THE CHIMP CHANNEL
by Hope Walker, founder of "Primates Online," an Internet site
dedicated to primate protection
On June 10th, the US-based Turner Broadcasting Station (TBS) premiered
The Chimp Channel. The program is a half-hour, 15-episode series which
TBS bills as Show Business Meets Monkey Business. According to TBS,
the theme of the series is to "chronicle life at an all-ape cable television
network."
The premiere episode featured chimpanzees and orangutans dressed up
in various costumes, wearing wigs, with their faces contorted in pseudo-human
expressions, with a slightly grainy voice-over spouting half-baked jokes
with pathetic sexual undertones.
The Chimp Channel is a bizarre twist in the usual programming
on TBS. TBS generally features film and sports.
TBS also airs National Geographic Explorer, as well as hundreds
of other award-winning natural history documentaries. TBS claims that the
reason for producing the series is the popularity of its previous Monkey-ed Movies - television shorts (short films) in which chimpanzees "acted"
out scenes from hit films such as Titanic.
Senior Vice-President of Original Programming at TBS, Jim Head, told
The Hollywood Reporter on 10 June:
We are now creating original programming that fits the personality
of the network...For original series, it's fun, unique, contemporary programming that brands our network as an entertainment leader.
I find Mr. Head's sense of humor rather strange! The Chimp Channel
is in my opinion a poorly-written, novice attempt at a comedy series and nothing about the program is funny - in fact most of the dialogue insults the intelligence of the viewing public.
The Post & Courier (Charleston, SC) says the series "takes
another evolutionary step - backward," while the Los Angeles Times called the show "unabashedly lowbrow."
Aside from the lack of humor, The Chimp Channel uses young chimpanzees and orangutans as its main actors.
As I watched the premier episode I began to wonder who was watching
out for their welfare and who was supplying and "training" the apes. I
have worked in television in the recent past and I know exactly how hot,
stressful, and truly tough film work really is. So my first question was,
"Who is on set to protect the chimpanzees and orangutans and watch out
for their welfare?"
I learned that the only "watchdog" is the American Humane Association
(AHA). According to its literature:
[AHA is] the only organization authorized by the entertainment industry
to monitor the use of animals in film and Television production per Screen
Actors Guild (SAG) Producers Codified Agreement.
AHA has lengthy guidelines for use of animals in entertainment, but
there are no special guidelines for primates.
Karen Rosa, AHA's media representative, told me that AHA representatives
are on set when The Chimp Channel is being filmed. The trouble with
this is that most training does not occur on the set, so the AHA representative present could possibly miss observing the majority of training that takes place off-set.
Rosa told me that productions which do not treat the animals well on
the set are denied the AHA "end credit" in the film. I don't know about
you, but when the end credits are running in the movie theater, I'm putting
my jacket on and moving toward the door along with everyone else.
Knowing a bit about the training techniques used for entertainment animals, I also began to look into who was training the animals. Bob Dunn's Animal Services is listed on the program credits. In a 1988 interview with a Los Angeles Times reporter Dunn was quoted as saying:
In zoos animals get bored to death. But these guys love working -
it makes them twice as smart. They get to go places and see things...
Dunn's maintains a website at www.animalservices.com which contains
photos of many of his performing animals.
Jane Goodall recently commented about The Chimp Channel:
I am sad and disappointed that this station, which has been such
a great supporter of wildlife and the environment, is now backing the use
of chimps and other apes in entertainment.
WHAT CAN WE DO?
Rumor has it that TBS has had a great deal of positive feedback about
The Chimp Channel. We need to let TBS know that not everyone thinks that
using chimpanzees and orangutans for entertainment is a great idea (or
even a good one). Please send comments to:
Gerald Levine, Chairman
Time Warner
75 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10019 USA
Bill Burke, President
TBS Superstation
1050 Techwood Drive N.W.
Atlanta, GA 30318, USA
