First published in the New Zealand TV Weekly August 22, 1966.
A constructive criticism of NZBC-TV presentation and production
ENIGMA is more than just the name of a TV programme. For me, it is a fair description of what New Zealand television has become.
The puzzle is: why is it allowed to drag along in such a pedestrian pat- tern when in fact the potential is so rich, and the facilities so relatively lavish?
It would be unfair to compare the NZBC with the BBC, ABC or any of the American networks when it comes to equipment but I will bet that many an overseas producer would be envious to see the working conditions that the NZBC affords its production crews.
The basic advantage here seems to be the time to think and plan. TV stations of comparable size in America are forced by economics to work with skeleton crews with most staff serving double or triple duty. Much of the on-the-air work is by necessity unrehearsed and suffers accordingly.
Why inferior?
What puzzles me then, is why the local NZBC programmes I watch here often seem inferior to their small-town counterparts in America.
Perhaps there is too much planning and rehearsing and not enough spontaneity. Certainly this is safer and less liable to error by camera or performer but oh, what a lack of life! No wonder Town and Around is so well received. It is forced to shortcut on rehearsal time and therefore breathes fresh reality right into our living rooms. It is also not surprising that the NZBC has had difficulity in casting front men for this series. Not everyone can respond successfully under such hectically casual conditions.
I would like to see more of this type of programme in New Zealand. Perhaps other formats would benefit by a touch of the Town and Around atmosphere. Take the news for example.
Mixed bag
This is potentially the most exciting half hour each night on TV. Yet what a mixed bag we get. The announcers are rotated, prohibiting the buildup of a news “personality.” Staring at the viewer with bleak, or at best sober expressions, the newsreaders seem to be trying to prove that a newscaster can be as unemotional as the undertaker. News should be reported by knowledgeable men who act as if they know what they are talking about. I am not suggesting that our current crop of newsreaders are not well informed but I do feel that the news is all too often presented in an unnecessarily laconic or disinterested manner.
News and public affairs programmes need not be dull affairs as Alan Morris and Ian Johnstone have proved on Compass. I would like to see more of their type of approach to the subject.
Compass deserves the best the NZBC can bestow upon it. It is a window on the world and highlights the service that TV can perform for a country so removed from the mainstream. Nor is this type of show the only way TV can and should keep us in touch. Any overseas programme serves this purpose to some degree. And I believe that if a show is tops overseas we should automatically have the opportunity of viewing it here. Nothing annoys me more than learning that I am being protected from seeing a show that in the opinion of a censoring panel will not enlighten or entertain me. Whether the programme turns out to be a dud is really beside the point.
Anyway, watching top-rated overseas shows and then criticising them gives us an opportunity to play one upmanship with the taste of other countries. It is half the fun!
Why not an NZBC series screening a different top-rated overseas show each week? Then maybe I’d get to see Batman, the TV show that has caused such a sensation that the Batman has replaced 007 in America as the number one crimebuster. It is said to be “camp”; so awful it is supposed to be good. And I would like to see it even if my brother-in- law did not play the leading role.
Hit parade of overseas shows
A weekly NZBC “hit-parade” of overseas shows could include top programmes not only from America and England but also Japan, Rus- sia, the Continent and other lesser known producers of television pro- grammes such as India, Malaysia and the Philippines. I am not thinking so much of documentaries now, but rather comedy, musical revue and drama shows; programmes that reflect the every-day taste of these countries. Such a series would undoubtedly be uneven and present financial problems to the NZBC but it could also prove to be the most stimulating and talked about session on the air. For this I might even give up Mr Ed.
But the real excitement in TV still lies with our local presentations. Because TV is such a personal medium, I would like to see more interviews. A TV interview should be like a relaxed conversation where the announcer is free and even encouraged to show his delight-or doubt in the statements he has encouraged from his guest. He should introduce the subject and let the conversation flow without impeding it with notes and formal questions. The results may be startling. But always they will be entertaining. I do not believe for one moment that the professionals and community leaders have all the answers.
It would be refreshing to see the unknown farmer, the plumber or the coal truck driver appearing on a sort of People’s Any Questions. A show featuring people representing this overlooked section of the community could have tremendous appeal. The main problem is to create a studio atmosphere conducive to free talk.
Aid to informality
My husband got around this one in Honolulu by building a bar on the set of his show. Once an evening, after doing the commercial for a beer sponsor, he would invite a few members of the studio audience to walk on into the set to have a beer and a yarn. A remarkably informal atmosphere was created and after a minute or two the spur of the moment TV guests were offering impromptu and often amusing comments. The problem often was to turn them off after the programme finished.
How I do miss live programmes. Television should represent the community as much as does the local newspaper. Have a Shot was often amateurish but there are few programmes today that cause the morning tea discussions that it always provoked the next day. (I am not suggesting that the NZBC bring back Have a Shot. It has had its day. But it also had the contagious local live spark that is too often missing today.)
Local TV more honest
Local TV is usually more honest because it must convince an audience that knows the local situation and can’t be fooled. The only truly authentic island dancing that l have performed on TV was on my husband’s local show in Hawaii. In contrast, the director of the Lowell Thomas show, High Adventure, asked that my hula skirt be shortened from its normal just above the ankle length to above the knees! I told .. him I would not only feel foolish but that it was far from authentic.
Look, Johnny,
he replied. We’ve got an audience of 40,000,000. Let’s not spoil their illusions about the South Seas.
It was Tahiti’s first mini hula skirt.
NZBC-TV advantage
One major advantage that the NZBC has over US and Australian producers is its freedom from sponsors. Programmes such as Songs from the Shows would be nearly impossible to sell to a sponsor overseas because they do not appeal to a mass market nor conform to the established pattern currently popular. But I find it refreshing to watch such programmes here if only because they illustrate the freedom of the NZBC to experiment.
Which brings me back to the rich promise of the NZBC. Let us have more experimentation, more live TV, and more locally produced shows. We have the talent and the facilities.
Surely this is the only way New Zealand television is going to live up to its tremendous potential.
Comments powered by CComment