April 21, 2006
21st-Century Vox
Everything’s already been done!
So tonight I scrolled through Moviefone and tried to find something worthwhile to see. In my desperate attempt, I decided on The Hills Have Eyes, the remake. It was pretty good; I mean I was entertained, and that’s all I expected. When I left the theater, I got into my Jeep, and the radio was playing Britney Speers' "My Prerogative," the remake. And so I sat there for a few minutes and thought, Has everything already been done?
There is a common thought in Hollywood that nothing is original. The same songs are made over and over, the same movies are redone to the point I wanna puke, and yet we still want to be entertained, so we continue to watch and listen. Do we have to wait until we are at a dead end before something new can occur?
In the early part of the '90s, all of the overpaid whining actors decided that since the kids (I use this phrase loosely; I mean they were cute in their mid-thirties, but now they're really tired) on Friends were getting a million dollars an episode, they should all be getting the same amount, so they decided to go on strike. The monster networks shuffled a little bit, but were determined to keep the machine working so they decided that ordinary people in extraordinary situations could be even more compelling than the tired sitcoms that had been running the same storylines since Cheers went off the air. Reality Television took over the airwaves, and the actors hung their tails between their legs and had to scramble to recover.
But even reality couldn’t stay original for long. The same people began to resurface show after show. Kassie from Forever Eden turned up again in The Search for the Next Coyote Ugly Star. Constantine Morales from American Idol was a Blind Date alumnus, Kristen the brunette bitch from The Apprentice, was formally Kristen the blonde bitch from Murder in Small Town X and Dylan Vox from Fight for Fame was first introduced as Dylan Vox from Open Call. (Yeah, I’ve been on two reality shows, so sue me!). Zach from Paradise Hotel was in…. Oh, he wasn’t actually in anything else, but I thought his pic at the top of this column might convince you to read this!
As I listened to Britney's remake, I realized how much better it was than the Bobby Brown original. The realization hit that maybe it didn’t matter that there were no more original ideas. Maybe the point of entertainment is to improve on something successful so new people can experience the unoriginal ideas in a new way. I mean, I've seen Harrison Ford play the same character since he retired Han Solo, but I still like most of his films. Maybe instead of looking for the next new big thing, we should focus on making the current big thing better. Maybe the rehashed songs and movies and performers are actually a thread that holds each generation together and creates a history that people of all ages can identify with. Or maybe someone slipped some weed in the cookies that I ate before I wrote this entry. BLOG HARD!
It’s always a business doing pleasure with you!
– Dylan Vox
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