05 April, 2009

the barefoot baklesa is not bananas over banana split... but then again, those four boys...


Believe me, I am the last one to watch a Saturday evening show with the likes of Angelica Panganiban and Cristine Reyes on the program. However, as I turned on the tube a while ago, I chanced upon the last few minutes of this ABS-CBN show called Banana Split. I guess the Filipino viewing public can be surprisingly daft when it comes to these shows.

If I'm not mistaken, this show is the brainchild of veteran comedian slash director Edgar 'Bobot' Mortiz. Actually, there's really nothing new with the comedy variety shows he's come up with after the success of Going Bananas in the 1980s. Literally, he just took the same derivative concept and turned it into the Sunday evening show called Going Bulilit and of course Banana Split -this time, it's sexy slash pretty girls in comedy sketches.

What really grinds my bones was that late afternoon show some years back called Let's Go which they passed off as an original and innovative take on a teen comedy show. So much for original and innovative...Well, this so called show which Joem Bascon first appeared in [don't remember him? he's that model/actor who kind of reminds you of Piolo Pascual but looks more like Piolo's younger brother or cousin] was actually a rip-off of a Korean situational college comedy called Non-Stop which starred that tall hot Korean from that KDrama 'Memories of Bali'. Imagine, they even copied the production design of the Korean original which features a dormitory common room accessible by two glass doors which descends two steps into this area that has upholstered colored blocks of 16 inches by 16inches by 16 inches in dimension.

Specific, right? Well, because I used to watch this show on the Arirang network on cable. I mean, if a veteran comedian/director can run around so proud of this bastardized version without a thought that he might get caught being a copycat, I wonder what that is teaching the creative teams and think-tanks of the major networks?

Hello, remember Captain Barbell -freakishly reminding you of Smallville's plot every week and people still lapped it up? Seriously... GOT CARRIED AWAY AGAIN!

But getting to my point, in the last few minutes of that banana show, I realized their guests were Rayver Cruz, Enchong Dee, Haroun Morales, and Marvin Raymundo[Wijangco]. The wheels in my head started turning and I went like, "Oh my Goodness, is this the Pinoy F4? Have they actually seriously decided on them?"

The rest of the guys are okay, but with Rayver Cruz? I suddenly felt this aversion manifested by queasiness albeit remote disgust at my very epidermis... Hate me all you want Rayver fans, but Eeewwwwww!!! I had recently bloggged about Casting the Pinoy F4 [just click on the link] and if Robi Domingo or Jake Cuenca isn't there, then I don't think it's worth another typed word after this _____

thus spake the Barefoot Baklesa

1 comment:

Alexis said...

This is partially why I never watch local TV. It's either bad rip offs are bad programs!