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Seniors
A Go-Go On Italian TV
CBS,
July 29, 2003
|
 Dina
Pavanello, second from right, cheers after being declared the winner on
the "Velone" television show by host Teo Mammuccari.
(AP) In
a bubble-gum-pink frock and high heels, the 72-year-old contestant
strutted before the TV cameras, hips swinging to a pounding dance beat and
eyelashes fluttering before the millions of viewers.
After endless programs featuring half-naked girls pawing at balding hosts,
this one tries to turn the trend on its head with a show of pageants in
which each elderly woman sings and dances for a big cash prize while her
height, weight and age are displayed on-screen.
"It's not like it once was, where
someone who's 60 is already old and locks themselves away. Now, at our
age, there's so much to enjoy in life; anything that allows that is
great."
Some are appalled by the
six-night-a-week program. The Vatican newspaper said this sort of thing
shouldn't be televised; women's rights campaigners call it shameful.
But many of the contestants describe "Velone," which can be
roughly translated as "Big Showgirls," as a welcome bit of fun
in a country that often overlooks its sizable elderly population.
"Whoever invented this show deserves a prize," said the
72-year-old contestant, Dina Pavanello. "I talk with tons of women of
my age, and they're happy about it."
"It's not like it once was, where someone who's 60 is already old and
locks themselves away," she said. "Now, at our age, there's so
much to enjoy in life; anything that allows that is great."
What surprised some is the show's success. It has already sparked a rival
program for seniors.
Television here has long been dominated by infantile programs featuring
bursts of song and leg-snapping dance numbers. Above all, they are an
excuse to parade scantily clothed, ululating starlets, each jostling for a
corner of the screen.
Italians — men as well as women — complain about this repetitive and
blatantly exploitative slop, yet each season brings a new dollop whose
only novelty is a fresh seasoning of babes.
"Velone" was born as an ironic twist to all this.
The producer, Antonio Ricci, was behind last summer's hit show "Veline"
— "Showgirls" — in which young women pranced and danced to
win a permanent TV starlet job. Critics disdained that program, prompting
Ricci to launch an identical show this summer, except that the women are
elderly and the prize awarded at the end of the season is worth $280,000.
Participants must be 65 or older, and the oldest so far was 94.
"Velone" appears on Mediaset, the network owned by media mogul
Premier Silvio Berlusconi. Now Mediaset's major competitor, state-owned
RAI, has responded to the success of "Velone" with its own
program, a "Big Brother" for the elderly.
This rival, called "Super Senior," is carefully avoiding the
controversy surrounding "Velone." Producer Carlo Degli Esposti
described it as a "soft reality show," minus the 24-hour cameras
and prize.
"Super Senior," which begins in September, will follow six
elderly men and six elderly women living together for 15 weeks as they
prepare to put on a play.
The program, based on a hugely successful production by Dinamo, a
Norwegian company, is another example of the reality shows that have taken
over European TV in recent years.
"I'd long thought of doing a reality show for seniors, but everyone
always rejected this, saying seniors didn't want to watch other seniors,
and that as far as advertising went, they weren't worth anything,"
Degli Esposti said.
TV critic Aldo Grasso of the Corriere della Sera newspaper says
programmers may have finally noticed the old-timers among their audience.
Some 18 percent of Italians are 65 or older — a 50 percent higher
proportion than in the United States.
"Firstly, it was realized that the elderly constituted the hard core
of the audience," he wrote in a recent front-page column.
"Secondly, that commercials were beginning to address them directly
(mineral water, light olive oils, denture putty, men's hair dye); and then
thirdly, that the aged wanted to become the stars of programming."
For one such aged star, 82-year-old "Velone" contestant
Giovannina Belintende Vigano, the recognition was long overdue.
"When I was a girl I wanted to be an actress but my father wouldn't
let me," she said. "I've always had ugly regrets. Finally, I've
had a bit of satisfaction on television."
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