Don’t dumb down viewers, TV urged

MANILA, Philippines—Even the theater star who brought “The Vagina Monologues” to the Philippine stage is aghast.

The list of Willie Revillame’s critics now includes acclaimed actress-director Monique Wilson, who called on local artists to band together, overcome fears of crossing potential employers, and help put the pressure on TV networks that “dumb down” the Filipino audience.

“We keep saying Filipino artists are world-class. Well, let’s prove it now,” Wilson wrote on her blog as she weighed in on the latest controversy hounding the game show host.

“The debate is no longer whether it was child abuse or not,” Wilson said, referring to the widely criticized episode of Revillame’s “Willing Willie” show on TV5 that had a 6-year-old boy gyrating like a macho dancer while breaking into tears for a P10,000 cash prize.

“The facts are plain to see. No one with a sense of respect for another human being can dispute that,” Wilson said.

“The discourse now is how we, as Filipinos, as artists involved in the same industry that created Willie Revillame and shows like his, could have allowed this to go on for as long as it has.”

Acclaimed locally and internationally, Wilson has dozens of productions to her name as actress, director and producer, most famously her lead performance alternating with Lea Salonga in the original West End production of “Miss Saigon” in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The theater company she founded has mounted, among others, the Philippine production of the provocative “Vagina Monologues,” a play about women empowerment (or its loss) as told through stories relating to female sexual experiences or the genitalia itself.

Why not quiz shows?

In a statement, Bagong Henerasyon Representative Bernadette Herrera-Dy flicked in a few jabs of her own.

Dy said top ad spenders should sponsor more quiz shows rather than song-and-dance programs that lure in millions of viewers with hefty cash prizes.

Dy said the child abuse controversy could have been avoided had the boy performer, Jan-Jan, been made to compete in a show based on intelligence rather than “macho dancing.”

“I believe Jan-Jan and his parents would have been prouder to have the 6-year-old minor train and join an academic quiz contest had there been one airing on television,” Dy said.

MTRCB inquiry

A YouTube clip of the March 12 show has earned Revillame and his network a lashing from scandalized viewers, government officials, Church leaders and even fellow entertainers.

The outrage has also revived calls for a drastic review of the local TV fare, especially game shows which critics say offer no educational or positive values, at worst promoting mendicancy and exploiting the poor and uneducated.

The Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) has launched an inquiry to determine possible sanctions. TV5 itself said it had appointed an internal ombudsman to investigate the incident.

Revillame has apologized and said he only wanted to help the poor but threatened to sue fellow show biz personalities who had attacked the show.

He has also said that the “Willing Willie” will be off the air for two weeks, starting today.

Senseless categories

One of the roots of the problem, Wilson said, was that “all our TV networks dumb down audiences in one way or the other.”

“I am not saying, of course, that all shows fall beneath our standards of human decency. There are some TV shows that go against the grain, break the boundaries and give us quality. But they are so few,” she said.

Wilson expressed dismay at “how the networks create the demarcation lines—A and B for middle and upper classes, C and D for lower classes.”

“What kind of senseless segregating is that?” she asked. “It’s like saying that depending on what ‘class’ you belong to, you cannot ‘appreciate’ certain kinds of shows. This insults me, as it should insult everybody.”

Even news reports on TV, she noted, are now “horrifyingly biased and sensationalist,” while noontime variety shows “exploit women and insult our intelligence” and talk shows have become “intrusive, subjective and tasteless.”

Protest actions

Addressing fellow artists on TV and in film and theater, Wilson said: “We can all rant and rave, but unless we do something concrete about our rage, we will just be passive bystanders.”

She suggested a number of protest actions, from boycotting the sponsors of questionable shows to making use of congressional hearings to “let them know this is unacceptable to us.”

Boycotts, for example, can be particularly effective, she said.

“They hit where it has a tangible economic effect. That is how apartheid South Africa crumbled. That is what is supporting the Palestinians’ right to self-determination.”

Do not fear

Wary of the potential backlash on the artists’ careers, Wilson stressed: “Don’t sit on the fence because you fear you won’t be given work.”

“It is this fear that networks also rely on to keep their machinery in place—machinery that lacks not only some very basic human values but also aesthetics.”

TV being a cultural form, she said, “should be used to educate, empower, inspire and awaken.”

“But shows like ‘Willing Willie’ and many others do the opposite. They dumb down audiences. They disempower them by creating a mendicant society with game shows that promise ‘quick money.’”

“They keep them dependent on handouts, instead of creating opportunities for them to build skills. There is nothing inspiring about this.”

‘Battle of the Brains’

Dy said the networks should create more shows in the mould of the defunct Battle of the Brains, IQ 7 and Spelling Bee to inspire the youth to concentrate on their studies.

“It is lamentable that there is a dearth of corporate sponsors whenever talented Filipino students join international quiz competitions,” she said.

Dy also said: “Advertisers of ‘Willing Willie’ demonstrated concern for the welfare of children when they swiftly withdrew advertising support for the program. Can they be as quick to pick our challenge for them to back the revival of academic competition programs on TV?”

The advertisers who pulled out their ads from the show were Jollibee Foods Corp. which said it was “holding off” ad placements of its newly acquired Mang Inasal restaurant chain; Procter & Gamble Philippines; Unilever Philippines; Del Monte Pacific Ltd.; CDO Foodsphere; and Cebuana Lhuiller Pawnshop.

Leonard de Vera, a lawyer for Revillame, claimed the videos of the show uploaded on YouTube and Facebook were “spliced in an attempt to portray child abuse and to shed a bad light” on Revillame and his show.

Earlier, De Vera called for the expansion of the MTRCB inquiry “to cover all TV programs with children and minors, whether as performers or game show contestants.”

De Vera argued that the videos were edited to make it appear that Jan-Jan cried throughout his performance, as if he was forced to perform and that Revillame humiliated the boy.

Viewing the entire segment would “easily dispel” that notion, he claimed.

“There was also nothing obscene in Jan-Jan’s performance because the dance type that (he) emulated was part of a dance form called ‘body wave.’ Jan-Jan’s dance was not suggestive and did not excite lustful thoughts. In fact, the said dance had become part of Filipino culture. In many Filipino homes, children dance this way during family gatherings to impress their parents and relatives,” De Vera contended.

He added that there was also “nothing wrong” with Revillame’s commentary during Jan-Jan’s performance, saying it was Revillame’s “artistic way” of hosting. With reports from Gil C. Cabacungan Jr. and Jerome Aning