美国国家公共电台 NPR VH1 Has 3 Secrets For Making Hit TV, And '90s Nostalgia Is One

VH1 Has 3 Secrets For Making Hit TV, And '90s Nostalgia¹ Is One

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The '90s are having a moment right now, from the runway to music to TV, which has long mined nostalgia.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

C+C MUSIC FACTORY: (Singing) Everybody dance now.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: So you think you're a '90s fan? OK, Hannibal Lecter.

SIEGEL: Nostalgia for the '90s is a cornerstone of VH1. It's now the fastest-growing entertainment network on cable TV. It's got three of the top five cable reality shows. And in that prized demographic of 18 to 34-year-olds, it's one of the most watched channels. NPR's Neda Ulaby visited VH1's headquarters in New York to learn how it has captured so many millennial³ eyeballs.

NEDA ULABY, BYLINE⁴: Today's 30-year-olds might remember the '90s as a dark age - no smartphones or Snapchats or Kardashians - but apparently⁵ no.

CHRIS MCCARTHY: I think the younger audience really actually looks to the '90s in a different way.

ULABY: That's VH1 President Chris McCarthy.

MCCARTHY: The '90s were just better, right? Like, the economy was better. There was no war. It's different than any other decade. Like, after 9/11, things just changed.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "I LOVE THE 90S")

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Singing) I love the '90s.

ULABY: That VH1 show, called "I Love The '90s," has not run for a while, but the network is about to launch a new scripted show about the early days of hip⁶ hop⁷, set in 1990.

SEITH MANN: (Unintelligible), guys.

ULABY: On the set of the show "The Breaks" in East Brooklyn, executive producer Seith Mann says, yeah, you can find other hip-hop dramas on TV right now, like "Empire" on Fox and "The Get Down" on Netflix.

MANN: There are a lot of people that are beginning to recognize and pay attention to the importance of this culture and this audience now. But VH1 has been on it for years.

ULABY: With shows like "Behind The Music," "Flavor Of Love" and the network's most successful, franchise⁸ "Love & Hip Hop."

MCCARTHY: We always told a hip-hop story.

ULABY: Chris McCarthy has been president of VH1 for a year. He says hip-hop's fan base cuts across racial demographics, and it's appealingly young. He says when the network started about 30 years ago, 20 percent of 18 to 34-year-olds were non-white. Now the number's nearly 50 percent.

MCCARTHY: You know, millennials grew up with a cellphone in their hand. They grew up in a world where these demographic shifts were happening around them and they were connected to different every day.

ULABY: So here's how VH1 brands itself as different - through a set of values identified through the show "Flavor Of Love."

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "FLAVOR OF LOVE")

FLAVOR FLAV: Flavor Flav.

ULABY: With that show's hit rating records in 2006, VH1 doubled down. It decided⁹ the channel would be about love for the '90s, hip-hop and subverting¹⁰ more successful mainstream¹¹ shows. "Flavor Of Love" was always intended to spoof¹² a massive hit for ABC.

MCCARTHY: You know, that was a counter, almost, to "The Bachelor." And it was a little bit insane, but we pretended like it was real.

ULABY: Just as VH1's top reality shows now, "Love & Hip Hop" and "Basketball Wives" answer back to Bravo's "Real Housewives" franchise. Robin¹³ Boylorn is a communications professor at University of Alabama. At 38, she and her friends are slightly old for VH1's target audience, but...

ROBIN BOYLORN: Our guilty-pleasure TV is VH1.

ULABY: Yet they mock it by calling it...

BOYLORN: Ratchet TV or ratchet reality TV.

ULABY: That means, basically, garbage reality shows that are still fun to watch. Ratchet, says Boylorn, means...

BOYLORN: The opposite of respectability and the opposite of what is expected of dignified¹⁴ black folk.

ULABY: There was a time when people were ticked off about the ratchetness (ph) of some VH1 shows, but Boylorn says the channel's toned it down, partly with new shows like a cooking program starring Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MARTHA & SNOOP'S POTLUCK DINNER PARTY")

SNOOP DOGG: Just to clarify, I'm not high right now, but whoever gave us this show, they must have been.

ULABY: And VH1's upcoming scripted show, "The Breaks," is pretty prestige. It stars and was produced by alumna¹⁵ of "The Wire," only generally acknowledged as one of the best TV shows in history. "The Breaks" is something like a hip-hop answer to "Madmen," with young Afton Williamson as a striver.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE BREAKS")

AFTON WILLIAMSON: (As Nikki Jones) I'm Nikki Jones. I just graduated top of my class from George Washington University, and I was...

ULABY: She doesn't want to be a singer. She wants to run a label. Actor Wood Harris, who played "The Wire's" Avon Barksdale, plays her mentor¹⁶ - partly Don Draper, partly Russell Simmons.

WILLIAMSON: She can find her own game plan in him. He's bigger than life, and she's trying to be him.

ULABY: Actress Afton Williamson is in so many ways also the target audience for VH1. She's 32, loves hip-hop and the '90s, so she reveled in preparing for this role.

WILLIAMSON: I studied Queen Latifah. I studied every single black woman.

ULABY: Executive producer Seith Mann noticed that when filming a scene when Williamson's character is producing a rapper.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE BREAKS")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character, rapping) All right. That's what I'm talking about.

(Rapping) I remember when I first heard Rakim spit. It was destined¹⁷.

MANN: And she starts bouncing her head. And the way she's shaking her head, that is a '90s headshake. I didn't give her no note. She brought that, and I was like, she knows this period.

ULABY: "The Breaks" was piloted as a movie on VH1. The series starts in January. VH1 President Chris McCarthy says the channel's relevance¹⁸ depends on an audience that's effortlessly pluralistic and a development team heavy on female executives.

MCCARTHY: We're changing culture and the way that people perceive it. I don't think anybody would have thought a year or two ago that we would have the majority of the top-20 reality series.

ULABY: Or the definitive¹⁹ re-enacted '90s headshake. Neda Ulaby, NPR News.

1 nostalgia   

n.怀乡病，留恋过去，怀旧

参考例句：

• He might be influenced by nostalgia for his happy youth.也许是对年轻时幸福时光的怀恋影响了他。
• I was filled with nostalgia by hearing my favourite old song.我听到这首喜爱的旧歌，心中充满了怀旧之情。

2 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

3 millennial   

一千年的，千福年的

参考例句：

• Both Russia and America looked to the future to fulfill their millennial expectations. 俄国和美国都把实现他们黄金时代的希望寄托于未来。
• The millennial generation is celebrating the global commons every day, apparently unmindful of Hardin's warning. 千禧一代显然对哈丁的警告不以为然，每天都在颂扬全球“公地”。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

6 hip   

n.臀部，髋；屋脊

参考例句：

• The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.股骨连着髋骨。
• The new coats blouse gracefully above the hip line.新外套在臀围线上优美地打着褶皱。

7 hop   

n.单脚跳，跳跃；vi.单脚跳，跳跃；着手做某事；vt.跳跃，跃过

参考例句：

• The children had a competition to see who could hop the fastest.孩子们举行比赛，看谁单足跳跃最快。
• How long can you hop on your right foot?你用右脚能跳多远？

8 franchise   

n.特许，特权，专营权，特许权

参考例句：

• Catering in the schools is run on a franchise basis.学校餐饮服务以特许权经营。
• The United States granted the franchise to women in 1920.美国于1920年给妇女以参政权。

9 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

10 subverting   

v.颠覆，破坏（政治制度、宗教信仰等）( subvert的现在分词 )；使（某人）道德败坏或不忠

参考例句：

• This viewpoint sees the Multinational Corporation as capable of circumventing or subverting national objectives and policies. 这种观点认为，跨国公司能够遏制和破坏国家的目标和政策。 来自辞典例句
• By simply subverting an expectation, a novelist can undermine a prejudice. 藉由完全推翻期待，一个小说家可以逐渐破坏一种歧视。 来自互联网

11 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

12 spoof   

n.诳骗，愚弄，戏弄

参考例句：

• The show was a spoof of college life.那戏是对大学生活的讽刺。
• That is Tim Robbins's spoof documentary about a presidential campaign.那是蒂姆·罗宾斯关于总统选举的讽刺纪录片。

13 robin   

n.知更鸟，红襟鸟

参考例句：

• The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
• We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟，知道春天要到了。

14 dignified   

a.可敬的，高贵的

参考例句：

• Throughout his trial he maintained a dignified silence. 在整个审讯过程中，他始终沉默以保持尊严。
• He always strikes such a dignified pose before his girlfriend. 他总是在女友面前摆出这种庄严的姿态。

15 alumna   

n.女校友，女毕业生 (pl.alumnae)

参考例句：

• I came across a old alumna in the street this morning.今天早上我在街上碰见一位老校友。
• My alumni and alumna are present at my birthday party.我的男校友和女校友都出席了我的生日聚会。

16 mentor   

n.指导者，良师益友；v.指导

参考例句：

• He fed on the great ideas of his mentor.他以他导师的伟大思想为支撑。
• He had mentored scores of younger doctors.他指导过许多更年轻的医生。

17 destined   

adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的

参考例句：

• It was destined that they would marry.他们结婚是缘分。
• The shipment is destined for America.这批货物将运往美国。

18 relevance   

n.中肯，适当，关联，相关性

参考例句：

• Politicians' private lives have no relevance to their public roles.政治家的私生活与他们的公众角色不相关。
• Her ideas have lost all relevance to the modern world.她的想法与现代社会完全脱节。

19 definitive   

adj.确切的，权威性的；最后的，决定性的

参考例句：

• This book is the definitive guide to world cuisine.这本书是世界美食的权威指南。
• No one has come up with a definitive answer as to why this should be so.至于为什么该这样，还没有人给出明确的答复。