Did anyone see this or hear about it? Tonight, while aimlessly driving down the road to yet another baseball game AND practice - both on the same night, and across town from each other - I heard a commercial for this TV show - Black Gold. OK, so I was using my fair share of the bubbling crude to get me from point A to point B, but I was still surprised that this is a real, honest to goodness show. A TV show that glamorizes the "tough guy life" of drilling for oil?!?!? With a tag line of "2 miles deep or 6 feet under!" BLECH! Here is what the producer has to say:"Drilling for oil … is fascinating and dangerous at the same time," truTV executive vice president Marc Juris says. "When we looked at the characters, the stakes and how relevant this world is, in terms of the role oil plays in our lives, it hit on a lot of emotional targets."
He doesn't believe hostility to high oil prices will transfer to the roughnecks and drillers. "They represent what this country is all about," he says. Black Gold "is about American oil, not about being dependent on foreign oil."
Am I wrong to be a little outraged? All of the money, time and resources devoted to making a TV show about the one thing we really need to be cutting back on makes me a little ill. Where are the thrilling and dangerous shows about suburban moms struggling to go green? How about a series devoted to drama and suspense of what is happening at the local recycling centers? Shoot, I know people who don't even know how to use the free bin the township hands out to be used for recyclables, an episode about the little blue bin could be riveting for them!
Or, maybe I am just tired and a little grouchy? After all day packing drinks in reusable water bottles, washing out returnable glass milk containers and running my errands using my canvas tote bags the last thing I want to do tonight is watch a show about freakin' oil - American or otherwise!
