MS. CRANKY ON A POSITIVE NOTE ABOUT, OF ALL THINGS, A TV SHOW!

Ms. CRANKY is a bit of a snob about TV but she does, in fact, own one though she knows that that is not exactly the ‘in’ trend these days.   And, she picks and chooses what she watches and marks up her TV Guide she gets in the Sunday paper.  If there’s nothing really good on, she’d rather read or cook.  (Of course, she should clean!)

So, when Ms. CRANKY saw one of those magazine shows called ‘What Would You Do?’ she turned up her nose --- ‘what is this ‘Candid Camera’ for the 2000s,’ she thought?   How silly.  She would never be caught watching it.

But, then one night, CRANKY came upon the show and turned around in her thinking.  Because she likes human beings and, as you know, she very much loves when they behave well.  So, this show has actors acting unpleasantly to one another in a public place; then, there is a secret camera or cameras somewhere picking up the reactions of ordinary people around them and often those people rise up and confront the offending parties.  It touches Ms. CRANKY’S cranky old heart and gives her hope for us all.

Ms. CRANKY recalls one segment that spoke to her where a woman (an actor) berated her daughter (an actor) in a department store for ‘not being attractive enough, for being fat, etc.’ It was a most painful segment for Ms. CRANKY to watch but, then, these good people began sneaking up and talking to the daughter and giving her encouragement and even telling her she was beautiful.  It was enough to break Ms. CRANKY’S pushover heart.  Then, the host, John Quinones, a very low-keyed affable guy, arrives on the scene and tells everybody what happened --- that the mother and daughter were actors, etc. and tries to find out why some people were brave enough to intervene and some not?

So, last Friday night Ms. CRANKY saw ‘What Would You Do?’ in the TV listings, and boldly turned it on, the first time she’d seen the show noted in a while and she found some very moving episodes --- a very drunk father about to get in his car with his young son and a drunk father about to let his son, 11 years old, drive etc. and people on the street actually physically stopped him from doing that.

And, a young worker in a supermarket was being verbally brow-beaten by his boss and people walked up and encouraged him and told him he was doing a fine job and some went and reported the unpleasant boss to the owner.

Hey, it makes CRANKY smile to think that there are people still out there who care and are willing to risk putting themselves on the line for another human being.  Congratulations on a very pleasant and revealing show.  It ran on Friday evening last week and probably will again this week.

Hey, Ms. CRANKY thanks you, as always, for stopping by and hopes you have a good and positive week. 

 Monday, January 23, 2012