Screams, tears and fights par for the 'Ricki Lake' show
By Laila Faisal
JAKARTA (JP): Imagine a scene in which two people are fighting. They are shouting at each other, trying to be heard over each other. It is obvious they are not listening because they are both talking at the same time. Some bad words are spoken and the occasional tear is spilled.
Does this sound like a private fight, a fight not really meant for the public eye? Well, actually, it's just another day on the Ricki Lake show, which is shown every Monday at 10 p.m. on ANteve.
On this show, people are supposed to go right ahead and spill their guts about their spouses, parents, sons, daughters, friends and whoever else.
Sony Television describes Ricki Lake as a place where "Ricki's trademark compassion, intellect and irresistible charm create an atmosphere where guests and audience members feel comfortable letting it all hang out with absolute candor and some surprising results." And they can do this all on TV, in front of a live audience and watched by millions all around the world.
Ricki Lake premiered five years ago in the U.S. and it has become one of America's favorite talk shows, second only to Oprah. The show is claimed as the fastest-growing talk show in history. Early this year, Nielsen Media Research gave the show an average rating of 4, which is very good, considering that talk shows usually average 1 or 2 (except for Oprah, which averaged 6). As comparison on the same list, X-Files scored 7.2, Xena scored 5.8, and Hercules, the Legendary Journeys scored 4.9.
What is it that makes the show so interesting? Most people would say it is the topics the show presents.
Ricki brings up a number of issues confronting young adults in the 1990s which not only apply to the U.S. but to the rest of the world as well, even Indonesia. In one of her shows, Ricki presented: You're barely out of diapers, how can you have babies? Even though that may sound harsh, no one can deny that the same problem with teenage pregnancies occurs here.
The topics mainly relate to relationships. Ricki doesn't constrain herself to just male/female relationships, she also discusses relationships with parents (Mom, I can make it on my own), with kids (I hate your interracial relationship), with friends (Girlfriend, I slept with your man and I'll do it again), with spouses (We've just got married and we're already in trouble), and even bizarre relationships (Torn between two lovers), which exposed bisexuals juggling affairs with two or three lovers of different genders who say they can't choose who they want to be with.
But not all of Ricki's topics are so earth-shaking. Some can be harmless, like Ricki makes family dreams come true. Or end with the guests smiling blissfully, such as in Ricki, call 911, I'll Faint if I meet my favorite centerfold where the guests meet Playgirl centerfolds.
Sometimes during the show, Ricki will invite an expert to analyze the current situation and suggest how the people should react to a problem or how to solve the problem without having to resort to the seemingly "only way out".
In one show, married couples discuss their frustration with their sex lives. The couples ranged from newlyweds to couples married for more than 10 years. After the show, the couples spent a night in intensive romance counseling with a therapist. They return to the show after the therapy session and revealed how and if their sex lives had changed.
Aside from the varied topics, another thing which makes the show so exciting is that the people who come to the show come as they are. They don't hide behind special visual effects that obscure their faces, or special sound effects that change their voices.
In a similar show produced here (Buah Bibir, on RCTI) all you see of the guest is a black silhouette (which may not even necessarily be the person in question), talking in a voice which has clearly been manipulated. The guests on Ricki Lake are not ashamed to be recognized.
We see the face that goes with the problem, and so we can easily accept that these people are real and that the problems they have are equally as real. In some cases it makes it easier for us to relate to their problems, bringing a little comfort knowing that "we are not alone". Knowing that we are not alone also helps us overcome our problems which might be similar to those on the talk show. We can also benefit from the advice given by an expert without having to go through a therapy session and paying a lot of money for it.
The fact that the people appear so candidly on Ricki Lake brings some doubt as to whether they are "real" or just actors. Before each episode is filmed, an announcer tells the studio audience that, "What you are about to witness is real. These people are not actors." But this statement may reinforce the belief that these shows were staged.
Despite this doubt, Ricki Lake is loved by millions around the world, and that is all that matters in showbiz. If nobody watched the show, then it would not have made it this far. Airing daily from Monday through Friday in the U.S., it celebrated its 1,000th episode on May 29, and there is no sign that Ricki wants to put the mike down just yet.