Stay Tuned! is a story about six new hires at a television station. Five of them are flummoxed that the station also hired the most clueless and inept person from the interviews. Little did they know there was a special program for dummies.
A Program for Dummies
The Dummy in question, Hanako Yukimaru, shows up for the interviews in a yellow suit when everyone else is wearing conservative black. She is very enthusiastic and energetic, shouting and running around all the time. However she is always late, she can’t spell, and she mixes up news stories.
Hajime Yamane is the other one of the two new hires that are reporters. He is the serious type and has several frustrating clashes with Yukimaru. Finally the information director, Toraya Ogura, lets him in on a secret. The station execs purposely hired a dummy on the theory that they think outside the box and often become the best team members. However they also hired someone to train the dummy, hoping he can get her up to speed. That trainer is Yamane. Surprise! Ogura, by the way, is always eating and always wears Hawaiian shirts. He’s my favorite character.
The Program’s Plot
While still being a comedy based on the antics of the resident dummy and how the other staff have to stretch to overcome her mistakes, the show also teaches us a lot about the running of a tv station. We see the different departments through the eyes of the newbies trying to get commercials for the station, reconciling scheduling conflicts, and keeping watch over a myriad of screens and news feeds.
Yukimaru and Yamane both go out in the field with the camera techs and write up their own stories. Yukimaru drives her manager crazy with her typos and badly written reports. She drives the news reader, Kanako Miyashita, crazy when she is late. Miyashita likes to go over everything beforehand, and her worst fear is to have to interpret Yukimaru’s script at the last minute on air. This tells you a little bit about the plot.
The Anniversary Program
This show was produced by the real-life HTB tv station in Hokkaido, for their 50th anniversary. The story was taken from a manga titled Don’t Change the Channel! about adventures in a fictional tv station. They managed to make it both cute and informative! It has only five episodes, is a fun watch, and can be found on Netflix. If you are looking for a Japanese drama, please give this one a try!
Telzeytalks
Dramas With a Side of Kimchi