I grew up on a little hardscrabble farm in the Pennsylvania mountains, without a television set in the house. In retrospect, I think it was a circumstance that did me much more good than harm.
For one thing, I learned early on that you can always have more fun out behind the barn than you can sitting indoors staring at television. For another, I never became addicted to having a TV set on in the house, so I have spent many, many hours reading and in other pursuits that have brought richness to my life television could never provide.
Not that I never watch TV; believe me, I do. And despite all its loathsome programming and pandering to the lowest common denominator, television can sometimes do things right, and do them very well. I`m thinking specifically today about the current PBS series called ”Travels.” (In the Chicago area, the series airs at 8 p.m. Fridays on WTTW-Ch. 11.)
Perhaps you`ve caught the first few shows this season: A two-parter followed the adventures of a college professor and a stand-up comedian as they sliced their way through the American heartland, from North Dakota to the Mexican border, in a red 1960 Ford Sunliner convertible. The comedian, a Bostonian named Jimmy Tingle, turned out to be slightly more obnoxious than funny, but the shows-called ”America With the Top Down”-carried well, nevertheless. Part of the reason: As an armchair traveler, you couldn`t help thanking the Almighty you weren`t stuck in a car with Jimmy Tingle for 28 days.
The third program, ”A Day in the Life of Ireland,” followed photographers as they spent one day shooting on the Emerald Isle to produce a book of the same name. The book idea is an established success-there have been 10 of them in as many years-but to do a television show on the process of producing the book was to go a little far out on the limb. Again, however, I think it worked. And, judging from tapes of shows I`ve previewed, the series gets even better.
Top-rated show
When you see a few of these programs, I think you`ll agree that
”Travels” stands out from much of what has been produced on television, even if you broaden the category ”travel” to take in nature and wildlife shows, such as some of those marvelous National Geographic specials. Last year, ”Travels” was one of public television`s three highest-rated series, the others being ”Nova” and ”Frontline.”
The real travel programs on television have been few, and the good ones fewer still. Anyone with cable TV who has suffered through some of the drivel on the Travel Channel will think they`ve died and gone to heaven if they flip to a public television channel to catch an hour of ”Travels.” This is not travelog, nor is it bending over backward to please-or subtly promoting-some airline or resort hotel that footed the bill. (That never happens on the Travel Channel, which is owned by TWA. Or so they say.)
What makes ”Travels” a success and distinguishes it from the rest?
”To me, `Travels` is really about people,” says John Heminway, who, as executive producer, is primarily responsible for the series. ”It`s about people, and it`s about storytelling. I love good yarns, and I love people who tell good yarns.”
This approach enables Heminway to take a mundane, even hackneyed, idea such as ”The Grand Tour” (is there any traveler out there who doesn`t recall the movie ”If This Is Tuesday, It Must Be Belgium”?), give it to a fine filmmaker (Les Blank), and produce a totally engaging hour of television.
As a viewer, at least half the time you don`t know where you are, and you have the sense some of those on the bus don`t either. But they are having the time of their lives on the trip of their lives, and the camera is there to record their joy, without even a hint of snobbishness.
Humor not forgotten
There is another element to these shows, and that is humor.
”We need laughter like we`ve never needed laughter before,” says Heminway. ”I think we all sometimes suffer from a sense that we have this extraordinary mission to be self-righteous and help everybody and be super-sensitive to everyone and every cause. But if you keep doing that, you`ll find one day that you can`t have fun anymore, and, in our case, you`ll find everybody`s turning to another channel. This is one of my jobs: To be funny-to entertain.”
So, here we have Tinney, every bit the proper British tour guide, describing the difference between heaven and hell in Europe:
”In Europe, heaven is where the police are British, the mechanics are German, the lovers are Italian, the cooks are French and everything`s organized by the Swiss. Hell is where the cooks are British, the police are German, the lovers are Swiss, the mechanics are French, and everything`s organized by the Italians.”
Then there is the filming-the camera looking at the faces and beyond, sometimes to record the strange ironies one encounters in traveling. In ”The Perfect English Village,” for example, we visit the seaside town of Bosham, where periodic tides inundate the streets.
We watch with bemused amazement the consternation of tourists who ignore warning signs and return to parking lots to find their cars underwater, and the amusement of the villagers, who see it happen all the time.
Serious moments
But don`t get the idea this is a frothy series. It can get serious. Jacobson, for example, takes a very realistic look at the aborigines and how they live as he travels from southern Australia north through the opal mining town of Coober Pedy and on to Ayers Rock and Alice Springs and eventually into Darwin. White Australia does not come off in a very flattering manner.
If this series speaks to anything else about travel, Heminway would surely agree with Tinney, the British bus tour guide, on what it is:
”You come away with your perspective altered,” says Tinney. ”That, for me, is what traveling-ideally-can do with someone.”
