. All of that got efficiently killed off on the big screen and in complicated storylines. I don’t know whether the untimely death of Jim Henson occurred before the lead-brained accountants of Hollywood performed their takeover, but I’m sure he would have protested. It’s on SABC2 at 5.30pm on Friday afternoons. And don’t fool yourself; this is not only for the laaities.
I am not being smug in praising M-Net’s reaction to complaints made by this column about the warning logos on movies that were on occasion being left on the screen for inordinate amounts of time. After my aggravated complaints and with immediate effect, the M-Net presentation department was flogged into shape. The intrusive symbols are now removed after the minimum duration usually about a minute. A very professional response. The question remains, do we really need these warnings at all? There are agreed “watershed” broadcasting restrictions in place, which forbid the broadcasting of explicit or violent material early in the evenings when there’s a good chance that children will be among the audience. Or are we forever to be regarded as a nation the moral health of which is in enduring need of the nanny’s custody?
I phoned up e.tv one evening to enquire why, in a 100-minute movie, there had been no less than 35 minutes of large, lurid symbols across the bottom of the screen; after each ad break the movie was so adorned for five or so minutes. A rather hostile young man told me that this measure of warning symbols was in response to a veritable flood of communications from viewers demanding that the warnings were so displayed and for that amount of time. Looking at the lovingly close examination of gore and carnage that constitutes a considerable portion of the average e.tv news bulletin, such contradiction is puzzling.
Have you noticed how it has become obligatory for SABC news bulletins to introduce its pet Christian as “the former anti-apartheid activist, Dr Alan Boesak”? No matter what new horror is revealed about God’s representative in the ANC, the SABC always waves this magic wand to remind us what an excellent fellow Boesak once was. Now and then they even add a bit of embellishment like calling him “the intrepid former anti-apartheid activist” and even “the former fearless fighter against apartheid suppression”.
The jailed tragedian was again in the SABC news line-up last week. The SABC is getting better all the time. They usually catch on only a week after everyone else has run the story. On this occasion, only three days later, they were hot on the heels of the story about the prison bosses withdrawing their application to have Boesak released into community service. What the SABC didn’t forget was once again to include mention of the holy fellow’s virtuous past. I feel Snuki and the lads should not stint themselves in this matter and should in future refer to the whole inspiring canon of Boesak’s accomplishments. Why be content with “former anti-apartheid activist” when the introduction could be more encompassing as in “the intrepid and fearless Bible-punching former thief of money meant for starving coloured children, blatant liar, adulterer, hypocrite, fraudster, perjurer, fearless anti-apartheid activist and deeply corrupt ANC hero, Dr Alan ‘If you’re in a cell it’s only right you should have a cellphone so as to keep in touch with Dullah, Ebrahim, a judge or two, and all your admirers in the Mbeki office’ Boesak”? If there’s going to be truth in the SABC, let it be the whole truth.