And not just because of the interesting things it has done with narrative, both in the realm of drama as well as reality shows.

I like the shiny pictures, too.

A favorite "only on TV" moment from PBS's Clifford, the Big Red Dog.:
each episode has a short moment where the character of Emily Elizabeth reads a story to Clifford, supposedly to encourage reading.

In this particular bizarre episode, Emily Elizabeth reads a story about a group of friends who want to watch a video. But we're not watching Emily Elizabeth read, we are watching animation depicting all the images in the story, so we see the group of friends trying to watch a favorite video (purportedly The Wizard of Oz, itself a film based on a book). But the Video player doesn't work, so the friends play dress up and use their imagination to re-create the story.
I supposed the point is that all you need to tell stories is your imagination, not a video player... but since they did not say that explicitly, and left that idea up to the viewer (presumably a small child) to figure out this abstraction... on a basic level (one that my child would understand) the message we got was that imagination is good because you can act out your favorite videos.

So a video ostensibly to promote reading doesn't show us any reading but instead shows us a video of happy friendly animals trying to watch a video and then using their imagination to re-create a video.

As Emily Elizabeth said, "Isn't reading fun?"

_________________
Tim E
http://www.storyteller.net/tellers/tereneta
http://www.myspace.com/storiesbytim
http://storytelling.blogspot.com
http://storytellersunplugged.wordpress.com

I have to figure out what station is NBC - my friend Linda Gorham is being featured on NBC Nightly News tonight.

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Leanne Johnson, Storyteller
http://www.storytelling.org/Leanne
http://www.myspace.com/leannetells (story samples, blog, online calendar)

TV? It's gone from our house, and good riddance! I think it depends on where you live, Tim, and your lifestyle. We live way out, and there is so much to do every day that we were paying for something we didn't use and really didn't like.

I hated hearing women screaming, seeing men being cruel to each other, people dying, cruelty and mayhem on almost every channel. And if not that, then blatant consumerism via HGTV, shopping channels, etc. Stage your house? You're supposed to LIVE in your house. Reality TV? There is nothing real about it. Try fighting off a copperhead that is determined to bite you, loading a wood stove when it's below zero, taking a neighbor to radiation and chemo, taking care of your 84 year old father who is on home dialysis. That's reality.

Reality TV will never beat real life. Real life is always far more interesting and involving than anything TV has to offer.

I enjoy TV too. As a child it along with movies and books were an escape. They were all trusted and safe friends.

Now as a mom, I find it's wonderful for unwinding and for sharing ideas and concepts with the kids.

A few years back we went through a really rough patch with my daughter. One of the few things we could do together in peace was watch Buffy. We could have a calm and loving conversation on the themes in the series. The relationship Buffy and her mother had meant a lot to us. This helped ease us through on bad days.

I know quite a few of the storytelling community preach that we should turn off video games and TV. I'm not in that camp. I was raised with severe restrictions on most things. I see no harm in any of these things when used with an eye to relaxation, discussing the story and what we feel is wrong or right morally.

Stellar

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Lisa Hicks, The Stellar Storyteller

http://lisahicksstoryteller.bravehost.com/index.html
http://www.myspace.com/lisahicksstoryteller
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=791655159

Ooh, I wish YouTube had this, but you'll have to live with the transcript: from April 1989 (I still remember this sketch!), Dolly Parton tells the cast of Saturday Night Live stories about growing up in East Tennessee:
http://www.retrojunk.com/details_articles/605/

_________________
Tim E
http://www.storyteller.net/tellers/tereneta
http://www.myspace.com/storiesbytim
http://storytelling.blogspot.com
http://storytellersunplugged.wordpress.com