The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Monday, December 6, 2010 - 7A Avant-garde TV Brewing boredom Within the walls of the United States Capitol Building, Congress has been hard at work passing legislation in the best interest of the American public. Though many may have a cynical view of our lawmakers and their partisana interests, last week Congress was passed CAROLYN an important KLARECKI * mandate - not a repeal of "don't ask, don't tell," not progress on the DREAM Act, but instead the very impor- tant CALM act, or Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitiga- tion Act. This new mandate will require the FCC to regulate volume levels on television commercials, which can sometimes be absolutely blaring compared to the volume of the actual program. Such complaints have been growing steadily for some time, but they are nothing new. Objections over commercial volume have been around since television's incep- tion in the 1950s. When people caught on to television's commercial inten- tions, a vehement distrust of commercials arose. In 1963, the Wall Street Journal reported on the issue, saying that the FCC had uncovered a problem of truly major significance. This came only shortly after the revelation that some incred- ibly popular 1950s quiz shows were rigged - people were disposed to distrust television. This skepticism was manifested in a number of ways before the commercial problem even came along, including a protest of laugh tracks, which were seen as another way television promoted a false image. At the time, this was a serious issue. CBS actually took action by briefly prohibiting the use of laugh tracks in comedy shows. In my opinion, the criticism - and cynicism toward the medium in that era was turned around largely due to one man who took an experimental approach to tele- vision and came out with some- thing pretty special. This man is Ernie Kovacs. Kovacs is best known for his . "Silent Show," a half-hour com- edy in which he played Eugene, a Chaplin-esque character who wandered through a surreal story guided only by music and sound effects - no dialogue. Even the commercials were without dia- logue. "There's a great deal of conversation that takes place on television. From way in the morning 6 a.m. ... to all hours of the night. I thought perhaps ... you might like to spend a half hour without hearing any dia- logue at all," read the opening credits of the "Silent Show." The show was wildly praised. It was clever, it was funny and it was artistic. Kovacs employed humorous sketches, which would later inspire shows like "Monty Python's Flying Circus" and "Sat- urday Night Live." Chevy Chase famously thanked Kovacs for his influence in his Emmy accep- tance speech in 1976. The success of "Silent TV" prompted silent episodes of "77 Sunset Strip," "Gilligan's Island" and "The Patty Duke Show." Most impor- tant, the show was highbrow and intelligent. Similar to "Mad Men," viewers felt smart when watching "Silent Show." It was a creative experi- ment unlike anything else on TV at the time. Kovacs enjoyed clas- sical music and used it in many of his programs. Newspapers compared him to Salvador Dali and James Joyce, and he was in television. He received heaps of fan mail, preserved in the Ernie Kovacs Papers, praising his show, offering him ideas for sketches and sending him drawings and photographs influenced by his surreal TV show. He made true avant-garde TV. However, though his comedic influence is still seen today (Craig Ferguson and David Letterman both cite Kovacs as an inspira- tion, though Kovacs is better, trust me), it's quite obvious that silent TV never caught on in the long run. In fact, we see that I'm with the Commercials Are Too Damn Loud party. shows have gotten even louder. But the recent passage of the CALM Act got me thinking about Ernie Kovacs and his silent enter- tainment. TV isn't so different today from how it was in the late 1950s. We're immersed ina period of television disillusionment where instead of quiz show lies, we're fed the lies of reality TV and sensationalism. Our televi- sion casts the craziest people and manipulates them into fighting, calling it "real" - "The Bachelor" has been known to fill the house kitchen with lots of booze and not much else to make tensions flare. Some of the contestants on "Cash Cab" aren'tcjust picked off the streets, but are screened or even recruited prior to their appear- ance - and the cash Ben Bailey hands them at the end of the show isn't even real. And promos have been known to take a show's best and juiciest material out of con- text with thrilling voiceovers tell- ing you, "You won't believe what happens next," only to manipulate you into watching sub-par and predictable television. So while the CALM Act solves one of the problems that Kovacs managed to fix through "Silent Show," much of our distrust has yet to be addressed. We don't necessarily need another "Silent Show," but we could certainly use creativity, innovation and experi- mentation in the vein of Kovacs's avant-garde programming. At the very least, let's keep our fingers crossed for a bill banning the laugh track. Klarecki has taken a vow of silence. To "speak" with her, you must e-mail cklareck@umich.edu. 'Brew Masters' lacks fizz of other Discovery shows By JACOB AXELRAD Daily Arts Writer As one might venture to guess, Discovery's latest reality series "Brew Mas- ters" is about one thing: beer *T - lots and lots of beer. Brew The series centers on Sam Calagione, Mondays at founder and 10 p.m. president of Discovery Dogfish Head, a craft brew- ery that specializes in custom beer. From 2,700-year-old Turk- ish recipes to a St. Patrick's Day formula that incorporates pond scum to turn beer green, this Delaware-based brewery will go to any length to achieve the desired product. Its mission, as emphasized by the Ralph Waldo Emerson quote that hangs promi- nently within its factory,isnto cre- ate something that's never existed before. And yet with a subject matter as narrow as beer and only beer, there's little room in the show for a compelling story, mak- ing this brewery a decidedly dull one to watch. The premiere begins in a some- what promising manner. Sony Records calls with a job for Dog- fish Head: create a beer commem- orating the 40th anniversary of the legendary Miles Davis album "Bitches Brew." From here, Cala- gione and the Dogfish Head employees work to create the. perfect beer to coincide with the re-release of the jazz album. This takes them through the subsequent steps of purchasing ingredients, the science behind brewing, the factory work (and yes, this means all the not-so- fun nuts and bolts of an assembly line) and a meeting with Davis's nephew, who has the final say on any drink that puts his uncle on the label. The end product fuses honey and gesho root, a combi- nation of African and American ingredients to mirror the music that Davis played so famously. However, "Brew Masters" fails to show any of the onscreen cama- raderie and banter that made the other Discovery series like "Mythbusters" and "Dirty Jobs" so successful. Calagione, who also serves as narrator, seems awk- ward and stiff outside his comfort zone as head of the brewery. His jokes, like "Beer is quintessen- tially American, I mean, that's why they landed on Plymouth Rock," fall flat and appear out of place in the larger context of the show. Additional attempts to prove their entertainment worth are just absurd - Calagione and his partner Bryan Selders unfor- tunately feel compelled to dem- onstrate mediocre rap skills with clips from their hip-hop group, the "Pain Relievers." The show finds footing only when depicting the process of brewing quality craft beer. The few scenes describing how to design this new drink in a mat- ter of weeks are intriguing and educational. Additionally, craft breweries are independent of "Big Beer," which Calagione says pulls in 95 percent of beer-drink- ers nationwide. The economics behind this dynamic give Dog- fish Head the romantic air of the little guys struggling against the corporate machine. In this sense, "Brew Masters" becomes a meta- phor - it uses a privately owned brewery to parallel the modern American Dream. Unfortunately, this idea is only glossed over. The series as it stands needs major reconfig- uring. At the moment, we have a jumbled assortment of historical beer tidbits, unnecessary narra- tion, hip-hop performances and a factory full of workers who seem a bit puzzled as to why cameras are all of a sudden followingthem around. We, the audience, are equally puzzled. 4 4 Our Biggest Discounts F Frday+ Dec. 10t LAST CHANCE TO GET YOUR SENIOR PORTRAIT TAKEN ! December 6'-14th in the Sophia B. Jones room of the Michigan Union The sitting fee is just $15! This price includes your portraitfeatured in the 2011 Michignensian Yearbook Sign up online by visiting www.OurYear.com and entering School Code: 87156 Phone 734.418.4115 ext. 1247 E-mail ensian.um@umich.edu , I Bring in this ad and receive $2 off the sitting fee. Michiganensian Y E A R B O O K $25 off any Pad $5 - $25 off all iPods $100off . any MacBook Air - $75 off select Apple computers . e. $92 Apple TV $29 Apple iLife 11 Payroll Deduction available for eligible U-M faculty & staff U-M Computer Showcase located in'the Michigan Union& Pierpont Commons http://showcase itcs.umich.edu While supplies last. Valid only at the U-M Computer Showcase, Selection may vary by store. This promotion is not valid on prior purchases. Ernie Kovacs is my name. Cigar smoking is my game. JOIN DAILY FILM AND RECEIVE A FREE GOLDEN GLOBE. E-mail join.arts@umich.edu for information on applying.