Something for everybody on TV

“Treehouse Masters”

There are so many TV channels and other video outlets available to viewers on different “platforms” these days that “niche” programming has become more the rule than the exception it used to be.

Decades ago, telecasting and programming were controlled by the major networks, so shows had to cater to mass tastes and preferences.

These days, however, many more groups and even individuals can set up viewing outlets and closed-circuit on “streaming” channels of their own, so all tastes and needs can be served.

Even a casual survey of what’s available for viewing on the new radically democratized boob tube reveals the range and extent of the choices currently available.

Yes, the mass-market sitcoms, drama series, newscasts, game shows and late-night talk fests are still there, but they now have to compete with many other inputs from all sorts of viewpoints, from the predictable to the edgily extreme and idiosyncratic.

Some exotic examples: Have you ever dreamt of constructing your own tree house in your backyard? That childhood yen is optimized to the max by “Treehouse Masters,” which showcases veritable castles for nonroyals, other fantasy structures and even a fancy treetop domicile Tarzan would love to live in!

Poetry doesn’t sound like it’s hit material for a TV show, but there’s an exception to that cynical broadcasting rule, and it’s instructively telecast in the Middle East, where exceptions and conundrums abound.

“Prince of Poets” is the title of a TV tilt for amateur Arab poets who deliver their literary creations and effusions for a huge audience, and judges cite and reward the best of the lot.

Impressively and even amazingly, “Prince of Poets” is a hit show, and ignored and derided poets in the west can just eat their hearts out.

Hey, perhaps our Balagtasan writers and declaimers can learn a thing or two from the show, to make their own ornate and witty effusions and concatenations similarly popular here?

The title of “Don’t Laugh, Japan” says it all: This most unique and sui generis TV game show required contestants to not crack up and determinedly sustain their poker-faced expressions of utter boredom, even when the funniest sights were relentlessly paraded in front of them, like fat men in ridiculously tiny T-back swimwear!

“Booze Traveler,” for its part, is inveterate drinkers and lovers of intoxicants’ dream viewing treat. The show travels all over the world sampling the most exotic drinks with significant alcoholic content of each locality, singing their praises after its host “researchers” avidly sample them.

The tipple fest was so dutiful in its peregrinations that it even sampled Pinoy firewater like basi and lambanog, which passed its resident samplers’ taste test—with flying and “flaming” colors!

Other unique and even bizarre TV attractions: “Danger Island”—real convicts were hunted down by celebrities like Lou Ferrigno.

“Vanilla Ice Goes Amish”—the rap star lived for weeks in an Amish settlement, ostensibly to learn their ancient craft of furniture-making.

In “Kid Nation,” a group of minors created their own “complete” society, no meddling adults allowed.

And, “The Swan” subjected a bevy of women to a series of plastic surgery procedures that sought to transform them, from ugly ducklings—into raving beauties!