I’m starting to find West Wing kind of repetitive and self-important, Ally McBeal’s over, even here in Norway where we’re always a season late, and they’ve stopped showing Cold Feet and Sex and the City. The ethers are filled with reality shows in American, British and Norwegian versions and they are unbelievably boring. So I’m left with Tuesday nights’s Judging Amy as almost my only televised drama companion. It’s OK, I read and surf instead 🙂 Anyway, Amy’s a single mum with a brilliant career who lives with her mum and botches affair after affair: sure, I’ll watch it! Now (well, this time next season in my Norwegian timelagged world) Donna’s weblog has become an important ingredient in the show, Lisa writes. I suppose there have been quite a few shows where characters’ diaries have been used as narrative aids? Embarrassingly enough I can only remember that annoying show some years ago about that twelve year old doctor, Dougie, was that his name? Remember every episode ended with his typing his into his computer? Would have been a weblog today, don’t ya reckon?
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Lisa
Doogie Houser. And, yes, definitely a precursor (!) to the blog.
Jan Karlsbjerg
There’s also Star Trek. I never realized it while watching the show myself, but I heard one of the producers of the show explain it like this:
They wanted the show to be set in the future, but also to have the comfort of something happening in the past. So “the captain’s log” that starts each show, is supposed to be the captain’s log-entry about the last couple of days, and instead of just hearing him dictate the story, we then see the events that took place (the episode itself).
Jorunn
I think the semi-philosophical voice-over of the main character, with or without a diary as an excuse, is quite common in American shows. Carrie’s musings around her columns in Sex and the City are not all that different either, are they? (“Later that night I got to thinking about [some-question-or-other]…”)
Lisa
Well, for that matter, The Waltons always began with a reminiscence, as does a new show that’s probably not found its way to Scandinavia, Everwood (which reminds me of a contemporary, hipper Waltons).
I think diaries and letters have always been a part of narrative, but what was new, to me, was specifically The Blog. Though, come to think of it, there was a funny bit last season on West Wing when Josh finds out he is the subject of a website and starts posting (misguidedly) on its message board….
Jill
I’m not sure The Waltons hit Scandinavia either, Lisa… or else they gave it some translated title that has no resemblance to the original. They don’t bother translating titles much these day. Though West Wing is Presidenten. And Carries musings, yes!