Lest anyone accuse me of only focusing on bad news (which regular readers know would be a false accusation), let me point you to a story on “WOW”, a new TV show for children on Boston Catholic Television.
Fr. Bob Reed is the new head of BCTV, seen on local cable in the archdiocese, and he’s got a vision for transforming it from the deadly dull (to me) talking heads of the past to something that everyone in the family will want to see. (I don’t want to sweep with too broad of a brush. There have been some decent programs in the past, but they have been too small oases in a vast desert, and even then often the good ones stuck to the same formula so many other shows followed.)
WOW is a show that focuses on second-graders with a quiz show. (For a taste of the show, see a video news report by New England Cable News. Scroll down to the bottom to July 12, 2005 and “Church turns to TV to reach young Catholics.”) It’s a great idea because people love to watch cute precocious kids and not only will the kids be watching, but so will families and friends.
I’d also suggest they develop some kind of show for teens. I’m thinking something along the lines of MTV’s Road Rules/Real World challenge show where two teams of kids will have to run through obstacles of some sort and address team challenges. Could be a lot of fun.
I think the more we can move Catholic TV away from just talking heads (which is fine in certain contexts), the bigger the potential audience. It could be quite interesting.
What kind of Catholic TV would you like to see? Think outside the box. Dream big. I’m curious what people think would work: Sitcoms? Reality TV? What?
