Unscripted TV



March 10, 2001



BOB GARFIELD: With the Writers Guild strike looming, the television networks are scrambling to produce shows for the fall that don't require scripts. Think reality television. Think an easy target for satire. Modern Humorist's Alexandra Rindge [sp?] cooked up this report.

WOMAN: Recently NBC experimented with an unscripted version of Friends. The actors who play the Friends were asked to spend the day engaged in a group activity they felt their characters would enjoy. They chose watching themselves on TV. That was last week. Now rather than re-tooling existing programs, the networks are developing new shows. Lesley Moonves [sp?] president of CBS, explains that unscripted reality shows are where the money's at.

MAN: He, who needs writers? Survivor - makes its own words! Early Show with Bryant Gumbel, makes its own words about Survivor! Hey that's what my pal Fidel'd call Beauty in a Box!

WOMAN: Survivor creator Mark Burnett is producing Why Me? for CBS -- a series of mini-documentaries that contrast his success with the failures of other men named Mark Burnett. NBC, in its bid to cope with the loss of writers, has lined up yet another one hour program created by Dick Wolf whose trademark is stories ripped from the day's headlines. The new show, Law & Order Raw, goes one step further -- each episode will feature Wolf actually reading aloud from the paper.

MAN: Tax cut. Faith-based. Campaign finance-- Oh! Honey! Look! There was a double murder in Staten Island! Isn't that awful? Pass me the scissors - no - no, no, the good scissors.

WOMAN: On Fox, David E. Kelley throws one of his many hats into the reality ring with Ally About You - a fashion makeover show for women lawyers. [MUSIC]

MAN: Shorter.... shorter.... oh, how about--shorter?!

WOMAN: Finally ABC's executives, having lost David E. Kelley to Fox are planning reality programming based on their own lives. Watch for Market Research Bloopers and Blunders and Who Wants to Reschedule Millionaire? [MUSIC] 58:00

BOB GARFIELD: That's it for this week's show, and by the way that last story was a JOKE! On the Media was produced by Janeen Price and Katya Rogers; engineered by George Edwards and edited by--Brooke. We had help from David Serchuk and the Keefe brothers, John and Dylan; also Max Robbins, Jule Gardner, Betsy Gardella and Rex Doane.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:Mike Pesca is our producer at large; Arun Rath our senior producer, and Dean Cappello our executive producer. Bassist/composer Ben Allison wrote our theme. You can listen to the program and get free transcripts at onthemedia.org and e-mail us at onthemedia@wnyc.org. This is On the Media from National Public Radio. I'm Brooke Gladstone.

BOB GARFIELD: And I'm Bob Garfield. It was a joke !!