“The View From the Phlipside” is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY. It can be heard Monday through Friday around 7:30 AM. The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program. Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moment’s notice. WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed. You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com. Copyright 2013-18 by Jay Phillippi. All Rights Reserved. You like what you see and hear? Drop me a line and we can talk.
Programs from the week of April 15, 2018
This Week’s Podcast
My name is Jay Phillippi and I’ve spent my life in and around the media. TV, radio, the movies and more. I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View from the Phlipside.
The Science of Video Games
As every generation comes of age, there are inevitable points of conflict with the older generations. Arguments about clothing, manners and music have happened so many times over the centuries that they are really cliches any more. I have my doubts about current fashions, my father disliked the way I dressed and his father disliked the way he dressed. It goes on and on. Every generation thinks it’s important, when history shows us that it’s not.
So maybe that’s where the great video game dispute is headed as well. I am old enough to remember the introduction of “Pong”, and as lame and simple as that game looks today, it was a wonder back then. The first video soccer game I ever saw was another astounding leap forward.
But the discussion of that new technology did long remain in the “Gee Whiz” phase. The games have been a huge point of contention over the last twenty five years. As with everything from Jazz to Hip Hop, television to YouTube, video games are seen by some as rotting the minds of our young people and destroying the fabric of our culture.
A couple of studies have come out in the last six months that may offer the next level of understanding about video games and their impact on users.
A study done at the University of British Columbia looked at the potential of augmented reality video games like Pokemon Go to help social introverts to develop more self confidence. Games could be designed to offer minimal interaction requirements at the beginning but increasing requirements as the player levels up.
The big question though is always about increased violent tendencies among players. Great Britain’s University of York conducted a study of more than three thousand players and found no evidence linking the games to increased aggression. Players were not “primed” to be aggressive by playing the games, nor were they affected by higher levels of realism in the games. In a different study, they found that game playing could actually help players score higher on school tests, including IQ tests.
Meanwhile, a study at the University of Montreal points toward cognitive benefits for players between 55 and 75 who play 3D platform games like Super Mario 64. The game play may help older folks improve brain functions like short term memory and actually increase the volume of certain parts of the brain.
So maybe it’s time for the older generation to offer up an apology to our gaming kids and grandkids, and ask if they could show us how to play the game along with them. We can always argue about their clothes, their music and, oh yeah, their hairstyles.
What ESPN Is Not
Feels like I haven’t a good old fashioned media rant in a while. So now’s the time to haul out my soapbox, climb up on top of it, and shout my frustrations at the uncaring heavens.
It’s a chance to wax poetic along the way as well.
All of this for a simple enough concept. ESPN needs to stop calling itself the “Worldwide Leader in Sports”. For the simple reason that they are nothing of the sort.
I am certain that folks will be able to bury me neck deep in statistics that will show that the sports giant up in Connecticut has all the viewers needed to claim that spot. That is the least of my concern.
I will be honest and say that I have never liked their use of that slogan. For years ABC Sports used the tag line “Recognized around the world as the leader in sports television”. That changed in 2001 as ESPN effectively took the place of the network’s sports programming. That change had been slowly coming, following the purchase of the networks by The Walt Disney Company in 1996. It just didn’t feel like they had earned it.
The problem here is that despite having over a half dozen cable channels, ESPN really isn’t about covering the world of sports. When I first started watching back in the ‘80s, you could find sports from everywhere. Do you remember Australian Rules Football? That was one of the big attractions in the early days. I could get all my baseball, football and hockey news (I’ve never been much of a hoops fan), plus discover an even wider range of sports.
Those days are pretty much over. While the flagship “Sportscenter” broadcasts cover a wide range of sports, the rest of the programming has developed tunnel vision. After years of listening to the sports establishment sneer at the world’s most popular sport, soccer is finally getting some respect. That it until you realize the only worldwide soccer commentary program on the network, ESPNFC, has just been sent exclusively to the streaming side of ESPN. Add in the number of network bloviators who are quite proud of the fact that they know nothing about hockey. Or auto racing or anything beyond football, basketball and a little baseball. Don’t get me started on ESPN’s abysmal presentation of Formula One racing.
What we’re left with are shows that repeat the same topics and discussions endlessly, while vast areas of sports are ignored.
The Worldwide Leader is talking about a very small number of sports would be a much more accurate name.
The Politics of Roseanne
I am rather amazed at the furor that is flaring up in certain circles about the reboot of the ‘90s hit TV series “Roseanne”. A show that has always been about a relatively realistic (if comedic) portrayal of working-class America is being criticized for being a relatively realistic portrayal of working-class America.
The original series ran from 1988 to 1997, and was was big hit. It held down a position as one of the most watched shows on broadcast television for most of those years. Since it went off the air, it regularly makes lists of the greatest TV series of all time.
So it was unsurprising, in this age of reboots, that ABC announced they were bringing it back for a ten episode run. The original cast, including Roseanne Barr and John Goodman, all agreed to return. It was a chance to see what had happened to the Connor family twenty years later.
And there was an audience for that story. The hour long premiere drew the second biggest numbers for a scripted telecasts in years. Over twenty seven million people tuned in.
But almost immediately outrage followed. The reason is because the senior Connors both voted for Donald Trump. And in this age of political divide that has sent some people off the deep end.
But let’s jump back to the original premise. That this is a show that shows the lives of blue collar America. The demographic that Roseanne and Dan Connor represent voted very strongly for the current President. So logically, they would too. The reference in the first or second episode is, according to sources close to the production, the only time it comes up. The rest of the show is about exactly the kind of topics we would expect. Getting old, living paycheck to paycheck, trying to figure out how they will pay their bills, the lives of their children and, yes, grandchildren.
“Roseanne” is hardly the first series with main characters with decided political outlooks. Archie Bunker on “All In The Family” and Murphy Brown from the series of the same name, were far more political on a weekly basis. They are both judged to be classics of the medium. “The West Wing” made an entire series strictly out of political characters.
Like any series, “Roseanne” will have to earn its long term survival. The ratings for the first three weeks are more than good enough, and ABC has already authorized another 13 week run.
But taking the show off because it is what it has always been, would be a terrible mistake.
Call that the View From the Phlipside
Copyright Jay Phillippi, 2018
Theme music for “The View From the Phlipside” and “TVFTP – Podcast” is “Hustle”
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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