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November 10, 2005
TV Programming Will Become More Intelligent
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The theater used to be people's source of low-brow entertainment. The traveling shows of the 1890s, for example, would have some cornball songs, slapstick comedy, and burlesque.
When film became a popular medium, it initially relied on immitating the successful aspects of theater, and became the principal source of this kind of music, comedic, and otherwise titilating content. (The Three Stooges and others of that era had all been Vaudeville acts)
Theater was more expensive in terms of reaching a wide audience, and responded to this competition by becoming more high-brow and abandoning the corny songs and slapstick in favor of more erudite entertainment.
Film grew in popularity and began adding other kinds of content, such as newsreels and cartoons, which theater had never been able to do (although going to a theater to hear the news is perhaps the equivalent of going to church or a town meting during the age before recorded media).
But then television arrived and competed with film the way that film had competed with theater. TV became the main source of corny songs and slapstick comedy (think of how many TV shows from the 1950s were musical variety shows compared to today).
And, TV also appropriated other types of content from film, such as news and cartoons. It took a couple of weeks to get a newsreel distributed to theaters around the country, while TV had a lead time of perhaps a day, and could even be broadcast live.
Film then responded the way that theater had, by becoming more high-brow. The Stooges were gone and were replaced with the kind of feature-length film that we know today, which is generally better than most content on television.
And now we have the Web, which has - with MP3 downloads, stupid Flash cartoons, and pornography - taken up the torch originally carried by the traveling theater as a primary source for popular entertainment.
The transfer is incomplete, so we are still in a position to see how it all plays out, but my interest is in how TV will respond to competition from the Web.
My prediction is that TV will become more high-brow as the Web surges to dominate popular culture. The fact that shows like "The Office" are now distributed suggests to me that the trend may be starting. Of course, the existence of insipid "reality" shows suggests the opposite.
Still, I will stand by my prediction. Within ten years the majority of people who are seeking simple entertainment will go to their computers first, and will turn on their TV when they want something more intelligent.
Part of the reason for each new medium to supplant the previously new one is that each new medium is cheaper and easier to use and distribute. Each transfer is from that of a production-intensive medium that reaches a smaller number of people to one where a guy with an idea and a little technology can reach a larger number.
The early auteur films could be made with a crew of just a handful, compared to the dozen or scores of people needed to put on a theatrical show. Early television didn't save much in terms of human resources but expense was less and reach was more than film. And with the Web, an individual can produce a song or cartoon by himself.
The bar for expense, and thus quality is lowered each time there is a transfer, which is why the low-brow content is attracted to the newer media.
Posted by mslaybau at November 10, 2005 06:49 AM