Reality TV > Two Versions of Jail
August 14, 2007
Written by David Morgan
Langley Productions, the folks that so many years ago brought us Cops (now in its 20th season) has created a new documentary-esque program about the insides of the American prison system. But the program has been sold to two different networks under two different names. On CourtTV it will be known as Inside American Jail, on MyNetworkTV it will be dubbed simply Jail, says . The other main difference is that the CourtTV version has an instrumental rock score and looks like every other show on that channel, while the other version features a hip-hop theme by Lil Droppa and "a more urban, gritty wraparound." The idea of the show is to more "realistically" depict prison life than has been done so in the myriad series over the years.
I like the idea of retooling series for different networks. It makes me think of remixes. I'd like to see 24 on the History Channel, with an old fashioned pocket watch ticking the time away instead of the digital clock. Or 60 Minutes on BET with Andy Rooney freestyling about what's bothering him this week. From a marketing standpoint of course it makes a lot of sense to retool series for various demographics, but at the same time it seems rather insulting to suggest that an urban audience won't like or understand a prison reality series if it doesn't have a hip hop score. People can expand their horizons if you put out a quality program. That's the idealist in me maybe, but I understand the motives for this move completely.
