Diary of a TV junkie: If you bore us, do we not snore? Felicity Shea
I AM sick and tired of infomercials! I hate them. I don’t buy anything from them and have never heard of anyone who has. (At least, nobody who’s owned up to it).
Infomercials have been the bane of my existence since I was at university and watching TV at all hours of the late night/early morning.
Midnight has long been the scourge of the night owl TV junkie because it’s the witching hour, where everything watchable turns to crap—poof! In a cloud of smoke there stands Victor Paul, or Victoria Principal, or Danoz Direct or (shudder) the man trying to sell me an abtronic.
If I wanted to watch that rubbish, I’d be a 45 year-old ‘home economist’ with three kids and a drinking problem. Or I’d watch Bert Newton in the morning with his boat-load of plastic juice machines and food dehydraters, engineered to fall to bits at the first sight of real food.
I mean, really, who buys that? (That’s no slight to Bert—Bert is one cool dude and I really think it’s about time Bert made his triumphant return to prime time television).
Honestly, it’s about time late-night viewers were treated as a worthy audience too. We’re not brain-dead shopaholics (and since graduating from university we’ve had our fill of Ricki Lake, but that’s a whole other column).
We want reasonable programming and I don’t think Christie Brinkley and Chuck Norris trying to sell me a stairmaster really fits the definition of reasonable viewing.
Neither does Sofie Formica “interviewing” Anthony Robbins. Sycophantic load of tosh.
The part that had me in absolute fits was Formica being introduced as “Australia’s most famous television personality”—uh-huh.
Seven was running a fabulous “dramedy” called Sports Night immediately after Roy & HG’s
The Ice Dream, during the Winter Olympics.
It was interestingly light, critically acclaimed in the US and starred many well-known names, including Robert Guillame (Benson), Peter Krause (currently seen as Nate on Six Feet Under) and Josh Charles (remember Knox Overstreet in Dead Poets’ Society? And who also happens to be Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly’s other half).
However, as soon as The Ice Dream ended so did the dream of good late night television. The loyal viewers were cast adrift as Sports Night was cut loose from its mooring.
Upon inquiry Seven said it had no plans to schedule any more episodes. Why would you do that to viewers? Why introduce a show that could run for around 26 episodes (I know for a fact there were two seasons made), only to yank it away unceremoniously after a mere two weeks?
It’s rude and shows a complete lack of consideration for viewers of late night television.
Enough, I say. Late night viewers are people too. If you bore us, do we not snore?
Seven bring back Sports Night and save me from an overpriced stair master—please!
Diary of a TV Junkie is a regular column about the life of one compulsive, small-screen viewer.
