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I know a lot of us here on Soshified are big fans of the KBS2 variety show "Invincible Youth", which of course our girls Yuri and Sunny make regular appearances in. I came upon this interesting article on a Korean web site a few days ago that features an interview with Kim Hosang, the main PD of the show, talking about the G7 and the show in general. (original link in Korean here: http://www.segye.com...I...=&subctg2=). I thought that since so many of us are fans of this show, I'd do a rough translation of his interview for our international members here. Please note that I'm not the best of translators so there may be some things in there that are mistranslated, but in general it should be pretty accurate (accurate enough to make sense, anyway
). Alright, without further to do, here's the translation of the article.
Kim PD on the show's inception and beginnings:
"It was a real challenge to bring the show on the air in the beginning. We first suggested invincible youth for the start of the fall season and it was picked as the best idea by the higher ups. But then as it was about to go on the air, many of the higher-ups started doubting whether to air this; at the time, I think they were really worried about the show just including girl groups, as well as them being nuisance to the people of Yu Chi Ri. Others also said that it really wasn't any different from shows like '1 Night, 2 Days' and 'Family Outing'. So we told them that this was to be a show based on just one location where it would tell the self-subsisting life of the girls. And contrary to my expectations, the interest from the media and people were really high; I read some blogs before the first episode which speculated on which girls from girl groups would be included in the show, and I even had my name go up as a top search on sites like Naver... I had a profile created about me, and I didn't even ask for it! (laughs). It's been about 5 months since IY first went on the air now, and I'd say I'm reasonably happy with the show overall. Unfortunately, it's in the late Friday night time slot where it's not going to draw 30% rating like some of the other variety shows do, but hopefully we'll get some good reaction once we start doing some actual farming activities. The October time period for the show premier wasn't really good timing on our part since most of the farming activities had ended by then."
On the makings of G7:
"When I look back now, I'd say the girls have really grown to like and appreciate each other since the beginning. I remember during the first promotional media day, the atmosphere wasn't that great; I could notice that all of the 7 girls acted a bit hostile to each other and tried to overtake the best spots for the photos, etc. So I tried to change the spots around for them and organize things. In retrospect I'm not surprised they were like that back then, since they didn't really know each other well and had a lot of new girl groups and competition and the time. But now, they get along really well and often visit each other in the dressing room during music programs and stuff. Some of them are even closer with the G7 girls than some of their own group members! It's pretty common to see them texting each other back and forth now."
(On the roster) "We had a lot of people asking us why we didn't pick girls from better known idol groups like 2NE1 and After School (note: groups like T-ara and 4minute had only debuted a month earlier at the time, and Secret hadn't even made their on-air debut yet). The reason why we excluded 2NE1 from the list was because of YG Entertainment's company policy; YG was well known to not allow 2NE1 to make apperances on ANY variety shows, so we didn't even bother approaching them. We did approach After School's Uee for one of the spots, but she was already appearing in Dramas at the time so she didn't really have the time for anything else. So we went with Secret's Han Sunhwa since we already had girls from well known girl groups and thought it would have been interesting to have a rookie in the mix. And even though Sunhwa is really pretty, she pretty much got edited out entirely during the first few episodes... but then thankfully she found her own on-air character."
His opinions on the show now:
"Nowadays we don't get any criticisms on us being a copy of '1 Night 2 Days' or 'Family Outing'. Ironically, 'Family Outing' have been on a decline since and now we can even see some people writing on message boards for the 'Family Outing' to learn from us instead! We don't really pressure the girls to go out of their way to be funny and impress or anything, and I think that's the reason why the girls do so well here."
"But I realize that we are still lacking in many ways. We haven't had a main MC on the show after Nam Huiseok left the show after 3 months, and we haven't really had anyone fill that spot yet. It's tough because besides people like Kang Hodong or Yu Jaeseok, it's really hard to find an established MC... so it's a bit disappointing how we don't really have anyone to lead the way for the girls in a traditional variety-show sense. That's why presence of Noh Juhyun is really important I think; he serves as a link between the girls and the country townspeople since many people there don't recognize the girls from girl groups but do recognize him (laughs). Kim Shinyoung and Kim Taewoo are pretty much rookies when it comes to MC-ing, too. At first, Taewoo didn't respond to our offers even after months of trying; so I went to visit him in a dressing room and convinced him by telling him that you're going to be on air with SNSD's Yuri!(laughs) He's been successful as a singer but he's yet to prove himself on variety programs. He's still lacking in a lot of ways in that sense, but he is definitely trying hard and doing well."
Brief comments on each of the girls:
Narsha: "Since she's the oldest, she is a mother figure to the rest of the girls. She definitely has a very motherly and caring side to her; she helps out the other girls a lot and never really complains about anything. Since she's already established the 'Sungin-dol' (adult idol) character for herself, I think she has a great potential to shine in other variety programs and sitcoms in the future."
Yuri: "When we first started, Yuri was our ace and poster girl. She still is now, but she constantly worries about her not finding a definite on-air character on the show yet. So I tell her to take it easy, to just be herself and not worry about looking pretty or funny or anything. She's probably the most competitive girl out of the group; whenever she gets a mission or is in a game of some sort, she hates to lose! Recently when she had to take a day off because of her H1N1, she joking texted me, the producer, and Taewoo saying that "Sooyoung's subbing in for me today so don't make the show too funny without me!" (laughs). She's a very kind and courteous person in general, and is always the first person to greet others."
Sunny: "Sunny's a really wise girl. One time, all of the guys in the show jokingly talked about who we'd like to have the most as a wife, and we all picked Sunny (laughs). We all thought she'd be the best at housework and taking care of the family and stuff. She has a really good business sense and is a really funny person to boot; I'd say her, along with Narsha, are the most wittiest out of the group."
Hyomin: "When she first started, I didn't really know her personality because T-ara had only debuted for about a month at the time... then she ended up being the last one to hold on to that whole 'Completely Edited Out' character! She always seems a bit hesitant on the show, so I try encourage her to be more confident."
Sunhwa: "She's always been a bit of a chatty type of character since the beginning; Nam Huiseok even asked her if it was her first time in front of the camera! Sunhwa's the typical 'act first, think later' type of person... that's probably how the whole 'blank paper' character came about and how's she's been able to shake off the whole stigma of being a rookie so fast."
Hyuna: ""Hyuna is a really shy person in general. It took almost better part of two months for me, the crewmembers and other members of G7 to be on comfortable speaking terms with her. She didn't really get along that well with other girls in the beginning; she'd just kind of float about around others and do things with much uncertainty. But thankfully, after two months of getting more comfortable with her unnis, she finally started speaking her mind more freely. She has the whole 'pouty' (jing jing) character on the air, and that's actually how she is in real life also! (laughs) She's a bit different from other girls since she grew up in the countryside. She seems to have learned a few things from her elders as she was growing up , since she seems to understand how to live a country farm life more easily than others.
Goo Hara: "Perhaps its because she grew up being raised by just her grandmother, but she's the most caring and emotional one out of the group. She thinks a lot to herself and cries easily, too. But ironically she's probably just about as strong as Yuri in terms of competiveness, no joke! To me, she seems a bit like a typical country farm girl."
On girls' approach to the show:
"During the recordings, the girls often talk about how they're learning about so many different things about life on this show. I mean, when is Yuri ever going to have the opportunity to make Kimchi, Sujunggwa (Korean traditional dessert drink), feed a cow and raise a chicken ever again? These are examples of things they learn about life week in and week out. So I always tell them that "You're learning about a different type of life here compared to your typical idol star life". Some of the girls have been training for better part of 10 years, so all they've probably done up until now is just sing and dance. I'd like to believe that this experience will really help them grow as a person in the future. Lately, I've been getting the vibe that the girls show up here with a 'play and have fun' attitude rather than the typical 'record a show' attitude. It makes sense since we have more of a 'college trip' feeling here and don't really have any scripts to follow or anything. It certainly beats making boring sponsor-related appearances 2-3 times a week, that's for sure!"
On future plans for the show:
"We might have a few changes in store for the Spring season. I'd like to have a new male member join our group since right now Taewoo is the only one. We might even change the location of the filming also, because G7 members are so busy that it's hard to get them to appear at the same time to film the show week after week Other than that, we have no plans to change up the roster since the chemistry and teamwork with the girls are so good at the moment."
Well, that's about the gist of it. Hope that you've enjoyed it and gave you a different perspective of the show and the G7 members.
Edited by Ajussi, 22 March 2010 - 09:49 AM.
