April 4 1996
New TV Series Targets Pop Culture
Canadian Press NewsWire
It's a stressful time for Daniel Richler. The self-styled "senile delinquent" academic has accepted a tough assignment from CBC Newsworld: go undercover into the alien and bewildering world of youth culture, report back on the scene, and in the process try to capture a new demographic for the cable news channel. "My bosses asked me to bring in a younger crowd but when they gave me that mandate, they only meant younger than 50," said the droll Richler in a recent interview. "If we can orchestrate chaos, I think we will have done our job." Big Life is Richler's look at youth and the information age. It's an hour-long series that debuts on Newsworld next Friday night. Richler, son of Canada's famous author Mordecai Richler, concedes one concern is that younger people don't watch a lot of TV, especially the CBC and especially on Friday nights. "I should paraphrase Abbie Hoffman and advertise by saying 'Tape this show!' " Like Dad, Richler is a successful writer and remains a firm believer in the traditional pre-Internet literary scene. But he's also tried other media endeavors to separate his creative identity from his father's. So he's been a rock musician, radio personality, TV producer and, more recently, creative head of arts programming at TVOntario, the province's educational broadcaster. There he designed two innovative and award-winning series, Imprint and Prisoners of Gravity. Through it all he has created a distinctive personal identity. Spawn of the establishment, he nevertheless thrusts an iconoclastic image in front of him: a Rod Stewart-style shockwave hairdo, black leather jacket, casual jeans and boots. But at the grizzled age of 39, Big Life may be his biggest challenge yet. Richler is uncomfortable with network promotions labelling him a pop-culture authority, despite his omnivorous appetite for trends. In the end, the series may target other "super-annuated teenagers" like himself who don't have the time or courage to explore youth culture, yet want a reference on it, he says. "Keeping people too old for the scene in touch with the scene," he explains. "So you can still talk about it to your friends even though you're not living it to the hilt." While admitting the show, at the beginning anyway, may move too quickly for his own tastes, Richler says in this short-attention-span age, it's necessary to ensure the target audience doesn't tune out from boredom. So he will borrow some of that fake futurism technology recalled from Prisoners of Gravity or Max Headroom. Guest interviews may be conducted, for example, with a hologram-style screen, an electronic veil that zaps into the frame and disappears on command. There's no question Richler is better plugged in than most others his age. But even he can feel that sense of alienation and irrelevance. He described his experiences recently attending a rave, a high-decibel, all-night music gathering. "They're pretty loud, you know, inner ear vibrating like a base drum. It's unbelievable," he reports. "I couldn't handle it."
Some observations from Daniel Richler, who brings his enthusiasm for pop culture to a new CBC Newsworld show Big Life:
"It's a grazing culture, it's smash and grab. People . . . may wear conservative clothing but listen to punk music on CD or DAT at home for that perfect reproduction of sonic roar." - On youth and the new information age.
"It's a characteristic of the aging thing, to want to compare your own stuff favorable to the new stuff that comes out. Our show is more about saying 'Don't panic, we can still get common ground.' " - On the generation gap and popular music.
"Until there is one politician in this country who has anything interesting or honest to say, they're not coming on my show. We're not interested in the mainstream." - On the type of guests he will have on Big Life.
"I don't think he knows anything more than I do about how to make a successful show. That's why I got into the electronic media in the first place. It seemed like the one thing that he didn't know anything about." - On whether his father, writer Mordecai Richler, had any advice for Big Life.
"My producer asked me the other day if I would be thinking of dyeing my hair. I asked why. He said young people when they see you, they just won't give you a second chance. I said 'Oh, come on!' " - On suggestions younger viewers might tune him out because he's getting grey hair.