Wanted: Quality TV shows

I have to admit I used to look down on local television work. When I was starting out, I abhorred the ridiculous hours (my record is 28 hours straight) resulting from this economic need to shoot as many sequences as possible in a single day because there was a budget to be followed. Plus, I thought, the material is beneath me so it’s no exaggeration that I dreaded going to work every day.

But as time and experience teach you many things, you learn to appreciate the craft of TV acting and realize it’s a different (not lesser) kind of process that requires a different (not lesser) kind of acting, and this half-art, half-business enterprise is a brilliant diamond disastrously stuck in the rough.

You come to realize, television is still the most powerful form of media we have today, and instead of looking at it as an escapist form of entertainment that is absolutely useless, why not imagine it as something that can change the way people think, on a national level?

Not An ‘Idiot Box’

Acclaimed theater actress Monique Wilson expressed frustration in her blog about how TV networks are effectively “dumbing down” their audiences by creating shows that segregate the masa “dumb” audience from the middle “thinking” class. She finds this “senseless segregating” as insulting, as it should also be insulting to everyone, and I can’t help but agree with her.

I see a lot of once-a-week television shows produced abroad, including personal favorites like Boardwalk Empire, Entourage, House or even Battlestar Galactica, that are so good they’re even better than some of the balderdash coming out of Hollywood today. And I can’t help but wonder why we can’t have engaging shows like those.

The thing is, it doesn’t have to be as big-budgeted. Whenever I watch Discovery’s Travel & Living Channel, I always wonder why we can’t produce simple but quality shows similar to that, except catered to Filipino sensibilities. Those shows are fairly cheap and relatively easy to produce, without sacrificing its being informative and entertaining.

I like listening to AM radio shows because they have this unwavering commitment to serve the people. I chanced upon this show where this listener phoned in a complaint about a certain traffic officer, and there was an actual lawyer who gave sound legal advice to the exasperated man.

We can create a show like this, similar to the format of America’s Judge Judy, thus creating a show that can entertain and counsel people who have no ready access to legal advice. I’m sure there are countless of hapless individuals all over the country who need that, which should create a growing interest for the show. 

So why can’t we produce a TV show that can educate and empower the supposedly “dumb” audience? It’s so simple, I feel so dumb just asking the question.

Endless Possibilities

One example of the possible horizons of top-notch TV programming is a local show that proved it can be done. I’m talking about Tayong Dalawa (The Two Of Us), this TV show we did in 2009. It was a phenomenal show, to say the least.

To give you an idea, during our farewell mall show held in SM North Edsa, members of the Sy family reserved a front box because it was their favorite primetime show. I’ve never experienced the owners of the mall going out of their way for a show in their mall.

I’ve had first-hand encounters with raving supporters spanning the entire spectrum, from taxi drivers who make dinnertime a bit late just to be able to catch the show, to Ateneo law students taking a break from bar review, these people didn’t just happen to watch it because they have nothing to do on a Monday night — they were actually addicted to it.

It was a show that broke barriers to attract a market not normally interested in local television. ABS-CBN decided to push the bar with that show, something they like doing more often than other networks, and the gamble paid off big-time. Tayong Dalawa was the show that tipped the scales of the ratings war back to more favorable grounds for them.

Television is one of the most lucrative businesses out there (Oprah is worth $2.7 billion, according to Forbes), so I do acknowledge the fact that it will be, first and foremost, a business aimed at making megabucks. And you know what? That’s a good thing.

TV programming will always follow the direction of the money flow. This is is best exemplified by the recent Willing Willie “Jan-Jan” episode, where huge corporate advertisers like Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Jollibee Food Corporation were forced to pull out their ads at the threat of boycott.

So in a time where social networking is equivalent to taking it to the streets, and under the guiding principle that before any real change can happen there has to be economic change, we actually have the power to ask nicely (not nag like a mother) for quality shows.

So I’m asking nicely, can we have better TV shows?