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Thu 11 Dec, 2003 09:47 am
I admit to watching near exclusive PBS viewing. I don't mind the ideas of fund-raisers, which I find less annoying than commercials. But the quality of the shows!
I thought the folk rock program was worth one viewing. It reminded me in an embarrassing way of the recent folk spoof movie. The program could have put together in a different way. Let's face it, some of those people were never folk rock to begin with and many of them lost their voices. Is Scott MacKenzie, the one hit wonder, worth remembering? Weren't you embarrassed by how commercial Georgie Girl was although the lead singer's voice remains wonderful. Wasn't John missing from the Loving Spoonful lineup?
Worse than This Land is Our Land, the folk rock remembrance, was the pop review show At the Drive in. The host waxed enthusiastically over the Corvette on stage while the hostess, who looked like a recycled poor man's Raquel Welch, answered his enthusiasms with, "That's what PBS is all about!" Really? Restored cars?
Why does PBS think Bobby Vee and Chris Montez are what the public wants?
And while the Roy orbison Show, A black and white night, and the Rockabilly Show are good, do we need to see them daily during a fund raiser? I would think once every three or four years is sufficient.
Agreed, plainoldme, re the black-tie folk tributes PBS is constantly airing during fund drives. The first time I clicked on one after seeing "Mighty Wind" I nearly fell off the couch laughing. "Michael Row Your Boat Ashore", indeed! And the Roy Orbison extranvaganza, as you say, should have laid to rest a decade ago--and I was a fan of his.
Last night I clicked on one of the local PBS stations duing their fund drive, and they were re-airing the Bill Moyers interview with Joseph Campbell. Now that was a pleasant surprise!
Oooh. That's one of my all-time favorites. (Moyers - Campbell.)
It still holds up, sozobe. I'll bet there's a way to buy the series. The station was shilling a CD version; I wonder if it exists on DVD or video?
Nobody asked me about these fund raising extravaganzas with these pop feel good new age d-bags. Id rather see an all night marathon of norm Abrams building some adirondack chairs or run all the old Black Adder and Fawlty Towers shows. NOOOO , they think Im some highbrow that wants to watch YANNI. JEEZUS H CHRISE, now you got me all bummed out about fund raising season.
Our Philly PBS has a new feature , their pretty much all fund raising-all the time. None of that pesky entertainment
Yanni--Now that's high-brow entertainment! I forgot about his PBS appearances--thanks for the reminder, farmerman.
The fact is--and it's been said before--PBS is adrift. Before cable, PBS was where you found intelligent, even alternative programs. Now it's Yanni. Sad...
there have been four "Homeruns" during pledge weeks:
-The London cast of "Cats."
-The Styx "Return to Paradis" reunion tour
-Heart live at the Moore in Seattle
-Fleetwood MAC in concert at the Hollywood Bowl.
That's all well and good, but I've never figured out why a pop concert--even a good one--should motivate me to pledge to PBS. Is pop music what PBS is all about?
Farmerman was kidding (I assume) re "Black Adder" or "Python" marathons, but PBS used to do that--and that makes more sense. At least that was the programming people tuned in and enjoyed the rest of the time...
Actually, our local station recently ran a Fawlty Towers marathon and it was great to see Cleese in this so true and so over the top role.
I hate Yanni and that drama queen who was married to Cats composer Andrew Lloyd Weber...which reminds me, how many times will they rebroadcast his 50th birthday party? One wag here in Boston recently asked whether he's 51 yet.
Some of the singers they highlight are, as my father would say, "from hunger." Josh Groban isn't great.
However, I did enjoy the mariachi show. Those men can sing!
The PBS fund drive may have replaced the county fair as the destination of choice for has-beens and former one-hit wonders. The setting is so genteel at those theaters--can't blame the performers for doing it. And the audiences are as thrilled to be there as the ones in informercials...
D'art,
I always thought the only thing interesting about Ricky Nelson in later years was deciding whether he was a hasbeen or a neverwas. Love your state fair comment. While I might have been interested to learn what happened to one or two of the people on the PBS version of Mighty Wind, seeing and hearing them was more than I cared for! A fat Scott MacKenzie! A no longer sexy Barry Maguire!
The luckiest ones, I sometime think, are the ones who died early. At least in terms of how we remember them. It's hard enough dealing with one's own creeping decrepitude--do I have to see my former idols looking bad, too?
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