A TV show for lovers of old web [Spider - NRK]

[grubbyfox]

There's an old norwegian experimental TV show (that was sent live on air). The show is absolute dog water, useless, nothing ever works, weirdo, slightly annoying and overly hectic show-host, etc - but it's considered a kind of "cult classic" sort of? Mostly just because it's such a time capsule of how internet was at the time. Netscape, websites, etc. The show itself is pretty useless in nature, so you dont need to understand norwegian to understand - just revel in the extremelyyy old stuff, a real crazy time capsule!

I think it should be viewable outside Norway here (let me know if it does not play!) and there were 2 seasons, one in 1996 and one in 1997).

https://tv.nrk.no/serie/spider/1996

https://tv.nrk.no/serie/spider/1997

Hope the nostalgia of seeing Netscape etc will make someone here happy!!

[WK_0]

Wowie wow! What an interesting little tv show you've got here! I took a quick look at a handful of the episodes available, it's all very interesting as a time capsule (and also a bit of a nostalgia bomb, as someone who lived in the 90s, heh heh). Reminds me of the handful of video game review programs and smaller local shows that came out around that similar time, basically something that covers a super niche topic and feels less organized and "useful" than the bigger, more popular shows of their time. They may have been a bit boring to watch then, but time has certainly given them a new purpose as these little glimpses into the past that some of us find exciting.

In all honesty I find the first season's host, Eric Meyn, to be entertaining! Might just be me and my child-like tastes, but I like hosts that have a wacky energy to them. The couple that replace him as the main hosts in the second season kinda feel a little eeh... Normal, to say the least? I'd hate to say boring, but I remember seeing well-dressed hosts like them plenty of times when I used to watch television regularly. Heck, I still see the likes of them even today. They're folks that feel they're just there to present. It definitely fits the "internet news" angle the show was going for, but without being able to understand the language it's hard for the likes of me to tell if they're actually interested or excited about the topics (and the computer tech). They just feel a little flat compared to Meyn's manic presentation. He definitely felt like he was interested in what he had to present.

At least he still got his own little segment in the second season, which makes those episodes mildly entertaining at least. Then again, I can get if Meyn has such a weirdness to him that's almost Tom Green-ish, where he says and does things in a way that're annoying and awkward to any Norwegian-speakers. That part might be lost on me, since again I don't speak the language.

Still, thanks for sharing! Looks like I have me a new show to put on in the background while I'm working on my projects.

[grubbyfox]

Haha,yep that's pretty spot on. He was a sort of "love it or hate it" host. (He passed away just a few weeks ago actually!).

Like, I find him too stressful and manic on the TV show, but I still consider him a cult icon / legend (and so does a lot of peopple!). Me being stressed doesn't mean he necessarily was shit at it, lol.

In some of the episodes, at the end credits he would read hate mail sent to him, and just be like "lmao whatever" which was/is so unhinged. He was def ahead of his time in how he handled things, lol.

The other guy in his season, who had more just "soapbox speeches" had a lot of correct predictions! It's uncanny to watch now, knowing how he predicted a lot of stuff online (well more an educated guess that predictions I guess.) He would talk about livestreaming/watching TV online and that this would be common, payment/banking online among other things.

One of his first soapbox rants was about how boys (at the time) seemed to be mostly online, compared to girls, and said that girls would come online, but that it was hard for them because boys couldn't behave/would start to harass women if they knew they were women etc.. just basically nailed how a lot of guys behave online (in games especially) when they realize there's women there, lol. It's a shame there's no subs because the rants are pretty good and "predicted" a lot of web related stuff, haha.

And yeah the later season with the two normies is boring as hell, it's just ....even worse than the first season somehow. It's pretty fun that they still deal with PC crashes and stuff. I believe they were just students/fairly new to being on TV etc if I remember correctly.

Glad you enjoyed it! I often find myself coming back to this (first season atleast) just to sort of poke around and look at how new and wacky the internet looked! That bird (loon?) sound from the chatting program Powwow drives me bonkers with nostalgia!

[WK_0]

Meyn read hate mail live on the show?! That's really funny to me, it could explain why I spotted one or two works in the submitted images sections that said the show sucked. That's hilarious. Shame that he passed on just recently though, but it sure seems to me that he left behind quite an impression to be remembered by.

The two normal hosts being students also makes a lot of sense to me. I know I'd be awkward too if I was being filmed for the first time, so I guess that'd be a good reason as to why they weren't as interesting (though you're right, watching them having to deal with things breaking is still kinda funny).

And man, if what you said about the soapbox speech guy was true then I kinda wish there were some english subtitles for the show too. I like hearing what sorts of guesses and predictions folks were making about the internet, back then. That one speech you summarised about how guys acted on the net towards women really did hit that topic right on the head.