Forced to take prime-time nostalgia trips

‘There’s an old Polish proverb …’ I believe it’s ‘Reality television can’t stop the motorways in Warsaw from getting icy.’   I’ve always known what sort of telly I liked, and often that was at odds with what broadcasters put on. In the 1970s, my tastes weren’t too dissimilar from the general public’s, but as […]

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It’s about content, especially when reality is more appealing than reality TV

It’s shows like The Apprentice that have kept me away from watching TV. I was surprised to learn, in conversation last week, that TV viewership is up, while print is down.    Shows you can’t base too much of what the general public does on your own experience.    I estimate my magazine and book […]

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Reality TV is not everything non-fiction

I found it very odd that Antiques Roadshow and Mythbusters were nominated for the reality TV category at the Emmy Awards. Based on the vocabulary I grew up with, these are not ‘reality TV’.    I doubt many of us over a certain age would think of The Gong Show or New Zealand’s Top Town […]

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