‘Tómbola’ was much worse

As late August approaches, the return of television programming can feel like another source of dread. Medical bills, a blocked drain and an awkward meal with people from the padel circuit are enough to make the coming season’s promises of a television revolution sound hollow.

The writer has spent the past month watching the early episodes of “Tómbola,” a show regarded here as part of the birth of modern television. Nearly 30 years later, revisiting it is fascinating, but also revealing. In an interview with Carmina Ordóñez, she was first asked to kiss Ernesto Neyra and then accused of lying, on the logic that an abused woman would never kiss her abuser. Mar Flores was treated as if she deserved a scarlet letter.

The program’s double standards were obvious elsewhere. Rociíto was mocked for allegedly making a living from her story, while the granddaughter of Francisco Franco received uncritical deference. The writer also recalls Lydia Lozano’s grammatical mistakes, Jesús Mariñas’s open misogyny and Chimo Rovira trying to mediate between the program’s feuding personalities.

Some participants knew how to conduct interviews, including Karmele Marchante and Ángel Antonio Herrera. But the show had stopped practicing journalism. It was making television instead. The writer recommends watching “Tómbola” as a valuable document of who people were and who they are, and suggests that it may help viewers face the clouds gathering over the next season.