Università degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia

This paper analyzes various documents from the archive at the library of the Cineteca di Bologna, “Renzo Renzi”, which corroborate a professional collaboration between film critic Guido Aristarco and the state-run broadcaster Radiotelevisione Italiana (Rai) for the popular TV show Lascia o raddoppia? in 1956. These materials, including lists of questions about history of cinema, are a resource for recent studies that regard Italian film criticism as a relational system. More precisely, it is yet another in step in the historicization of a high-profile figure like Guido Aristarco and investigates the ways in which Aristarco used broadcast media, which occupied a central position in the media system during this period, as a pace for action within the complex dynamics of modern mass society.

This article concerns the Italian adaptation of the multi-national reality television series Undercover Boss (Boss in incognito in Italian translation). The show (2014 – present) is aired in primetime on the Italian public service broadcaster, Radiotelevisione Italiana (Rai), and comprises one of the rare examples of labor thematization in mainstream television. As such, it constitutes an iconic title that makes important contributions to the socio-cultural role of screen storytelling. This essay approaches the TV series as a source and explores how Boss in incognito, like the original format, can provide Italian viewers with a popular narrative not free from ideological implications. Furthermore, it hypothesizes that the broadcasting does not fully correspond to Rai’s public service obligations.