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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 29, 2001)
Monday Editor in chief: Jack Clifford Managing Editor: Jessica Blanchard Newsroom: (541) 346-5511 Room 300, Erb Memorial Union P.O. box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403 E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu EDITORIAL EDITOR: MICHAEL J. KLECKNER opededitor@journalist.com The Degradation of Reality Do you remember the heady excitement of the first season of MTV’s “The Real World”? The Emerald editorial board does. We were going to get to see real peo ple, doing real stuff in the privacy of their home. Ooh. It was voyeurism at its best, mixed with the refreshing thought of unscript ed young people, saying and doing whatever they felt like. At the time, “The Real World” seemed like a fantastic antidote to the stilt ed dialogue and overly contrived settings of the garbage sitcoms that were being aired. Unfortunately, none of those qualities were what tempted us to take a peek at “Temptation Is land,” Fox’s latest entry in the real ity-TV craze. The reality genre has been degraded to the point where the only real allure to watch is to see how stupid the people will act and to ogle the hotties. Don’t get us wrong; reality shows were never a pinnacle of highbrow program ming. But they used to be innova tive. The initial surge of reality TV was refreshing. The people on “The Real World” acted like real people and said things that were recognizable as actual conversa tions. Who can forget Puck dip ping his finger into the peanut but ter? These early episodes were not contrived. When MTV brought out “Road Rules,” some staging was added to the mix, but it was still interesting to see how real people would act in stressful situations, packed into a tiny RV. The genre has now been turned into a stage for wanna-be actors, models and dysfunctional weirdos seeking their 15 minutes in the blue light of television fame. On CBS’ “Big Brother,” the interesting people were voted off so quickly that the fascination died. Fox’s “Who Wants to Marry a Million aire” was so staged and offensive that the network backed away from it almost as soon as it aired. Then came CBS’ “Sur-’ vivor” and ABC’s “The Mole.” What was once r surdity. Ap parently, five men will be chained to a woman, and the six-sgme will have to iuii aiiu U1114LIC lias become so old and tired that network executives are concocting ever-more unusual situations to put people in. Not only are the settings horri bly contrived, but the people know darn well that they need to perform for the camera. On “Temptation Island,” the non-actors seem to think they have to ham it up, acting as melodra matic as possible about perhaps the silliest set-up yet imagined. The new “Survivor” is sure to disappoint, because the new sur vivors are now painfully aware that scheming and strategizing is the only way to win. The whole thing has gone so over the top that Richard Hatch, the winner from the first version of “Survivor,” is going to write a weekly column about the strategic moves made by the non-actors. Besides viewers, the real losers in this mania are professional ac tors and writers. TV executives have learned that they don’t need to pay for professionally produced entertainment, as long as ordinary (or not so ordinary) people are willing to whore themselves for the camera and prizes. Top sitcom actors can cost $100,000 or more per episode; the only talent ex pense for the entire season of “Sur vivor” was $1 million. This seems like a good business decision for networks, especially with the Ac tors Guild and the Writers Guild threatening strikes. We’ve heard that a new reality show, “Chains of Love,” is going to take the genre to new lows of ab uu everyuung rogeuier. The woman will choose to unchain one man each week. We can’t even imagine what will be the prize, or the point, of this insanity. As long as people keep being tit illated by the ideas and tune in to the shows, there’s no end in sight for reality TV. What is it about us, as humans, that drives us to watch? Sure, it can be fun to look at barely clothed cuties, but there’s better stuff available on the Internet. Is it just the old adage that people like to slow down at a car wreck, or is there something more at work? Per haps Americans are so awash in dysfunction that they need ever-in creasing levels of oddity to pique their interest. Maybe it’s just the thrill of watching people degrade themselves for the chance to be seen doing so in front of millions of people. A new movie, “Series 7,” is soon slated for release. This movie ex amines a fictional reality TV show, “The Contenders,” where the con testants are armed and have to shoot each other to stay alive until next week. Supposedly, the movie is a wickedly dark satire of the real ity genre, but the idea makes us wonder: With all the costs of mak ing a movie, why didn’t the pro ducers just find people willing to play the game for real, and save themselves the expense of doing it fictionally? We pray that reality TV will nev er degrade us all in such a fashion. It would be nice if the networks would stop trying to outdo cable by offering overdone tawdry voyeurism, and instead return to writing and producing quality sto ries that people want to watch. This editorial represents the opinion of the Emerald editorial board. Responses can be sent to ode@oregon.uoregon.edu. Poll Of The Week Forthoseofyouunfamiliarwithour Website, the Emerald has started a weekly online poll on topics of interesttothecampuscommunity. The poll can be accessed from the main page of our Web site, http://dailyemerald.com. We will post a n ew q u estion eve ry Su n day afternoon. Every week in thisspace, we will printthe results of the last week’s poll and the poll question for the next week. We encourage you to send usfeedbackaboutthe poll questions and results. This week’s poll question: What does “PFC” stand for? The choices: Personal Fun Center Progressives ForChange Programs Finance Committee Personal Finance Club
