AS WE LIKE IT
.
So many people seem to be disappointed with TV shows these days. There are more complaints than compliments, and that is exactly the reverse of what it must become if we are to expect improvement..
So many people seem to think the best way to go about it is to attack. You peck at your keyboard and bat out a scathing letter to let them know how you feel - as if they cared.. To let them know you are disturbed by their actions; or irritated by some small detail that went against your beliefs., .What you have written is better known as a “hate letter” which usually contains a threat that you are not going to listen to or watch that show from that time or that you are canceling your subscription to the offending publication. You let 'em have it with both barrels, and you think you feel better having “done something about it.”
The letter gets to the address you selected`. It is then passed around and parts of it read aloud to show what “this nut said.”.They get your letter but you can't hear them laughing ,and :at “you - not “with” you, as they pass your:”hot”latter around as they make various comments on your mental state “Boy! , we really touched a nerve there,,didn't we!” “ Great stuffe. If one guy out there hates us that much, everyone who has not written must have liked what we did!”
I have worked on the other side I have witnessed just this sort of reversed situation in newspapers, magazines, radio and TV work places. Jobs in those fields are thought o be wrapped in an aura of glamor, but it doesn't take long to observe that such a thin veneer fades away and you have to face
reality.
First, to whom are you addressing your harangue? Certainly not to the star of the show, who is a hireling at best,as a rule. And not to station carrying the offending show. That's their living and very often they have to go with materials Th real, far-off owners make available to them, Why should they forward your nasty letter to wherever the main office might be? If you address your insults to any individuals you have whittled your point down to a tiny potentially legalistic danger point. The agency? The producers?
All of these are tuned to compliments, not to criticism. They will read your letter, laugh about it and say (whole searching for any punctuation or grammar error) “ Boyer really got his attention, didn't we!?” That which you intended to be an insult is a compliment in their eyes, because you have shown your weakness as one, lone individual who did not like what you did.”
A far better way to help control the waste of TV programming time by so many new production is to totally ignore them.
It is not easy to do so.
It is a small beginning. Watch diligently for something you do like on your TV screen. There must be something. If there is nothing, you are watching far too much TV and had better turn to some other facet of the media where you can waste your time just as well. Select something you like/ It may be just a feature within a larger show. Talk it up wish friends and family until you become committed. to what you are saying.. Then, write. If you do so,keep it honest and accurate. Keep it direct in a type fan club impoliticly and start by thanking the person for doing it.. It may take months for such a note to get to where it is intended but when it does arrive
it will be respected and appreciated..
Praise what you like. Modestly. Don't overdo it.
Ignore that which does not meet your standards.
If you like it, say so.
A.L.M March 23, 2004 [c659wds]
