General Chat

I know that Kay, re Norcap) but I would argue that there is a difference between the circumstances of adopted chilren, their parents and siblings...and those who have just gone 'missing' .

I noticed on the credits last time, that FMP was named and I think the Guildhall, and city business library and Tracesmart ltd

Oh, and

"GRs involvement was only sponsership"

No, it really isn't a question of "only" sponsOrship when it comes to "reality" programs, be they home reno or family finders. Home reno shows are giant advertisements for the building supplies companies that sponsor them; ditto family/ancestor shows and the companies that sponsor them.

These shows really are created in conjunction, at least, with the sponsors.

And really that is what they are -- long advertisements. They're just not as blatant as infomercials.

Or does somebody think that Ancestry wasn't one of the prime movers behind WDYTYA, and involved well before production started?

Gimme the proverbial break. ;)

Kay??????


"feel sure that anything of this nature for sponsor would have gone before a panel and involved Brightsoild for approval and be 100%lawful."

I'm not following. Was there as suggestion here that something unlawful was done, that I've missed? If not ............. ?

"Rose information is got from sources not accessable to the public."

This I'm curious about. What kind of information is this? Personal information about people who did not consent to its release? Or just information that is accessible by the person themself anyway, e.g. their adoption records?

Kay???
I'm sure everyone is aware that the participants are not "thrown together willy nilly by the presenters" etc.
As far as I can tell.no one here just fell of the christmas tree :D

All the subjects in the making of Long Lost Family were under the wing of Norcap,,,so they wasnt just thrown together willy nilly by the presenters ,GRs involvement was only sponsership and feel sure that anything of this nature for sponsor would have gone before a panel and involved Brightsoild for approval and be 100%lawful.

Rose information is got from sources not accessable to the public.

Rita, one should never give up hope of finding someone which is one of the reasons I feel strongly that the programme makers have a responsibilty to give some pointers (as must GR), to give some advice on where and how to look, not just the adoption agencies,( no good if you were with birth parent but looking for an 'absentee' parent ), WE know places to look, electoral rolls, phone directories, papers etc ...many people don't have a clue where to start. Maybe some will slow down the credits at the end of the programmes and see where some of the info may have been found.

Rita, I'm not sure it is a question of 'people' only being interested in happy endings. If a sought after relative doesn't want to know surely they wouldn't want to be seen on national TV? Likewise the seeker may well be reluctant to have their hopes dashed so publicly? Result - no programme to air.

Rose, of the little I have seen, the success stories seem to have been fairly simply to solve ie, last night, 20 Patrick Lewis's (was that all?) and only one in the right age range? It wasn't rocket science. I'm sure if that young lady had an FMP sub, the time and spare cash she could have found her dad.(I don't mean that as a criticism of her,just a lack of resources)
What I am saying is, the programme makers will only throw money in the direction of an easy success story. They must call brickwalls off. It is about making money for the sponsers. They want success stories because they make better tele.

actually Janey I missed entirely the middle episode of 'Exile' so I must catch up with it some time, but I made sense of it regardlesss lol.

No, the making of the programme came before the LR board so I 'imagine' ,but don't know for sure, that participants were sought through the usual ways, eg advertising that the tv company was looking for participants for a new show.

RR -- re the reaction to something like Exile -- "was not 'uncritical tear jerking' but having more 'understanding'."

That's exactly what I was saying.

That's long been my own personal definition of "art":

something that evokes an emotional response *and makes you think about it*.

Having said that ... we have now fallen asleep not one not two not three but four times after making it into only the first 10 minutes of Exile. ;) Fortunately it's all on DVD do we can just start over again a fifth time! Tell me it gets more engaging after those 10 minutes ...

Things like Long Lost Family are not art.

They are entertainment.

And I'm just not fond of other people's lives being sold as entertainment.

Who do you think you are is quite different, really. It's informational for the most part -- yes, we see the subjects' emotional reactions, but the reactions are to history, really, and the insights they've gained into their own and their familiy's and society's, in many cases. They're motivated by the same things we all are when we do family history, and really we're interested in what they find out and how they find it, we're not grabbing for the kleenex to have a good cry at the wondrous loveliness of life. WDYTYA isn't about peeping into people's present-day private lives and getting our jollies from it.

I'm just twigging here -- are subjects for the TV show supposedly being selected from posters on Living Relatives?

Good lord. Manipulative and exploitive squared, that is.

I think one also has to make the distinction between criticising the 'intent' of the programme, and the actual 'production values' of the programme, camera shots, editing etc. Perfectly possible to like the first and not the latter.

No one has to watch Rita, and as you say " but people are only interested in the people that come together. who wants to watch a father or mother turn their back on a child or the child turn her back on her mother. ."

No, no one wants to see that, but that said do you not feel that it is holding out false hope to those who are desperate, and may have been searching for years already, to 'imply' by only showing success stories that a £14 sub to the sponsor is suddenly going to lead to the instant happy ending? If only it were that simple.

Witness the number of posts on the boards 'I have been looking for 50 years' and similar... there is no advice in the programmes for them, just the very smallest of chances they will get picked for the next series.

That's just it Merlin. I don't think anyone on this thread IS watching it. They are put off by the thought of it being voyeuristic which is fair enough - there's been enough publicity to give that impression.
I watched it once out of interest and it was just 'on' twice more because I couldn't be arsked to switch channels.

I don't like hospital soap, it's stinky or that handwash stuff they have, it brings my skin out in a rash. :-) :D ;-)

Well just read this and had a good chuckle, the programme has probably more advertisement here than anywhere else. you pays your money and takes your choice, if you don,t like it watch something else,I do. Oh and by the way,Just trying to get them to repeat "Emergency Ward 10" for lovers of Hospital Soaps .pmsl.**M**. :D :S ;-) :D.

I'm going to sound contradictory ( nothing new there then lol) but a producer of drama has to make it seem 'real' in a way that 'reality' programmes don't...what I mean is, if a drama tackled the topic of a long lost family reunion, you would get ( if it was well written and acted) all the subtleties of emotion, anger, restraint and so on, whereas (imo) LLF tends to just show 'the good bits'.

As an example, I watched the John Sim/Jim Broadbent 3 parter recently, Jim Broadbent's character had Alzheimers, incidental to the storyline, but the situation was 'real' in that the performances could show all reactions, frustration, anger, tenderness, guilt,resentment ... and the reaction drawn from me, and I suspect most who watched it, was not 'uncritical tear jerking' but having more 'understanding'...not explaining myself well here but I know what I mean lol.

I thought you might be misunderstood, RR! I figured you meant the "reality" versions because I agree with you so wholeheartedly. ;)

What I hate most about them is that they are ousting good programming. I've mentioned how BBC Canada used to give us genuine BBC drama programming and the like. Now it's all "reality". Secret Millionnaire. Yeeeewww.

And the reason for this is that they are so *cheap* to produce. We are being fed utter garbage, no nutritional content whatsoever, just so the advertisers will pay the broadcasters to get access to *us*.

We are the product being sold by the broadcasters to the advertisers, and we're letting ourselves be sold way too cheap.

No.1 and I watched Casualty last night. ;) BBC Canada used to give it to us (even though it was months out of date), but it stopped last year, so now he downloads the current shows bootleg every week. We didn't watch it the night before because just as it was starting he pitched a fit about how I never switch the TV clicker back to TV from VCR (the VCR remote is worn out) so I walked out.

Anyhow, yes, it was the doomed 11-yr-old boy. The kind of thing that causes my mum awful stress. I think of her when a prime-time drama has an older woman losing her husband ... it must sometimes be tough to watch.

But that's what good fiction and drama do ... talk to us about universal human experiences so we think about them. "Reality" television is all about making us *feel*, uncritically. And I find it creepy.

It's exploiting *our* sentimentality for profit.

You only have to see the number of new posters who have handed over their £10 in order to name their missing relation, to realise it's a huge money making enterprise
.Nothing to do with sentimentality.

I don't watch any hospital programs normally but I found myself watching one about a casualty last night when a young child of 11 was brought in. I don't know what the outcome was but if a traumatic situation might cause one person to stop and think, then try to prevent something like this happening then it is good viewing. With regard to Lost families, it gives a possible insight into what might occur if a reunion took place. No guarantees. I think these programs are an improvement on football. But we are all different, thank goodness. -jl

Oooh Sue,
I wasn't being picky about your comment :-) but take your point.
I was having a pop at 'the media' as I'm sure the term 'Reality show' was conjured up by them to describe programmes such as Big Brother and the dreadful JK and JS circuses (circi ?) using members of the public and with no holds barred. The sort of done 'on the hoof' stuff rather than the four C's.

You are being picky Island ;-) Meant it's real as opposed to fictional dramas, comedies.....you know what I mean :-)

Sue

Hi Sue
I don't know why programmes such as Dancing on Ice are called 'reality shows'.
They're carefully cast, costumed, choreographed and critiqued by professionals.

Sorry, I digress. Just thought I'd have a picky moment. ;-) :D