http://themoderatevoice.com/193429/the-more-things-change-3/
OLD SCHOOL IS THE NEW SCHOOL IN TV:
AN UNBLINKERED LOOK AT THE FUTURE:
THE VIEW FROM THE VIRGIN ISLANDS
By JOHN McCARTHY
MODERATE VOICE COLUMNIST
In the movie “Truth or Dare” we got a glimpse
into the future of TV.
Only we didn’t
realize it when we were watching it in real time.
“There's nothing to say off camera," Warren Beatty
complains in the 1991 film. "Why would you say something if it's off
camera? What point is there existing?"
Beatty’s irony seemed spot on then – but although he’s a
gifted writer, director and actor – he couldn’t predict the future of
television any more than he could figure out whether or not he should take the
lead in a Quentin Tarantino flick (Kill Bill) – (he may have been right on
that, though.)
It seemed outrageous at the time to think that a celebrity –
in this case Madonna – would choose to
exist only when the cameras are rolling. In a way it was contrived –
but in another it was cinema verite – the good, the bad and the
ugly of her on and off-stage life would be revealed for what it was.
So as we are “Keeping Up With The Kardashians,” we realize
that 23 years later – the Material Girl had a crystal ball into the boob tube –
just like the Wicked Witch in “Wizard of Oz” trying to pick up Dorothy on early
GPS.
Andy Warhol is given credit for saying that: “in the future,
everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” But in 1968 who could predict
the future? Not Bobby Kennedy.
Just a year after “Truth or Dare,” reality TV was born as
major network television tried to stay one step ahead of the writer’s strike.
We have all been survivors of the launch of Paris Hilton’s career (not the one
on videotape) – and the resuscitation of a rock star who by all counts should
have died before Keith Richards – Ozzy Osbourne.
I would not have know that the Kardashians’ show even existed
were it not for a stay at my sister’s house a couple years ago. Eye candy might
be the answer to the question why so many of us are fascinated by the ersatz
dramas dreamed up by Kim, Kourtney, Khloe, Kendall and Kylie.
But Honey Boo Boo and “Duck Dynasty” prove that you don’t have
to be beautiful or rich to be successful in the modern-day ratings wars – but
with a parallax view of the future have we reached the saturation point of
reality TV? The good people among us hope so.
If reality TV began when Madonna was at her apex, the real
good stuff came about ten years after we were introduced to “Big Brother” and
MTV’s “Real World” –
maybe as a reaction to what we
are already feeling today – that as more and more desperate housewives get
ready for their close-ups – hopefully more and more well-written series like
“Lost,” “The Sopranos,” “The Wire,” “Deadwood,” “House, M.D.” and “Nurse
Jackie” are in the works.
In the entertainment business, it used to be the ultimate
put-down to say that a film was shot “in real time.” They were the kind of
movies that made you regret spending two hours of your life stuck in a movie
theater.
Let’s hope that we have reached the point of no return when it
comes to America idolizing shows that allow you to vicariously dance with the
stars or show that you have talent – even though when the show’s over the
majority of the contestants are still poor and not famous. Anybody can upload
to YouTube a bear falling out of a tree onto a trampoline – but how many times
do you want to “just press play” and watch that?
Madonna, at the height of her career following “Truth or Dare”
released a coffee table book of herself with other women in various states of
undress in “Erotica” – an electric, vibrant and sometimes shocking personality
reduced to an age-old still life just didn’t fly with the public – and her
career stalled. Warhol, at the apogee of his fine art career turned to films
and showed us where the future really lies with reality TV.
The eight hours of a moving pictures of a static building in
“Empire” demonstrates where this is all going. Do you have the patience to wait
several hours for the lights to go on at the Empire State Building in New York
City? (Andy also said that his movies are better talked about than actually
seen.)
As we sit riveted to our iPhones and tablets while pretending
to watch what’s on TV, maybe that’s all we are doing – keeping one eye out – or
an ear, so that when someone asks us about it at the office the next day we can
say: “Yeah, I saw that. It was cool.” When we all know it wasn’t.
Everyone remembers
where they were when Tony Soprano blinked off on the TV screen. Our JFK moments
can now happen in riveting television dramas. But they have to be good ones,
not collages of sound bites that are cobbled together by editors in a production
booth.
Warhol’s artworks covered up the warts and moles of the
celebrities we all know and love. His pancake makeup silkscreens told us that
Leo Castelli had good bone structure – and Liza Minelli, Elizabeth Taylor and
Marilyn were still relevant. But his “screen tests” revealed when Dennis Hopper
got nervous or Bob Dylan was bored. Dan Rather said “the camera never blinks.”
As we get closer and closer to a type of TV that Andy
invented, where the filmmaker simply turns on the camera and walks away – what
will that reveal about us as human beings?
Don’t blink or you’ll miss it.
Just like The Sopranos ending.
© 2014 John Francis
McCarthy/Secret Goldfish Publishing House, LLC
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