by I am a Jerry Lewis fan. Sure, he’s an ancient, 85-year-old, egomaniac, but the guy has made some important movies, and he dedicated his life to trying to help find a cure for muscular dystrophy. He did something while others — smarter, richer, and younger others — did nothing. I admire his guts and stamina. Jerry Lewis does not give in or give up.
Recently, Jerry made some mainstream news that has been snarked at from the biting pages of celebrity blogs publicizing fame whores:
“The kids who are on American Idol, they’re all McDonald’s wipeouts,” Jerry bitched. “They’ve all been dumped. They’ve worked there and now they’re doing that. And of course they all play a guitar, which takes the place of music.”
…”Proctor & Gamble says, ‘Are you nuts? You want me to spend $1.6 million for that variety show when I can get the fat lady to lose weight for $62,000. Let’s go with that one. We’ll call it reality,’ And that’s what they’ve done…Who cares?”
…”The industry has destroyed itself,” Jerry ranted, later explaining: “We don’t have the soul in our industry that we had when I was working. And the soul has been desperately deteriorated, only because you got a guy that’s running a network whose aunt died and left him some stock.”
Jerry is right on every count. American Idol is a dead and dying dog of a never-great franchise that actually mocks real talent and singing. Shows like Biggest Loser celebrate fat instead of shaming the unfit back into the court of humiliation where they belong while Jersey Shore and its ilk makes bad behavior the new, low standard level of excellence that young people have to trip over in order to aspire to its inspirations.
Sure, those shows haul in tons of eyeballs each week — but that doesn’t mean they are any good or deserve any quality or merit — those shows are merely train wrecks and car crashes given a dramatic arc and surrounded by advertising; even the most noble among us have a hard time looking away from the bloody gore pooling in the gutters.
So incredibly right here, David. I wish more networks would be like AMC with shows like Mad Men.
I watched some M*A*S*H sitcom reruns from 1973 on the Hallmark channel over the weekend, Gordon, and the quality of the acting and writing was so superb to the reality junk that is on TV today.