Euro TV

[moi621 (imported)]

A thread for non American TV.

First Up:

http://tv.yahoo.com/news/norway-plans-1 ... 45166.html

Norway plans 12-hour prime-time TV show of a fireplace

It really doesn't appear so bad.

OSLO (Reuters) - Norwegian public television plans to broadcast a burning fireplace for 12 straight hours from Friday evening, with firewood specialists providing color commentary, expert advice and a bit of cultural tutoring.

"We'll talk about the very nerdy subjects like burning, slicing and stacking the wood, but we'll also have cultural segments with music and poems," Rune Moeklebust, a producer for state broadcaster NRK.

"It will be very slow but noble television."

Moeklebust got the idea for the show from the wild success of a firewood book by Lars Mytting, Norway's biggest firewood celebrity. His book "Hel Ved", which means Strong Character in English, is a play on words because ved also means "firewood".

Mytting, a guest on tonight's broadcast, has sold close to 130,000 copies of the book since last year, a huge number in a country of 5 million people, with his publisher claiming that only "Fifty Shades of Grey" sold more copies during the recent holiday season.

NRK is not new to quirky programming.

In 2011, it broadcast 134 hours non-stop of a cruise ship going up the Norwegian coast to the Arctic, bagging the world record for the longest continuous TV program along the way.

At one point 600,000 people tuned in to watch that program with 3.2 million people, or over 60 percent of the population, glued to the screen at one point.

And an earlier broadcast of an eight hour train journey from Oslo to Bergen was so popular, NRK had to repeat it.

"People in Norway have a spiritual relationship with fire," Moeklebust said. "Fire is the reason we're here, if there was no firewood, we couldn't live in Norway, we'd freeze."

How will the fireplace do in the ratings?

"More people will tune in than on a normal Friday night," Moeklebust said

___________________________________________

I think this show has the stuff of a series.

True "back ground" TV.

The Yule episode would be a good one.

It beats The Honey Boo Boo Christmas special.

[StefanIsMe (imported)]

For years, every December here in Mid / Southern Manitoba, we've been tuning in to a local Winnipeg TV station for the Christmas Yule Log Fireplace.

It's just some dude's fireplace.

Every once in a while, you see an arm poke up the fire or add a log.

There is no commentary, either! Used to play music, but for a few years now, it's just the crackle and pop of the fire. It goes on for WEEKS, most of December, 24/7.

Fun drinking/smoking game:

Predict the next time the arm appears, and for added points, guess the color of the shirt, for The Arm is always attired in (of course!) a flannel, long-sleeved shirt, but it changes frequently.

Last year, some smart guy put out a DVD of "Best Of Yule Log Fireplace", a tounge-in-cheek bit of editing about an hour long, containing every time The Arm dropped the poker, or a log, or caused a huge spark-fest in the fireplace. It sold pretty well, I heard!

[Arab Nights (imported)]

With apologies to our Canadian friends, I have heard Hell defined as an eternal Canadian film festival.

[Paolo]

Yes, A_N, I've heard that too.

And you have to sit next to Celine Dion and Justin Bieber, and watch these films for all eternity, waiting for the "intermission" when one of them will sing.

[StefanIsMe (imported)]

Aww, come on.

We made Porky's* !!!

Of course, we also made the utterly dreadful TV show The Littlest Hobo, but the wierd thing about that is it's hilarious how you can mention that TV show and start whistling the theme song in any small-town, whiskey-sodden bar anywhere across Canada and reduce the biggest 40-year-old flannel-wearing Canucklehead drunk TO TEARS of early television memories.

Which would include eating a snack of Kraft Dinner with maple syrup poured over it (No, no back-bacon, few of us could afford it) while sitting on our green shag rugs, wearing our Hab's PJ's while your brother beats you with his hockey-stick, all while watching a TV show about a dog who solves crimes and almost always invloves some boy who is the only one in town who understands Hobo's honest intentions.

* No kidding! Canadian-made.

[Arab Nights (imported)]

Oh God! Porky's!! All is forgiven! Please continue!

[Riverwind (imported)]

A thread for non American TV.

First Up:

http://tv.yahoo.com/news/norway-plans-1 ... 45166.html

Norway plans 12-hour prime-time TV show of a fireplace

It really doesn't appear so bad.

OSLO (Reuters) - Norwegian public television plans to broadcast a burning fireplace for 12 straight hours from Friday evening, with firewood specialists providing color commentary, expert advice and a bit of cultural tutoring.

"We'll talk about the very nerdy subjects like burning, slicing and stacking the wood, but we'll also have cultural segments with music and poems," Rune Moeklebust, a producer for state broadcaster NRK.

"It will be very slow but noble television."

Moeklebust got the idea for the show from the wild success of a firewood book by Lars Mytting, Norway's biggest firewood celebrity. His book "Hel Ved", which means Strong Character in English, is a play on words because ved also means "firewood".

Mytting, a guest on tonight's broadcast, has sold close to 130,000 copies of the book since last year, a huge number in a country of 5 million people, with his publisher claiming that only "Fifty Shades of Grey" sold more copies during the recent holiday season.

NRK is not new to quirky programming.

In 2011, it broadcast 134 hours non-stop of a cruise ship going up the Norwegian coast to the Arctic, bagging the world record for the longest continuous TV program along the way.

At one point 600,000 people tuned in to watch that program with 3.2 million people, or over 60 percent of the population, glued to the screen at one point.

And an earlier broadcast of an eight hour train journey from Oslo to Bergen was so popular, NRK had to repeat it.

"People in Norway have a spiritual relationship with fire," Moeklebust said. "Fire is the reason we're here, if there was no firewood, we couldn't live in Norway, we'd freeze."

How will the fireplace do in the ratings?

"More people will tune in than on a normal Friday night," Moeklebust said

___________________________________________

I think this show has the stuff of a series.

True "back ground" TV.

The Yule episode would be a good one.

It beats The Honey Boo Boo Christmas special.

Moi, PBS does that here for 24 hours starting Christmas eve through Christmas night every year, for years.

So what is the big deal?

Now in a later post, the Canadian film festival, brilliant.

River

[moi621 (imported)]

I could see "the series" involving different sorts of wood with commentary

then quiet and watch the fire.

PBS is unfair not to treat the Southern California area to a Yule Fire.

We got 3 PBS stations and not one Yule Fire.

Remember Chevy Chase's "European Vacation" and the TV shows demonstrated

as representative of European TV?

[Riverwind (imported)]

Moi, it comes with snow, you don't get that either and that is not PBS's fault either.

River

[moi621 (imported)]

Stephan Colbert caught up to message #1 above.

Highly recommended ! & ! No links you can search it out

Colbert Report 2/20/13 about halfway through the program

unless one can link the skit, Search: Colbert Norway Television fireplace.

Share the link and impression if the skit was worthy to share.