Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 17, 1994 TAG: 9403170146
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By ELIZABETH KOLBERT NEW YORK TIMES
DATELINE: LONDON LENGTH: Medium
Now, though, the British have a show that does the zapping for them. Naturally, it is made in America. And the vision it presents of the multichannel world is such that many viewers may be tempted to trade in their remote controls.
``United States of Television'' is a series produced by a Los Angeles-based company for Channel 4, the smaller of Britain's two independent broadcasters. It is a compilation of clips from broadcast and cable stations all across America, or, as its producers prefer to call it, a ``clipumentary.''
Even to most Yanks, the perspective the series provides would probably seem a little over the top. ``United States of Television'' is no collection of Nielsen hits; it is a look at American television as video freak show, with special emphasis on the weird, the wacky and the downright horrific.
There are clips from a show called ``Cowboy Cookin' With Bruce Wood,'' from the New England Timber Sports Championships and from ``Contra Costa County's Most Wanted Deadbeat Parents'' show.
There are snippets from ``In the Dungeon,'' a program devoted to ``the leather, S&M, fetish life style,'' from ``Ask the Pastor,'' a televangelical call-in show, and from ``Rise Up With Rosie,'' a geriatric exercise hour. And, of course, there is ``Geraldo.''
The series, six 45-minute episodes on Saturdays at 11 p.m., began in February and will end this week. Roughly 1.5 million viewers have been tuning in to each episode, a number, given the time slot and the channel, that is considered a substantial audience.
Just what British viewers see in, say, a Susan Powter infomercial, or clips from the Adam and Eve Channel, offering erotica to the home-shopping crowd, is somewhat unclear. Critical reaction has tended to fall under the general heading: ``Thank God it couldn't happen here.''
While it is easy to view ``United States of Television'' as a cautionary tale for the digital age, the show's two producers say it is actually intended as a celebration.
``We put stuff on that's horrific and hysterical,'' said one of them, Randy Barbato, who is an American. ``But our whole take is: isn't it great, all this stuff is out there. Our whole agenda is to help free English television.''
Explaining the rationale behind the series, Martin Stott, Channel 4's press officer, said: ``Most people here watch American television that has been packaged for them, like `Roseanne' or `Cheers.' We're actually showing people the sort of television that appears in America. The only other way you're going to sample any of these shows is to go to a hotel room in New York and flip through the channels.''
Stott acknowledged, though, that viewer response to the series has been mixed. ``Some people call up and say, `What is this nonsense?' '' he said. ``Others are phoning up and saying, `This is great fun.' ''
``United States of Television'' is the brainchild of Barbato and his fellow producer, Fenton Bailey, a British expatriate. The two men met a decade ago as film students at New York University, and now run their own production company, World of Wonder, based in Los Angeles.
With the help of assistants all over America, Bailey and Barbato collected some 1,500 hours of video for ``United States of Television.'' They then spent six months winnowing their selections and dividing them into general categories.
The first episode, for example, focused on guns, right-wing talk shows and televangelists. The second looked at ``reality programs,'' including ``The Operation,'' an up-close-and-personal look at a surgeon performing a facelift that appeared on the Discovery Channel. The sixth is to examine the future of American television.
``The reality is, we've gone through the stuff that's out there and we've taken the extremes,'' Barbato said.
Barbato would very much like to introduce the clipumentary to American viewers, but so far hasn't had much luck.
``In America, I think everybody feels TV about TV is not completely valid,'' he said. ``But I think they're missing the point because that's the best TV there is.''
by CNB