Continuing yesterday's thought on a slightly different subject

[jaunthie]

Yesterday I wondered aloud about whatever happened to political/social commentary comedians along the lines of Bill Hicks. Lest anyone think I'm all (or only) about the biting, make-you-think entertainment, I also find myself wondering whatever happened to good old fashioned, usually-brainless-but-fun, tongue-frequently-in-cheek, action-adventure shows. Maybe there are some still around, but if so, they're darn hard to find compared to oh, five years ago. These shows were usually syndicated (Xena, Star Trek, Hercules, The Lost World) rather than produced by a network (the only recent exception I can think of is Firefly, which probably would have done better as a syndicated show). The quality varied from the great (fill in your own favorite syndie here, you know you have one) to the laughable (shows like Sheena or Relic Hunter come to my mind; fill in the blank with yours) and ranged all over the classic action-adventure map, from pseudo-mythological (Xena, Hercules) to folktale-based (Sinbad, Robin Hood) to turn-of-the-century (Lost World, Adventures of Jules Verne), to modern (lots, from vampire cops to treasure hunters to spies, all with the tongue-in-cheek vein), to futuristic (the Star Treks, Babylon 5, lots of others). They were fun. They were (mostly) harmless. And as far as I can tell, they're just about extinct.

What happened? I know the economics have changed; New Zealand isn't cheap to film in anymore, Canada's getting expensive and has tricky regs (ditto Australia), and everyone seems to have decided that "reality" shows like Survivor or America's Next Big Fill-In-The-Blank are more desirable (or at least cheaper to film). But they don't fill the same fun, consequence-free action "boom boom" (to use my grandfather's term) niche, at least not to me - they're much nastier, and they're supposedly real, with real live people getting hurt in various ways. And given the leaps and bounds in computer effects, I can't think that filming an action-adventure show is all that much more costly (and has much better rerun revenue potential). So why aren't there any cheese shows on anymore? Have audiences really changed that much?

Maybe it's yet another sign that I'm really that much out of touch with the pulsebeat of America.

Or maybe we may yet see a resurgence in cheese. ;-)

Comments

"It's all part of life's rich pattern." (Damon Killian on the TV biz, in "The Running Man")

[tangerinpenguin.livejournal.com]

TV's an echo chamber; at some point in the relatively near future, someone will do successful "boom boom" cheese, and suddenly everyone will be doing it again.

Eventually a bunch will fail (either from being too derivitive or just through oversaturation) and it will become accepted wisdom that the genre is poison for a couple years. Yin and yang. Why, the whole i ching beauty of it just takes my breath away...

Re: "It's all part of life's rich pattern."

[jaunthie.livejournal.com]

That's probably very true. We're certainly awash in procedural dramas a la Law&Order and CSI (both of which I like, but not enough to watch regularly, and both of whom have spawned ridiculous numbers of knock-offs), "reality TV" shows (yuck!) and supernatural-flavored "dramedys" where everyone is agonized and tragic and the government is probably out to get you (if the ghosts/aliens/men-in-white-coats don't get you first). Vive la revolution.

But as near as I can tell, most or all of these are being produced by TV networks, and aren't syndicated shows. Can you name a syndicated drama of any type that isn't a reality show or a game show and is currently on the air?

It's all the governments fault

[sunkrux.livejournal.com]

Ok, maybe it's not, but it's the "suits" in Hollywood's fault. They are more worried about the almighty dollar than quality (hey, some cheese is good quality). It's what I call the Dumbing Down of America. Why produce shows that might make people think, or even forget about their reality when you can spend less on crap "reality" shows. Really, my life is rough enough without having to see people eating horse shit for a few thousand bucks.

Give me cheese like The Lost World, Hercules or Xena any day over that "reality" crap! If I want to watch someone eating horse shit it better be because they fell into a pile of it.