So how are RTE going to react?

PrivateJoker

First and foremost, this is not a thread created to slag off The Roaring Twenties. God knows, that's been done to death. So no vitriol for that program please.

What I want to know is, where now for RTE and original Irish comedy.

The Roaring Twenties is not a good show. It's dreadfully acted, amateurish and unfunny. It's a shame. But I don't blame the creators and writers. It's not all their fault. These lads were fresh out of Ballyfermot and had the balls to try and get a show made by RTE. They succeeded. The show sucked. That sucks for them as much as it does for the viewer. Reading the writer's response on a previous thread was enlightening - instead of honing and improving the scripts presented to them, RTE threw cash at a show and said they wanted it in six weeks. What the ****? That is surely a recipe for disaster. How could a good program result from a policy like that? The creators did not set out to make a bad show. Why would they? That they ultimately did is down to RTE as much as it is down to them.

It's all too easy when you're living with an idea to fall in love with that idea. You can become easily blinded to how other people will see it. I imagine that's what happened with The Roaring Twenties. And so RTE should have seen this and done something about it instead of roaring "SOLD!" and writing a big cheque. They should have had experienced writers go over the scripts. They should have paid careful attention to casting and not allowed the dreadful pantomine actors that eventually ended up as the leads to be cast. They should have in-house, professional directors to ensure it at least looked good. It seems to me that the people behind the show were thrown into the deep end and given **** all back-up from RTE. And that's bull****.


The sad thing about this is that the people who came up with and wrote the show get all the abuse. People log on here to scream bloody murder and give out about their licence money being wasted. Frankly, shutup and watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xU57gP0Kzw

So what now for RTE? Will anything change with their commissioning policies? Surely it has to. How can any station that produces successive awful shows like The English Class and The Roaring Twenties keep on going as they're going? Will that corrupt, useless bunch of Montrose civil servants be forced to cop on? Hopefully. But hardly. In the meantime, we have to put up with **** shows and the makers of those **** shows will continue making **** shows because why not? They think it's good, they're getting paid for it and no-one tells them it's **** until it hits the air.

Crazy Christ

I predict that nothing will change

mike65

RTE is run by civil servants not creative types.

Mike.

Tallspoon

Some kind of writing talent competition perhaps...:o

Venom

RTE will just make another dreadfully acted, amateurish and unfunny show, just like they always have

super_furry

The purple patch of Paths to Freedom, Bachelors Walk and Fergus' Wedding (what? I thought it was great) is long over. Really, it's hard to see how things will ever get back to that.

Mr E

Actually I was listening to Culture Shock on Newstalk on Satuday night, and Fionn Davenport and his guest mentioned how bad they thought The Roaring 20s was.

It also cracked them up that the creator of the show was on an Irish message board (here!) defending his show at 3:30am following the airing, and was provoked into saying "Anyone who thinks it was worse than the English Class can F**K OFF".

mike65

God we're getting famous. Was boards.ie specifically named?

Mike.

PrivateJoker

Mr E wrote: »

Actually I was listening to Culture Shock on Newstalk on Satuday night, and Fionn Davenport and his guest mentioned how bad they thought The Roaring 20s was.

It also cracked them up that the creator of the show was on an Irish message board (here!) defending his show at 3:30am following the airing, and was provoked into saying "Anyone who thinks it was worse than the English Class can F**K OFF".

I felt sorry for the guy. He had lived with this show for ages and obviously thought it was good. Then when reality hit, he must have felt like ****. I know I would have. Thinks like this happen. I'm in a production course at the minute myself and it's a constant source of amazement to me to see the disparity between what you film and what you see on screen. You might be having a great laugh filming something, you think it's hilarious and you think everyone else will too. Then you see what you filmed and you realise it's utter bollocks. It's all too easy and common. So I can see where the writer who responded here is coming from and can only imagine his frustration at how people reacted to something he thought they'd love. It's not their fault though because his show was ****.

And was it worse than The English Class? It was every bit as bad.

ianrush

Ultimately RTE doesn't give a sh** about comedy. They don't even have a head of comedy which says it all really. The head of entertainment is basically judged on the audience figures and, more importantly, the revenue brought in by the voting phone lines, of shows like "you're a star". As I stated on the previous thread about the roaring twenties, the reason the show was commissioned was because the creators made their own pilot which the head of entertainment went with because "we don't have the staff to go through the scripts we have". He even wanted to put the no budget pilot on air as it was, which perhaps demonstrates even more clearly where RTE are now at in terms of this kind of programming. They're just looking to fill a few minutes on RTE2, regardless of the quality.

kevmy

As above I predict nothing will change.

But what they should do is try and use TG4 as a testing ground. If you've got half an hour to spare tonight watch 'Seacht' on TG4 at 10 (I think). It's the second episode of a show about 7 people at a performing arts course in Queens in Belfast. It's done as Gaeilge all Irish cast and crew and is decent. I caught the repeat on Sunday evening at some weird hour. Now it's not Earth-shatteringly brilliant but it is much more capable than the Roaring 20's. You would think that when RTE see this kind of talent they might give them a whirl over on RTE2. As far as I know the only person to crossover full time from TG4 to RTE is Hector.

betonit

mike65 wrote: »

God we're getting famous. Was boards.ie specifically named?

Mike.

also mentioned in the Sunday Tribune with the same quote as above about the English Class

Mr E

mike65 wrote: »

God we're getting famous. Was boards.ie specifically named?

Not sure... I was laughing at the time.