Why, HRTV? Why?
These are dark days for Harvard-Radcliffe Television. First, they gave you Love|Hate, a Harvard version of Best Week Ever that somehow failed to retain any of the positive qualities of Best Week Ever. Now they've applied the same winning formula to that holy of holies, The Daily Show.
We haven't seen any actual episodes of On Harvard Time -- and we fully intend to keep it that way. The five-minute trailer alone, watchable (only in the most literal sense) below, nearly made us pull an Oedipus and reach for the darning needles. A full half hour of this stuff and we'd probably emerge nothing but a mumbling husk, rocking back and forth, eyes distant.
The sad part is, On Harvard Time could have worked. Just look at something like The Onion TV, which gets the tone right. Unfortunately, OHT is a lot closer to Fox's tragic attempt at political satire, The Half Hour News Hour, only without the ideological bent. Sure, experimentation is important. It also takes courage to put yourself out there, especially in the arts. But some dogs -- even puppies like On Harvard Time -- just need to be put down out of mercy.
P.S. -- Negativity is bad for your health. Will someone please e-mail us about some good campus shows?
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April 9th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
So, it’s been a few years, and there’s this whole internet video thing… does that mean anybody at the college actually *watches* HRTV now? When I was there, it was basically shouting into a bottle due to lack of a distribution framework and general student interest. Also, the shows sucked. I’m just wondering if this has changed at all.
April 9th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
they can’t produce a decent television spot…
…we still want to go there…
April 9th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
they can’t produce a decent television spot…
…we still want to go there…
April 9th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
Okay, so you don’t like, but you should probably include some – I don’t know – reasons. Those usually make for better reviews. Just sayin’.
April 10th, 2007 at 12:12 am
Harvard stuff like this ensures that the world will still be able to make fun of Harvard kids for centuries to come.
April 10th, 2007 at 12:37 am
For your information:
(1) According to HRTV.org, “On Harvard Time” will consist of 7 minute long, weekly videos, not half-hour episodes.
(2) To echo another comment, reviews usually include reasons, which yours does not. I think there actually is some promising stuff in the promo, so I don’t know why you’re automatically rejecting it.
April 10th, 2007 at 1:31 am
The reason why HRTV does not succeed is because no one gives shows like this this, that are indeed rough around the edges but clearly have great writers, a great staff, and a lot of promise the benefit of a doubt.
April 10th, 2007 at 1:41 am
I also think this review is unnecessarily harsh (Love|Hate, however, deserves to be bashed incessantly).
Have no connection to HRTV, and probably won’t watch the show when it comes out… but wouldn’t make fun of my friends for watching it.
April 10th, 2007 at 10:04 am
I think the stuff IN this video is decently written, decently funny and (some of it) is delivered quite well. A lot of it suffers from bad editing (the thing packs about 2 minutes of material into a 5 minute box…). All in all though, I think that this shows promise for HRTV.
April 10th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
while im glad that the staff of “On Harvard Time” are commenting and advising us how to be better reviews, it doesn’t change the fact that while well-intended, this show is a piece of shit
April 10th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
Funny parts:
1) Larry Summers approving the selection of Faust because “Taking care of children is what women are good at.”
and
2) Asian reporter giving the international “I’m asian” salute after wondering why people were surprised that she could speak English.
Other than that, the writing was poor. Bad editing and (to a lesser extent) lousy shots are understandable. Bad writing is not.
April 10th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
If you guys think this promo shows promise and they “clearly have great writers,” then we’re all in more trouble than anyone previously thought.
No need for specific reasons why this promo stinks; the promo speaks (stinks) for itself.
April 10th, 2007 at 11:32 pm
There were a few cleverly-written jokes, but the delivery did remind me way too much of “1/2 Hour News Hour”… painful.
April 11th, 2007 at 1:12 am
the asian joke was funny. now, if only they could get past the wooden delivery, 1980s intro music, annoying correspondents, and the jokes that try way too hard. then yeah, there’s some “promising stuff” here.
April 12th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
oh wait, im sorry. i was way too quick to criticize. they made a “dick-in-a-box joke”…this is good comedy!
April 13th, 2007 at 11:24 am
Clearly, all the film majors were smart enough to avoid this home video nonsense. Maybe if some legitimate TV talent were brought on board (ie people who are studying this kind of thing) it wouldn’t look so ass backwards.
Harvard, you’re just on a roll.
April 19th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
you guys are hella dumb
April 19th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
you guys need some MAJOR practice on your delivery