TVB Wants Jessica Hsuan and Michael Tao Back
As part of TVB’s efforts to rejuvenate its drama unit, Assistant General Manager Felix To (杜之克) has unveiled plans to invite many talented former TVB cast and crew to rejoin the television station, using substantial financial incentives.
The former crew members likely to be approached include producer Chu Gang Kay (朱鏡祺) who created the iconic character, Laughing (played by Michael Tse 謝天華) in E.U. <學警狙擊>; scriptwriter Choi Ting Ting (蔡婷婷) who wrote the TVB dramas that became classics, Beyond the Realm of Conscience <宮心計> and Forensic Heroes <法證先鋒>; as well as another scriptwriter Lau Choi Wan (劉彩雲) who wrote the iconic character, Ah Wong (played by Roger Kwok 郭晉安) in Square Pegs <戇夫成龍>.
Felix further revealed that in terms of artistes, he has already managed to convince Gallen Lo (羅嘉良), Irene Wan (溫碧霞), Adia Chan (陳松伶) and Monica Chan (陳法蓉) to return to TVB. He added, “I really hope that others like Jessica Hsuan (宣萱), Michael Tao (陶大宇), Amy Chan (陳秀雯) and Sheren Tang (鄧萃雯) – all these extremely experienced actors – will also re-join TVB!”
On his name being specifically mentioned by Felix, Michael said, “If it’s true, I will be happy to work together again! I have faith in myself and also faith in the television channel. At this stage, I care a lot about the script and whom I will be acting opposite.”
Jessica also remarked, ‘I will be very happy to work with cast and crew that I am familiar with, just like my experience in The Hiddens <隱世者們>. My door is wide open, and I am very receptive to TVB’s advances, as long as I’m happy with the script as well as the people that I’ll be working with.”
Source: Oriental Daily
This article is written by Jingles for JayneStars.com.
Ohhhhhh would love to see a Michael and Jessica pairing! would love to see Kenix and Amy Kwok bsck too!!!!
@happybi i like amy chan 陳秀雯, michael tao, nick cheung and his wife Esther kwan.
@janet72
Ohhh yes, I love Amy Chan as well.
She is one of those veterans stars that seem to age well and knows how to act.
I hope so… still hoping seeing Michael in another Detective Investigation or File of Justice… Bobby, Michael, Jessica, Bowie… the golden era’s of 90’s miss those times. I sure hope TVB will finally step up and give these actors and actress for what they deserve.
Hmmm….what a coincidence. Ricky Wong just announced on Stephen Chan’s CRHK radio show yesterday that HKTV is planning on producing series again as soon as their production studio in Tseung Kwan O is completed in 2017 – and that he is planning to recruit HKTV’s former artists (such as Catherine Chau and Alan Luk, who attended the radio event to support Ricky Wong and HKTV) and production team (which included Chu Kang Kei, Choi Ting Ting, Lau Choi Wan, among others) back to work for him. HKTV still doesn’t have their license yet and there’s no telling whether they will even get one — but after what HKTV went through the past 4 years and Ricky Wong laying low on the producing series thing for so long, for him to make that announcement now, something must’ve happened. (And with ViuTV coming into the mix next month and the possibility of ATV finding another way to ‘reincarnate’ — which will probably be confirmed by April 1st – plus LeTV, Netflix, Fox, and the other potential new player(s) whose applications are pending….looks like TVB is starting to feel the pressure.) If HKTV does make a comeback, I’m definitely supporting! The TV war is on again!!!
@llwy12 highly doubt HKTV will make it… 1st attempt was a total fail, their online service aka netflix copycat a total failure, what will guaranteed their success only if HK will give them a license for a try out.
@vodka I wouldn’t go so far as to say HKTV was a “total failure” – the only thing they “failed” at was obtaining a license….everything else they were actually “successful” in. As a matter of fact, I would even say they ‘trumped’ TVB in almost all areas that mattered – i.e. scripts, casting, production value (series quality), audience interaction and support, treatment of artists (including salary, attitude, and just overall respect), work hours， creative freedom, organizational structure, work environment, management camaraderie with staff, customer service (this one I’m speaking from personal experience interacting with HKTV customer service people vs TVB ones), sincerity, etc. (the list goes on and on and on). Sure, they had some problems with their online platform at times, but the way they went about fixing the issues right away and keeping audiences informed every step of the way – well, let’s just say we would never get that type of service from TVB, that’s for sure.
Guaranteed success or not is too early to tell at this point. But I think all true supporters of the HK television industry would be open to having more ‘competitors’ because that’s the only way the industry will remain healthy and get out of its current stagnant state. It’s been proven time and time again over the past 4 decades that TVB is usually the most on top of its game when they feel pressure from competitors, regardless of whether that competitor is ‘successful’ overall or not (there are many instances of this historically looking back at RTV/ATV vs TVB – there was an article that did a good recap of this a few days ago – and even as recently as 3 years ago at the height of the HKTV vs TVB fight). I don’t know about you guys, but I personally welcome it!
@llwy12
i hope you’re right. hktv is really awesome! don’t know why ricky wong decided to make drama again. i thought he said he wasn’t going to make any until he has a license. he put all his money into making drama.
@m0m0 Well, technically he didn’t put ALL his money into making dramas. I think the general public and media have been underestimating his wealth as well as his ability to bounce back from even the most dismal of situations. At the end of the day, Ricky Wong is an experienced businessman who has built successful companies from scratch – pretty sure he knows what he is doing from a financial and business standpoint. Yes, HKTV has been posting losses every quarter (in fact, just saw a report yesterday where Ricky Wong said that HKTV booked a significant increase of 200% in losses in 2015 versus 2014 due to what happened on the media side of things…his e-commerce business is doing well, but still in its early stages so he won’t see a return on investment with that just yet) – but that doesn’t necessarily mean Ricky Wong is out of money. My concern isn’t really about the money but rather whether he will maintain the same operating practices he did previously once filming does resume (IF it does), as that was really what made HKTV so much better than TVB and would’ve given them their best chance at success if they had gotten a license back then.
@llwy12
How will Ricky show the new series? Online again? The older generation does not know how to watch series like that. Will he be making any historical/ancient/wu xia series? Just modern series alone can get very boring regardless of how good they are. Luckily I can turn to China for good quality ancient series.
@hetieshou Ricky Wong didn’t give details, so not sure. It’s possible he might just be throwing the resuming series production thing out there right now due to everything that has been going on in the TV industry currently — he might not even have solid plans yet, since HKTV’s new studio won’t be completed until 2017 anyway, so it’s still a ways off.
On a related note: You guys should watch this – it’s the CRHK radio show I was referring to in my earlier post. Stephen Chan did a special edition of his “On a Clear Day” radio program where he invited the ‘higher ups’ from the main TV players (minus TVB of course) to discuss the HK television industry and also their future plans. He also invited representatives from the HK Advertising Association to get their take on the TV industry from an advertising and sponsorship standpoint. Those invited include: LeTV (now LeEco) CEO Mok Chui Tin, HKTV chairman Ricky Wong, former ATV chairman Ip kar Bo, and ViuTV’s CEO Lofai Lo.
This should give an idea of what TVB is up against in the coming months/year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXAu3Hi4-gk
@llwy12
Why did he not invite TVB? Or maybe he invited, but, TVB declined.
@kidd TVB was invited – they just declined, claiming they had to attend Filmart and couldn’t make it (though others who went also had to go to Filmart, but they still went). Judging by a lot of the stuff that came out of that ‘discussion forum’ though, I can kind of see why TVB would not want to attend – I honestly don’t think that Mark Lee would’ve been capable of handling some of the sharp questions that were asked at the forum (though I would’ve been interested in hearing what TVB came up with to defend themselves over the advertising thing, given what HK4As Raymond Ho said about TVB ‘monopolizing’ the TV advertising industry too…plus TVB’s stance that competition is not good and does not bring improvement – words that came directly out of Mark Lee’s mouth in a speech that he had given, an excerpt of which was aired during the program).
By the way…for those who might not have time to watch (the program IS close to 2 hours, so quite lengthy), I’m doing recaps on my blog (http://llsmusings.blogspot.com/2016/03/crhk-radio-program-on-clear-day-special.html?m=0), plus we have a discussion thread on it in AF (http://afspot.net/forum/topic/770547-city-telecom-hk-limited-cti-hktv-discussion-forum/)…but I do recommend watching the entire program if you can though, as a lot of fascinating stuff comes out of it and it is VERY informative.
@hetieshou
He could sell it to other station to air. Many production houses don’t have their own TV station. They sold their finished product to the TV stations to air.
Plus, they can try their online channel again with better technology. They did the first one in a hurry and there were many bugs. The second time would be better. If LetTV and Netflix can success, they can too. Of, can they sell their dramas to Netflix or LetTV?
@llwy12 Yes! Yes! Yes! I want The Election 2! That cliffhanger ending has been driving me crazy since it aired. I will continue to support HKTV whether they will succeed or fail! Because at least they are trying hard, whereas ATV just gave up and expected ratings to fall from the sky!
@elizabeth Well, unfortunately depends what those artists and behind-the-scenes people are doing now and whether they already returned to TVB or not. Ricky Wong actually made a pretty lofty statement about his confidence that his former team will go back to him, but with many of them having already returned to TVB (including both The Election’s scriptwriter and producer Benny Wong and KK Wong), it’s not certain how many are willing to jump ship again. But for those who haven’t gone back to TVB yet (like the ones mentioned in this article – Chu King Kei, Lau Choi Wan, Choi Ting Ting, etc.), this may affect their decision. Also, there are a few who for sure will return to HKTV (such as Jimmy Luk, Alex Pao, Poon Man Hung, etc.) as they had already said that they are just waiting for Ricky Wong to call them.
Unfortunately, I doubt we will ever see season 2 of The Election – if anything, the likelihood of a movie version being produced is higher than season 2 coming out, especially if The Menu movie version is successful. Oh, speaking of The Menu movie, there was a press conference for the movie at Filmart as well – Greg, Kate, and Catherine were in attendance among a few others (Catherine sure is busy, lol – she’s got 2 movies coming out with Heaven in the Dark on 3/24 and The Menu, which is tentatively scheduled for 7/1 release). The movie is going through post-production right now and Greg said they might need to re-film some of the scenes in order to make sure the movie is most current by the time it releases in the summer.
I think TVB should invest more in their young, rising star talent by requiring them to complete an acting training class or something. I believe it still exists and it’s interesting and funny at the same time that some artists go through it and others don’t.
Not that veterans aren’t good, but they seem come and go as they wish and TVB can’t always rely on them forever. Sheren has been back and gone again and again and there always seems to be some kind of drama going. It’s either TVB doesn’t value it’s people or rumors like artists overvaluing themselves and acting like a diva. It a lot of work for only a one time gig when they should be investing in their young talent, who usually signs on with them for at least 8-10 years.
There’s also that trend when TVB is faster at promoting their females than male, resulting in so many large age gap couples. Let’s not think too far back, but Short End of the Stick demonstrates this all the way. Wayne, Power, Raymond are all in their late 40’s and early 50’s and Nancy, Grace, and Rosina are all in their thirties and late twenties, respectively. It’s entire 3 generations of stars all mixed into one.
TVB really hasn’t created any fan-worthy or cute couples in too many years. Raymond and Tracy were very physically compatible in K9 Cops.
@ladykriselle I think that TVB has the young talent but has pushed them aside to let prettier faces take the leading roles. Though some pageant winners are pretty good, but most really need encouraging and training on how to express themselves. Does TVB still have acting classes?
As for the female and male age disparity, TVB did try to promote the 30’s age group like Raymond Lam, Bosco, Ron, Sammul, etc.. but all the males have left or about to leave for greener pastures up north. TVB have very bad working conditions that have pushed their stars away.
@ladykriselle Yeah. They should promote those youngsters with acting skills instead of only pageant winners. Maybe let them audition for the role, instead of just throwing roles at those pageant winners.
@ladykriselle TVB does have acting training classes, it’s still going on. There are lot of actors in TVB now who are graduates from those training classes but they mostly play small and minor roles in dramas. People like Matthew Ho (he played the role of younger Alan in the drama M Club) and there are few other actors who graduated from training classes who only get to play minor or supporting roles too. I think they should put all their young rising talents in playing supporting or smaller roles in dramas too. People like Grace, Sisley, Jeanie, Moon Lau etc and all those beauty pageant winners. Even back then pageant winners and well-known actors now such as Stephen Chow, Sean Lau, Tony Leung all started out playing minor roles in TVB before they were given lead roles in dramas. Nowadays TVB is all about just pushing the new talents into lead roles for their first dramas and don’t even bother with the training.
@janice “Nowadays TVB is all about just pushing the new talents into lead roles for their first dramas and don’t even bother with the training.”
That’s actually a new strategy that Sandy Yu started when she took over the variety department. In the past, the pageant winners WERE put through a ‘crash course’ training class (I think it was a 3 month course or something like that) where they at least learned the basics. Of course, can’t compare to the classes from the 70s and 80s where it was pretty much like going to school, with an application and selection process, in-depth coursework, on-site training, a final project that needed to be completed in order to graduate, etc. TVB basically got desperate due to the massive exodus of leading artists and so decided the quickest way would be to just forego the crash course completely and put those pageant winners in series as quickly as possible. Obviously another bad decision by TVB.
@llwy12 Yes I think they are the ‘crash course’ kind of training class you’ve mentioned. I just remember seeing it in a TVB interview or show of the class and the people in it and saw Matthew Ho in there along with some other actors that I see playing small and minor roles in TVB dramas now from time to time. They had actors like Louisa So and Dan Gor (not sure what his English name is) to teach the class how to act and etc. 3 months may not be long enough but at least it’s good training to get the basics down. Yes, nothing compares to those real audition training classes back in the 70’s and 80’s. I think the only good ones that came out from the 2000 training class was maybe Tavia Yeung. Tavia never joined the pageant competition or singing contests or model cover girl and etc. She joined TVB through the training class and started out playing minor and supporting roles before getting bigger roles too and look where she’s at now. Not to mention she also received her awards in order and not like other actors/actresses who jump from like most improved to suddenly winning best actress award. She really climbed her way up in TVB to get to where she is now and I think it’s fair enough that she got the right training she needed and she definitely deserves those awards.
I was very disappointed that Grace won most improved actress last year. Soon in less than 5 years she might even win best actress award which I don’t think she deserves it but TVB is big on promoting her. And sadly there isn’t any good competitions for best actress now that all the old TVB queens have left the company.
@janice Yea…3 months is definitely better than not getting any training at all. Of course not expecting TVB to go back to the full year intensive training course, since they stopped doing those back in the mid-80s, but at the very least, put everyone through a 3 month or 6 month course to get some basics.
About the current acting classes – yes, TVB is still doing them, but not consistently every year…and format is different too – the classes are not as in-depth as they were in the past. And I don’t know how else to put this, but the current team of people who run TVB and oversee the acting classes obviously don’t have their heads screwed on right, as they’ve been putting artists through classes but not utilizing them the way they should be – instead, they choose to promote the pageant winners who have practically zero acting training (and I’m sorry, but having someone ‘visit’ and ‘sit in’ on a random class or two does NOT count as acting training– that’s essentially what TVB had Grace Chan, Sisely Choi, Gloria Tang, Veronica Shiu, etc. do…not sure what the intention was…so they can ‘claim’ that they ‘did’ attend acting class?) It’s kind of sad, but if we look at the list of acting class graduates from like 2001 to now, I would roughly estimate that 95% (being very conservative here) of those graduates are either still playing kelefe roles or 3rd/4th/5th/6th level roles (basically anything other than first-line lead roles) – if you factor out all those who already left TVB or are doing primarily non-acting related roles (hosting, singing, behind-the-scenes stuff, etc.), the number is more like 98%. Honestly….what’s the point of even doing the acting classes if you’re just going to promote/give all the opportunities to the ones who didn’t go through the classes and leave the ones who did forever stuck in kelefe world? In comparisons, the previous management teams from the 70s/80s did a way better job in this area (just need to look at how many of those artists either became big stars or ‘household name- type’ supporting artists not long after they graduated and you’ll see the difference).
I did liked MR and thought BtRoC boring. It’s not just talented vets they need, they also have to work on their script, update old philosophy, and breath in some fresh concepts into their drama.
@jjwong
Well said and I agree that it is not just old talented vets they need, they need to work on many other things in order to produce better quality dramas.
“He added, “I really hope that others like Jessica Hsuan (宣萱), Michael Tao (陶大宇), Amy Chan (陳秀雯) and Sheren Tang (鄧萃雯)”
I’m happy that Amy Chan’s name is mentioned. She has been unofficially blacklisted by TVB ever since she jumped ship to ATV to film ‘The Good Old Days’ not long after her success in ‘Faith of the Clairvoyant’. Good that TVB has buried the hatchet with her now.
I remember reading some years ago that Amy was in a destitute situation and wanted to go back to TVB, but, refuse to take her due to the blacklist.
Maybe if ‘The Good Old Days’ hasn’t been such a big hit, TVB wouldn’t be so angry with her. It was also strange that TVB only blacklisted her but accepted the other TGOD cast back, such as Paul Chun and Sheren Tang.
@kidd I think it is because Amy is more well known for her roles in ATV than TVB. She hasn’t really has that many memorable roles in TVB whereas nearly all her famous roles have been with ATV as she started there since she was a teenager. When the audience sees her, they identify her with ATV instead of TVB.
TVB will be crazy to reject Paul Chun since he is such a valuable asset. Sheren did not really have that much of a career in ATV and she did pull in the ratings while at TVB.
@elizabeth Actually, with Paul Chun, it’s the other way around — he probably won’t return to TVB ever because of the way they treated his son Benji (Paul was actually quite pissed about it and publicly expressed his disappointment in TVB in an interview several years back). It’s really TVB’s loss, since Paul is such a great veteran actor and absolutely a valuable asset as you mentioned.
@llwy12
What happen with TVB and Benji? I found a news that said Benji rant on a social media platform (forgot which) that TVB made youtube take down Benji’s interview with a radio station. Radio interview has nothing to to with TVB, a TV station. But, TVB still made ‘breach of copyright’ report to youtube. Seems like TVB really want to ‘封殺’. But, I don’t know what happen before that lead to this.
On side note, I like Benji, but, I think he can be quite arrogant sometimes. Maybe he rub people the wrong way. In one short youtube clip, he talk about some veterans telling him he did not sang his lyrics clearly. He retorted back that listeners do need to hear the lyrics clearly, that the music is more important and that Jay Chow also did not sing clearly but, still became very famous.
@kidd Benji was photographed by one of the gossip rags attending an HKTV dinner with his sister Lesley, who had signed with HKTV. He himself did not sign with HKTV, since he was obviously signed with TVB at the time – he was in attendance at the dinner as Lesley’s manager, as it’s public knowledge that he manages both his own career as well as his sister’s (which includes managing the music group he formed with his sister, called ‘Benji and Lesley’). As soon as TVB saw the picture, they pretty much ‘fired’ Benji without even giving him any chance for explanation. The part that added fuel to the fire was that TVB fired Benji in an underhanded way – instead of calling him in and telling him they were firing him, they quietly replaced him as host on all the music programs he was involved with at the time. Also, he was scheduled to host a major variety show around that time too, but found out last minute that he had been replaced as host when he looked at the rundown sheet and his name was no longer on the list. So essentially, TVB cut off all his job opportunities behind-the-scenes, though up to this point, they still hadn’t talked to him or told him why they were doing it. After that last incident, Benji was the one who confronted management to find out what was going on, which was when he found out that the HKTV dinner photo was the main reason for why everything happened (though typical TVB, they still refused to say outright at that time that he was fired). Benji ended up “quitting” (I put that in quotes, since technically he was forced to quit) because his job at TVB was pretty much his only source of income and the main source of funding for ‘Benji and Lesley’ (they were an independent music group that refused to sign with any record labels because they wanted to have creative control over their own music) – being ‘frozen’ by TVB and without any income, that meant their music careers would be over too, so Benji had no choice but to quit and find opportunities elsewhere (obviously he ended up signing with HKTV and was given the opportunity to film series, which was also something that Benji had wanted to do at TVB and he had told them that throughout his 7 years there, but they wouldn’t let him). When Paul found out what had happened (way later of course), he was very upset – I remember hearing him say in an interview how disappointed he was that TVB would treat his children this way.
As for Benji’s personality – well, no doubt he IS vocal about things and he DOES come across as blunt and can rub people the wrong way. I don’t know if I would call that arrogance though – I see it as having more of an ‘artist’s temper’, especially when it comes to his passion, which is his music. And he is also a very stubborn, hard-headed person, which is actually one of the things about his personality that even he admits gets him into trouble. I remember when Benji and Lesley were on the Mainland reality show “I Am Not A Singer” a few years ago (after the TVB fiasco)– one time, their dad Paul went to support them and to be honest, I was near tears watching that segment because Paul’s ‘speech’ about his kids was so heartfelt. Paul is obviously known as being a benevolent father who loves his kids dearly, but sometimes even he couldn’t help feeling angry at Benji for being so stubborn and hard-headed. Paul said that he was disappointed when Benji lost his job and was actually in dire financial straits, but yet refused to tell him the reality of what was going on (his financial situation) – and when he saw the place that Benji was living in at the time and the poor living conditions (the place was rundown, leaks in the ceiling, cracks in the walls, etc.) , he was both heartbroken and upset at his son’s stubbornness in refusing help from him. Paul also said that ever since Benji started working, he has refused to take a single cent from his dad – even ‘pocket money’ and red envelope money during CNY that he had been giving his kids since they were little, Benji would refuse and push away….when Benji was struggling financially and was under extreme stress due to managing both his own and his sister’s careers (plus everything else that had occurred), he never once said anything to his dad and instead chose to take it all upon himself (to the point that he actually got really sick and had to drop everything and return to Canada to rest/recuperate for a brief amount of time).
For me personally, it doesn’t matter how Benji’s personality is – I will still support him and his sister Lesley because I respect the approach they’re taking and admire their perseverance in trying to make it on their own despite coming from such a famous family — I mean, come on – with Paul Chun as their father and John Chiang and Derek Yee as uncles….they could’ve chosen the easy route and not struggle as much if they really wanted to, but yet they would rather rely on themselves – that already has my respect!
@llwy12
Thanks so much for the info! Gosh TVB can be so stupid! I would be angry if I were Paul too. How are Benji and Leslie doing now? I hope they can make it on their own. I also admire them for trying to make it on their own instead of relying on connections from their famous family. Their father and uncle are veteran actors while their uncle is a famous director but yet they refuse to take the easy route. I truly respect people like that.
@hetieshou Well, since HKTV had to disband due to not getting a license, that piece obviously didn’t work out in the end. Kind of a shame though because Benji is actually a pretty decent actor (maybe it’s in his genes) — loved him in The Menu and he did pretty well in the other HKTV series he was in.
Benji and Lesley are pursuing separate careers now from what I understand — their joint music venture didn’t really work out in the end, which is also a shame because their first album was quite good and they definitely had potential. They did get quite a bit of praise though for their performances when they were on “I Am Not A Star”, which I was happy to see knowing all the painstaking effort they put in to make each performance meaningful — they ended up placing 2nd overall (though alot of people — myself included — actually felt they should’ve placed 1st, as their musical performances really did stand out, plus the 1st place person actually didn’t even ‘perform’ during the final episode — she just gave some speech about her family and somehow got 1st place…but that’s how Mainland reality shows usually work so not surprised I guess). I think Benji is pursuing the acting route more now while Lesley is focusing on music. Participating in “I Am Not a Singer” did raise their profiles a bit in Mainland China, resulting in Benji getting some filming opportunities over there, which is where he has been spending most of his time. Lesley has been continuing her music career in HK (she does alot of behind-the-scenes work writing songs and such). I wish them both well and truly hope things work out for them. They may not be famous stars like everyone else in their family, but I feel that they HAVE established a name for themselves at least and most importantly, their efforts the past few years definitely haven’t gone unnoticed.
@elizabeth paul chun is experienced. i like felix wong, michael miu, ada choi and kenix kwok/husband, anita yuen…they are really good.
@elizabeth
I don’t that’s the reason. TVB accepted other ATV actors into their station too. I still think they blame Amy for jumping to ATV at the height of her fame and then anchoring a successful ATV drama that pull a lot of ratings from TVB. Maybe TVB felt that the main reason for TGOD success was Amy Chan.
@kidd. I like Amy Chan too and would definitely like to see her on-screen again (though not necessarily with TVB). In terms of the possibility of her returning to TVB despite being unofficially blacklisted – well, anything is possible now it seems. Spencer Leung, who was ‘officially’ blacklisted by TVB since 2004, revealed on his Facebook recently that he and TVB have ‘broken the ice’ and will be returning to film a program for them at the end of March (though I found it funny that he was so blunt in pointing out that he as well as a bunch of artists had left because of a certain female executive and now that the person is no longer in power, he and others are happy to return to TVB). So it’s possible that other ‘blacklisted’ artists may get invited back as well (though whether those artists accept or not is another story…).
Pretty ironic that TVB want to ‘rejuvenate’ the drama department by invited old actors back to act.
The word ‘rejuvenate’ and ‘old’ is quite contradictory. 😛
I wonder how much inviting old actors back will help. Do they still have the pulling power they used to have? My aunt, who is in her late 50s, prefer to watch the young actors like Tracy Chu and Ruco Chan more than the old actors. She said the ‘Born Rich’ was boring with all the old actors. I wonder how many HK ‘si lai’ think like that.
@kidd Perhaps old actors help to anchor and guide the series and I mean legitimate famous old actors and not those who are not so famous.
@kidd
Your aunt is so different from my mom. My mom is in her 70s and loves to see old veteran actors and actresses. However, it is not just the cast that they should focus on. They need to focus on improving the overall production budget,scripts, storyline,the behind the scenes crew,and many other things and not only the cast because the cast alone is not enough to make a series worthwhile.
@kidd I think when sharing a scene with veterans, the younger artistes do learn a lot of acting tips and life skills that will help them along. Look at all the coaching advice given by Damian during the filming of SSSS. Some of the stuff you just cannot learn from brief acting classes.
Having popular veterans as well as newer popular artistes will draw a larger audience as the parents will want to watch their idol from their youth and the kids will want to watch the same series for their idol. Since TVB is still trying to promoting family series, this is quite an important selling point.
@elizabeth Very true! Many veteran artists from the 80s and 90s have expressed over the years how grateful they are to their seniors for teaching them so much about acting, whether through example or actually talking with them and giving them acting tips. Though the flip side to that too is the younger artists’ willingness to learn and accept feedback – some veteran artists have also complained about how today’s younger generation have a different mindset and many are not willing to accept the older generation’s advice. I remember reading interviews from some veteran artists who’ve said that they tried giving a few younger artists some advice on-set, but were met with attitude and were told that their way of thinking is ‘outdated’ – after several encounters like this, those veterans are reluctant to give advice anymore and pretty much just mind their own business.
I personally feel that those who are serious about acting as a career will proactively find ways to enrich themselves and make their acting better. Those who just view it as a job that they get paid for and most likely not really interested in acting in the first place probably won’t bother – but then they probably won’t last in the industry either….
@kidd Although I am not yet at your Aunt’s age, but I prefer watching Ruco Chan rather than those old actors.
… The proper saying should be I only watch drama with Ruco as the actor. So, in one day, if Ruco leaves TVB, then TVB is nothing to me.
@groundhog: same here…I only watch dramas with Ruco starring in it. The day Ruco leaves TVB will be the day I cancel my TVB cable subscription.
@kidd Beyond the Realm of Conscience is one drama whereby inviting old actors back worked. Many tuned in for Michelle Yim and another actress. They skipped all the Charmaine and Tavia scenes. So it really depends on which old actors they are talking about.
@kidd My Mom is totally different from your Aunt too. She love watching drama with old veteran. She likes Ruco and the younger one too but like Grace and them, she have no interest. She rather watch Michelle Yim and them.
@kidd Elliot Ngok 岳華, Michelle Yim, Paul Chun, Damian Lau, David Chiang are some veterans that most will want to watch. And those from Shaw Era, Wang Yu (that name was even mentioned in Korean dramas lol) etc. Chun Wong 秦煌, Benz Hui are good at comedies too. Probably a lot more not mentioned.
@kk12345 Ah, the old Shaw Brothers era — my mom’s favorite era! She still loves watching all the veteran Shaw artists and also recounting all the stories from that era any chance she gets — in fact, she has given me so much background information on that era that sometimes I felt like I lived through that era too (obviously I didn’t, lol).
The Shaw Bros era technically covers a pretty large time span, so kind of depends which decade you’re referring to. Most of the Shaw artists who were active in the 1970s are still around and many are either still with TVB or collaborate with them occasionally. Many of the ones from the 1950s and 60s (meaning active during that era) are either dead, retired, back in the movie industry, etc. or are too old to be filming series on a consistent basis (especially with TVB’s grueling hours).
I personally would rather watch a senior veteran artist (i.e. the likes of Wu Fung, Helena Law, Lee Heung Kam, Elliot Ngok, Lau Kong, etc.) in a series than any of the current crop of younger artists/newbies…but unfortunately, most of those older artists are usually relegated to supporting roles with so little screen time that it’s not even worth watching the series for (with a few exceptions of course).
@llwy12 Does anyone have any idea what happened to veteran actress Chan Kar Yee after she left TVB? I rarely heard any news about her. The last TVB series I saw her in was Just Love II. Is she retired already or switched to another Tv station?
@unknown Chan Kar Yee is technically retired, but hasn’t completely disappeared, as she has participated in TV series and movies off and on, though mostly in minor roles. In terms of TV series, she was most recently in HKTV’s Once Upon A Song, which was filmed in 2012.
Also, there WAS some news about her last year, around summer (can’t remember whether it was June or July). One of Chan Kar Yee’s former TVB Acting Class classmates Ko Miu Si returned to HK to visit her relatives (Ko Miu Si had retired from the entertainment industry many years ago and currently lives in one of the European countries, I think Italy if I remember correctly) and Chan Kar Yee had met up with her for lunch and tea. One of the media outlets (can’t remember which one, but probably Apple Daily) had photographed the two of them happily meeting up and also Chan Kar Yee taking Ko Miu Si around to a few shopping places. It was actually kind of cute, as despite their ages, they looked like 2 teenage girlfriends laughing and hanging out together. Chan Kar Yee lives in HK so not too difficult to still see her in programs occasionally, but Ko Miu Si is retired completely and moved to another country so it was nice to hear a little bit about how she’s been doing.
@llwy12 I’ve seen the HKTV series you mentioned before, but I am quite puzzled as I didn’t see her appearing in that series at all. By the way, thank you for the info you provided.
@kidd i like tracy chu and of course RUCO CHAN…don’t bring back patrick tse and kenneth tsang.
@janet72
Kenneth will not come back for sure for filming series since he refuses to film long series due to his health and age. Patrick may do movies but not series due to his health and age too.
@hetieshou Actually, Patrick IS returning to film series — he’s filming The Shell Game remake that Wong Jing will be producing for TVB (though it’s being produced completely off-site by Wong Jing’s company based in Mainland, plus half the cast will likely consist of Mainland artists, so technically it’s a HK/Mainland collaboration series). Patrick had said in an interview when the remake was announced that he is ‘perfectly healthy’ and the age thing is not a factor in his ability to still film series…well, let’s see next month when the series starts filming…
Detective Investigation Files part 5, please!!!
Someone bring back Kwong Wah!
@elizabeth Ohhhh I like him too!!!
TVB can invite veterans back all they want, but if they don’t fix the root cause of the problem (i.e. their organizational structure, antiquated and restrictive policies, the way they operate in general, etc.) and if they are not willing to invest in the areas that will impact their productions the most (such as employee salaries, state-of-the-art filming equipment, hiring better scriptwriters, etc. etc.), it is not going to do any good in the long run. To me, throwing millions of dollars into revamping myTV or purchasing exclusive broadcasting rights to foreign shows (both of which TVB has done lately) is not the right way to go – they need to put the money where it counts.
They need veteran back in TVB period although im not a fan of Michael Tao but im super hyped that Adia Monica CHan and Amy Chan is coming back to join the station I’d also want the following back as well
Amy Kwok
Esther Kwan
Felix Wong
I am not a fan of either …. 🙁
Young star is still too fresh for the audience and viewers to accept… we need these old stars