"Well, I didn't HATE it." Sorry, but that's about the most excitement I can work up after watching an on-line version of Making News: Savannah Style. For the second season of TV Guide Network's highest rated original series (what came in second - infomercial listings?), producers took their incredibly sloppy camerawork to Georgia where tiny affiliate WJCL-TV tries to win the ratings war despite a powerful competitor, a scandalous past and really, really, really crappy gear. I may have enjoyed this show more - had I not lived every freakin' day of it early in my career! Still 'Savannah Style' has some merit, if only to show the unbelievable earnestness that goes into such ugly television. Hey, speaking of ugly television - here's a message to the show's producers: BUY A LIGHT KIT! You're making a show about TV, fer crying out loud! I understand how you're too cool to (ever) use a tripod, but even revolutionaries like to see the faces of those being interviewed!!!A-HEM. Anyway, the pilot episode was bearable enough, but I do wonder how it plays in Peoria. Whereas I scan each scene for reminders of struggles past, the average couch potato may find this kind of low level sausage making tedious at best. Still, there does seem to be a never ending appetite for behind the scenes drama - even if those scene are devoid of the glamor people mistakenly believe comes with TV News. Perhaps in L.A. it's all very glitzy, but in places like Savannah, bottom rung broadcasting is about as sexy as those hard-charging bon vivants down at the local Electrical Co-op. Thus, I can't promise I'll tune in for more of this punishment - unless they stunt cast a certain wordy cameraman, who secretly erases all those rookie reporter's escape tapes. Now THAT would be entertaining.
1 comment:
Keep watching, you'll see a lot more of the photogs as the season goes on. And the show gets better and better. Seriously, stick with it.
Of course, I would say that -
Nick Davis
Executive Producer, 'Making News'
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