In Orwell’s 1984, Smith’s job at the Ministry of Truth was to use scissors to (literally) cut-and-paste “unpersons” from the newspaper archives, filling them in with appropriate stories about the current “in” crowd.
Flash forward to 2001. AOL Time-Warner TBS, Princeton Video Image (PVI), Studio USA, and Dick Wolf have inked a deal to allow PVI to digitally map in product placements to Law & Order reruns once they move from A&E to TNT next month. Want to brand the precinct Coke — I mean, soda machine? Want your logo on Lenny Briscoe’s coffee cup? The sky (and your pocketbook) are the limit.
As a student of history, I have a respect for primary, original sources. One of these days, we’ll never be able to tell what the original of these shows was because it will have been digitally monkeyed around so that there is no original any more. It’s the next step from colorizing films. Next thing you know, you’ll be able to change hair color, manipulate lines, and generally speaking change the whole show around for whomever wants to pay the bill.
Heck, Melissa Gilbert might end up (digitally) playing Rhoda.
Feh.