We're the problem, it's us.
It has been a long, difficult few days for surf fans of the Oahu North Shore-based lifeguard drama Rescue: HI-Surf after Fox announced it would not be renewed following its freshman season. The stages of grief, each, thoroughly mined. Initial denial quickly gave way to anger which morphed into a deep depression. Finally, though, acceptance as the network revealed that we, you and I, are in fact, to blame.
Michael Thorn, President of Fox Television Network and Fox Entertainment sat down with reporters, recently, to explain, “We went all in on two shows last season — HI-Surf and [the freshman hit] Doc and we’re so proud of the success of Doc. Unfortunately, HI-Surf just didn’t catch on like we had hoped. It just didn’t resonate with our audience the way we needed to be able to return it.”
Yes, while one our, your and my, fingers was initially pointed at Fox, three were pointing right back. We surfers are the reason a show for us, about our heroes in our mecca, was not renewed because we didn’t watch it. Oh how we beg like spoiled children, “Give us authentic surf entertainment, give us authentic surf entertainment, give us authentic surf entertainment!” The powers that be then bend an ear and give us authentic surf entertainment but what do we do?
Ignore it and whinge about something else like Julian Wilson losing to Filipe Toledo at the Gold Coast Pro when he clearly should have won.
To be quite frank, we don’t deserve authentic surf entertainment.
A hard cold truth.
But speaking of Demi Moore, she just revealed that during her iconic return to film in 2003’s Charlie’s Angeles: Full Throttle, she did not want to be shot from behind. “All I remember is begging them not to shoot my butt,” she reminisced with Drew Barrymoore about her now-famous surfing scene. “I don’t know why that was my obsession.”
Essential.