With a capital ‘T’ and that rhymes with ‘V’

SHERWOOD KIRALY

Well, it’s just dumb old boring high school again.

The hot story recently was the possibility that MTV cameras would

follow some of our high school students around for a proposed reality

TV show focusing on teen life in a rich beach town.

Laguna parents convinced the school board to shelve its

involvement, and while the project may continue independently it

seems to have lost some momentum.

As a parent I believe it’s for the best, but my inner child is

kind of bummed.

So is my actual child.

Of course, we all know reality TV isn’t about reality; it’s about

goosing people until they do something interesting. And MTV probably

isn’t too committed to everyday, mundane Laguna teen life, but more

to its pre-Paris Hilton possibilities. There’s exploitation potential

there. Embarrassment potential too.

And, as some parents said, distraction from education. Aside from

whatever MTV’s motives might be, cameras can make people act funny.

You could call it the Mayberry effect.

In an old “Andy Griffith Show,” Mayberry was chosen as the subject

of a TV documentary and the citizens altered overnight, behaving and

dressing for the anticipated camera. Some Laguna Beach High School

students had noticed embryonic signs of this phenomenon on campus.

So as a parent, you add up the exploitation angle and the Mayberry

effect and you think, trouble in River City. You want your daughter

to be remembered someday for her achievements, not for breaking up

with her boyfriend on TV.

On the other hand, such a show would have provided us with

information we now may miss. Kids are quite capable of telling a

nation of strangers stuff they won’t tell their parents, and we could

have tuned in. Now we may never know.

A lot of the kids seemed surprised that we parents were acting

like horses in a burning barn about the proposal. They all sang

variations on the theme, “We thought it would be fun.”

I understand their attitude. If I were a student I’d have been all

for the show -- not to be on it, but to be around it. High school can

be tedious. When you’re in it, it takes forever. The diversion of

walking from class to class wears off. You become desperate for

novelty.

And your attitude toward MTV becomes similar to mine toward Las

Vegas: It’s exploitative, distracting, flashy, trashy. Now, what are

the negatives?