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Column published the week of July 21, 2008 www.theleeonline.com © 2008, Lee Ostaszewski

I Survived Watching a Japanese Game Show

By Lee Ostaszewski It’s good to see that despite the screenwriter’s strike, which shut down television show production in Hollywood for most of last season, the industry is right back where it had been before putting on the type of television programming that Americans have grown accustomed to: Ripped off versions of shows first made popular in other countries. Traditionally, American television producers have ripped off British shows. In the past this has included such hits as “American Idol,” “The Office,” and “The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.” British rip offs make the most sense since the shows are already in English, making it easier for American producers to understand what’s going on with little translation. But this summer the trend seems to be to rip off shows from Japan. The problem is we don’t know what constitutes a great Japanese sitcom idea, and what it might be like. “Watch what happens when two zany retired sumo wrestlers team up with one stressed out middle management executive on the verge of suicide to open up a Zen garden supply store together? The laughs never set in the Land of the Rising Sun on ‘My Name is Hitoshi.’” Besides, since so few American television producers are fluent in Japanese, how would they even know if a show was good? So maybe Japan has some great sitcoms, who can tell? What we do know they have, however, are some great game shows. And by great I mean incredibly stupid, but in a complimentary way. These aren’t quiz shows, which would require speaking Japanese and knowing stuff. Instead, these are silly, physically challenging game shows where the contestants usually end up falling into a pool of water or attaching themselves to a wall wearing a Velcro suit. Yes, I am talking about sophisticated television viewing. My sons Kevin and Chris have been watching two Japanese rip off shows this summer. One is called “Wipeout,” and the other is “I Survived a Japanese Game Show.” As the name implies, “I Survived a Japanese Game Show” takes place in Japan and follows a group of American participants both on and off the air as they compete on a made up Japanese game show. You get a

behind the scenes look at what takes place on these types of game shows when the cameras are turned off, except it is also a reality show so, technically speaking, the cameras are still on. I guess the next step in the Reality Programming Progression to Hell would be a show that reveals what happens when the reality TV cameras are turned off, also. The only step left after that would be a reality show made up entirely of people sleeping. “Twelve chronic sleepwalkers share a house where the action doesn’t start until everyone has fallen asleep. Watch, ‘Bedtime,’ Wednesdays at midnight this fall.” Personally, watching “I Survived a Japanese Game Show” has taught me a few things about the Japanese people that I didn’t know before and which truly surprised me. For instance, I never realized that they are all clinically insane. At least that seems to be the case with the people in the studio audience who cheer on the contestants by banging on mini tambourines and yelling and screaming as if watching a World Cup Soccer match instead of watching someone trying to ride a tricycle while staying put on a moving conveyor belt. The host seems out there too. There’s this thing he does before each commercial break where he pretends to slick back his hair then thrusts his hand forward making what appears to be either some sort of gang sign (NFL take note) or possibly an obscene gesture with his fingers while yelling something that I think roughly translated means, “I have wicked oily hair.” Perhaps his hand gesture is neither obscene nor gang related, but how do we know? It’s in Japanese! The other show is “Wipeout.” This is an American version of a fake Japanese show that, I believe, has aired on cable TV for years. I just remember coming across a similar show every so often where contestants had to race through a foam-covered obstacle course while not falling into a pool of water. As far as I can tell, that’s the main premise of all these Japanese-inspired game shows: To watch people bounce off foam stuff and fall into the water. What I find totally amazing is that American TV producers didn’t come up with the idea sooner. ■