(Beyond Home Entertainment)

This short-lived American television series sought to shine a light on a number of well-known TV shows and characters, telling the true story behind the fiction. It’s pretty tame and cheesy stuff, the kind of filler show you might find yourself watching when the cricket is rained out. While the interview talent they managed to scrounge up was impressive, from scriptwriters to directors and actors, the stories uncovered were hardly fascinating or insightful, not to mention many of the shows featured were either (a) never released in Australia, (b) aired and cancelled before I was born or (c) completely shithouse. For every Seinfeld or X-Files snippet, there are five about Thirtysomething, The Love Boat or Party Of Five. I’m often of the opinion that DVD’s don’t necessarily need to contain anything of real importance and sociological necessity (hell, most Sunday mornings are spent watching things that have the sole purpose of switching off my neural synapses), but Tube Tales frequently stretches the limits of what I’m prepared to waste my time viewing. Besides, I thought much of the magic of TV was observing what you knew to be fiction … threatening that divide with historical insight seems like spoiling it. No, I wasn’t aware the Krusty The Clown was based on a childhood idol of Matt Groening, but I’m pretty sure I would’ve survived just fine without the knowledge. But if you have a morbid fear of silence at parties and dinners and feel compelled to fill those spaces with inane chatter beginning with ‘did you know…?", then this is surely the DVD for you.

**½

MITCH ALEXANDER

Be first to comment on this article

Write Comment
Comments are submitted for possible publication on the condition that they may be edited. Poster's IP addresses are logged.
Name:
Comment:
Code:*