Alan Thicke, Canadian comedian and erstwhile on-screen father of Kirk Cameron, star of the Left Behind movies admired by the Christian right, will soon host a reality TV series called The Singing Office. The gist of this new confection is that talent scouts will invade some wilderness of cubicles in middle America, hold "impromptu singing auditions", and whisk the top five contestants off to Hollywood for further grooming and competition. It is apparently not enough for Hollywood to manipulate the fantasies of the masses with American Idol. Now they must materialize those fantasies in the very places where they originate and flourish - the dreary world of the corporate drone. I mean, how psychologically invasive is that?

When crooning and corporate servitude mix, it is usually in the form of karaoke. Long the scourge of drunken office parties and Japanese business entertainment, karaoke involves singing along with a recorded vocalist rather than actually performing your own rendition. In short, it is all about imitation rather than originality. As such, it is the appropriate art of choice for white collar employees everywhere, for whom conformity is not just a mandate but the preferred model for even their rowdiest personal dreams. So too, no doubt, for The Singing Office...

"Alan Thicke To Host Reality Show 'The Singing Office'" from All Headline News