| PSF Home |
| Sections |
| Art |
| Books |
| Comics |
| Fantasy |
| Films |
| Games |
| Gothic |
| Horror |
| Music |
| SF |
| Theatre |
| TV |
 JUNK CULTURE By Suzi Kuba |
||||||||||||
On Saturday 14 March the Tyneside Cinema hosted part of the TV Junkies festival a celebration of television that has engendered a following of fans, wondered how an Arts-based event would differ from the media-cons I have been to. The day started with a talk about children's television over the years with clips from Play School, Crackerjack, Fireball XL5, Play Away, Tiswas, The Magic Roundabout film, (Dougal and the Blue Cat) and finally an episode of the Teletubbies. The discussion focused on how children's shows have created controversy from Bill and Ben, (lack of language), Andy Pandy, (too middle class), Captain Pugwash, (the non-existent rude names), to the recent Teletubbies row. Dr. Anderson then gave a talk about Star Trek as Soap Opera. This included clips from eight different episodes from the four live series. These all showed how the interpersonal dynamics have changed over the years, becoming more important and at times totally replacing any SF elements. The middle of the day had a showing of the film Thunderbird 6 that certainly attracted a large number of children (with their dads). Always a good thing to see when new people become interested in the genre. For me it would have been Capt. Scarlet, UFO, Dr. Who and the Clangers. The afternoon ended with two local law students, training to be barristers, prosecuting and defending 'This Life' on grounds of realism. (Personally, I disliked the series, but each to their own). These two in snappy suits with matching ties and braces were Charles Rose prosecuting and Richard Tulip defense. Charles' criticisms were based on the fact that recently qualified barristers would hardly be handling very minor cases (if not just doing research), be heavily in debt and dress more soberly than Anna and the others ever did. Richard made his defense and then an episode was shown which managed to contain everything I hated. An interesting day, perhaps next year the various venues will manage to get more input from any local TV Clubs.
Merlin - behind the scenes Kinky TV The 10 Files Kicking the TV Habit Reviews Links
|
