Page 67 - A Handbook Genre Studies in Mass Media

CHAPTER 3

Dr. Andy Brown, who had taken his family to the small town of Ever-
wood after the death of his wife. However, in 2005, the Brown family
returned to New York—with disastrous results. Greg Berlanti, the creator
of Everwood, notes that

for us, the city represents the shattering of Andy’s life and ego and where
his life, his family’s life, came tumbling down. The upcoming New York
episodes will be the first time Andy has ever come back. He’s probably
terrified, and when he arrives, all of his worst nightmares come true. 20
The crime genre extends this dark vision of New York as a dangerous
place. Indeed, the worldview of the CBS franchise (that is, programming
based on an established series) CSI: New York was so filled with despair
that eventually the ratings were affected. Anthony E. Zuiker, the creator
of the CSI franchise, explains, “We were going much too dark in the tone
of the show, too aggressively, and there’s no doubt we lost some viewers
in that patch.” Finally, Nina Tassler, the head of CBS Entertainment
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(and a New Yorker), issued an order to mix in more diverse portraits of
the city. 22
However, the setting can also depict a false reality. For example, the
2001 edition of CBS’s reality series Survivor 3 was set in the Shaba
National Reserve, a poor area in equatorial Africa. Eighteen people were
challenged to survive the rigors of this arid desert land over a four-month
period. Although the huts were set up to look authentic, the campground
for the contestants—which included satellite telephones, television hook-
ups, a swimming pool, a modern sewer system, and a water processing
plant—was far more luxurious than what the natives endured.
For the natives of this area, the artificiality of asking these privileged
people to pretend they were facing the realities of survival was highly
ironic. Mohammed Leresh, who lived around the Shaba National Reserve,
declared, “I could win that show. I live for several days without eating,
just a little water.” F.D. Lolosoli added, “I don’t have a TV. There are
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only five TVs in the entire town, and none of us have ever heard of ‘Sur-
vivor.’ We don’t know what all this . . . is about, but we do know that
we’re barely surviving.” 24

Trappings

Trappings are artifacts that appear so often that they have become associ-
ated with a genre. For instance, Stetson hats, horses, and spurs are items

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