New Cities/New Soviets

April 24, 2003

Fuck TV Execs


TV babylon

Fuck TV Execs for making a calculated decision to never show people working on television. It gives an extremely distorted sense of what work is like -- work, which is the most social human activity, has no expressed relationship to TV, the finest medium of human communication. This is a maddeningly attenuated world.

Posted by Sam at April 24, 2003 01:47 PM

There have been shows such as News Radio, ER, Murphy Brown, and Just Shoot Me which have been set in the workplace. While they are far from realistic, other sitcoms and dramas aren't exactly known for their realism either. Of course all of those except for ER have been cancelled (and ER really should be).

That being said there is a lot to be captures about the working environment that hasn't been on TV. I think the Dilbert cartoon (but not the Dilbert TV show) at its peak (early to mid 90s) got a lot of this. There are probably other examples I can't think of any other example offhand but I am sure they exist. It is an important part of people's lives, a source of boredom, frustration and occasionally even joy, and it takes up a majority of many people's waking hours.

One could argue that sci-fi shows such as Star Trek showed people in a working environment, even if it is a kind of work that isn't done by any people in the present. Actually one of the things I liked about the now cancelled Joss Whedon (creator of Buffy & Angel) show Firefly, was that I felt that the characters were doing their tasks and going on their adventures for survival and employment not heroism. The characters came from very different backgrounds and were thrown together because of what each of them could contribute to the running of the ship and the accomplishment of their various missions. Very much like a workplace.

Posted by: Jeremy at April 25, 2003 07:56 PM

The difference between shows set in a workplace or about workplace environments vs. showing work in progress is a huge one. Many shows come close to work -- Newsradio was made excellent by it -- few show work. MTVs "Making the Video" or the Food Network's "Unwrapped" are excellent further examples of working enviroment shows -- and are occasionally wonderful; "This Old House" is an example of the latter, and has had a longstanding place as one of my favorite shows.

As for the fictional work shows -- which highlight types of work hardly seen in the present -- like Buffy or Star Trek: the Next Generation, they are enjoyable as fantastic projections of the possibilities of our society, but hardly help with the problem I am having: grappling with the current successes and blockages of jobs and work.

Posted by: sam at April 27, 2003 07:46 PM

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