It's Time for a New Way of Doing Business
It Looks a Lot Like the Old Way. It's How the Old Way Worked and Why the New Way is Failing.
(Yes I am cross-posting this to both of my Stacks because it touches on what both of them do. That’s what happens when your brain exists in two separate universes. Sometimes they cross over each other.)
Once upon a time, entertainment corporations produced good content. I could go to the movies and watch stuff worth watching. Remember Independence Day? Remember all of the Star Trek moves except one? (I’m looking at you Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.) Remember the early Star Wars movies? Goodfellas? Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead? The Blade trilogy? Enter the Dragon? Fast Forward was a cult favorite, but it was amazing. How about Event Horizon? The Tuskegee Airmen? Bueller? (Well, actually…)
Those are some of the best movies of my lifetime, at least in my opinion, and this is my blog so I’m the authority on what’s good here. If you disagree, feel free to do so in the comments. That’s what they’re for. HOWEVER…
What made all of those movies good was the combination of a good script, good acting, and, in some cases, good special effects. They were quality. There was a time when I could walk into my local movie theater and get tickets for whatever was on the board while having a really good chance at seeing something entertaining.
And the same when I turned on the TV. Star Trek has always been a favorite of mine. I’ve been watching it since literally before I can remember. My father told me that he sat down and watched an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series with me immediately upon bringing me home from the hospital. Remember The Jeffersons? How about The Simpsons? Battle Star Galactica? Does How I Met Your Mother ring a bell? Maybe Bosom Buddies? CSI, Law and Order, House, even Doogie Howser, M.D.?
I love most of what’s on the History Channel (minus the Ancient Aliens stuff.). American Pickers, (RIP Frank Fritz), American Restoration, History’s Greatest Mysteries, and History’s Great Escapes, are all quality entertainment. And, of course, they do all kinds of documentaries of the type which my college professors told me never to watch (because they’re not peer reviewed and scholarly) but which are classics.
What about reality TV? (Yes, I said it.) Survivor is a genre defining classic. Without it we don’t get the likes of Chopped, Iron Chef, Forged in Fire, Forged in Fire Knife or Death, or Big Brother. There is so much there for people who like to watch competitions what may not be athletic in nature.
Although, to be fair, sports are great too. I’m a Detroit homer. I love my Lions, and I’m happy to see how well they’re (finally) doing right now. I’m still smarting from the beating my Tigers took last night, but there’s plenty of series left. I was a Red Wings fan before it was cool, and I’m still one now that it’s not so cool anymore. I grew up watching the Bad Boys Pistons teams and I loved them. I can’t watch the current iteration though. WIN SOME GAMES PISTONS!!!!
But the fact that I get that worked up about it should tell you something if you know anything about entertainment.
And that ignores the big moments in sports. The Super Bowl is watched by people all over the world. The World Series, Stanley Cup and NBA Championship don’t draw as many fans but they still draw in millions of viewers. So do Bowl Games and March Madness. The All Star games do as well.
And no, little leftist, they’re not all “lacking diversity.” The majority of the players in Major League Baseball, the National Football League, The National Basketball Associate, Division 1 Men’s Basket and The Football Championship and Bowl Subdivisions are black. The Jeffersons were black. Star Trek was, at least to the best of my knowledge and belief, the first integrated show in the history of American TV. History’s Great Escapes is hosted by Morgan Freeman. History’s Mysteries (the newer version) is hosted by Laurence Fishburne. They’re both black. Bruce Lee was the star of Enter the Dragon. There is plenty of minority representation there.
And no, literal rightist, this isn’t some “woke” list that only features minorities. Goodfellas was all about white dudes. Was there a black person in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off? Most of the stuff I wrote about is features primarily (or all) white casts. I don’t see that as problem in a country where we’ve reached the point where persons of White Only, Not Hispanic or Latino descent have shrunk to ONLY 58.4% of the population (Per the US Census) the way some others do, but it is how this list works.
So what do all of the above have in common? They’re entertaining. They draw in the viewer with their story. Whether that story is about fighting Cylons to preserve the human race (BSG), the problems of a black couple in a largely white society (The Jeffersons) or Jerome Bettis returning to his hometown to play in the Super Bowl isn’t the point. What matters is a compelling story.
And yes, sportscasters do look for a story to promote their games. There’s usually something there, whether it’s an overachieving team (often referred to as a “Cinderella story”) , or an athlete that’s going through/has gone through something. It’s all about overcoming the problem (It varies by athlete) and succeeding anyway. Even with reality competition shows, there is a compelling story, that of people battling for the prize.
The problem with a lot of your more “diverse” shows today is that they think they can substitute diversity for a good story. I watched Velma. Granted, I only watched for about seven minutes, because it was crap. Oh, look, we made the nerd gay. The white people are stupid! What is this week’s mystery? Got me. I never made it that far. It takes more than a “diverse” cast to make a story and the left seems to forget that.
Can you have a diverse cast and still make it work? What I wrote above proves that you can. Whether it’s Will Smith flying jets, Wesley Snipes as a vampire killer, Dr Huber and Lieutenant Commander Stamets as Star Trek’s first gay couple, you can write good stories with characters of whatever race you want to, but you have to make it a GOOD STORY. IF YOUR STORY SUCKS I’M NOT GOING TO WATCH IT. Diversity makes no difference either way.
And if you’re out there screaming racist because I won’t “support diverse content” that I don’t enjoy, then you’re the problem, not me. If you want the general public to take diverse content seriously you should be pushing for more quality from diverse voices. I mean that seriously. You will never, ever, not for once in your life or mine, get me to watch your hard work by calling me an -ist or a -phobe if I don’t. It won’t happen. If you want me to support your product, you have to give me a product that I (as the consumer) find to be worth supporting. If you’re in entertainment, that means giving me something that entertains me, whether it was produced. written, acted in, etc by “diverse content makers” or not.
And I’m hear to tell you that, no, there is not room for “diverse content makers” who make crap content anywhere. If you don’t hold yourself to a standard, if you make no effort to do anything but throw diverse people into the mix, then I’ve got better things to spend my money on. I’ve only got so much time in the day. If you can’t entertain me, then I can find other things to do with that time than consume your product.
If you can’t give me something that _I_ find of value I don’t want your junk. Keep in mind that, as a Straight, White, Cisgendered, Christian male, I don’t see value in excluding people like myself in pursuit of diversity. Nor do I see the value of including people who aren’t like me if you can’t give me something worth watching.
So there’s your new method of making money, Hollywood: Give the public something that they find worth watching. Stop complaining about how audiences aren’t ready for the content you want to make. Your job is to convince me that your product is worth investing in. My job is to make that decision based on my values, not yours.
That’s not to say that Hollywood, or anyone else for that matter, doesn’t have the right to make whatever content they choose to make. It does mean that I’m under no obligation to pay for something I don’t want. Seriously, content makers, put your audiences first and everything else, including your politics, second. You’ll make a lot more money that way and my life will improve because I’ll have new stuff to watch.