It was only on CBS for a year in 1997 -- it was this wonderful and frequently hysterical children's program that, when I was watching it, I knew I'd have to treasure it because I figured that they would never make another season considering how I came upon viewing it by chance. In a way, it's the perfect successor to the also-wonderful
The Adventures of Pete and Pete, but less, um, whimsical I suppose. The following (taken from BBC's Comedy Guide) describes the show perfectly:
"Bailey Kipper's young age, 11, is belied by his wit and sophistication. His father works at a local TV station and often brings home junked bits of technical equipment for his son to mess around with, for Bailey is an electronics wizard. He constructs an elaborate spy system with which, via miniature cameras he has concealed all over the house and in his family's clothing (and even in the dog's collar), he can record the family's daily activity, creating a video diary of their lives. His viewing area is hidden away in a part of the house he has made inaccessible to the others. Each episode presented the results of Bailey's handiwork as he re-ran recent events in the lives of the Kipper family - mom, dad, little brother Eric and older sister Robin.
Bailey Kipper's P.O.V. was ahead of its time. A year later, two major Hollywood films (The Truman Show and EDtv) explored similar themes, and these were followed by the plethora of Big Brother-type TV shows. Bailey Kipper, of course, was only a children's comedy, yet it had some smart ideas and an ironic edge that gave it broader appeal. The family's antics were sometimes enhanced by Bailey's wild imagination, and at other times by his electronic manipulation of the images. Peppered with clips from old movies and TV shows (a la Dream On) and spliced up with animation and special effects, the show could have been too rich for its own good, but actually it held together very well, with good performances from the precocious youngsters and fine support from the adults. The family set-up was more realistic than in most US children's sitcoms - Mom earned little as a state nurse, and shortage of money was a recurring problem - and the relationships were similar to those in the later smash hit Malcolm In The Middle."
The episodes were fantastic -- my favourites being the ones where Bailey had a crush on his teacher and she ended up coming over to dinner at his house, the episode Bailey was trying to find out who was crushing on him, and the one regarding the deaths of two of his little brother Eric's pets (further on in the episode it was shown that he had a whole pet cemetery in the backyard, and during the funeral Stephen King shows up for a cameo and says, "I wouldn't miss an Eric Kipper pet funeral for anything!" and what made it even greater is that the show actually was set in Bangor, Maine).
― Ian Riese-Moraine: exposing ambitious careerists as charlatans since 1986. (East, Saturday, 18 June 2005 03:33 (twenty years ago)
eight years pass...