TV one more time

[David Hopkins]

Well, that was a lot of fun to read on my return from a few weeks away! 
Don't want to gloat about "winning" my challenge, but do appreciate comments 
that quality does matter. After all, we don't have to make excuses for 
studying great movies (art, books, music, etc.), only for the weaker ones.

I'm more of a generalist than many on this list (and I also don't give a 
tinker's dam about my academic reputation) and I wanted to comment on the 
interesting fact that the lack of quality on TV due to commercial facters is 
anomalous in mass/commercial culture because there is no "minor league" for 
TV. Major record companies can and do make small quantities of interesting, 
high quality music, major publishers can put out books that are great but 
won't sell, magazines can search for niches, etc. Even late night TV doesn't 
offer this chance.

In the early '90's I was part of a series of music video magazines (Oh! 
Moro) that we made with one camera, one editing deck, no scripts, and a 
staff of three. (no pay, of course) A fan at KTV Osaka wanted to do a 
similar thing for a late night documentary. This was with no sponsor, but 
still KTV provided a staff of about ten! Including a writer, two 3-man 
camera crews, makeup, all sorts of stuff. Incredible waste of money and 
manpower, for a late-night show with no sponsor. We all got paid. (This can 
be seen in a bootlegged version at some alternative video shops in the US.) 
The felt need to script the damn thing was a big hindrance to content. I 
think this shows the skewed values of the TV world in Japan. They really 
didn't have a clue how to make a simple documentary about underground music, 
even after watching one. Overstaffing and underconceiving.

"Good" means well-conceived and well-executed (and well-finished). 
Professional staff execution isn't necessarily good execution, but poor 
conception is the kiss of death. Unfortunately, the business is run by 
making proposals to a committee of businessmen for approval of allocation of 
budgets. Music business is only like this at the bestseller/big-promo-push 
level.

Pretty rambling, sorry. I'm just having coffee now.

I thought about TV more. Hotch Potch Station is a good TV show in Japan. 
Inai Inai Ba is also quite good. And, as everyone said, there are good parts 
here and there.

David

PS You got to be brave to admit in front of all these intellectuals that you 
watch Mecha Ike!
I'm far too conservative culturally (not politically, though) to be able to 
stand the lowjinks.