What was on TV? Thurs, March 10, 2005

20 years ago, the trailer for Revenge of the Sith and five Beck songs both premiered during an episode of The OC! Let's learn all about it, and see what else was on TV!

8:00 The OC on Fox

2x15 "The Mallpisode"

There's a lot to talk about this episode. The core four get trapped in a mall, which is a classic teen drama trope for a reason. Sandy and Kirsten's marital troubles continue, much to everyone's chagrin. The show is preparing to eject its lesbian storyline. Most of all, we learn that Julie Cooper once starred in The Porn Identity. This is a meta-joke on the fact that The Bourne Identity director Doug Liman directed the pilot. But it's also a great pun, and that pun and the bits of the film we get ae top-shelf comedic material, and this season hasn't had enough of that. But what was happening around this episode is ultimately much more interesting than what happens in it.

First, the full trailer for Revenge of the Sith premiered during this episode. They even filmed a cute little intro in which Adam Brody played with action figures (As recounted in Welcome to the OC. Adam Brody, a prequal hater, had to be talked into it). This was ultimately a commercial for 20th Century Fox's big summer tentpole on the Fox network (the prequels were made independently and distributed by Fox). But it's also crazy that this teen drama about pretty people in Orange County had enough nerd cred to be a launching pad for a Star Wars trailer.

This episode also represents the apex of The OC as a promotional machine for indie music, since Interscope used this episode to premiere five songs from the Beck album Guero, which wouldn't even come out for another couple weeks. So The OC had nerd cred, and it had enough cred in indie rock circles that a critical darling could use this teen drama about pretty teens in Orange County as a promotional tool and not be declared a sellout and loser.

What's more, around this time a group of three friends from Berkeley, California were trying to make their name in comedy. YouTube was still a month away from launch, so they uploaded a webseries to something called channel101.com, as part of a festival where people could vote for their favorite comedy videos. And what did they select as the topic for their little foray into comedy? Why, an OC parody, of course. "The 'Bu" was a sharp and silly parody featuring all three members of The Lonely Island and also Sarah Chalke from Scrubs, doing a killer Mischa Barton impression (they even filmed some scenes on the Scrubs set!). This little venture gained the trio real attention, they even got mentioned on Entertainment Weekly's Must List. Before the year was over, The Lonely Island's "Lazy Sunday" would premiere on SNL, changing culture and comedy forever.

So The OC was a credible launching pad for a blockbuster sci-fi movie, indie rockers, and up-and-coming comedians. And again, this was a teen drama about pretty teens in Orange County.

9:00 Survivor: Palau (recorded)

10x04 "Sumo at Sea"

Contemporary coverage of this season highlighted the difficulty of this season's challenges, and how that reinvigorated the show. I can see how that would be necessary, since the Ulong tribe is getting its ass kicked. They're in tribal council every episode, and it's getting repetitive. But the challenges really do spice things up. Last episode everyone had to walk through hip-deep water while carrying backpacks of sand. The challenge is difficult, but it's easy to understand. Most people have walked through water, and everyone knows what it's like to carry a heavy backpack. The idea of doing both those things at the same time fills me with dread.

Tonight we take another common experience and turn it into a grueling challenge: pillow fights (the official name is "sumo at sea,"). Contestants stand on a platform with these heavy-looking pillow things. This is supposed to evoke sumo wrestling, but the contestants use the pillow things like medieval shields, they are both a weapon and a source of protection. They fight until someone falls in the water. Seeing the matchups, and seeing who comes out on top, who fights hard and who folds, who proves stronger than expected and who gets blindsided is fascinating. It's equal parts sleepover staple and medieval warfare, and it makes for great reality television.

10:00 The Contender on NBC

1x02 "Survival of the Fittest"

It's a tale as old as popular culture itself. Someone makes a bunch of blockbusters, and a bunch of money to go with it. But they crave something else. They crave prestige. Mark Burnett made Survivor, he made The Apprentice. He changed television, he changed the world. And then he made his prestige play: the boxing reality show The Contender.

Burnett told anyone who would listen that it was the best work of his career. It was a heartwarming story. Weirdly, he was fixated on the idea that it was for women. Host Sylvester Stallone told him he cut Rocky from Adrian's point of view, so he took that approach on this project, and there's lots of footage of wives, girlfriends, and kids. The men are all working class, this isn't The Apprentice, it's meant to be a purer version of the American Dream. It also cost $2 million dollars an episode, and the score was composed by Hans Zimmer (yes, really!). This was serious prestige entertainment.

It's so boring. Its so classy, so determined to present all the men in a good light that they become boring. They're all perfect fathers, perfect husbands, they never have a bad word to say about their fellow competitors. The boxing is even boring! Boxing is kind of hard to understand, especially when a whole match is crammed into the last 15 minutes of a network TV episode. The extreme pillow fighting on tonight's Survivor was infinitely more compelling.

The show seems determined to avoid any hint of darkness. This is all the more strange in light of the fact that contestant Najai Turpin committed suicide about a month before the premiere. Turpin's family claimed that the show wasn't at fault, but it casts a dark cloud over the whole show, and makes it hard to trust its squeaky-clean presentation.

Other shows brought prestige affectations to the reality genre in this era: Project Runway brought a sincere appreciation for high fashion and the arts, and shows like Top Chef and So You Think You Can Dance would take that baton and run with it. Laguna Beach brought lush cinematography, on-location shooting, and an overall more cinematic approach. Survivor was a fascinating sociological experiment. The Amazing Race was an old-school travelogue show full of heartwarming stories and gorgeous locations, beautifully photographed. America's Next Top Model even attained a sort of prestige as it teetered further and further into high camp. But those shows embraced ambiguity and darkness, and they never forgot the lower pleasures of reality TV amid those prestige affectations. This episode of The Contender contains none of those lower pleasures, and it's dull as dishwater.

Late Night

I've seen over a close Late Night with Conan O'Brien episodes for this project. I've seen a lot of people guesting on those episodes: cool comedians, forgotten starlets, awkward writers, and big movie stars. But to my surprise, the most game guest proves to be...Bruce Willis?!?

It's his 50th birthday, and he's having a blast. He participates in the ongoing "Walker Texas Ranger lever" bit they were doing all week in honor of Chuck Norris' birthday, and they do a really silly taped segments that ends with them entering the studio dressed in towels. Bruce is so sunny, so adventurous, and throws himself completely into a talk show appearance to promote a forgotten thriller called Hostage. It made me sad, in light of Willis' declining health. But it also showed a forgotten side of his star persona, and I loved remembering that.

TiVo Status

The Masterpiece Theater miniseries The Lost Prince, a Frontline documentary, the TV movies Sucker Free City, Lackawanna Blues, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and Ladies Night, and one episode of Miracle's Boys. 16.5 hours total.

Music, 20 years ago

This is my favorite song from the Beck album. "E-Pro" is the most popular song on the album, so I guess that makes be basic. But I only listened to this album because of The OC! I am basic.