Text | Zhong Nanyi
Editor| Nam Naka
●○ Preface ○●
The New Year is approaching, and the atmosphere of the New Year is getting stronger and stronger, and everyone is looking forward to the arrival of the Chinese New Year's Eve.
With everyone's expectations for the "Year of the Rabbit", the CCTV Spring Festival Gala also began a lively rehearsal.
After the Spring Festival Gala officially began rehearsals, some paparazzi who squatted at the door of CCTV day and night also released Reuters for this Spring Festival Gala one after another.
Yang Zi, Zhou Shen, Zhao Liying, Mao Buyi and other popular stars rushed to the rehearsal scene of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala.
In this rehearsal Reuters, it is not difficult for us to find that the people who appeared were some fresh blood, and those "Spring Festival Gala people" of the older generation have not appeared on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala for a long time.
This phenomenon did not begin in the past two years, as early as a few years ago, Zhao Benshan and other old artists rarely appeared on the Spring Festival Gala.
Speaking of this, people can't help but wonder, why the older generation of artists who frequently produce excellent works on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala have never been on the Spring Festival Gala again?
●○Spring Festival Gala is coming to ○●
Unveiling the calendar, I suddenly found that it was less than three days before the Chinese New Year's Eve.
With the Spring Festival approaching, most of the hot searches on major platforms in recent days are also Reuters related to the Spring Festival Gala.
In this Spring Festival Gala, it can be said that popular stars from all over the world have gathered, and even Su Youpeng, Li Keqin and others who are far away in Hong Kong and Taiwan have invited over, which shows the strong lineup of this Spring Festival Gala.
In addition to these well-known Hong Kong and Taiwan artists, there are also some fresh faces in the cast of this year's Spring Festival Gala.
For example, the "little fresh meat" such as Xilinna Yigao and Chen Linong, who debuted in the talent show, also earned enough gimmicks from these popular idols.
And looking at these fresh faces, as well as the increasingly cookie-cutter program content of the Spring Festival Gala in recent years, everyone's expectations for the Spring Festival Gala are getting lower and lower.
There were even netizens who bluntly said: "Who still watches the Spring Festival Gala now!" ”
While lowering expectations for the Spring Festival Gala, many netizens have also picked up some excellent works of the Spring Festival Gala and uploaded them to video websites.
Among them, there are some classic works by old artists such as Chen Peisi, Zhao Benshan, Song Dandan, etc., and in the words of netizens, one of these works is "hanging" the level of today's Spring Festival Gala program.
When netizens miss the works of these old artists, it is not difficult to find one thing, that is, these old artists have withdrawn from the Spring Festival Gala stage for a long time.
And they are replaced by a new generation of comedians.
When watching the works created by the new generation of comedians, it is inevitable that they will be compared with the old artists, and the more they compare, the more disappointed, and the more they miss these old artists.
Therefore, many netizens are curious about the current situation of these old artists.
In addition to being curious about the current situation of old artists, netizens are more curious about why these old artists withdrew from the Spring Festival Gala stage, after all, without their Spring Festival Gala, it is really less interesting.
●○ "Black Earth" Zhao Benshan ○●
When it comes to the old artists of the Spring Festival Gala, they have to mention the "black soil" of "white cloud black soil".
Zhao Benshan was born in Tieling, Liaoning Province in 1957, when he was 6 years old, his mother died of illness, and his father also went out of the house to work in other places to make a living.
Zhao Benshan, who was only 6 years old, became a left-behind child.
Zhao Benshan, who lost the company of his parents, could only follow his second uncle to learn folk arts such as pulling erhu, throwing handkerchiefs and duo turning, which also laid the groundwork for his later acting career.
When Zhao Benshan was 17 years old, he was selected to join the literary and artistic propaganda team of the local commune, and often starred in the local duo turn.
But at that time, Zhao Benshan was just an unknown actor in the propaganda team, and no one cared who he was.
Until 1982, in order to promote local culture and art, Liaoning Province specially held a rural small opera performance.
In this rural small drama performance, Zhao Benshan's drama troupe performed a play called "Falling Three Strings".
But because Zhao Benshan was only a small actor at that time, he was not assigned to the starring role, but played a blind man named Zhang Zhi.
Although it is only a small role, Zhao Benshan is not discouraged, but studies the role very seriously.
Under the hard performance of Zhao Benshan, the blind Zhang Zhi received a lot of applause, and everyone was deeply impressed by this "blind" actor.
Since Zhang Zhi, Zhao Benshan has become a hit in the local area, frequently attending various performance activities, and jumped from a small supporting role to the position of the protagonist.
After gaining fame, Zhao Benshan became more serious about the work of the troupe, and was always the one who came first and left the last.
In 1987, Zhao Benshan also starred with Pan Changjiang in "Blind Man Watching the Lamp".
The first performance of "Blind Man Watching the Lantern" received applause from the audience, so Zhao Benshan and Pan Changjiang starred in more than 600 performances of "Blind Man Watching the Lantern" during that time, which shows the high popularity.
It is worth mentioning that Zhao Benshan's life trajectory changed, and it also began this year.
This year, Jiang Kun led the Tieling Civil Art Troupe to Tieling to perform, but they performed hard all day, but few people found it interesting, and there were few audiences sitting in the audience.
This made Jiang Kun's heart very puzzled, after all, the Tieling Art Troupe led by Jiang Kun can amuse the existence of the people of the whole country on the Spring Festival evening.
Such a powerful art troupe was planted in Tieling, Jiang Kun couldn't figure it out, in order to be able to solve the doubts in his heart, Jiang Kun chatted with some local people.
After talking with Jiang Kun, the local villagers learned of Jiang Kun's doubts, and explained to Jiang Kun happily: "Your shows, compared to our Zhao Benshan here, are not a little worse!" ”
After hearing the villagers' answers, Jiang Kun was even more confused, after all, he had never heard the name "Zhao Benshan", where did this talent come from?
In order to unravel the mystery of "Zhao Benshan" and have an attitude of learning humbly, Jiang Kun bought a ticket and went to watch Zhao Benshan's performance.
At the beginning of the performance, Jiang Kun did not feel that this was much worse than their performance, but as the pace of the performance accelerated and the plot advanced, Jiang Kun and his group also laughed so much that they couldn't close their mouths.
After discovering that there was such a talent in Tieling, Jiang Kun's heart was also very happy, and after returning to Beijing, he immediately suggested to CCTV to arrange Zhao Benshan on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala.
Under the introduction of Jiang Kun, in 1990, Zhao Benshan officially appeared on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala with his work "Blind Date".
Zhao Benshan did not disappoint Jiang Kun, and achieved a lot of repercussions on the Spring Festival Gala for the first time, leaving a deep impression on the national audience, and since then, Zhao Benshan has appeared on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala many times and has become one of the "Spring Festival Gala Elders".
●○ Chen Peisi who "eats noodles" ○●
In addition to Zhao Benshan, the "veteran of the Spring Festival Gala", there is also an old artist, who is even more heavyweight.
This is Chen Peisi, who brazenly "ate noodles" on the Spring Festival evening, and the result was still popular.
In 1984, the 30-year-old Chen Peisi and his partner Zhu Shimao appeared on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala with the sketch "Eating Noodles".
And "Eating Noodles" is also the pioneering work of the performance form of sketches, which has never been performed before Chen Peisi.
It was precisely because Chen Peisi created this form of performance that he paved the way for later comedians.
But Chen Peisi, who came from a literary family, is not above the sketch actor, in his heart, he wants to be a director more than an actor.
It can be said that the explosion of "Eating Noodles" was completely something that Chen Peisi did not expect.
It is precisely because of "Eating Noodles" that the burden of the sketch program of each Spring Festival Gala since then has overwhelmed Chen Peisi's shoulders.
Every year at the Spring Festival Gala, Chen Peisi always stayed up all night in order to be able to come up with wonderful programs.
Because there is no ready-made baggage, plus Chen Peisi is not willing to joke about people with disabilities.
Chen Peisi can only think of a new paragraph on his own, and the baggage of this new paragraph must not only be funny, but also better than the previous paragraph, so as to maintain the reputation.
Under such pressure, Chen Peisi created excellent works such as "Lamb Kebab", "Police and Thief" and "Protagonist and Supporting Role".
The inspiration for these works is also what Chen Peisi finds from life, so there is some irony about life in Chen Peisi's works.
As Chen Peisi's golden partner, Zhu Shimao recalled in a later interview: "At that time, we were old at the Spring Festival Gala, and in order to write better things, Pace wrote books day and night, and there were thick piles of waste books. ”
From Zhu Shimao's narrative, it is not difficult for us to feel that Chen Peisi was under great pressure at that time, and being able to frequently create excellent works under such pressure shows how powerful Chen Peisi is.
Although these works created by Chen Peisi have been popular all over the country, from production to presentation in front of the audience, it can be said that they are more bumpy and bumpy.
For example, in the sketch "Police and Thieves", Chen Peisi did not want to stick to the rigid comedy form and added some new tricks to it, but he did not expect to be beaten back by CCTV.
In order to pass the CCTV audit, Chen Peisi, who was helpless, could only delete a lot of novel baggage.
According to people familiar with the matter, in order to be able to pass the trial, Chen Peisi deleted nearly half of the baggage, which shows how strict CCTV's review is.
If it's just the baggage that needs to be deleted, even the props needed in the sketch "Wang Ye and the Postman" have been canceled by CCTV.
Under such pressure, Chen Peisi shed tears as soon as he got off the stage after performing the show, and his emotions did not tighten for a while.
●○Pressure on old artists○●
Pressure like Chen Peisi, as a junior of Chen Peisi, Zhao Benshan has also experienced.
In 1994, Zhao Benshan and his new partner Fan Wei came to Beijing again with their new work "The Son is Big" to participate in the selection of the Spring Festival Gala.
But when they finished performing their works with emotion, none of the directors present showed a smile, as Zhao Benshan's partner, Fan Wei, who had never experienced such an occasion, sweated anxiously on the spot.
And "The Son is Older" naturally failed to pass the CCTV level and was directly strangled in the cradle, which is also the first time that Fan Wei has bluntly felt the process of hope to despair.
But as an old acquaintance of the Spring Festival Gala, Zhao Benshan has not felt it for the first time, he understands in his heart that CCTV's review requirements are strict, even if you pass, you may be removed for some reasons.
At first, Zhao Benshan would pick some livelihood themes when picking scripts to speak for the people, but as such themes became more and more, Zhao Benshan found that it was too tiring to play this kind of thing.
The original intention of comedy is to make people happy, mixed with too many didactic things, which really makes Zhao Benshan uncomfortable.
Therefore, Zhao Benshan changed his path, abandoned the theme of people's livelihood, and created the work "Selling Abduction".
Although he gave up preaching, Zhao Benshan also added a lot of satirical content to "Selling Abduction".
And the popularity of "Selling Abduction" is also something that Zhao Benshan did not expect, until today, many people are playing the memes in "Selling Abduction".
And Zhao Benshan, like Chen Peisi, was originally on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala in order to make himself a little famous.
But with the public's love for them and the importance that the Spring Festival Gala director team attaches to them, it has gradually evolved into that they don't want to get on it.
Every year during the drill, Zhao Benshan made up his mind that he would definitely not come next year, but in the second year, the director team persuaded that he still had to think about the script and stand on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala.
But people's talents are limited, and they will not always create peak works, and Zhao Benshan is not an exception.
In the past few years, Zhao Benshan was able to create many novel programs, and inspiration was also springing up.
But in the back, Zhao Benshan may not be able to come up with a good show after staying up for a few days.
For this reason, Zhao Benshan often had insomnia all night, and when recalling this experience, Zhao Benshan said bluntly: "We brought happiness to the national audience, but a few of us were not happy." ”
It is also under such a heavy pressure that many "Spring Festival Gala veterans" have disappeared on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala, and their departure is nothing more than a loss for the Spring Festival Gala.
●○The current situation of Chen Peisi and Zhao Benshan○●
In 2021, Tencent News did an interview show, in which they invited the former comedy king Chen Peisi.
In this interview, Chen Peisi publicly talked about the real reason for his departure from CCTV for the first time.
He said that suing CCTV because of copyright issues was just a fuse, and long before this happened, Chen Peisi had already decided, and he really did not have the energy to deal with CCTV's complex interpersonal relationships.
Therefore, Chen Peisi resolutely left CCTV, the platform that made him famous and exhausted.
After leaving CCTV, Chen Peisi had the freedom he dreamed of.
In the eyes of the audience, Chen Peisi is an excellent sketch actor and director, and his job is to constantly create better and newer works.
But for Chen Peisi himself, being able to not be imprisoned by this side of heaven and earth, and being able to soar freely above the sky is the most important.
Turning his head to look at the current situation of Zhao Benshan, in May last year, Zhao Benshan's recent photos were exposed.
Looking at Zhao Benshan with a big belly in the photo, a cigar in his left hand and a brush in his right hand, everyone also had a lot of feelings for a while.
Especially after noticing Zhao Benshan's slightly haggard face, netizens were worried about the body of Zhao Benshan, who was over 100 years old.
In addition to worrying about his old man's body, many netizens also shouted Zhao Benshan, hoping that he could show up more and bring excellent works to everyone again.
But judging from the mental outlook of his old man, this can only be a fool's dream.
●○End ○●
And as the audience misses these old artists more and more, it is not difficult to see the poor quality of the program of today's Spring Festival Gala.
It is precisely with the "departure" of the old artists one by one that the stage of the Spring Festival Gala is also much less "New Year's flavor".
Even Teacher Feng Gong, who has "greeted" audience friends for 33 years, may not have been on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala for a long time.
People sitting in front of the TV squatting to watch the Spring Festival Gala rarely hear the phrase "Audience friends, I want to kill you!" ”
The departure of the old artist is not only a loss for the Spring Festival Gala, but also a loss for the audience looking forward to the Spring Festival Gala.
Now, I only hope that these old artists can be healthy, safe and happy, and at the same time, I also hope that the Spring Festival Gala can discover their shortcomings as soon as possible and create works that satisfy the national audience as soon as possible.
Finally, I wish you all a good year.