This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Phil Hendrie, a man who did a late night radio show which was a parody of local events shows. All the guests were either insane or evil (And voiced by Hendrie himself), with Hendrie trying desperately to be reasonable, and only getting confrontational towards the end. Made more amusing by callers who didn't know the show was fake, and would break out into mad rages at the horrible actions or intentions of the shows 'Guests'. Does this fit under parody talk show, or another genre with a note of being fake?
Darksasami: I don't think that Talk Show is a format: it's a genre. Formats in the Talk Show genre would be:
- Morning News Talk Show: Light news and fluff, such as Good Morning America.
- News Talk Show: Pundits arguing, as in Meet The Press.
- Daytime Talk Show: Celebrities and showcases of dysfunctionality, such as Oprah, Jerry Springer, Regis & Foo.
- Late Night Talk Show: Current events and comedy, such as The Tonight Show, The Late Show.
Let me know if I'm misunderstanding the difference between genre and format.
Gus I would agree. I do agree. :-)
Darksasami: Okay, I've made a start on it. There may be more formats I'm missing.
I don't know how to organize the formats. They would seem to belong on the Formats page, once they're created, but I don't want to put Talk Show back on the Formats page so that it can be made into a twisty. I made Talk Show Formats a link for that purpose...is that the right way to handle it?
Gus: I'm not following why you are reluctant to put Talk Show on the Format index. Putting the sub-index of the sub-types/genres on the Talk Show page would seem to cover it. edited to add: Phlebotinum might be a model.
Darksasami: Because, as I said, Talk Show is not a format. It's a genre, and it goes on the genre page. The "sub-types" you refer to are really formats, and should go on the formats page. However, that leaves the formats without a container, if you see what I mean.
I'm a technical writer by trade...I prefer to keep defined terms defined, if you know what I mean. :-)
I think my problem is that genres and formats are not arranged in a one-to-many relationship. In the hierarchical world I live in, there would be no show that does not have both a genre and a format, rather like a kingdom and species. It doesn't make sense to say that show X has a format but no genre, or is in a genre but has no format. Some genres would have only a single format, such as Award Show, but everything would be classifiable as a genre/format or a combination of genre/formats.
Since things aren't so neatly arranged, and there isn't a defined way to arrange them that way, I'm having trouble with it. That's all.
Gus: Yeah, I misspoke, or I'm backpedaling or something: "Genre" is a classifier within a field. I think the characteristics that are defining a "field" here are hosts and guests speaking with each other extemporaneously (to at least some degree). I'd call that a format. The subject matter (politics, marital strife, sex, entertainment, etc.) would be the genres.
Looney Toons: I de-wikified the types of talks shows because it doesn't look like theyr'e likely to get spun off into their own pages any time soon.
And I think there's still a category missing. Where you you put talk show "pioneers" like Merv Griffin and Mike Douglas? They were mostly daytime shows, back in the 1970s, but they had content more like late night by the current definitions here. And David Letterman's original daytime NBC show circa 1983 was also what's being called "Late Night" here. Maybe it's better categorized as Celebrity/Entertainment Talk, rather than using the timeslot?
Ununnilium: And what about Dr. Phil-type shows?
HeartBurn Kid: Dr. Phil fits pretty squarely into the current Daytime category; his show is based around ordinary people who are really dysfunctional. That he applies (a poor excuse for) psychological counseling to try to solve the problems his guests have is, at best, a quirk of his show (it's not even all that unique; people like Maury Povich do the same thing).
Oh, and Rosie O'Donnell and Wayne Brady are more recent examples of the "timeslot breakers"; they both had the interview/variety-type talk shows during the afternoon. Live with Regis and Whoever seems to fit that format better than the standard "daytime talk" format, but it really seems to straddle the line between the variety talk show and the morning news talk show.
Morgan Wick: Don't forget The View.
