Upsurge of Komiks-based teleseryes in 2012

If the name Lulu Coching Rodriguez would automatically register connection with a portraitist who had made a name for having done the most famous celebrities and government officials from the ’70s onward, our memory of Lulu went farther to our days as fledgling writer and artist at the Manila Times publications.

We knew her as the daughter of the famed artist and graphic novelist Francisco V. Coching who wrote and illustrated 51 novels translated into films. Some of his more famous works have been Satur and Lapu-Lapu directed by Bert Avellana, El Vibora directed by Ishmael Bernal, and Pulot-Gata directed by Jose de Villa.

Pedro Penduko, directed by Gerry de Leon, was sold to ABS-CBN as a teleserye with Matt Evans, Melissa Ricks, Albert Martinez, Bembol Roco, Agot Isidro, Gloria Romero and others.  But it is Pulot-Gata, which starred Tony Marzan, Barbara Perez, Dolphy and Marlene Dauden, that Lulu is intent on selling to television.

Now in Manila on an extended vacation from Madrid where she lives with husband Pepe Rodriguez, writer and former head of the Instituto Cervantes in Manila, Lulu while still active in her portraiture is bent on selling her father’s properties to television, now that the family has been getting several feelers from them. There seems to be a resurgence of interest in komiks and graphic novels, Lulu observes. We meet her at her Manila studio putting final touches to several portrait orders that would be picked up. We notice one of Manny Pacquiao which several days after was picked up by GMA 7 as a belated birthday present to Pacman.

Lulu tells us that Pulot-Gata is a perfect vehicle for Pacman who has shown willingness to dip his fingers into television like the sitcom Show Me Da Manny with Marian Rivera and the Manny Many Prizes game show, both on GMA. It is a drama komiks novel involving a love affair between a talented boxer Gallo and the rich and beautiful Nona. Naturally, envious parties plot to separate them to the point of Gallo contemplating suicide. Lulu even says that there is a role just perfect for Mommy Dionisia!

Robin Padilla swak na swak sa comedy

Surfing the channels one Saturday night while waiting for Maalaala Mo Kaya, we ran smack into Robin Padilla’s Toda Max, a new action-comedy launched just last November. We had missed this completely having been away for the holidays, but apparently it has been making waves. Cast with Robin and his two kids are Vhong Navarro, Pokwang and Angel Locsin. The plot tells of Bartolome or Tol (Robin) moving in with a cousin Justin (Vhong), a cook at an eatery, after the death of his wife. Lady G (Pokwang) has become a millionaire through marriage to a rich foreigner and falls in love with Tol. Meantime, the beautiful Isabel (Angel) has eyes only for Vhong.

Our first viewing of Toda Max had the group answering an advertisement for a free overnight stay at a house for anyone interested in buying it. Vhong introduces the group to the owner (guest Bea Alonzo) who is very gracious and offers them food and invites them to swim in the pool. But the group isn’t the first and the pool is now full of freeloaders. But Pokwang is only intent on seducing Robin and doesn’t mind anything. Until Bea serves them food in a huge dining room with a long line of empty seats she introduces as her family. This is when everyone gets scared to death while our household is dying of laughter.

To play fair, we look around for what others think. Ed Sicam in Switching Channels begins by saying that sitcoms should not last more than 30 minutes or they become a bore. “Toda Max lacks the comedic punch I enjoyed in Tang Ta Rang Tang... Robin can do comedy as proven by his movie, La Visa Loca but he has to have the right material. Maybe the writing staff should review old tapes, if they are still available, of Tang Ta Rang Tang and John en Marsha and get inspiration from Beer and Ading.”

If Francisco Coching’s Komiks novel Pulot-Gata will have a TV adaptation, Manny Pacquiao will fit the character of the talented boxer Gallo who falls for the rich and beautiful Nona, says Lulu Coching Rodriguez, daughter of the story’s creator

Guess who has problems with censorship?

The setting is Nanjing, China, and the issue, censorship of the most controversial dating show called If you are the One. The show broke ratings with more than 50 million people tuned in. But it was sending wrong signals. For decades, the Communist party had pushed television networks here to embrace the market and draw advertising. With 1.2 billion viewers and more than 3,000 channels, it is the party’s greatest vehicle for transmitting propaganda.

“A conflict has risen: On the one hand, they’re pushing for the building of a commercial industry, but on the other hand they wonder if this commercialization has led to an overall decline in cultural quality and moral cultivation,” said Yin Hong, a professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing who studies television. Now, the new rules, which were announced in late October, are forcing television executives and producers at 34 satellite stations across China to cut many entertainment shows from their lineups to limit what regulators describe as “vulgar tendencies.” The message was to tone down or face cancellation.

Does this sound familiar?

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