TV, from the inside

[Doug Henwood <dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx>]

This item was recently posted to another list by someone intimately
familiar with the workings of TV.

>Nobody in TV is allowed to do anything new. They are not even allowed
>to make things they like. It is all about getting your inferiors to
>make the show that your bosses think will appeal to a particular
>demographic group. They in turn answer to higher bosses, and so on
>until you reach a room full of besuited men who answer to an
>accounting process, which in turn answers to advertising agencies who
>are also controlled by accounting, etc. Everyone knows this, but what
>you professors and vice-chancellors with your 2 hour working weeks and
>lifelong guaranteed jobs don't realise is exactly how powerful an
>effect it has on the workers. They become automatons who will not
>think of anything outside of the framework of such and such an age
>group requiring a certain kind of show. If anyone attempts to use
>their personal judgement in the making of a show, their immediate
>superiors will chastise them for the clumsy mistake. If they persist
>they will be taken off the task, labelled as unprofessional and
>eventually sacked. In the TV industry, _burnt out_ means beginning to
>think. Successful TV people are the ones who can forget their own
>ideas and judgement. They rise quickly through the ranks to become
>entirely removed from messy details such as cameras and scripts. Yet,
>if they detect anything unusual, they will, in a memo, undo the work
>of a hundred inferiors.

Doug

--

Doug Henwood
Left Business Observer
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