I hear the tills ringing ’cos the Gand’s swinging

Press, 10 May 1980, Page 13

I hear the tills ringing ’cos the Gand’s swinging

Review

Doug McKenzie

The viewing audience might just as well be warned: once a channel starts a heavy promoting of a forthcoming programme it is probably up to no good; it is not thinking of providing a service — it is laying bait. This kind of trap was demonstrated with. “Hello, Dolly” (TVI, Thursday) where the enveloping talent of Barbra Streisand in that lavish and. tuneful production had been paraded frequently for at least 10 preceding days. The time allowed for the show was about half an hour longer than. the cinema running time; it was pretty obvious what was going to happen. An especially large audience having been assured, the advertisers had no difficulty finding the chance irresistible.

Viewers had nine advertising breaks of three min-utes-odd each, most being of six ads (one was eight) covering about 50 products. It was not like a Sunday night at all. In this drenching it was not hard to keep confusing the show with the ads, and other things to boot. Hello, Dolly; Hello Yourself, Jellimeat; Greetings, Keatings; Hi, Vera Lynn; What-ho, Hickory Bra: Howdy, Kentucky Fried; Gidday, Nilverm; Hiya, Cosy Toes; Wel-

come, On The Mat; Wotcha, Watties; Good Evening, Mr Muscle; Good Night, Vienna. But one advantage of ostentatious family viewing of the "Dolly” kind is that no censors cuts intervene to confuse the story. The recent TV screening of the Streisand “The Owl and the Pussycat" (and a late-night show at that) was not handled as gently. There. Streisand and Segal had an encounter with a carload of yahoos outside a New York subway station. Miss Streisand walked over to them quietly and, in the cinema version, gave them advice in two words of which the second was “off.” Then, in a correct assessment of the likely resoonse to this provocation, she and Segal at once tore off up the subwav stairs to hide.

In the TV version Streisand starts walking ' towards the yahoos’ car and then, in a moment, and without a word, being spoken by her, she and Segal are tearing off up. the subway stairs to hide. The sequence must have been inexplicable to anyone , who had not seen the film in' the cinema. Jt was also embarrassing to those who had, because it made them feel like kids put in their place • — especially because they could be sure that there is a lot of this paternalistic cutting in movies shown on TV. The point about it all is not to expect too much of any movie on TV, even if it has been heavily promoted by the channel. The cinema is often an adult medium; but beware of television in those terms.