The city of Golden Sands may not actually exist, but it still has a weird and wonderful TV station. Programme 4 broadcasts commercials for local restaurants like Ramon’s Venetian Room (with new pleather-bound menus) and local businesses like Browner Carpeting (check out their floor-to-ceiling garage shag). There are ads for the annual Starving Artist Mathis Sale (“Every possible depiction of Johnny Mathis!”) as well as credits for made-up sitcoms like The William Joel Show, starring Billy Joel as a Long Island weatherman. Collected together at the web site programme4.tv, the series is strange, hilarious, maybe a little creepy, but infinitely rewatchable.
“In my mind it’s a local market station that’s maybe a little interdimensional,” says creator Rachel Lichtman. “It’s timeless and locationless. It’s this void where we’re not sure what year it is. There’s no hard date on anything. It’s more of a feeling.”
The unofficial mayor of Golden Sands, Lichtman co-wrote and directed the Programme 4 segments with contributions from the Sklar Brothers, Ted Leo, Julianna Hatfield, Patton Oswalt, and Tammy Faye Starlite. Constantly expanding — first through radio broadcasts from the local Easy 66 AM and eventually through small US tours — this world is built on small, well-observed details, which means the collection took a long time to create. “I’m taking notes all the time, and I’m always thinking of how I can weave something into this larger story,” says Lichtman, who describes the broadcasts as something like a comedy album. “But I don’t want to shape the story too much. I want your own personal emotional memories to be a character in the experience.”
Programme 4 is a love letter to a forgotten moment in television history, when national programming would air alongside local commercials on small-market stations. “This is obviously made by human people. It’s based on human memory. It’s not AI. Every bit of it has been touched by human hands, which is absolutely crucial right now. We wanted to acknowledge the humanity of the creators as well as the humanity of the audience.”
Lichtman grew up outside of Chicago and was weaned on those regional advertisements, which offered her young self a glimpse of an adult world. “I thought those restaurants and nightclubs were the most important places in the world. This is what adults did. This is where adults went.” While Gen X and older viewers may recall similar experiences from their own childhoods, Lichtman has been surprised by the cross-generational appeal of Programme 4. “There are all these people of a certain age who are old enough to remember the pre-Internet days, but there’s also a whole crew of younger people who simply love the analog approach.”
She hopes Golden Sands might be a pop-cultural utopia to her viewers, virtually if not physically. “I wanted to create a place where people could feel comfortable and seen in terms of the weird kinds of entertainment they like. So it’s not snobby. We tried to make it a very open and welcoming place. We’re all having drinks down at Ramon’s Venetian Room. Come join us!”
