[lit-ideas] Re: Decisions, decisions

  • From: Judy Evans <judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2004 02:41:15 +0100

Monday, October 25, 2004, 1:53:04 AM, JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx wrote:

 
JE><<That  reminds me. German TV is setting up a Truman Show town;
JE>they hope  people will  live there for years.  A psychologist
JE>disapproved, she  thought they  might have problems when they
JE>encountered the "real world".>>>

Jac> 'Scuse me???  More details?  Explain please?!  If you are saying
Jac> what I think you are....

I began to wonder if I'd dreamed it!  Or if I'd slept through the
winter and it was April...

I can't get you the url now as my browser's address bar's gone awol
(and The Guardian doesn't know me if I use my other browser -- nor
does the NYT), here's the piece:



>Big Brother's next step: show that lasts forever

>Mike Leidig Saturday October 23, 2004 The Guardian

>Germany's version of the Big Brother reality TV show will take a
>giant leap next spring with the opening of a small town mimicking The
>Truman Show concept.

>In the Jim Carrey movie, a man called Truman is
>unwittingly the subject of a 24-hour TV programme that monitors his
>every moment for the gratification of a worldwide audience.

>In the city being built outside Hamburg, the only difference will be
>that contestants will be willing participants.

>There will be a forest, a town square with shops and a church,
>schools and businesses. Contestants will, it is hoped, live there for
>years, falling in love, going to school, even getting married. The
>producers hope to lure in businesses to employ them, as well as
>teachers and doctors.

>Producer Rainert Laux said: "We hope couples will get pregnant and
>family groups will interact with all the usual family frictions."

>He said they would handpick the "very best group, all unemployed" to
>live in what will be a cross between the Truman Show and Disneyworld.

>"They can do exams there if they want to go to school, learn
>languages or any other type of professional examination for a career
>and eventual employment."

>The city will be as realistic as possible so that contestants have no
>problems reintegrating into society. But broadcaster RTL2 was unable
>to provide details on financing.

>Celebrities will occasionally appear, but the main group of
>contestants will remain "for decades," according to Mr Laux.

>Producers of the show say the present format has had its day. The
>plan now is for an entire community to be scrutinised around the
>clock. As long as such a show draws viewers it will remain on air.

>The idea follows on from an experiment in America by Fox TV which
>introduced Forever Eden, in which contestants were plonked on a
>Caribbean island. The show was intended to be indefinite but was
>cancelled in April after three episodes were aired.

>By contrast, the reality TV world depicted in the Carrey film is a
>dark fantasy in which unassuming salesman Truman Burbank grows up in
>a city that is actually a vast studio without knowing that his every
>action is broadcast to the outside world.

>RTL2's idea, provisionally titled Big Brother Forever, according to
>makers Endemol, is not quite so ambitious. Its city will afford fans
>of the show visits to the community to see the residents.

>The show is planned to start next March. It will begin on a
>relatively small site, but if it proves successful, the plot will
>expand and contestants will be steadily added.

>Insiders say the show will initially be broadcast 24 hours a day on
>the internet, with highlights on television seven days a week. If
>viewer interest is strong, the broadcasts will go live around the
>clock.

>The project will seek dozens if not hundreds of contestants but will
>follow the central tenets of the Big Brother: sex, difficult
>situations and the eternal fascination of human nature.

>Media psychologist Jo Graibel voiced concerns that people who stayed
>for any length of time would find it hard to adjust to the "real
>world".



-- 
 Judy Evans, Cardiff, UK   
mailto:judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx


------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html

Other related posts: