Meghan Daum and Rob Walker
Meghan,
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StumbleUponYes! Exactly! Ally McBeal and Drew Carey (the character) on Survivor could do nothing but help. I've actually thought for some time (since before Traffic came out, but probably not before Indecent Proposal) that this is what all the news chat shows need, too. "Today's guests: Ariana Huffington, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, the Karen Walker character from TV's hit show Will & Grace, and Kevin Kline as Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof!" Why not? The possibilities are endless--you could have a show with Jimmy Carter, Martin Sheen's West Wing character, and Anthony Hopkins as Nixon, all offering their takes on Clinton's post-presidency so far--and it couldn't possibly result in anything more trivial than what's already out there.
Speaking of television, I forgot to mention earlier that a reader e-mailed me to set me straight about that Titus show and also plugged another radio station, WEVL in Memphis, a blues/jazz/rockabilly sort of station. I've been listening to it a bit today as I mull over genre-bending television and work on "Moneybox." (Although, just now, a new show started and three or four songs in came a Pink Floyd number, which is my exit cue.)
Speaking of Moneybox, I'd be happy to promote myself, but I don't really have anything to promote. Tomorrow morning I'll be having coffee at the place near my house. That's about the best I can do.
Speaking of the coffee place near my house, I think maybe I'll go there now. For me, leaving NYC was not nearly so liberating as no longer having to go to an office. I haven't been to a meeting in more than a year. Not as novel as having a pig with a name, but again, the best I can do.
rw
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Reader Comment From The Fray:
I have a suggestion for some 'reality based' TV programs. How about Refugee Boat? We could take contestants and put them in a third world, war torn country and give them thirty days to figure out how to make a raft, find food and get set afloat before despotic soldiers order them to dig their own graves.
Or, how about Street Survival? In this one, the contestants must survive three months on the street with only the clothes on their backs and no identification. They would be required to jump trains, sleep outdoors in alleyways and in shelters, and generally try to survive their new found compatriots, welfare rolls and dumpster diving.
And, how about this beauty? Prison Guards would be a reality based show where one would become a prison guard in one of the most feared prisons in the United States. In this show contestants get thirty days training and then must work as a prison guard in the most violence-prone sectors of the prison for at least two months. Talk about ratings! I know that I would personally be glued to the screen.
Let's give vanity and greed a real price. Instead of paying people to play the mind games most of us have to wade through in our regular work week, let's up the ante a little. I can't wait until the spotlights burn and we get to see one of these numbnuts have to face a freight train's worth of trouble rushing headlong into them.
--Rogue
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