Even though there’s been a glut of reality shows in the U.S.
primetime TV scene since the Millennium Bug tried to scare us senseless, should
there be a “useful” reality TV show based on MacGyver’s genius?
By: Ringo Bones
From the time the Millennium Bug tried to scare us senseless
to the years when U.S. President George Dubya Bush came and went, reality shows
of differing persuasions – and usefulness – had been a primetime TV staple. But
should top TV networks consider a reality TV show that could not only (might)
finally pull America out of an economic recession but also start an
“intellectual” revolution after almost a decade where ex-President Dubya Bush
made dumb sexy in 21st Century America?
For those fortunate enough to remember, there was a
fictional (maybe?) chap named Angus MacGyver who almost out of nowhere made an
“intellectual” revolution in Ronald Reagan’s America back in 1985 extolling the
inherent American genius pioneering daring-do that made the United States the
greatest nation for much of the 20th Century. “MacGyverism” even
became a buzzword during the famed TV series’ subsequent seasons on using one’s
inherent genius to save one’s own bacon during sticky situations. But will it
make an “economically viable” reality TV show in the eyes of top TV execs in
today’s America grown accustomed to Jersey Shore and other seemingly mindless
soft-core-teen-porn based primetime TV realty shows?
We would never know until mainstream TV bigwig executives
tries the concept for a season in a toe-in-the-water exercise if “MacGyverism”
can still ignite an “intellectual” revolution in America via primetime TV like
it did back in the mid-1980s. The question now is: what would we reward the
winner of the said reality show that has the most MacGyver-like powers? Maybe
leading a team of chemical weapons inspectors to investigate the current civil
war in Syria to check if chemical weapons were ever been used during the
conflict?
