Deggans PunditWatch '08: Talking About BET with NPR

The last time I talked to an NPR reporter about BET -- senior correspondent-turned-news analyst Juan Williams -- all my comments ended up on the cutting room floor. I think that was because I didn't agree wth the way Williams kept trying to get me to call BET's programming "pornography" -- which I thought was a bit over the top.

Fortunately, correspondent Neda Ulaby wasn't quite so strident, allowing me to express my conflicted feelings about BET in a story she developed for Morning Edition today. I think the channel airs a lot of awful programming, but they also air some interesting stuff and the reasons they air what they do isn't simple as a white-owned channel pimping black people.

One thing Ulaby only referenced slightly in her piece, for instance, is this fact: Black TV households seem attracted to the kind of programming BET's critics often criticize.

A look at cable TV ratings in black households for lasty week shows -- apart from the NBA playoffs in the first eight slots -- that TBS' House of Payne, VH1's Flavor of Love 3, BET's College Hill and VH1's Miss Rap Supreme were the top-rated cable shows in black households. None of these shows would likely get the stamp of approval from BET's critics (except Payne, which avoids criticism for its buffoonish characters through the weight of creator Tyler Perry's sterling image with black people).

It makes sense -- the first 20 spots among all cable TV households were the NBA playoffs, two Indiana jones movies, Spongebob Squarepants, WWE wrestling and MTV's The Hills. People, no matter what color, seem to enjoy watching a lot of nonsense.   

Comments

[Oscar]

I think I may be missing something here. If black people are finding shows to watch all over the dial, and not centralized on BET or TVOne, isn't that a good thing?

It would be nice if those shows invested some money onto elevating the quality of their programs, like producing several August Wilson plays or hosting presidential forums, but they are chasing the buck. Which is what all media outlets do.

Do they pander to the lowest common denominator? Yes. But that is what people seem to want to watch.

[Robin 'Roblimo' Miller]

House of Payne is a simulacrum of a big-budget TV show, not a new-style production. This is why it looks the way it does, not to mention that even though is shot and edited in a manner similar to traditional "high-finish" TV it is based more on Perry's "casual" stage style than on TV or movie styles.

What we -- or at least I -- see is development of new, minimalist production styles that present a story clearly based on location shooting and simple editing.

This stuff is so new that no one really knows how to use it yet. The Canon XH-A1 and HV-20 indie-film-quality camcorders have been on the market for less than two years. Software that'll handle their output and do a coherent zoom/pan within video clips (as opposed to zooming/panning on stills a la Oliver Stone) is so new that when I started experimenting with this technique last month I found no training materials. I'm sort of making it all up as I go along, more or less in tandem with Stephen "Wheat" Buckley, who makes music videos and such.

I will probably never do high-finish movies or scripted TV. I'm more interested in news and documentary work and applying what I learn from that kind of shooting to short comedies that are heavily improvised rather than fully scripted. But I just am one of many thousands of people who now personally own equipment (and software) as good as what only well-financed production houses and TV networks had as recently as five years ago.

The next-gen production styles to which this level of gear will lead are just getting going. We're going to see shocking advances over the next few years.

[Eric Deggans]

what you say makes a lot of sense, Robin, but for two things.

If you look at House of Payne, the first thing that is apparent is how cheap the production is. And this is for a show that is filmed in a multi-million-dollar studio built especially in Atlanta for his projects. So even someone with as much money and clout as Tyler Perry makes a cheaper-looking product when he goes it alone.

Secondly, a big reason why people are watching his show is because of his name's brand value with black consumers, which was developed over many years of producing black centered plays and indie films before this TV venture.

So, yes, techincally, anybody can create a TV show the way he has -- and many people are doing so. But the reason you haven't heard of many, is because their production values are terrible and people don't know their names the way they know Tyler Perry's name.

[Robin 'Roblimo' Miller]

She mentioned Tyler Perry and his non-traditional model of show creation, which is basically "make the show on your own, then sell it" as opposed to getting a pilot funded in advance by a lot of network nimrods and a tentative deal signed before doing anything.

Forget blackness for a minute. Anyone can do what Perry does. Sure, it takes guts to get a bunch of actors together, rent a theater, and build a touring company from that base. And it takes guts to make a TV show or movie with your own money instead of getting financed by others.

But TV production is now cheaper and easier than ever. If I had a burning desire to make a show called, say, "Scooter Girl vs. the Roller Thugz," I could shoot and edit it on my own.

With no-pay actors, using $8000 (or so) worth of equipment and software I already own, the total out-of-pocket cost would be in the $100 - $200 range for a 30 minute extravaganza.

And if no established broadcast or cable TV outlet picked up this gem, we could slap it up on Vimeo and/or YouTube. We might not make any money directly from this show, but if we were clever we could load it with product and service placements ranging from my own Internet Video Promotion business to Chief Roller Thug Valeri's little Rawk Shop to the South Florida Museum, where "Scooter Girl" herself works in the education department.

See how it's done? :)

It are a hole new world. TV will change to accommodate it. Or not. See, we has us Teh Intarwebs now, which means we can all be Tyler Perry if we want, and if BET and HBO and all don't want to play, who cares?