TV, warts and all

Press, 28 June 1983, Page 19

TV, warts and all

It is over for another year. New Zealand has again done one of those things it does best and run, jumped, crawled, pushed, pulled, danced and kissed its way through another Telethon. The entire population, give or take a few, has acted in enormous concert, like a multiheaded, talented amateur. It is like all the family Christmas parties and pub entertainment evenings you have ever known, rolled into one. The corporate action, the absence of the usual controls and the general atmosphere allow, not to say prompt, normally mildmannered, diffident people into extroverted excesses. Apart from the benefits to charity Telethon is probably a good thing from this aspect alone. For the viewer, the fascination of Telethon is that for once the facade which is such an integral part of television is absent. There is no polish, no veneer of professionalism. It is possible to see some of the warts. It would be dreadful if they were always on show, but now and again, every year or two, it is good to see them. At least then one can realise that television is man-made and therefore, in the widest sense, human. Although Telethon is a gigantic muddle and what is

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normally behind the scenes is in front, there is yet another “behind-the-scenes” which we do not see. There must be an enormous number of people involved in a country-wide organisational effort. And there must be hundreds who sit all day counting their fingers to the bone. Telethon is life in a very basic, fun-loving, fumbling, exuberant form and because of this it is somehow larger than life. Everyone is scrabbling about in a dozen directions at once and yet they all amalgamate into something splendid. There are times, and this is one of them, when the whole can certainly be greater than the sum of its parts. Although, apart from anything else, Telethon provides a literal 24 hours of television, there is not a great deal that can be said about it. It is becoming a fundamental part of New Zealand, like pavlova and rugby, marching girls and sheep. In other words, its success is something that

one is beginning to take for granted. To return to the main point, Telethon is important as television because it shows not only the cameras but also what is behind them. It would not do to be privy to this at all times. It can be better not to see the kitchen behind the meal, the cages behind the circus, or the actor without his lines. By its nature, television is illusion and not reality. Telethon, amazingly, is reality. Because of this, and even though Telethon is a creative and significant use for the medium, it does not make consistently good viewing. One can take only so much muddle and amateur talent, however superb the cause. In the parts which I saw I heard no-one arrange sponsorship in support of Telethon by agreeing to watch Telethon for the entire 24 hours. Pushing a fire engine from Rangiora or something would be easier. In spite of some genuinely altruistic and impressive performances by people such as Ken Ellis and Norman Bowler, the end came as something of a relief. It was tremendous and went on just long enough. Good on them for a worthy ?4.5 million.