January 16, 2008
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1 I accidentally watched the American Idol premiere last night. I promise no pictures.
2 I’m thoroughly convinced it’s time to pull the plug on teevee.
3 Now there’s a plan, Stan. Here’s a quick overview from the Writers’ Guild of America. You might click on it when you’re done with today’s DN. Some viable issues, especially corporate greed vs. working people. Have a look.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ55Ir2jCxk
4 Boycotting teevee when nobody else is seems pretty fruitless, but let’s just begin with the utter mediocrity that is swiftly replacing shows that are not only entertaining, but often have a semblance of intelligence. Let’s go back to last night’s “premiere”.
5 First, there are commercials for this teevee show called The Moment of Truth, and it looks really terribly disturbing.
6 And then there’s the sinking of American Idol.
7 Mind you, I’m still boycotting teevee, but it’s still on, which defeats the whole purpose. But I’m in a shared room, and as such am outvoted. It really serves as a background to family fun, sort of like a video fireplace, so I’m not going to change stuff we’ve been doing for years. So I let the teevee do what it’s always done, but I tend to ignore it normally.
8 Last night on the first Idol, some guy came on in a cape, and then stripped to reveal a hairy, horrid mushroom man belly, complete with trojan woman outfit and utterly no talent. He was unutterably horrible, but after around two minutes of his being out there, he was removed to a room where the hair on his chest was taken off with duct tape. He was allowed to return for a second go of it.
9 Another guy came on and stalked Paula, looking at her with the eyes of a complete freak, clearly staged, and clearly a company man. The reactions by the hosts also were contrived and staged.
10 Another girl dressed like Princess Leia was dismissed for her looks, and she stomped out to the loving arms of her grandparents, where she proceeded to cuss like a dock worker. Fully staged.
11 So much was so bad that it was evident that Idol has probably been written by pretty good writers for Fox over the years, and what also come clear is that the entire show is a sham. If there really were a “stalker” (ironically followed by a girl whose last name was Stalker…hmmm….) you would have seen him immediately removed and Paula crying and maybe even quitting the show.
12 The strike continues, and soon the public will begin to catch on that the teevee producers give not a hoot about hiring cheap hacks to work for them, that the American public won’t be able to notice the difference. Our largest and most influencial medium is going to be written by second-hand screwballs as bad as most of the wannabes we’ve come to adore on what we thought were real auditions.
13 Don’t believe any of it for a minute. Last night’s Idol showed that and exposed the show for what it probably has been all along, a scripted show probably using many people but clearly with some ringers to bring up the ratings.
14 Ah, vell. There IS an off switch.
15 And Rupert Murdoch and his fellow Terrorists of Taste and Control have stooped to new lows in getting ratings up and profiteering on the lives of the people who lost jobs because of the strike.
16 Turn off your teevees, I swear to you. Jan Leno should be ashamed. As weeks turn into months more and more people are going to come to realize that the writers are the only remaining backbone of maintaining what little thoughtful and incisive television we have left, and that thoughtful programming is vanishing at an alarming rate.
17 The writers kept a bit of a system of checks and balances in place on the most influential medium in the world.
18 If you thought they were writing what they are told, you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.
19 Last night’s American Idol was shameful.
20 Time to pull the plug. Those writers may never get their jobs back, and their replacements will not only be far worse, but will do whatever they’re told. Paula’s stalker is a living example of that one.
21 As Simon put it, “That was creepy.”
22 That’s the best thing written about this entire thing since it began.
23 Creepy.
24 Pull the plug.
25 Peace.
~H~
http://www.xanga.com/bharrington
