"Signal to Noise: Life with Television" asks viewers to look at television to really SEE television.
The three-part series on PBS examines the medium and the people who make it, exploit it and watch it. But "Signal" has something up its film sleeve: The program slyly uses TV's tricks to entertain as well as enlighten.(Local note: In Salt Lake City, the series will begin Wednesday, July 17, at 11:30 p.m. on KUED, Ch. 7, continuing at the same time the next two Wednesdays.)
The snappy pacing and lippy attitude say MTV; the meaty commentary they adorn says beware, television is more than just a home for "Wheel of Fortune," and we must understand how it influences us.
A subversive dissection of television using television - now THAT's truly Must-See TV.
Producer-writer Cara Mertes, who originated the idea and orchestrated the Independent Television Service series, says creating a lively program that praised TV, while at the same time damning it, was indeed the goal.
"We wanted the show to be different because we wanted to say hey, we know some people like television. In fact, a lot of people like television. In fact, we like television, too."
But that doesn't mean blind devotion.
"We respect its effect, respect its potential and have no respect for how the potential's been wasted," said Mertes.
The first hour, "Watching TV Watching Us," looks at TV's commercial soul and the love-hate relationship the medium inspires in the viewers-consumers it manipulates.
"The ads on TV, I think, are a bunch of yelling people, and they're all arguing `Buy me, buy me, buy me,"' we hear from a bright young TV watcher, Zachary Gelnaw-Rubin.
"Watching TV" gives TV admirers space, too. One quirky little segment consists of a producer's paean to actress-comedian Roseanne; when the star and fan meet, Roseanne seems bemused by her devotion.
The second episode, "TV Reality?" charts how society is presented and shaped through news and entertainment programs. "Remote Control," the concluding hour, is a sobering look at the promised glories of TV, including interaction, in the age of the information superhighway.
"Signal to Noise," Mertes explains, is a catchy engineering phrase.
If the signal-to-noise ratio is off in any transmission, including TV, then the signal can be interrupted and "you're not getting any information. So it kind of metaphorically applies to TV," she says.
Mertes makes sure she's got the right ratio in her series, creating a forum for many voices without losing sight of the big-screen picture: the social, economic and political implications of TV and how to uncover them.
There are, appropriately enough, soundbites galore:
- "If television is a window on the world, and it can be, it's always important to remember that somebody's framing it for you," cautions veteran journalist Linda Ellerbee.
- "TV is advertising and advertising is TV. They're almost one and the same today," says candid ad executive Donny Deutsch.
- "What children get trained to do at a very early age through commercials . . . is to package themselves and market themselves as shiny, attractive, cool, totally semi-awesome little packages that others are going to want to buy," offers media historian Susan Douglas.
- "What we have on the screen is fantasy. It's all it is, is fantasy," insists a TV producer, brushing aside TV's influence.
Talk about a rich fantasy life: Selling access to viewers through commercials generates $34 billion for the TV industry, according to "Signal to Noise."
Radio, with its networks and advertising sponsors, laid the groundwork for television to develop as a commercial medium - although we learn the debate over whether TV should be ad-free was intense.
From TV's roots to its role in the future, "Signal to Noise" manages to make a merry romp out of a complex subject.
Clips of TV's early commercials are part of the fun. Clumsy and simple, they were good enough for audiences beguiled by the very presence of the magic box in their living rooms.
Now, of course, television is the complete tactician in ads, news packaging and demographic-specific programs, working smarter to reach today's sophisticated audiences.
We're not naive, but we're still vulnerable. If we weren't, companies like Pepsi wouldn't plunk down $8 million for Super Bowl ads and consider it a smart investment.
"Signal to Noise" doesn't counsel us to close our eyes to TV - it's just trying to suggest a little knowledge might provide valuable self-defense.