Letters to the Editor
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The ultra-rich on TV
As a long-time denizen of Okeefenokee West, aka Hollywierd, I am only surprised that it's taken this long for the truth about Hollywood to become the norm on the screen.
Starting when the boys club of the Harvard Crimson were "discovered" in the late 70s, Hollywood as year by year become more and more what my old friend David Freeman described in his collection of short stories, "A Hollywood Education", 25 years ago as "the last respectable outlaw profession for upper-class white boys."
I became aware of the phenomenon about 15 years ago when - as a graduate of the Roger Corman Film School - I dropped back by the old school for a visit with friends. Previously, when one drove into the parking garage, one was confronted with a sea of cheap used cars - people used to joke at work about whether their car would get them home that night and if it did, would it return them in the morning. Instead, the garage was filled with BMW 323s, Mercedes 180s, Volvos, Saabs, etc. And inside the building all the Ivy League film brats were were working for free, as "interns." Before, people got paid. Not much, but you could live on it, and while you did you had the opportunity to learn by doing there. I would say the roster of graduates of that system is mighty impressive, even when you're not listing the super-stars.
The pheonomenon of the trust-fund babies coming to Hollywood where they work for free while nbetworking means that people who don't have that background have real trouble breaking in - it's hard to do the meeting and the greeting when you're waiting tables or working in a phone center, or any of the myriad other jobs open to Wannabees Without Money.
The result is - given that writers "write what they know" - that what is depicted on-screen is the life of the upper classes. That's who's writing it, choosing to produce it, direct it, and everything else!!
So there's your explanation, of not only TV, but why bad TV gets recycled into bad movies (film school brats have no previous lives other than watching TV and movies), why the movies are "product", and why you watch less of all of it.
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"Rescue me", anyone?
Not exactly rich mooks there.
Definitely middle class mooks.
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Wrong again.
You and Heather must have grown up in the same suburb.
Firemen and policemen are pretty much all blue collar, whether they've got the criminal law degree from So-and-so State University or not.
"Rescue me", anyone? Definitely middle class mooks.
-- Uberfemme
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At last! We have found our model.
I find the several admonitions from some of this column's responders criticizing readers who reveal that they do not watch television or at least, regular broadcast TV, as hypocritical or elitist, interesting and curious attitudes. Apart from that, while surfing through the channels, occasionally landing in the muck of "reality tv", I think I have I have deduced to be what can finally be described as the great American Entertainment and Moral Paradigm.
It looks as though broadcast tv with its reliance on "reality tv", snarling conflict programming and many other shows that seem to celebrate what would seem to be our universal ignorance and stupidity, has finally adopted the behavioral model that really exemplifies the modern american character. That model would be "The Business Life of Leona-The Queen of Mean-Helmsley.
Current programming seems to celebrate the swells or wannabes who engage in scurrilous behavior, personal betrayal and malevolent manipulation all in the service of getting ahead. It seems that in our entertainment we have decided that there is no sin if it results in our getting ahead. Decency is a weakness best left to the "little people" so the ambitious and unprincipled can be left to get ahead unimpeded by that pesky concept of morality or decent behavior.
And sadly, I think that this attitude and practice has spilled over into our real lives as evidenced by a sad lack of "common" courtesy, our impatience and our almost homocidal driving practices. So this may be the all too common chicken or the egg question--does the prevalent programming affect our attitudes and behavior or do we create the programming to delight ourselves with the behavior we so greatly admire and aspire to.
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Selective memory?
TV shows are not about holding up a mirror to the world. They're not about "how we see ourselves." They're entertainment.
Homer didn't sit around telling stories about subsistence farmers; he spun fabulous tales about rich, successful, powerful people.
And TV was never about portraying the struggle of the working class. Look at the sitcoms I grew up with; Silver Spoons, Different Strokes, The Cosby Show, all of those portray life as most of us will never live it.
I think nothing has changed; I think you're just noticing it now.
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Bling in Proportion @ TCinLA
I laugh when I hear you describe a Mercedes 180 is a rich people's car. It is worth about $5k. My maid drives one of those.
Meanwhile, hip-hop videos portray a normal life as a Bentley, a mansion, AND two Ferraris. Things that are out of reach to most people who employ maids.
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Boring richies
Tv does seem to have lost its way, and it can't all be about competition from new media and production costs. Its become increasingly unwatchable. In idle moments I have attributed it to 1) Increased permissiveness in education in both the public and private spheres. I'm talking about academics, not behavior. The child's 'self esteem' is always paramount. There is no 'right' or 'wrong' way to do something creative like writing a story or poem. Literary classics are ignored in favor of social or political relevancy. People have no idea what constitutes an interesting character or plot curve or what elicits a real laugh. The generation that was first educated this way is probably in its thirties and reaching power in Hollywood. 2) There seems to be an incredible amount of nepotism and in-breeding in show business these days, even more than in the days of the old moguls, who would relegate untalented relatives and friends to unimportant jobs where they couldn't do any harm. Now they seem to be running the show.