GoneWest
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Posts: 123
Toowoomba
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Thanks to all who responded to this. As I said in the OP, it was intended as an experiment in social psychology, provocation and all. Allow me to clarify a few points.
I'd never even HEARD of "Hey, Dad!" until a few weeks ago. I was living O/S at the time of its airing. More to the point, I purchased the first TV (almost said "TV set") I've ever owned about three years ago. As a lifelong traveller, I've lived in places for a time where a TV was available, but what I saw convinced me that most programming was trash, and I only relented back in 2008. I've heard of such things as Home and Away, Number 96, Neighbours and Big Brother, but never actually seen any of them. However, since the MSM news media was forcing HD on me, I decided to "test the waters". The only episodes I've "seen" are the two video clips above, and they're parodies.
Let me put it to you this way. The Thespian tradition is an old one, and presupposes that actors and actresses are skilled at portraying archetypal characters as exemplars of inherent, and usually fallible human traits. Competently executed, this is undoubtedly a worthy avocation. The debasing of this into the role of "movie actors and actresses" turned the acting "profession" into the semi-skilled portrayal of vulgar situations and emotions, mostly for commercial reward, in spite of protestations of artistic worth and moral obligation. The further debasing into "sitcoms" of the most plebian persuasion raises the question as to whether the "actors and actresses" are truly able to present a personality very different from their own, or are merely acting out their own reactions to scripted situations. Given my very limited exposure to the medium, my comments are of limited scope; but I'd nomate Zhang Ziyi as an actress capable of the former, and Nicole Kidman as one limited to the latter.
The question then arises; is/was "Hey, Dad!" a production of artistic worth, or merely a long-running video documentary of the intimate interactions between a successful paedophile and a group of equally successful child prostitutes. In Australia's current economic environment, the validity of the latter would suggest that there's a ready market for those wanting to achieve the same "success".
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