TVB and OnTV collaboration: Midnight time slot series poll

Ok, so I was catching up on some entertainment news today and came across an article from on.cc (which I’ve linked up below).  In the article, on.cc – or, more accurately, their television division ON TV – officially announced yesterday (9/13) that they are collaborating with TVB on a special poll.  Together with TVB, they’ve chosen 10 ‘classic’ TVB series for netizens to vote on (via Facebook) during the 2 week timespan from 9/14 to 9/28 -- TVB has agreed to re-broadcast the series with the most votes in their midnight timeslot starting on 10/5 (once the currently airing series Time Before Time is finished).

According to the article, the voting will go through 2 phases:  in the first phase, OnTV will post detailed information about each series, including cast photos, plot summary, video clips, recommendations on ‘must-watch’ scenes, etc so that each person voting will supposedly have all the details they need to vote.  The second phase will launch next week, though OnTV didn’t give any details on what this phase consists of.  Also, a very important point – there is no limit to the number of series each person can vote for…so for example, if you like all 10 series, you can vote for all 10 if you want.

Before I list out the 10 series that OnTV and TVB chose, I just want to say this:  maybe I’m thinking too much into things, but I just find it very coincidental that I wrote about this EXACT SAME idea on my blog a few days before this whole thing got rolled out.  Technically, I wrote 2 posts on TVB midnight timeslot – the first one was in July in which I kind of ‘complained’ about TVB’s choice of series and informally gave them some ‘suggestions’ on the next series to air.  Then last week, I did a most detailed post on which series I would’ve chosen if I were the program lineup director.  In addition to that, I also relayed the suggestion of doing a poll to have audiences pick what they want to watch in that timeslot.  Well, looks like now the poll is actually happening – though the part I don’t understand is why OnTV is doing the poll rather than TVB themselves. [Sidenote:  Call me a conspiracy theorist if you want, but there’s a part of me that can’t help but think that OnTV is associated with TVB somehow.  I already suspected this a few weeks ago when I was able to trace a picture that a few websites had used back to OnTV’s video clip – in that picture, OnTV was reporting on news about Lesley Chiang and Fred Cheng’s breakup.  They interviewed Lesley while she was at HKTV’s dinner for their series Hidden Faces, yet in the picture, any reference to HKTV (including their logo and the name of their series) were all blurred out.  When I saw the picture, I had questioned why a mainstream media outlet -- which, in order to maintain credibility and reputability, should take a ‘neutral’ stance when reporting news – would have the need to ‘block out’ another company’s logo and all references to that company’s product (especially since they didn’t block out the logo to the commercial sponsors of that event, Vidal Sassoon).  I later discovered that the picture was ‘clipped’ from the news video posted on OnTV’s website – sure enough, when I went on to check, everything in the video referring to HKTV was blurred out.  This is the first time that I’ve actually seen a mainstream media outlet in HK take such ‘action’ against a company that is not one of their competitors.  Well, now this whole thing with the poll further fuels my ‘suspicion’ about OnTV’s position. I won't go too much into it here, since it's kind of irrelevant to this post, but will probably revisit this topic again later on.]

Now that I’ve said my piece about the poll and OnTV, here are the 10 series that OnTV and TVB have chosen for audiences to vote.  (Discerning readers will probably notice that a few of these series were on my ‘suggestions’ list as well, except my list was limited to series from the 80s and 90s eras only).

Here are the 10 series from OnTV (in no particular order):

War of the Genders (男親女愛) – 2000

Looking Back in Anger (義不容情) – 1989

The Duke of Mount Deer (鹿鼎記) – 1984

The Feud of Two Brothers (流氓大亨) – 1986

It Runs in the Family (孖仔孖心肝) – 1990

Detective Investigation Files (刑事偵緝檔案) – 1995

Don’t Look Now (執到寶) – 1980

Files of Justice (壹號皇庭) – 1992

Police Cadet (新紮師兄) – 1984

A Step Into the Past (尋秦記) – 2001

And which series do I vote for?  Without a doubt, definitely Looking Back in Anger (not hard to guess considering I’ve been ‘harping’ on TVB since July to air that series in their midnight timeslot and also relayed that thought in 2 blog posts).   Outside of that series, I really don’t want to vote for the others because I actually disagree with some of the series on the list.  I’m actually curious to know how they came up with these 10 choices because as a long-time TVB fan who is familiar with their series from the late 70s to now, there are definitely other more ‘classic’ series that would bump some of these series out of top 10 contention. I'll have to do a little more digging but hopefully, either OnTV or TVB explain their criteria for choosing these series somewhere on their website or FB pages.

Source links:  

OnTV Facebook page (series profiles)

on.cc article (brief series intros)

TVB’s midnight timeslot series – part 2 (follow up post)

Back in July, I wrote a post entitled “TVB’s midnight timeslot series” (read it here).  Well, it’s now September and due to some recent things that transpired, I felt the need to do this follow up post.

First….is it just me or has the ‘hype’ surrounding TVB’s midnight timeslot waned?  Does anyone know which series TVB is airing in that timeslot right now? (the answer is Time Before Time in case you haven’t heard)  I don’t blame you if you don’t because the Media sure didn’t ‘talk about’ it as much as they did the earlier series in that timeslot.  Why?  Not the Media’s fault (for once…lol) by any means.  Rather, the problem lies with TVB’s poor choice of subsequent series lineup, resulting in them not being able to keep up the momentum that had started with the airing of The Greed of Man in that timeslot.  Actually, this problem of TVB making stupid decisions is not new -- in fact, it’s such a common issue with them that they’ve actually become notorious for it over the past decade.   I mean, for a station that has been in existence for 48 years and is pretty much the only local option for ordinary Hong Kongers to watch free TV programming, TVB’s lack of proper decision-making ability is appalling!   The complaint over the years that TVB does not know how to properly utilize opportunities that stare them right in the face, but rather, they only know how to employ 24/7 in-your-face promotional tactics without regard for quality or value, is indeed very valid.  The way they handled the midnight timeslot series thing is yet another example of this.

In my earlier post about the midnight timeslot, I had informally given TVB a few suggestions on what they SHOULD HAVE aired following The Greed of Man that would’ve allowed them to maintain the ‘hype’ and ‘momentum’ they had gained.  Well, let me lay it out more clearly.  If I were the person responsible for putting together the midnight timeslot schedule, here’s what I would’ve done:  instead of airing The Justice of Life and The Final Verdict (2 great series for the record, but not ‘the best of the best’), the series I would’ve put in the line-up after TGOM is Looking Back in Anger -- um, hello, given this series’ popularity as well as impact on society and the fact that it has been hailed as one of TVB’s best productions of all-time -- well, to me, this is a NO-BRAINER!  (In my previous post, I actually gave my ‘speculations’ for why TVB decided not to air this series).  Then after that I would’ve aired another one of TVB’s greatest productions of all-time:  Blood of Good and Evil (if LBIA was TVB’s best series to come out of the 80s era, then BOGAE is surely their best series to come out of the 90s era!!) – again, this is also a NO-BRAINER.  With those 2 series alone, TVB would’ve had it made, as there are many many audiences who either haven’t seen these 2 series despite hearing such great things about them (probably because they were born after these series aired or they didn’t ‘follow’ TVB back then) or audiences who have seen these series but love them so much that they would jump at the opportunity to re-watch.  Personally, I fall into the latter category – despite the fact that I’ve re-watched both series more times than I can count AND I own both series as part of my TVB series collection, I have absolutely no problem pulling up a chair and doing nothing but stare at the TV screen for the hour or so that the series is on.

After both of those awesome series, next in my line-up would probably be The Breaking Point (another one of my favorites that I’ve watched a gazillion times), which, coincidentally, TVB is actually re-airing right now during the weekends here on their U.S. satellite channels [sidenote:  I’ve got to say that whoever puts together the lineup for TVB’s overseas satellite channels is much smarter than their counterpart in HK…lol].  TBP was a hugely popular series at the time it aired and rightfully so given the awesome cast and acting (though in my opinion, there were definitely issues with the script/story, but taken as a whole, it’s not hard to overlook those flaws).  Then, to give audiences a ‘break’ from all the heavy, serious dramas (which I personally don’t feel is necessary but fine), I would choose a light-hearted comedy to air.  Actually, from what I read, it sounded like this was TVB’s original intention back after The Greed of Man aired (to give audiences a break by airing something less ‘heavy’).  While that’s not a bad idea, unfortunately TVB picked the wrong series.  If they wanted to air a Stephen Chow classic, they should’ve picked The Final Combat instead, as that series was the most representative of Stephen’s TVB career and was truly the series that shot him to stardom (plus he was the lead in that series whereas he was only supporting in The Justice of Life).  Oh and let’s not forget that while Stephen did show a bit of his trademark ‘mo lei tou’ comedy style in TJOL, it was really in The Final Combat that it’s unleashed in full force – plus the series was unique in terms of being a ‘wuxia comedy’ (which was a rarity back then, since most of the wuxia dramas at the time were pretty serious).

Speaking of wuxia…..how many times have you heard audiences complain about the lack of true wuxia series the past 15 years?  I, for one, hear that complaint every year and my response is always the same:  TVB can’t make wuxia series like they used to – they lack the resources for one and two they lack the know-how (I’m talking about the ‘traditional’ skills and knowledge involved in choreographing complicated fight scenes and working with wiring, not the crappy, fake CGI stuff that they love to use nowadays).  Of course, the fact that they no longer have the rights to remake Jin Yong’s works also doesn’t help (not that I would want another JY remake, as there have been way too many already, plus the remakes get worse every decade).  In terms of program line-up though, to feed the wuxia series drought, I would’ve seized the opportunity to re-broadcast a few classic wuxia series in that timeslot -- anyone familiar with the old days of TVB would know that there are plenty of great wuxia series from the 80s to choose from – for example: Legend of the Condor Heroes, Return of the Condor Heroes, The New Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre, The Two Most Honorable Knights, etc. – all are good choices in terms of wuxia classics that were popular back in the day and absolutely well-made/produced (plus, judging from the comments I’ve heard over the years, it’s obvious that many of the newer generation audiences have not seen the JY remakes from the 80s – well, this would give them the opportunity to see why us old-timers keep praising the 80s remakes as ‘the best’).

If we go back to modern series, other great choices include:  The Bund, Police Cadet ’84 as well as its sequel Police Cadet ’85 (don’t bother with the third and final installment, Police Cadet ’88, because it sucked), The Feud of Two Brothers, The Challenge of Life, Files of Justice, Detective Investigation Files, etc.  I could keep going on forever on this topic actually (I’ve got plenty more ‘classics’ that I would definitely include in the lineup), but I think those of you reading this get my drift already.  

In addition to airing all these series, the other thing I would’ve done is ‘poll the audience’ – meaning that I would send out a survey to audiences with the question:  “Which classic series from the 80s/90s era do you most want to see re-broadcasted in the midnight timeslot?” (keyword here is ‘80s/90s era’ because unfortunately, everyone’s definition of ‘classic’ is different).  This method sounds familiar, you say?  Yes, very discerning!  This is the exact thing that those ‘smart’ people over at HKTV did when they were preparing to launch their station last year – they put up a poll on their website and asked audiences to vote for which series (out of the 16 series they had produced) they wanted to watch first.  As we all know, the outcome was that their political-themed series The Election came out on top.  Originally, the plan was for HKTV to air their cop-themed series The Borderline as their debut series due to the tremendous reception the first episode had garnered months earlier during its ‘test run’ on Youtube.  But last minute, they decided to do a poll instead (which is not surprising since HKTV has had heavy interaction with audiences from the getgo – much unlike TVB who doesn’t give a crap about what their audiences think/feel/want).  I’m sure they were thinking that The Borderline would end up being the winner (so they could just move forward with original plan) but surprisingly (well, maybe not given that this was post-Occupy timeframe), their newest filmed series The Election ended up garnering the most votes (with The Borderline coming in at second place).  So what did HKTV do?  Well, this is where the ‘smart’ part kicks in (no, I didn’t use that word just because I felt like it):  they decided to air both series simultaneously – The Election was aired first, debuting on the weekend, and The Borderline followed right after, debuting the following weekday [sidenote:  for those wondering why The Election aired on a weekend, it’s because the series had just wrapped filming and there was still post-production work that needed to be done on it – by airing it once a week instead of every day, it gave the production team more time to complete the post-production].  So it ended up being a win/win situation for both sides:  the audiences got their pick (The Election) and HKTV still got to move forward with their original plan (air The Borderline as debut series).   See, it’s not that difficult to make audiences happy – so why can’t TVB get it right?? 

In any case, it’s obviously ‘too little too late now’, since TVB already lost their momentum with the midnight timeslot and who knows whether they will be able to gain it back (I highly doubt they can with the idiotic management team running the station currently).  Such a shame!  It’s sad how ‘not in tune’ TVB’s current management team is with their own programming and the station’s history / trends.  My advice:  change out this management team and get people in there who actually know what they are doing and can make proper decisions.  Otherwise….well just take one look at ATV – seeing what happened to them should be enough motivation for TVB to want a competent management team in place that is capable of making wise decisions that actually benefit the station.  I know it’s wishful thinking on my part but hey, I tried….

TVB 28th Anniversary Gala (1995): The Top 10 Highest Rated Series of All Time (up to that point)

Retrotvb's post recapping TVB's 1997 Anniversary Gala (read it here) inspired me to write this post about a particular segment of the 1995 Anniversary Gala (though I will admit that I remembered the date wrong at first and thought it was the 1998 gala, but it was really the 1995 one – shame on me!).

The show itself was great, as up to that point (prior to the start of the awards thing in 1997), the galas were still grand, all-star events. (I echo retrotvb's sentiments regarding the pointlessness of the awards, which turned the anniversary galas into lackluster events, but that's another story). The true highlight of the entire show for me (and probably for other 80s/90s TVB series fanatics as well) was the segment near the end of the show when TVB did a 'countdown' of the 10 highest rated TVB series up to that point. Almost every single one of my favorites made the list and I would venture to say that all 10 series were deserving because they were classic, high quality, well-made series.

The most memorable moment for me in this entire segment was when the "winner" of the countdown -- meaning the series that made it to the top of the list as the #1 highest rated series of all time (up until that point) -- was announced. Not suprisingly, the series that came out on top was "Looking Back in Anger" from 1989. True classic and truly deserving of the #1 spot!!! But what really did it for me was when Felix Wong, Kathy Chow, Deric Wan, and Maggie Siu went up on stage and accepted the 'award’ on behalf of the entire cast (I wonder who got to keep it? LOL!). Even though they were only up there for a minute or two and didn't say anything really, it was just awesome to see that cast together again – especially Deric, since he had left TVB long ago and made a special appearance just for that moment. Of course, I wish that Carina would have been able to make it as well (because then the cast would truly be complete in terms of the main leads), but I guess it wasn't meant to be...

The countdown was prefaced with these amazing numbers: the 10 series combined garnered a total of over 2.2 billion viewers (households), with each series averaging over 80 million viewers (households). Those numbers may ‘pale’ in comparison to the numbers today, but considering the series were of a way higher quality back then (the ones nowadays pretty much suck), those numbers were definitely something to ‘rave’ about!

I loved the way the segment was done – after the number of viewers and the series was announced, they had singers perform parts of the theme song for each series on the list while clips from the series played on the screen (though the singers weren’t the original artists who performed the songs, I was ok with it because the songs themselves were such classics that they sounded good no matter who sang them).


Here’s the countdown:

10th place: Police Cadet ‘84 新紮師兄 (1984)
(88131000 viewers)

9th place: The Big Family 大家族 (1991)
(97,916,000 viewers)

8th place: The Two Most Honorable Knights 絕代雙驕 (1988)
(98,513,000 viewers)

7th place: The Challenge of Life 人在邊緣 (1990)
(106,987,000 viewers)

6th place: The Breaking Point 今生無悔 (1991)
(117,925,000 viewers)

5th place: Love and Passion 萬水千山總是情 (1982)
(233,674,000 viewers)

4th place: Blood of Good and Evil 我本善良 (1990)
(283,266,000 viewers)

3rd place: Legend of the Condor Heroes 射鵰英雄傳 (1983)
(356,163,000 viewers)

2nd place: The Feud of Two Brothers 流氓大亨 (1986)
(388,323,000 viewers)

1st place: Looking Back in Anger 義不容情 (1989)
(431,355,000 viewers)

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My ‘quick’ recap:

.>> Deric and Maggie are the big winners in this countdown, as both of them had 3 series a piece (happened to be the same series) that made it onto the list (not to mention being part of the #1 series).

.>> Felix came in a very close second with 2 series in the countdown -- though he does have an advantage in terms of ranking in that both of his series were in the top 3!

.>> Tony, Alex, and Leon did pretty well too, with 2 series a piece in the countdown.

.>> I think that the only one I would disagree with is “Love and Passion” – I’ve seen that series and even though it’s much better than many of today’s series, I really didn’t think it was all that great compared to the other series on the list. But maybe it made it on the list because it’s such a classic (it is the oldest one of the list)? But then again, there are many other series that would fall into the ‘classic’ category….

.--.

For those who are interested, below is the link to the 2nd half of the 1995 Anniversary Gala – the countdown starts at 33:12.

TVB Anniversary Gala 1995 (part 2)

Feel free to comment on what you think of the countdown! :o)