God Bless You Jerry Johnston !

[Vaughn]

Elvira and I just sat down to dinner 45 minutes ago while watching
Pust' Govoryat (Let 'em Speak), a talk show on Russian Channel One.

(Note: the above sentence just posted by itself - bear wth me as I finish
the story in edit mode...)

The opening topic featured a Texan named Jerry Johnston, who spoke
va sattelite, and his fiancee Svetlana, from Omsk. 16 year difference.
Skeptics in the crowd. A panel of five, one of whom was the granddaughter
of Mikhail Gorbachev (as a side note only). The questions were typical yet
fair, but the responses were oh so down to Earth! Two men in the panel of
five began to shoot down the doubters with statements like, "So what if he
dresses like a cowboy? The man's charming, friendly and seems to know
exactly what he wants." - NOT that Jerry needed a hand in defense - he was
cruising so smoothly without support from the gallery....

Sveta was cool under the heat as well. "Why so far away, Sveta. when there
are so many closer places in which to find a man?" to which Sveta matter-of-factly
replied, "I think it's more revealing if you could tell me and the audience 'Why Not' "

What struck me was that Channel One, a major media force, presented two
very well-adjusted people who've decided to pursue a future together - and
for once I witnessed a class act in a couple who seemingly are not desperate,
obviously in love, and doubtless enthusiastic to be one. I'm not predicting a
resounding success, but congratulating  Channel One for its healthy portrayal
of an American Man - to Sveta, for reinforcing their positive feelings and decisions
to move ahead, and to Mr. Johnston - for coming off as a charming, affable and
mature man who in less than 10 minutes dispelled negative preconceptions of
American men with his polished style of down home friendliness and humor.

Found a related link:
http://english.pravda.ru/society/stories/98886-0/

[Serebro]

Elvira and I just sat down to dinner 45 minutes ago while watching
Pust' Govoryat (Let 'em Speak), a talk show on Russian Channel One.

(I'm not predicting a
resounding success, but congratulating  Channel One for its healthy portrayal
of an American Man - to Sveta, for reinforcing their positive feelings and decisions
to move ahead, and to Mr. Johnston - for coming off as a charming, affable and
mature man who in less than 10 minutes dispelled negative preconceptions of
American men with his polished style of down home friendliness and humor.

Found a related link:
http://english.pravda.ru/society/stories/98886-0/

I don't think that Channel One  had any special aim to show it good or to show it bad....
they normally take a story(stories) and discuss them.
I like Pust govoryat as it doesn't seem to be a show to make a scandal of anything...they simply discuss things without making any conclusions or making something look bad or good, they give facts and people discuss..


So I don't think that we can congratulate Channel One for making something look better than it is...

This summer you could see more stories about Russian-foreign couples(divorced couples) and the truth was out there...they give you the facts, you can hear what famous people think about it and but you make your own conclusion.
I know for sure that the guests of the show are real people and the stories are real.(at least some of them are) as I personally know 2 people who went to Moscow to take part in this show and they told their real life stories.
I like Channel One for this.
PS: what I meant... the conclusions and the way they looked like didn't depend on the show, it depended on them, on their answers, on the comments of  people around...

[Vaughn]

Serebro, your point is well taken, and your observance and understanding of the
program's direction certainly outshines mine - as my knowledge of Russian is
limited, and that's exactly why I'm there watching it regularly as time allows.

My point was that, in my experience only, it's one of the few times any form of
FSU major media presented the endeavor in such a positive light - which, as you said,
is more attributable to the couple themselves. The tendency I've noted (through a few
years anyway) is for the media to focus on trainwrecks in retrospect, or to feature a
couple where neither is very convincing that they have the foggiest idea of what
they're doing....Channel One certainly had the option to choose a couple from the
latter group, nyet?