Direk Joey: ABS-CBN should change gears

It’s about time ABS-CBN shifts gears after what it went through in the Wowowee stampede. So thinks director Joey Javier Reyes in his capacity as creative consultant of Sharon Cuneta’s comeback show in the station airs every Sunday night after Rated K.

"Dole-outs foster a mendicancy attitude," direk Joey explains. "We want to teach people to help themselves first." In trademark Joey Reyes fashion, he adds, "We can’t expect government to help the masses, anyway."

And so Sharon will focus on positive stories like a Pasay-based traffic enforcer who sells balut on the side and thereby sending all his children to school. The enterprising guy will be portrayed as a modern-day hero, the type the masses can identify with and take a cue from.

"We want to prove that positive shows like ours are not just panaceas," direk Joey goes further. They can actually change people’s attitudes and their lives in the long run.

And who else can be the epitome of things good and beautiful than the show’s host herself? Sharon will train the spotlight less on herself, and more on the common tao and the show’s other mainstays, former PBB housemate Uma Khouny and newcomer Jaymee Joaquin will track down in the busy streets of Manila.

Uma and Jaymee will go where Sharon – easily one of the most-mobbed celebrities hereabouts – cannot. The two can go to crowded Bambang for instance, and look for the most successful vendor there. Or they can stalk the streets at night and corner an unsuspecting balut vendor for the show.

Episode two of Sharon, in fact, will go to the Juan de la Cruz’ favorite haven for used but fashionable clothes – UK, er the ukay-ukay.

The possibilities excite direk Joey no end.

"We want to deal with common issues people can identify with. We want to erase the mentality that rich people are obliged to help the poor. That would be life-affirming," he points out, a lilt in his voice.

He’d like to think too, that the new show will be something like Oprah Winfrey’s: uplifting, inspiring and most of all, powerful. At the same breath, direk Joey vows that predictability – that scourge of many a show after many seasons have passed – will never happen to Sharon.

Of the many ideas the staff has tossed around, two are ready for implementation. One is about people leading double lives. Dante Balboa (remember him as a bold star), for instance, will be seen in a new light as the show zeroes in on what he does as professor at Far Eastern University.

Opposition Rep. Chiz Escudero and Presidential Chief of Staff Michael Defensor, who would normally look at each other with suspicion, will sit side- by-side as they discuss their hobbies. They will forget their differences for that one brief moment and talk about their pastimes: vintage cars in Escudero’s case, and the playstation where Defensor is concerned.

The softer side of these otherwise hard-nosed politicians is calculated to keep eyes glued on the set and give these guests a more human face. They will even end up appearing more accessible to the masa this way.

This will not necessarily end our bickerings and eco-political problems, but it will at least make life a little more bearable for us.