"As the World Turns," a soap-opera that first premiered in 1956 has been canceled after, get this, 13,661 episodes.
Well, to paraphrase Jurassic Park, "Don't you mean 'extinct'?"
Soap-operas
are slowly being replaced-- they're being evolved out of existence...
no matter what ridiculous plot device a team of writers could come up
with it cannot compare to the insanity that is called "reality tv." Or
perhaps, we should use the term the industry prefers, "unscripted
programming" which brings us to my particular bailiwick. With a few
hundred hours of footage and a good editor, just about anyone can be an
interesting television show. And that reminds me of Del Close who asked his improv students to be truthful on-stage because "there's nothing more interesting than you."
Instead of manufacturing elaborate devices and characters in order to
be funny, he wanted us to be free on-stage and comedy or drama would
find us. To be free.
Thinking of that reminds me of a conversation I had recently about Thomas Paine and blogging in general.
In January of 1776, Thomas Paine published "Common Sense," a pamphlet designed to rouse the colonials against the British crown. It was the most popular publication of the 1880s and its rhetoric a call to arms to an American populace. Most of the citizens of the colonies were not very literate and the printing presses were just beginning to regularly churn out books and newspapers. Paine made a deal with publisher Robert Bell; if the pamphlet didn't make a profit, he (Paine) would pay for it all. Well, Thomas' shillings staying in his pockets- the first printing alone sold over 500,000 copies. People gathered to read and discuss the inflammatory words and its (then) anonymous author. For his part, Paine donated his royalties to the Continental Army saying, "As my wish was to serve an oppressed people, and assist in a just and good cause, I conceived that the honor of it would be promoted by my declining to make even the usual profits of an author." (Let's see Palin, Beck, and O'Reilly do that!)
The popularity and controversy created by "Common Sense" prompted supporters and adversaries to take to their own newspapers (open letters were popular at the time) and some printed their own pamphelts. The cost of a low-run print of a pamphelt was relatively cheap (it was sort of causal; if you were literate enough to write your own screed you were probably rich enough to get one printed.)
But here's the point:
We're all literate now. And we all have our very own printing press. Even better, our "pamphlets" can be instantly seen all over the world. Shall the citizenry be amused or aroused by what we print? Do we call to action or rest at inaction? Do we reflect or reflect upon society? In the end, that's what Paine, Adams, Washington and the rest wanted for us, their descendants; freedom to think, to say, to do.
Radio didn't kill newspapers, TV didn't kill radio, but those new innovations forced them to evolve and change. As Darwin would say, competitors for resources promotes adaption and that which does not adapt...
The idea of the blog (and has there ever been a worse word for such a grand idea?) and its democratization of publication is simply the evolution the town crier, the pamphleteer, the manifesto. Just as there are terrible books, awful sitcoms, and inane movies, there will be boring, dumb, and asinine blogs. If you believe that then you must concede the flip-side; there will be, and are, great online journals as well.
Thomas Paine had a passion and wanted freedom for the American people. He had no sword, but he knew a guy with had a printing press. If he were around today I think he would, First, be amazed that As the World Turns was canceled- will Damian recover?, and Second? He would have a great blog. And probably a Flickr account.
Filed under: Del Close, TV shows
Tags: As The World Turns, Common Sense, Flickr, Jurassic Park, Thomas Paine
