What was the biggest show on South African television, Generations, returns to TV screens tonight – with a tarnished legacy, some old faces to make it look familiar and lure viewers back, and a lot of unanswered questions about the maturity of the local TV biz, the public broadcaster, and how and why local TV talent are treated as little more than on-set props.
Generations The
Legacy
will debut on SABC1 tonight at 20:00 after a shocking absence of two months
when the production grinded to a halt, the South African public broadcaster ran
out of filmed episodes, and neither the production company nor the beleaguered SABC
management could successfully keep the show on the air.
The Generations
actors went on strike after months of pleading with the SABC, executive producer
Mfundi Vundla, and production company MMSV Productions for the three year
contracts they were personally promised by the SABC’s famously matricless
acting CEO Hlaudi Motsoeneng in July 2013.
The cast who organised as the Generations
Actors Guild is currently taking the SABC and the production company to the
CCMA and to court.
They wanted the promised three year contracts
instead of one year renewals, higher pay rates similar to other TV soaps at the
SABC and e.tv, as well as back payments or residuals as promised in their existing
contracts, and which they've never received, for rebroadcasts and repeats – as well
as for the sales and international sales of the broadcasting rights of the soap
to other TV channels as well as broadcasters in Africa.
They were prompty fired in August, followed
by dueling press conferences by the SABC and the actors, the caustic Mfundi Vundla saying he felt "betrayed" and that he will "never take them back" – and then
jetting off to a foreign locale for a holiday.
In the past two months SABC1 lost millions of
viewers in the 20:00 timeslot as well as millions of rand in advertising after
the public broadcaster was forced to lower advertising rates.
Now the rejigged show with new actors and
some old faces which started filming on 27 October at the SABC's Henley Studios
will be back.
The first new Generations
The Legacy is bound to – similar to American shows which tried a reboots
like Dallas, Melrose Place and 90210 – lure a big audience tuning in out of the
curiosity factor.
The test will be however whether the show
will be able to not only lure back, but keep, its erstwhile big audience, or
whether there will be a viewership drop-off following viewer disillusionment
with how the show ended – it’s backstage implosion and scandalous destruction
well-publicised, and the abrupt ending which saw no resolution to any of the
previous storylines.
Collin Oliphant who've written for SABC3's Isidingo in the past is the new head writer.
Picking up two years
later – with Karabo and Tau
Generations The
Legacy
will restart tonight, set two years later, with a funeral, and with Connie
Ferguson returning as Karabo Moroka and Rapulana Seiphemo as Tau Mogale "returning
from London to South Africa", suddenly living with their grown children,
Jonathan (JT Medupe) and Angela (Lebohang Mthunzi).
Connie Ferguson, now herself a TV producer for
M-Net, has already been in the firing line for why she returned to a show where
her friends like Sophie Ndaba and others were fired, and which apparently treats
South African actors with little or no respect.
Connie Ferguson told the SABC's new digital
magazine, Evoke, that returning to
Generations was not part of her plans but that the "recent developments" at the
soap "bothered" her and "forced her into action for the sake of the show's
legacy".
Connie Ferguson told Evoke that she isn't returning
to Generations The Legacy to save the
show, saying "I don't think I can 'save' anything. It’s a team effort. I couldn't
let the show's legacy be remembered the way it ended."
Both Connie Ferguson and Rapulana Seiphemo were roped in to
create a familiar "anchor" to viewers who haven't seen the show in two months
and which won't have any other of the former well-known faces. It's not clear
how long they will remain in the show – Connie Ferguson appears in, and produces her
own drama Rockville for M-Net’s
Mzansi Magic channel on DStv.
A younger cast
The restarted Generations The Legacy with a younger cast, will concentrate on the
new generation of the Moroka family – Archie's children and grandchildren.
Other new faces in the reinvented Generations The Legacy include Letoya
Mahkene, Denise Zimba, Ronnie Nyakale, Manaka Ranaka and Ivy Nkuta.
Despite
multiple media requests the past five weeks the SABC and the production failed
to provide any episode synopses, character bio’s or publicity information
usually issued for serialised local soaps.
The lack of information from the SABC for the
revamped show prior to its debut tonight raised eyebrows in the TV biz, given
that, according to conventional wisdom, broadcasters usually put a lot of
marketing and publicity power behind new primetime shows in an attempt to reach
potential viewers and to break through the noise.
The soap will have a new title sequence which
echoes that of SABC2's Muvhango and
e.tv's Scandal!: luxury vehicles, tall facades, women in heels
and men in designer suits.
Unanswered questions
Generations The
Legacy
returns with many unaswered and ignored questions. As the biggest TV show on
South African television, the biggest local TV production, the public
broadcaster's biggest revenue earner, Generations
is a bellwether for the local TV biz.
The damage in financial, reputation and image
of the unmanaged implosion behind the scenes has been immeasurable for the
SABC, the actors, the production company and also impacted the local TV
industry.
That the SABC's biggest TV show can suddenly
collapse and disappear off air with no experienced, hands-on and acute SABC top
management intervention was yet another symbolic indicator of the unstable
situation regarding programming the South African public broadcaster finds
itself in.
Irrespective of who's right and who's wrong,
the scandal has revealed the ugly behind-the-truth: how expendable South
African on-screen talent are and how quickly and easily they can be dumped and replaced.
The contracts for the new batch of actors on Generations are no different than those they've replaced.
The contracts for the new batch of actors on Generations are no different than those they've replaced.
The Generations fall-out will also
make other actors, their agents and crew on shows, all think twice – if the
biggest show on TV muscles legacy actors like Sophie Ndaba out who had portrayed
a famous character for over two decades because the actress dares to speak out
and complain, what chance does talent on lesser shows have?
The SABC's Hlaudi Motsoeneng promised in
August that an independent panel would be set up to look at musicians and actors' contracts, employment working conditions, and some of the pressing issues which
were highlighted during the Generations
meltdown mess.
Three months later, and there's been no word since about the
establishment of this panel supposed to check international standards in
dealing with these issues.
The real legacy of Generations The Legacy is that South Africa's on-screen talent in
TV and film are not yet united enough in a strong, consolidated, unionised voice
to act on behalf of and in the interest of actors.
If Generations
can suddenly disappear from the SABC, what does it signal about the SABC's capability
to handle and cope with talent and show disputes and to keep productions going?
And as viewers tune in for Generations as it becomes Generations The Legacy, will viewers
return for a new generation so that the show can reclaim its ratings crown, or
has the SABC's Generations brand been
damaged irreparably?
