I was getting ready to write all about how deeply engossed I became in Manor House this weekend, and what a fascinating experiment it was and how I think public television’s reality shows are in some ways more sinister than their commercial-televison counterparts and how I can’t shake the sound of Kenny the hall boy saying “She’s a right cracking bird” and stuff like that, but then I got completely distracted by this very funny, nerdy spoof: A Blog for Galactus, the devourer of worlds. Hee hee!
I still wanna write more about Manor House, though, and what a fascinating look it was at class relations that never quite existed the same way here in the United States. The closest equivalent we might have, which would be much more controversial television, would be Plantation House.
I totally agree! My partner and I watched a bit of the Manor House, and it was completely fascinating, and some of the boys were, as you noted, delish-nutrish!
I LOVE that part too! I only watched the really long preview thing, but i kept rewinding that part just to make sure i was hearing him correctly.
hope this is working, because i still can’t see the first two characters in every field with Mozilla/pc. 😛
Manor House was really fantastic, wasn’t it? PBS does reality right. There’s an interesting transcript of an online chat with John (master of the house) and Antonia (kitchen maid) here: http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/zforum/03/sp_tv_manor043003.htm
Read and cringe as John tries to defend his “Jesus said that the poor are always with us” rationale for having servants!
My favorite part about Manor House, although I only saw a bit, was that apparently the scullery maids all quit pretty early on. I’m confused by this–they were told pretty plainly what the conditions would be: don’t speak until spoken to, one bath a week, etc. And yet they’re still surprised when it sucks, and have to leave. On the other hand, the show would never fly in the US, because the “servants” wouldn’t play the part, or even have the decency to quit. They’d get indignant at their treatment and “rebel,” missing the point even more. Pfffffffft, I say.
Thanks for the Galactus blog, too. There’s something about the “You will be here all week!” exchange that makes me smile.
I have to confess, Dave, that I posted the Galactus blog primarily for your enjoyment, so I’m glad you got a chuckle from the right bits.