Welcome again to JJNN for Tuesday October 7th, 2008. Today we will be talking about crazy Japanese game shows.
When people that live outside of Japan think about Japan when it comes to TV shows they usually think about the "crazy" Japanese game shows. You know the kind of game shows I am talking about, right? The type of shows where people have to jump from platform to platform and if they miss they end up in water or flour or something like that. Another type of game is the one where people have to run around and do crazy stunts or end up covered in slime. All in all very entertaining. The classic example of these types of games is called Takeshi's Castle. This game show debuted in 1986 and went on to 1989. There was also a revival that aired in 2005. You can see a clip from the show below.
The company that originally produced Takeshi's Castle (TBS: Tokyo Broadcasting System) seems to own the rights to this type of game in Japan. Any game that has people doing crazy things on big sets outside is done by TBS. They have sort of gotten attached to their ideal of games like this. They have gotten so attached to it that they don't like to see anyone else do it.
Apparently TBS is suing ABC (American Broadcasting Channel) for airing a show that is sort of like Takeshi's Castle. You can see the news article here. TBS was not happy to see the ABC show called Wipeout. I have never seen the show, but apparently Wipeout resembles Takeshi's Castle to such an extent it is basically the same show. TBS told ABC not to air the show, but they ignored the order so now TBS is threatening to sue. I doubt this will go very far though.
Any way, it is now time for the word of the day. Today's word is 番組(ばんぐみ). It is pronounced bangumi and means (TV) show. Not all Japanese TV shows are crazy game shows. Those are just the ones that I like the best.
That's it for today. See you next time at JJNN.
99.9% of their tv is crazy tv shows though.
ReplyDelete