Video Killed The Radio Star

Since I 'work' as an Assistant English Teacher (AET) in Japan, I am usually afforded large amounts of free time to take care of pressing personal matters like: "What video should I rent?" or "How many videos should I rent?" or "Which video should I watch first?" I would watch television if there was something half-decent on, but that is an increasingly rare moment.

For those of us foreigners with a bilingual television (Bilingual televisions have three settings: one that can pick up just the Japanese signal; one that can pick up an English signal if available from the Japanese networks; and one that picks up both the Japanese and English signals at the same time and in stereo, which I am unsure why anyone would need), we are given the opportunity to watch classic American television programs or translated news broadcasts for the increasingly inert, or terrible movies that you would never have watched in the movie theatre but desperation caused you to rent just last week. For further clarification, it's mostly movies available on Peachtree TV (formerly Ted Turner's TBS). Bleagh.

I often (offen) wonder if Japanese people ever watch these Yankee shows and believe America to mirror the program. Do the natives know that Little House On The Prairie is supposed to have taken place in the past and is not representative of the current mid-West?

So. Lesson #1 is that Little House On The Prairie took place in America sometime before the Japanese invented the White Car - maybe during the 1950s.

You think I'm joking, right? Well, when I say I'm from Canada, I am always asked back if I know Anne? Anne, who? Oh, Anne of Green flippin' Gables. Do the Japanese think Newfoundland looks like it does in the TV movies. If they do, they are sadly mistaken... Hmm, come to think of it, that was a poor example ... Newfoundland does still look like it did back in the 19th century.

Can you imagine the image conjured up of of the U.S. if the Japanese were exposed to All In The Family and its racist undertones. "See American's hate koko-jin's (Blacks), too!". Or how about M.A.S.H.: "See, we're not the only ones who hate the Koreans!"

In deference to AITF, I realize it poked fun at the stupidity of racism. And M.A.S.H did the same, while taking the monkey out of the glory of war. Both of these shows exhibited classic social commentary on our lifestyles that made a person think through laughter.

But, and there's the big but... the Japanese do NOT have any true television sitcoms, and thus have never been able to laugh at their own misgivings. There are samurai dramas, cooking shows, cooking shows, variety shows and cooking shows.

Perhaps if these classic American programs were shown here the social commentary would be lost.

Ah... but people in glass houses should not throw stones.

In good old America, land of the free if you have the money (and the U.K. and Canada, too!), cartoons are being altered so as to not mentally scar the children. Bugs Bunny and even Disney cartons are routinely pruned of material currently deemed to be offensive before being aired on television.
Bugs Bunny Nips The Nips.
Coal Black And De Sebben Dwarfs.
Donald Duck in Der Fuehrer's Face.
The Smurfs, Care Bears. Ugh.... okay, the only offensive thing about those later two cartoons is that they suck, and the previous three were WWII or previous, back when being racist must have been cool or something - how else to explain this Parker Brother's board game:

As well, some North Americans probably watched AITF and cheered on Archie Bunker.

Why are there no Japanese comedy sitcoms? Why are there so many cowboy serials (Japanese samurai dramas)... the U.S. grew out of that when Gunsmoke died in 1975.

Let's see - how to bring television in Japan into the present... the police drama in Japan... you never hear much about Japan's police like you do in North America... so maybe it's not a hot topic.
The Fujiwara (Brady) Bunch - naw... no one has hair of gold like their mama-san.
Hospital drama... maybe this one would work. Who wouldn't like watching a show about someone sick and then getting a diagnosis that entailed them getting some strange purple powder cure-all? Naw... too obvious, like an episode of House.
(My three visits to the hospital all involved the same purple powder cure, despite it varying from: gastroentroitis; a scratched cornea; and a bad back. This is not a joke).

Actually, I think the television landscape is determined by the work environment. In Japan, the workers do crazy hours, come home, eat and pretty much pass out asleep before getting up to do it again. Who has time to watch some other person's stupid life when they don't have one themselves?  

There have been numerous reports of Japanese workers working themselves to death. As well, in Japan, it's considered bad form for the lowly worker to leave the workplace before his superior does. I did all the time - but then I'm just a stupid gaijin (foreigner), so I had a built-in excuse. Leaving early gave me more free time to watch television... too bad there was nothing on the six national networks or seven regional affiliates out of Tokyo. This was before satellite television.

There was one show I enjoyed, however... the Shimura Ken variety show.
Click HERE to find out a bit about Ken, and click HERE to see a few examples of his physical comedy that is still understandable without knowing Japanese. And yes... I wrote this before seeing what was written on the video site.

On top of my viewing of this weekly show (Wednesday night at 8PM), Matthew, Ashley and I enjoyed the numerous video tapes regularly sent to us by our families. Despite their kindness, I still managed to find the free time to rented over 500 movies in three years. I had a lot of free time.

Somewhere still watching television,
Andrew Joseph
Today's title brought to you by the Buggles, who also happened to have the very first video played on MTV on August 1, 1981. Okay.. HERE it is.