Friday, November 18, 2011

Don't send your fresh idea to Hollywood

Or it will die of loneliness.  Looks like the 1960s TV show The Munsters is going to be redone with the usual modern brooding and cynical 'everything sucks' spin.  I realize that television has long been known for being formulaic.  One need only watch sitcoms through the ages and see how often the same storyline comes through different shows.  I mean, remember the anti-gun mold?  Authority figure - usually a man, father, something - decides he wants to buy gun.  Everyone else who is always smarter than the male authority figure begs him not to, since owning guns is dangerous.  Something is delaying him doing so, and in the meantime, it comes about that the man gets up in the middle of the night for something.  While out and about, he hears a noise.  Since he doesn't have the gun yet, he improvises (frying pan, baseball bat, something), and waits to pounce on the unsuspecting burglar.  Turns out that, just in the nick of time, he realizes the noise was from one of the regular cast members.  It wasn't a burglar or home invader after all!  He heaves a great sigh of relief, everyone is thankful he didn't have the gun instead, he realizes the error of his ways, and comes back to the Purer Faith of 70s and 80s style progressive values.

So yeah, television shows aren't always the most original.  Usually one comes up and then everyone else copies until a new idea comes along.  But theres' something about Hollywood constantly turning toward old shows, old movies, old new movies, anything that's already there, especially in proportion to the lack of original ideas, that suggests the old machine is beginning to wear out its creative bearings.  Who knows?  Maybe there will be some Desi and Lucy to think outside the box and revitalize things.  It sure can't come too soon.

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