I hate to use a quote from a self righteous pretentious prat like Bono but there’s that classic moment from U2’s Zoo Tour of a few years back where he stands up and in the persona of an evangelical huckster and yells “I have a vision! I have a vision! Television!”
Point being, let’s look at some TV shall we? Don’t worry, I haven’t gone totally nuts – but in these cold days of massive civil unrest, and more daily violence and death than apartheid ever caused – a TV is a viable alternative to most other things. Specifically, apart from a few lapses here and there, I’ll focus on TV shows which have transcended the genre majestically. Some you’ll know – and others may get you interested in finding out more..
By now a few of you have discovered the wondrous joys of Michael Moore, seeing that local distributors finally woke up (a year late) and decided to bring Bowling For Columbine into the country. What you may not know, is that Moore had a long running TV series, operating something like Isabel Jones but without the buckteeth or Absa sponsorship showing up the lie of journalistic integrity. The Awful Truth is the mother of all investigative TV shows – and for info about it, start off at Docurama.
Then take a look at a sample of whatever clip they have online at the moment from the show, at The Awful Truth.
The Soprano’s is still one of the best things to take the bad taste out of the mouth after Godfather III. Start off at the official site: Sopranos.
Then to find out the answers to those important questions you may have in life, try asking Tony Soprano’s Magic 8 Ball.
To see how far we are behind the rest of the world in terms of the latest episodes – and watch out for spoilers, if you don’t want to learn what’s going to happen ahead of time, try Soprano Family Values Episode Guide.
And for those of you out there who still haven’t seen the show, and think its ‘just about the Mafia’ – read the article at Television Without Pity.
As we leave the Sopranos section, I have to say that I really miss Pussy. (Pussy – let me hasten to add, was a character in the show. You have a dirty mind. I like that in a person.)
A quick pause by perhaps the ultimate in kitsch scary formative television – the kind of TV we all watched when growing up. Yes, its the Brady Bunch, and of course the ultimate bad move, turning a short little so-so story into a full hour of embarrassing television via The Brady Bunch Hour.
Something that got conspiracy theorists talking worldwide, was that the author and creator of The West Wing resigned the morning after an episode called Life On Mars – and this was followed a day or so later by the resignation of one of the show’s executive producers. Read details about the interesting ‘fictional’ discussions within the show in question at Life On Mars.
Then for total weirdness, try The West Wing And The Life On Mars Weirdness.
Remember the TV show that made black coffee into a fetish? Well, the coffee part didn’t work so well in this country, as the brown sub-standard swill people drink here bares little resemblance to the real thing – but Twin Peaks gradually captured everyone’s imagination. For the first time on TV there was this strange art-movie pretending to be a TV soap opera disguised as drama, courtesy of David Lynch. Discover the path to nightmares beginning with Twin Peaks. And despite years having passed, people are still reading The Twin Peaks Gazette. There’s even a yearly festival now, attracting the fans, stars of the show and crowds – go take a browse through The Twin Peaks Festival. Who killed Laura Palmer? And who was ‘Bob’ in reality? Nostalgia button pushed.
(Somehow I don’t see anyone remembering Madam & Eve with quite the same degree of awe and respect, a decade into the future.)
It’s odd that one of the other amazingly literate and deeply influential TV shows, also happened to be set in a small town – except this one was in Alaska. Sicily Alaska, to be precise. God knows what idiot thought it was a clever idea to dub it into Afrikaans here initially, but Northern Exposure still stands tall amongst the fans, as well as those who appreciate TV with some degree of wit and depth. Only a small handful of the episodes have been released thus far on DVD (whereas you can’t walk in most shops without kicking aside excess copies of Friends). Go figure. Start off at The Moose’s Guide to Northern Exposure. Then to get a real hardcore fan’s rush, go download and browse through the episode descriptions of The Complete Northern Exposure Episode Guide For Windows.
More bad taste. Remember in the early days of television locally – crowding around the black and white TV to watch the bad TV show about the blind detective, called Longstreet? Well, few folks online seem to consider it worthy of anything, but there is this lonely mention at Longstreet.
Gear change from the depths, to the heights of brilliance. There was a German director who – according to the legend – was so peeved at the drivel made by Hollywood (remember the big TV series Holocaust?) that he decided to make a real story, which included the events of WW2. What emerged was the mother of all TV series that was actually one looooong film. Its total running time – depending on who you believe, somewhere between 15 and 26 hours in length. The film showed here on TV, and if you saw some of it, you’ll remember it. Read about the amazing series known as Heimat.
And more info is at Heimat 1 & 2.
Then to genius of another sort. Once upon a time, there was this odd little British radio show, called Whose Line Is It Anyway. It made the leap to television in the UK, and various guests came over from the US, and performed against the local British improv comics – including Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie and others. Then the show made the leap to the US, thanks to Drew Carey and Ryan Stiles pitching it at the networks – and suddenly Whose Line was in the big leagues. Go to the Official Site.
And a Whose Line tribute site that I use on and off to grab audio and video clips from the original UK version of the show, is The Idiot Site. If you’re a rabid improv fan like myself, (yes my improv group does do corporate launches) then dip into the online community, at Whosers.
Of course I hadn’t forgotten about you Star Trek fans out there. So rather than rave on about how the only good Star Trek series was the initial first season, and everything since then (apart from the female who plays Seven of Nine in a nice figure-hugging body suit) has been parasitical and mediocre. Like I said, rather than rave on as I just did, let me point you towards the joys of Gay Trekkies.
And finally, picture a man going on a journey. He thought he was writing a column, but his next stop was The Twilight Zone. Bear in mind we’re focusing on the original TZ series, not the often not-great recent remakes. The old black-and-white shows, intro’d by Rod Serling, had a certain force and simplicity about them which the attempts at modernizing the concept in color, just cant really capture. (Like trying to redo old black-and-white movies). Rant over. Also dip into Twilight Zone World.
Until the next time, if people who don’t watch TV get me.
Ian Fraser is a playwright, author, comedian, conspiracy nut, old-time radio collector and self-confessed data-junkie. Winner of numerous Vita and Amstel Awards, he’s been an Internet addict and games-fanatic since around 1995, when the Internet began to make much more sense than theatre.