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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 33, No. 5 22 April 1970

625

page 14

625

Anything Could Happen; and it Probably Wont.

Image of David Smith

The big pop happening is rapidly peaking out as an art form, Woodstock was probably the last throw of the sixties and its impact from all viewpoints was indisputable. Enough controversy surrounded the Dylan semi-comeback in the Isle of Wight to make it at least newsworthy. A gooey sense of misplaced pilgrimage riveted attention to the Stones in Hyde Park. Against this kind of build-up the NZBC took its cameras to Redwood. I don't mind people filming a non-event as long as they don't put film in their camera. This was the basic blunder at Redwood. If no satisfactory musical effect can be achieved by semi-competent musicians in the controlled conditions of a studio, what can the totally inept of Redwood hope to offer the microphones and cameras of television? The engaging bumbledom of Off the Cuff thus deserted the Great Unwashed, leaving only one thing to dwell on: the Great Unwashed. Doing what? Anything. Sleeping with each other (social comment). Drinking beer (expose). Stripping (exposure). Washing (satire). No pot. No murders. No births. No good.

What the USA has done to television isn't really very pleasant to talk about. Yet in The Bold Ones one can discern a real attempt on the part of the producers to reconcile their duty to American viewers and sanity. Many of the artificialities of yesteryear are minimalised. Court-room traumas are nipped in the bud and the sugariness of Slattery is not much in evidence. Yet the basic honesty found in such programmes as Cathy Come Home and Softly, Softly is as elusive as always. And if honesty is to come at all the three fields chosen by this offering—the Law, Medicine, Public Administration—would be excellent places to start from.

Rachel Rowe

Rachel Rowe

Unwillingness to let the smarmy Mr Thomson paper over the cracks or the cranks in the Intercontinental affair, a more polished studio setting and the courage to tilt at the head of the New Zealand judiciary, enraging many in the process. These are the hallmarks of the latest sessions of Gallery—which is now so far ahead of other local programmes in maturity that its quality can be taken for granted. Youth is also on its side; particularly in the case of the extra-smooth Mr Walker whose poise is most welcome after putting up with the emaciated Mr Inglis all this while.

NZBC's idea of a Good Friday treat: crucify the viewers.