The remote control in the break room of my office doesn't work. Or rather, the up and down channel buttons don't work so you have to type in the numbers by hand. Now that doesn't seem like a lot of work but when your job is essentially pushing buttons all day, the last thing you want to have to do in the break room is push buttons. Because of this problem (with the remote, not our laziness), we tend to settle on a lot of bad shows. The worst so far was "Brooke Knows Best".

In the episode that we were watching, young Brooke Hogan was apparently on a party boat with some guys she and her friend had just met. They thought that they were just cruising around but they soon discovered that they were actually in the Bahamas. Even worse, they wanted nothing to do with the guys so they ditched them and wandered around the island looking for a ride back to the US. Thankfully, the stumbled upon someone with a boat who agreed to smuggle them back to American soil.

Now, I hope that I'm not ruining the illusion for anyone but that obviously never REALLY happened. It was all set up by a producer and faked. In essence, it's just bad improv. In my years of working on reality TV, I've thankfully avoided this type of show (although I did work on one that was so staged that it was actually shot out of order - we'd shoot someone finding something on Monday, and losing it on Thursday) but there are more and more of these types of shows out there. Most MTV shows are now "soft-scripted". So this made me wonder: Is Curb Your Enthusiasm the best reality show ever?

How different is Curb from Brooke Knows Best? The situations are set-up and some people aren't really playing themselves. There aren't scripts, just outlines to guide the improvisation of the players. Honestly, it's not that far off. And you can see why soap operas are failing. Why hire a staff of actors, writers, etc. when you can just throw some untalented kids in front of the camera with a little direction ala The Hills.

The WGA often makes overtures to reality TV story producers but usually its just so they can use us as a negotiating tool against the networks (and we're usually the first chip off the table when it comes time to compromise). They also seem to say they'll fight for our rights but they won't actually let us into the Guild (or even a Guild offshoot) so it seems like a weak support (if not a outright false promise). There's a get-together tonight at which new Guild honcho John Wells is going to speak on this but in the Era of Obama, I'm all speeched out.

That last paragraph of rambling aside, it seems like networks are really starting to toe the line in terms of what is real and what is scripted. It should be interesting to see if anyone really crosses it or if the WGA finally redraws the line in the sand and makes someone, at least the segment producers who make a lot of the stuff up, get some writing recognition. As for me, my job would probably just be reclassified as an first draft editor or something. At least that's what I hope because a few shows have tried moving on without story departments so I'd be SOL.

Which brings up a different angle on this topic: what about all of the good things that reality TV has done? Let's be honest, if not for reality TV, I'd probably be back home in Mass. or working somewhere else in a different field. Either that or I'd be the worst 1st AD in the business (since I was doing assistant director work when I first moved out here. Silly me, I thought it was a way to move up to being a director; I soon realized it was a nice name for middle management on a film set). The amount of jobs that reality has opened up for the dreamers is pretty stunning and I couldn't imagine being out here before it really existed.

So what does it all mean? I don't know. I just had to get it off my chest and, well, that's the main reason you have a blog.

For all of the people who read all of that, here's pearl jam and Neil Young doing "Keep on Rockin' in the Free World". (Granted, the people who just scrolled to the bottom can watch it as well but you'll have the extra warm feeling of knowing that it's here for you. Good god I'm rambling this morning. Gonna be a long day for my co-workers.)

This was 17 years ago? I guess the rambling makes sense; I'm getting old.