What ever happened to the good old fashioned chat show?

I remember watching Parkinson; the immense theme music and the legendary interviews (yes, even the Megan Ryan one…) were standard saturday night telly once upon a time.

Parkinson had a rare quality. He managed the get his guests to reveal their true characters, including the audience, so that it felt like you were having a chat with David Beckham over a couple of pints at the pub.

These days, chat shows feel like they have to be a chat show plus something else. People like Paul O’Grady and Graham Norton have great guests on, and ask some really good questions – but then there are the random side shows that get added to the programs, linked with some obscure reason: “Hey its National Sirloin Steak day, so James May is going to ride the mechanical bull!”

Piers Morgan actually has come up with a decent interview show – Life Stories is quite a good watch, and he often gets good guests (I actually enjoyed the Cliff Richard one the most!) – however, he only ever gets one guest at a time!!

The thing is, for the most part, the calibre of the guest means that they will want to be focussed on for the entire show – something that they wouldn’t get from a Norton show, for example.

That was the glory of Parkinson – for example, he got Hugh Lawrie and George Michael on the same show; these are two global stars, sharing the same spotlight.

And I think that is the beauty of Parkinson – at times he didn’t need to do anything, the guests interviewed each other!

I’d love for ‘them’ (who ever ‘they’ are) to bring back Parky for one more episode, maybe at Christmas. He’d blow the ratings out of the water, then the tv executives would see that there is a market for a straight down the line, quality, chat show.

What has happened to British television?

Here is a mini-rant I had on twitter a few minutes ago:

Started watching I am legend, wasn’t really in the mood for it. Watching studio sixty on the sunset strip now.

I wish we had a program like studio sixty on British tv. Both the real and the fictional one.

Also, I wanna watch the west wing episode where bartlett destroys the radio dj who wouldn’t stand up…

That said, I wish we had a UK version of the west wing. Closest we have is the thick of it, I guess, which isn’t really the same.

And yes, minister I suppose, back in the day. It seems we can only do political satire, not drama.

Spooks, I am told, was a good British drama. It seems good British programming only comes from the beeb.

And channel 4 occasionally. Otherwise its just American imports.

At this point, I decided to get out of bed and write a blog post; this won’t be a long one (as its 1:20am) but I really wanted to write now, while the thoughts were still fresh in my head.

Television is something that has grown in importance to me while I’ve been at university. Granted, most of the television I watch is through DVD boxsets, personal favourites of mine being Studio 60, The West Wing, Band of Brothers, Life On Mars, Ashes to Ashes and Arrested Development. I have also recently started watching Mad Men, the Pacific and the Sopranos.

I think the important thing to notice here is that these shows are either American, or from the BBC. The American television scene, to an outsider such as myself, seems to be pretty much like its movie scene – big budget block busters like the West Wing rule over there – drama is their forte.

Over here, however, there seems to be a distinct lack of good drama – the BBC has produced some exceptional dramas (Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes, Spooks etc.) on far less of a budget as their American counterparts. The BBC survives off the license fees, so it must take immense talent to create television like that on a comparative shoe string budget.

Then why can’t the likes of ITV, Channel 4 etc. create the same standard of television, or rather why can’t other companies produce that kind of television for them. The Inbetweeners was great on Four, but Friday Night Dinner never really hit the right note for me, and Campus debuted tonight to fairly disappointing reviews (according to twitter).

Either way, these aren’t dramas!! In my (vastly uneducated in this area) opinion, drama is the life blood of television. I hope that British television makers step away from dodgey comedies, soaps and reality tv and move back towards dramas. Until then, I shall rely on the BBC and America.

Below is the opening to the first episode of Studio 60, where the then producer breaks into his own show to complain about the state of television in America, it kind of sums up how I feel. Enjoy, and check out the series if you ever get the chance.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip – Opening Speech