A somewhat dilapidated van parked in front of the Phoenix TV building. A middle-aged man in a suit got out of the van, and then several people in Chinese tunic suits came out one after another.
Sino-British negotiations have been heated up in Hong Kong these days. A few people wearing Chinese tunic suits immediately attracted countless eyes as soon as they got out of the car.
Amidst the many complicated looks in their eyes, these people in Mao suits behaved very seriously and well-behaved. Under the leadership of the man in a suit in front of them, they walked into the Phoenix Terrace Building unhurriedly.
Huang Xizhao had already led others to welcome him out. The two met at the gate of the TV station. Huang Xizhao held the man in a suit's hand and said, "Welcome all compatriots to come to Phoenix TV for inspection."
The man in the suit is an official from the Xinhua News Agency's Hong Kong branch, but those in Chinese tunic suits behind him are all from China Central Television.
Phoenix TV has been paying attention to Beijing around the clock these days and has done a lot of positive reports on the mainland. This behavior made the officials of Xinhua News Agency’s Hong Kong Branch and the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office very happy, thinking that this was a breakthrough in their united front propaganda work in Hong Kong.
After the specific situation was reported, these people from CCTV were originally going to Central Europe for inspection, but the leaders gave instructions and asked them to temporarily change their plans and come to Hong Kong.
Mainland China's television industry was still very backward at this time. CCTV sent people to Europe for inspection more than two years ago, and it was only last year that the first mainland TV series "Eighteen Years in the Enemy Camp" was produced.
The man in the suit introduced the old man in the Chinese tunic suit to Huang Xizhao: "Mr. Huang, this is Comrade Jiang Dongming, Secretary of the Party Committee of the CCTV Branch and Deputy Director of the Central Station." Then he pointed at Huang Xizhao and said, "Director Jiang, this is Phoenix TV Station
Mr. Huang Xizhao, the general manager.”
Jiang Dongming, who still had two pens on his chest, reached out his hand and said: "Hello, General Manager Huang, I will trouble you for this inspection."
"No trouble, let's promote each other's learning." Huang Xizhao said with a haha. Like many older generation Hong Kong people, Huang Xizhao speaks very standard Mandarin.
There were six men and one woman in the CCTV inspection team that came with Jiang Dongming, and four of them were over 50 years old. The only woman was quite young and pretty. If she were in Beijing, she would probably not be able to wear a Chinese tunic suit.
Yes, I was dressed very formally because I was going on an inspection trip.
Huang Xizhao took the seven people around the TV station, and talked to Jiang Dongming about the system of Phoenix TV, etc., and then suggested: "Would you guys like to go and see the film library first? We at Phoenix TV have filmed many classics
TV series."
Huang Xizhao had the idea of selling drama series to China Central Television, but Jiang Dongming didn't respond and said with a smile: "Mr. Huang, why don't you go and see how your station produces TV programs first, so that we can also broaden our horizons."
"Just in time, our station has just launched a new program. Please follow me." Huang Xizhao smiled and took the CCTV people to a studio.
A group of people were walking in the aisle when suddenly someone from behind shouted: "Make way, make way..."
I saw a thin young man coming over carrying a wooden frame. Everyone gave way and followed him curiously into the studio.
"Axing, carry it over here!" the assistant waved to the young man.
"Here we come!" Zhou Xingchi immediately ran over carrying the wooden frame.
An inspector from CCTV asked: "What are you using a wooden frame to record a program?"
Huang Xizhao was not very clear and replied: "Maybe it's some kind of prop."
Then a fat man walked out of the dressing room. It was Zheng Zeshi who had just joined Phoenix TV.
Zheng Zeshi used to follow Chang Cheh, and only joined Chang Cheh's Longbow Film Company. He has been free since then. Last year, he appeared in ten movies in Shaw Brothers, but he basically played some small roles. This year, with Chang Cheh in
Shaw Brothers' status declined, and Zheng Zeshi took fewer roles. He came here as soon as he was recruited by Phoenix TV.
The program to be recorded now is called "Happy 60 Minutes", and Kang Jianfei finally "persuaded" everyone to extend the original half-hour program to one hour.
After Zheng Zeshi came out, he met Zhou Xingchi to discuss it. Soon another beautiful woman came into the studio, which made several gay men at CCTV shine.
In order to build up the name of "Happy 60 Minutes", Phoenix TV not only specially signed Zheng Zeshi, who has a special figure, but also hired a beautiful female partner for him - Bruce Lee's sister-in-law and Miss Hong Kong champion Mary Chang.
Zhang Mary had just given birth to a baby last year and was now at home caring for her husband and raising her son. Huang Xizhao personally came to the door several times before finally inviting her out.
Zhang Mary is a mixed-race beauty. At that time, mixed-race children were a shame for single mothers, so she was abandoned by her family when she was young. Zhang Mary had been wandering the streets begging for food until she was nine years old before she was adopted by Po Leung Kuk and through her own efforts
, studied a bachelor's degree in business administration in Hong Kong, where the university admission rate is extremely low. Later, Mary Zhang joined Jiashi and worked as an assistant director, host and actress. She is a woman with both beauty and outstanding ability, and even won the "Hong Kong Award" a few years later.
She is the only Hong Kong sister to have won the title of "Top Ten Outstanding Young People".
On the choice of host of "Happy 60 Minutes", Kang Jianfei discussed with the program crew for a long time before deciding to pair Zhang Mary, who has outstanding temperament and good looks, with Zheng Zeshi, who is silly and stupid in appearance. The two appeared on the show.
No need to speak, just the strong contrast in appearance will give the audience a sense of comedy.
"Hello, Sister Mary!" As soon as he saw Zhang Mary coming over, Zhou Xingchi cleverly went up to get close to her. This guy was the assistant host appointed by Kang Jianfei, and the other assistant host was Mao Shunyun, who Zhang Guorong was pursuing.
Several hosts had already contacted each other privately and discussed this episode of the program. Mary Zhang knew that Zhou Xingchi was a fan of her brother-in-law Bruce Lee, so she nodded to him and said, "Hello, Xingzi."
Within two minutes, Mao Shunyun also came in. The four hosts began to discuss some final details of the program, and the audience also entered one after another.
Jiang Dongming pointed to the audience seated and asked: "Are these audiences invited by the TV station from outside?"
Huang Xizhao smiled and said: "It's too expensive to hire people outside. Look at the one sitting on the far left in the first row. That one is actually the cleaner sweeping the floor in the station. The young man next to her is called Wu Ruiqing, and he is the representative of the boss of our TV station.
Brother, he is now learning to be a screenwriter in the station. The one on the right of Wu Ruiqing is a student in the TV station training class. He is studying behind-the-scenes production, so he can come to the scene to see how to make a program..."
Huang Xizhao casually pointed out that among the dozen or so people in the audience, as long as they were employees of the TV station, he knew their situation well.
Everyone has their own strengths. Huang Xizhao is not as good as Zhong Jinghui in external relations work, and he is not as good as McDonald's in program production, but his grasp of personnel is very good. Huang Xizhao discovered people like McDonald's, Xiao Ruoyuan and others first-hand
from.
Before Huang Xizhao finished speaking, the program director came over and said, "Mr. Huang, please step back a little, your position is just about to enter the camera."
"Sorry." Huang Xizhao said, asking the people at CCTV to step back.
The people at CCTV looked at the director rather strangely. They had asked clearly before that, apart from the boss Kang Jianfei, Huang Xizhao had the highest position at Phoenix TV, so why did he need to apologize to his subordinates?
In fact, this is not a structural problem, but because the program director is an old man in the station, who is more advanced in the station than Huang Xizhao.
Under the director's command, the lights in the studio suddenly dimmed, colored lights rolled out, and dry ice mist floated out along with the music on the stage.
In the powerful disco music, two rows of beauties with white thighs exposed and handsome guys in hippie costumes walked onto the stage and started dancing dynamically.
Jiang Dongming, the deputy director of CCTV, is over sixty years old. Seeing some of the seductive moves made by those dancers, he can only lament the corruption of capitalism. The TV station is blatantly recording erotic dances, which is simply moral corruption. CCTV
You can't do this even if you kill him.
Disco and mechanical dance have not yet been introduced to mainland China. Except for the elderly Jiang Dongming and several younger CCTV inspection team members (under 40 years old), they are impressed by the fashionable dress of the dancers and the dynamic music.
Like it very much.
"The hosts are invited, Zheng Zeshi, Zhang Mary, Zhou Xingchi, Mao Shunyun!"
The disco music stopped, and the male and female dancers who had just danced stood in two rows, posing in various cool poses, like guards to welcome the host.
The music started playing again, two clouds of dry ice mist were sprayed from the backstage exit, and four hosts dressed in fashionable and bold clothes walked onto the stage one after another.
It wasn't just as simple as walking out. As soon as Zheng Zeshi came out, he danced awkwardly, his fat body like a stupid bear rubbing the bark of a tree, making the audience burst into laughter.
Mary Cheung and Mao Shunyun sang a medley of songs by Tsui Siu Fung and Anita Mui. The music planner for this show was Leslie Cheung’s master, Lai Siu Tin.
Zhou Xingchi came out playing with the nunchucks, and when he was playing with them, the nunchucks suddenly hit his head. Zhou Xingchi showed an exaggerated expression and threw the nunchucks aside angrily. He squatted in a horse stance.
After a few punches, he suddenly started doing somersaults around the singing Zhang Mary and Mao Shunyun like a child - the kind of somersaults that rolled on the ground.
After the opening show was performed, the four hosts said in unison: "60 minutes of happiness and laughter for your whole life!"
The eyes of several young people at CCTV were bright and they discussed in a low voice:
"The lighting and costumes are so great, I'm afraid they will cost a lot of money."
"The atmosphere on the stage is also very good, especially the way the host appears. It's just like a big shot."
"It's a pity that we can't do this kind of program, otherwise we would definitely have to learn it carefully."
"..."
Several members of the inspection team were still whispering. Deputy director Jiang Dongming found it uninteresting and asked Huang Xizhao: "Mr. Huang, our CCTV wants to build a TV drama production center. Can we go to the place where Phoenix TV dramas are produced?"
"Of course, please come with me!" Huang Xizhao said with a smile, and before leaving, he looked back at the stage.
To be honest, Huang Xizhao was very disgusted with Kang Jianfei's plan to create "60 Minutes" despite public opinion. What he hated most in the past was that TV station shareholders had their fingers in the production of the program.
However, judging from the recording just now, this "60 Minutes" made Huang Xizhao's eyes light up just from the beginning. It is definitely more high-end and classy than TVB's "Happy Tonight".
Not to mention anything else, except for the host's star packaging concept, "Happy 60 Minutes" is more than 10 years more advanced than "Happy Tonight".q
