School of slander (TV show)

According to the creators of the program, its goal is a psychological analysis of the hero’s image, the so-called “image psychoanalysis”. The presenters during the conversation with the guest tried to show and reveal his qualities, to reveal hidden character traits, often unknown not only to the public, but also to the hero himself.

The guests were people from various fields of science, creativity, the social sphere, politics, show business.

The name of the program is a deliberate borrowing of the name of Richard Sheridan 's famous play School of Slander.

It aired from October 2, 2002 to July 6, 2014 .

For two years, it aired on the Kultura television channel in the evening ^{[1] [2]} on Wednesdays and later on Mondays (from October 2, 2002 to June 21, 2004, 74 episodes were filmed and 68 were broadcast).

By 2004, the leadership of "Culture" began to often express their claims to the authors and presenters regarding the quality of the program, referring to its low ratings ^[3] . The presenters wanted to meet with the then editor-in-chief of the channel, Tatyana Paukhova, and explain to her that without advertising and popularizing the channel, ratings could not be high a priori, but all her meetings were postponed indefinitely for various reasons. In addition, the channel’s management also set the creators of the program a condition - not to invite guests who were somehow connected with politics ^[3] . At the same time, Tolstoy and Smirnova began to offer to switch with their program to the NTV channel , and they soon accepted this proposal ^[3] . The order to sign a contract with the transmission producers was the last for Nikolai Senkevich as NTV Director General ^[4] .

On the fourth button, the program appeared for ten years (from August 30, 2004 to July 6, 2014, 357 episodes were filmed, 349 were aired). The program initially went on NTV on Mondays . But, starting in 2005 , the program began to constantly change the days of the week and time of broadcasting ^[5] , and in the last years of its existence on the air, the School of Slandering came out late at night on the weekend ^[6] .

Since September 2008, the show was held in the studio with new scenery and without spectators ^[7] . Now two guests could be invited to the program simultaneously. The innovations also included the fact that after the main conversation, the guest shared his impressions of participating in the program, about the conversation that had taken place (previously only the presenters discussed the guest).

The program was shot two days in a row: from 8 a.m. to 12 a.m. (from 4 to 8 programs per day) with breaks of 15-20 minutes.

The guests of the program were chosen by the hosts themselves. Not only people of science and art, but also politicians, public figures, and representatives of show business fell into their field of interest.

The presenters co-wrote the book “The Kitchen of the School of Slander” (Publisher: “Kitchen”, 2004) and took part in the creation of the storybook “A Book for the Sake of which Writers Unite It Is Impossible to Combine” (Publisher: “Faith Hospice Assistance Fund” , 2009), all the proceeds from the implementation of which were directed to the Vera Hospice Assistance Fund.

In less than 12 years of the program’s existence, 14 issues have not been broadcast. Various reasons were cited: the unwillingness of the guests to see the broadcast with their participation on the air, the “use” of the mechanisms of the administrative resource, direct censorship ^{[8] [9]} . Racing driver and showman Nikolai Fomenko said that the transfer with his participation was banned by personal order of the chief editor of "Culture" Tatyana Paukhova with the wording "disrespectful attitude to the authorities" ^[10] .

The list of unreleased programs was also discussed in the community of the School of Slander ^[11] in the Live Journal , in the diaries of program participants ^[12] .

In early 2004, Vladimir Sungorkin openly clashed with the authors of the program, whom he called "unscrupulous people . " In a letter to Rossiiskaya Gazeta , he wrote ^[9] :

In 2007, the release of the program with the participation of Alexander Belov was banned and did not go on the air, although it was presented on the Internet ^{[8] [13] [14]} .

The School of Slander is the winner of the TEFI-2003 Award in the Talk Show nomination.

Tatyana Tolstaya and Avdotya Smirnova are finalists of TEFI-2004 in the Interviewer nomination.

On May 29, 2014, presenter Tatyana Tolstaya on her Facebook page announced the closure of the talk show School of Slander. Soon, she, along with co-host Avdotya Smirnova, thanked the entire creative team, guests of the program of different years, as well as the TV channels "Culture" and NTV " for enduring endlessly unformatted personalities and free conversations " ^[15] .

Reasons to close

The hosts did not mention the reasons for closing the talk shows ^[16] , but according to the NTV television press service, the program was closed “due to economic circumstances” ^[17] .

The author of the idea of ​​the School of Slander, television and film critics Yuri Bogomolov, stated that the NTV channel’s press service is somewhat disingenuous:

“ The program has long been to the channel itself, its leadership seems a burden. It is not rated enough, therefore, it was probably also moved along the broadcasting grid and pushed after midnight. But it is a burden in a philosophical sense. This program has too much intellectual substance for the channel, which shoots crime series and sensational revelations in the field of show business from morning till night. The channel kept it exclusively, I think, to whiten my reputation a little. But, apparently, there is no need for this today ”

- ^[18] .

Possibility of transferring the School of Slander to another TV channel

On June 18, 2014, the presenter Tatyana Tolstaya, in the Talk program on Dozhd TV channel , answered the question about the possibility of transferring the School of Slander talk show to another channel:

“Dunya will not be removed anymore ... She does not want to, she has her own interesting work, and a lot. She refused, she said that she will not be removed anymore ... I alone will not go. If I go alone, it will eat my time, which I need for literary work. I only if someone is paired, but ... "

- ^[19]

• The page of the program on the site of the channel "Culture" (unopened) (inaccessible link) . Date of treatment February 7, 2009. Archived March 19, 2012.
• Transmission page on the NTV channel website (unopened) (inaccessible link) . Date of treatment July 30, 2009. Archived July 22, 2009.
• Catalog of transfers in the NTV License Rights Sales Directorate (unopened) (inaccessible link) . Date of treatment December 11, 2008. Archived on February 5, 2009.
• Live Broadcast Community (unopened) (link unavailable) . Date of treatment December 17, 2007. Archived December 21, 2007.
• Community # 2 in LiveJournal (Neopr.) (Inaccessible link) . Date of treatment May 8, 2009. Archived April 25, 2009.
• Tatyana Tolstaya about the program, 2004 (unopened) (inaccessible link) . Date of treatment November 17, 2015. Archived November 18, 2015.
• List of program entries (unspecified) (inaccessible link) . Date of treatment October 1, 2017. Archived March 9, 2013.
• An article by Marina Lesko about the School of Slander project in the Moskovskaya Pravda newspaper (neopr.) . Archived December 5, 2012.