Television executives have found another half-consumed carcass. His name is Ted Williams.
Williams, whose mellifluent voice catapulted him from abject homelessness to media sensation, is getting his own reality television show called “Second Chances at Life.“ Don’t tell me you didn’t see this one coming.
Those bloodless, rapacious, money-grubbing parasites called TV producers have well-developed senses that can detect human tragedy from afar, and they swoon in like circling vultures to tear off whatever remaining vestiges of humanity for their own monetary pleasures. And they package the tragedy in such a grotesque way as to whet the appetite of an already gluttonous audience.
Once consigned to the fringes of society, perversity has bled into the mainstream and retarded the social advancement of an entire generation of young people.
Chuck D and Public Enemy, for example, are still churning out records, but their uplifting, educational and life-altering music can’t even get any love on Black Entertainment Television — or any television or radio forum, for that matter. But as soon as moronic Flavor Flav flashes his blinding copper-toned grill, television execs seemingly rise up out of the cracks in the sidewalks like weeds.
Human car crashes are all the rage these days, and there is always someone willing to reach in between the twisted wreckage and mangled lives with a camera at the ready.
Williams’ instant success story hasn‘t had a good ending thus far, but that‘s what makes him so alluring to Hollywood. He wouldn’t be interesting if his meteoric fame didn‘t take a detour down a spiraling road in rehab. Expect to see El DeBarge with a show soon, too. Williams explained to the Columbus [Ohio] Dispatch it all happened “a little too fast.” The “Second Chances at Life” show will feature his story and, incomprehensively, with those of other people who somehow arrive at Act 2 in their own lives. Oh, OK.
Of course, the producers and executives will spew some lame, hollow sewage about the positives of documenting Williams’ recovery, life resuscitation and reconciliation with his family. But they wouldn’t mind if Williams had a few crack-addled setbacks on camera and maybe even beat up a family member or two. It would make for great ratings.
But trust and believe that when these social reptiles have harvested every ounce of interest out of Williams, he will be tossed callously into the growing trash heap of former famous “reality” stars.
Anyone heard from Frankie and Neffe lately?
–terry shropshire
