Word: zap
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...much to produce as entertainment programs, and a successful one can run virtually forever. Viewers, for their part, may be turning to news out of exasperation with the sameness of network entertainment fare. Andrew Heyward, executive producer of 48 Hours, theorizes that short newsmagazine segments suit the habits of zap-happy viewers. "Unlike a drama show," he says, "you don't have to watch the whole hour to get something out of it." PrimeTime Live executive producer Richard Kaplan contends that people are "hungry for information," possibly because of the hard economic times. "Maybe there's a correlation between people...
...technology shrinks the video signals to fit through conventional phone lines. "Psychologists tell us that 55% of a message is delivered in body language," notes Stephen Clemente, an AT&T executive. O.K., but what if your repertoire of phone language includes yawning and eye rolling? No problem. Callers can zap themselves invisible at any time by closing the shutter over the lens. The VideoPhone...
...life cycle of a TV sensation can be stunningly quick: from talk-of-the- tube to zap-inducing bore in just a few weeks' time. A look at the trajectory of TV's meteoric names...
...body builder," Schwarzenegger says. "I was competing, training, doing seminars all over the world, winning the top trophies. The first time is the best. Fabulous! Even the second and third time, rubbing it in, letting them know you are here to stay. But then, all of a sudden -- zap! -- it is not enough anymore to make you happy. You say to yourself, 'Now what? I know that I don't have anything much better to do, but I am going to quit.' I wanted to go again for discomfort, to create the old hunger, to get into acting. Because...
...Zap! The direct mailer can then aim a solicitation at a letter box with a precision bordering on the scientific. While some people find the attention flattering, others consider it insidious. "There's something kind of creepy about companies knowing more about you than your own family, and compiling and trading information about you behind your back," says Robert Ellis Smith, editor of the watchdog newsletter Privacy Journal. Direct marketers strongly deny that they are intruders. "Nobody wants dossiers compiled about them," says Michael Manzari, president of Kleid Co., a New York City concern that brokers and manages lists...