Student TV Provides Experience, Entertainment, Camaraderie
By Geoff Wessel
Staff Writer
For most students, “General College” —a soap opera on
Student Television - might not take precedence over reruns
of “Dawson’s Creek” as an evening’s entertainment.
“We like to think people watch us,” said Station Manager
Rick Ward of the student-run station, which airs 11 original
shows weeknights on campus cable Channel 22. “About 1
percent of undergraduates are members of STV, so we can
assume they and their friends watch.”
For the more than 150 writers, actors and directors who
create this and other shows, STV means much more than
a five-minute break from channel surfing.
“We have all kinds of people,” Ward said. “Everyone has
a lot of fun here, obviously, or they wouldn’t do it. There
are no paying positions, it’s all volunteer work, and every
one has a lot of fun.
“A lot of people come in just to learn the equipment and
they end up staying because they like the atmosphere.”
Junior communications studies major Kara Mannix
works as both cast and crew on several shows.
“I want to go into film,” she said. “I think (STV has) been
a lot of experience. It’s where you learn to tell a story with
pictures, more than you would ever learn in any class.”
Ward said the entertainment-focused shows, which
include the “COPS” parody “STV-PD” and the sketch com
edy revue “Off the Cuff,” tend to be a hit with those stu
dents who tune in.
“The feedback we’ve gotten has been almost universal
ly positive,” Ward, a senior communications studies major,
said. “The comment we get most often is ‘I watched the
show last night, and boy was it funny!’"
But some reactions to STV haven’t been so enthusiastic.
Last spring, some student body president candidates and
their supporters criticized the producers of “Feedback Live,”
a popular call-in show that was handling STV’s student
body elections coverage.
Alex Mehfar, campaign manager for Student Body
President Brad Matthews, said then that STV officials did
not allow him access to the room where results were being
announced. The elections were a hectic time for all con
cerned, including the crew of “Feedback Live,” who were
confronted with technical difficulties that caused major
delays in the release of results.
STV Yuks It Up on Sketch Comedy Set
By Justin Winters
Staff Writer
Student Television can be very
strange.
That was the first thing to come to
mind as junior Rob Manuel, producer
of STV’s longest-running show, the skit
comedy program “Off the Cuff,” greet
ed me after recendy filming a skit in the
homey confines of the bottom of Lenoir.
“I just want to know one thing,” he
said as he shook my hand and wiped a
smiley face off his other hand simulta
neously. “Did you think it was funny?”
“Very interesting,” I replied, with the
knowledge that my journalistic ethics
should always keep me stonefaced and
serious.
On this rainy Saturday, Manuel, his
hand and two apparendy ready-for-any
thing actors were filming a skit revolv
ing around an extremely strange double
date. I was there with the mission of
infiltrating an STV taping and giving
the lowdown on what makes the talent
ed group behind the camera tick.
The skit, which Manuel said he had
written over the summer, evolved out
of a humorous discussion on dating he
had with a friend. Many of STV’s skits
are bom out of its group meetings,
which use a democratic method of pick
ing out the funny and weeding out the
lame.
When I arrived at Lenoir, the trio of
STVers and a cameraman were going
over a scene in which freshman Sarah
Culp complains to her date about the
creepy guy across the table (Manuel)
with a smiiey face drawn on his hand.
“This is not a double date,” she said,
But the elections are old news, and with a history of
strong growth, Ward said he is excited about the station’s
future.
“I’d like to see STV continue to grow,” Ward said. “I’d
like us to serve the students more.
“Right now we don’t have a whole lot of involvement
with student groups. I’d like to see that change."
He said STV is saving money for a remote camera sys
tem, which he hopes the station will acquire within the next
two years. The system will enable the televising of more
events, a goal that junior Charlotte Stewart said she admires.
“I get a kick out of seeing (STV) on campus,” Stewart
said. “They should televise campus events like Di-Phi
debates as well as community interest stories like the
Chapel Hill Museum and new businesses on Franklin
Street.”
STV’s program lineup has grown steadily since its found
ing by five students in 1983, Ward said.
“STV Presents,” the station’s first program, premiered
that fall. The show was a hit, Ward said, even though it was
only shown in the Student Union. By 1987 production had
begun on other shows, including “Off the Cuff,” which is
still running today.
As STV’s lineup has grown, so has its audience. Cable
television’s 1998 arrival on campus radically expanded
STV’s audience. The station can also be seen weeknights on
Chapel Hill cable Channel 4.
Ward said he hopes one day STV will be shown in
Carrboro, but that this will have to wait until Time-Wamer
upgrades the cable system there.
With beginning of anew academic year and STV season,
the casts and crews of various shows have spent much of the
past few weeks looking to the future and working to recruit
new members. Ward said this year’s incoming freshman
class showed a lot of enthusiasm.
“At our general interest meeting I almost felt like a game
show host,” he said. “I was trying to hype up the crowd. In
the last two or three years, interest has grown incredibly.”
Ward said STV is still looking for new members. “We’re
not a club you have to join at the beginning and stay for four
years. People determine their own level of involvement and
of course what they get out of it is what they put into it.”
The Arts & Entertainment Editor
can be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.
MM
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as Manuel
watched carefully.
“He has a smiley
face on his hand.
It keeps staring at
me.”
As onlooking
Lenoir employees
strolled by with
their eyebrows
arched, the group
went over the
scene several
times, each one a
twinge different
from the next.
Freshman David
Doll, who could
successfully dou
ble for radio per
sonality Casey
Kasem, was hav
ing trouble with
his last few lines.
“Find your
cave, find your
spirit animal,”
DTH/KATE MELLNIK
Working at STV gives students valuable television experience, including
camera operation, production techniques and screenwriting skills.
Manuel joked as the actors set the scene
up again.
“Okay, let’s do it one more time just
for kicks and giggles."
After scoring another take, Manuel
suggested that the other actors take a
break while he filmed a scene with his
five-fingered date.
“OK, I need just a long shot of me
arguing with the hand, and then, a good
close-up after that,” he said.
As Culp tried her best not to giggle
uncontrollably, Manuel got in a fight,
with the hand (which spoke in a Yoda
ish voice) about his cheating ways.
“Who is she, huh?” his hand yelled
as a small crowd, some of which were
parents being shown around by their
college-aged children, assembled near
the Chick-Fil-A booth.
Once the scene was finished, the pro
ducers, actors and the cameraman all
headed upstairs to eat as Manuel
washed his hand.
“What do you think about the magic
of filmmaking?” he asked Culp.
Culp was still noticeably disturbed
by my presence as she wrapped every
thing up and approached the escalator.
“You were watching us the whole
Thursday, September 7, 2000
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PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY SALEEM RESHAMWALA
STV's Lance Brown, Chris Dovichak, Matt Barker and Sara Culp (left to right)
pose for a scene from the opening sequence to the horror series "Darkness Falls."
time,” she said, as I revealed the pur
pose behind my standing around
watching a guy yell at his hand. “You
must have thought we were crazy.”
Maybe, but what other people think
doesn’t matter that much to the crew at
STV.
“We’re truly our biggest fans,"
Manuel said. “We’re all just one big
family.”
The next shoot would have to wait
until after lunch.
The Arts & Entertainment Editor can
be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.
Crack That Whip Amanda Peet (below)
pounds a few philandering playboys into
shape in the new romantic comedy
“Whipped." -I*# 6
PAGE 5
UNC's own TV network
creates and broadcasts
original programming
x|lplL Prime Time
Tune in to campus cable Channel 22 or Chapel Hill cable Channel 4 for
,1.777 TTotT- • some must-see TV brought to you by fellow University students.
■ 6 p.m. Classic “Off the Cuff" Repeats of the station's popular
sketch comedy show from years gone by.
■ 6:30 p.m. Classic "General College" Reruns of last year's
enthralling soap opera installments.
■ 7 p.m. “Tar Heel Focus" Conventional news program with in-depth
reports on student issues.
■ 7:30 p.m. "Sports Xtra" Campus athletics spotlight goes beyond
football and basketball.
■ 8 p.m. "Center Ring" Showcases independent student productions.
■ 8:30 p.m. Programming Guide What's on and when.
■ 9 p.m. “The Suite Life" Sitcom set on South Campus.
■ 9:30 p.m. "General College” All-new installments of the titillating
campus soap opera.
■lO p.m. Show of the Week An assorted grab bag of STV delights.
■ 10:30 p.m. "Six-Fifty" Get the scoop on new movies in a film
review show named for the going Chapel Hill movie ticket price.
■ll p.m. "Off the Cuff" New episodes of the wacky sketch comedy.
■ 11:30 p.m. "Darkness Falls" Creepy! A dark, bloody,
supernaturally tinged drama anthology in the "Outer Limits' vein.
■ Midnight "R.A.V.E." Kooky! Random Acts of Violent
Entertainment. It's just like having HBO.
■ 12:30 a.m. "STV-PD" —The original reality television "COPS" gets
parodied, with special emphasis on violence and profanity.
SOU™ I sn ’ DTH/CAROUNE GOBBLE