Variety-show director Long Mei has taken her creation a long way, cajoling stars - and fans - on stage for the ride, Liu Wei reports.

Long Mei's show was so popular that when David Beckham came to China for a short stay of six hours, he gave one of those hours to it.

Since the day Happy Camp was launched in 1997, Long has been the director and producer for the variety show, which boasts tens of millions of viewers every weekend.

Sixteen years ago, China's small screens were dominated by news broadcasts and what people call wanhui, or stage shows featuring hosts who read out what the next act would be.

But it was also a time when people started to enjoy the benefits of the reform and opening-up, leading a better material life and craving more entertainment.

Long's employer, Hunan Satellite TV in Central China, sensed the need earlier than many other networks. A team was built to create entertaining content every weekend.

Long and her team watched many variety shows from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and Western countries before they presented Happy Camp. The early episodes, featuring stars who played games and made mistakes like ordinary people, were an immediate hit.

"It was a time when people thought stars were perfect. So when they saw that their icons playing games and falling onto the stage by mistake, they found the show very refreshing," Long says.

Producing the first episode, Long had to explain to the actors and their agents what kind of show it was and promised that their image would not be damaged. But soon the variety program became a smash hit, and stars were lining up to be part of it.

Even David Beckham.

In 2007 the English soccer star came to China for the commercial campaign of a mobile-phone brand. The company was eager to cooperate with Happy Camp.

Long and her team designed more than 10 proposals and sent them to England with videos of their previous episodes.

When the show was staged, they invited Huang Jianxiang, a popular soccer commentator known for his excellent spoken English, as Beckham's interpreter. One of the games involved 10 cute little girls and Beckham, father of three boys.

"We knew Beckham never joined such shows before, so we did quite a lot of research," Long recalls. "We prepared many more proposals than the show's length could afford for him to choose. We knew he is a caring father, and he and Victoria Beckham wanted a baby girl."

The show stunned both other TV networks and viewers when they saw Beckham playing games with the girls and demonstrating his soccer skills for local fans.

Few knew that only one year earlier, Long almost lost her show.

In 2005, Happy Camp experienced a drastic decrease in audience. Many stars had shown up and played games, some for many times. Viewers wanted something new.

"At first people did not know what kind of show it is," Long says. "But in 2005 they knew too well."

The show confronted the challenge by inviting audience members in the studio to come up and play games with their idols.

The reform saved the day, and it alerted the team to the importance of innovation and staying fresh.

Long, 42, still takes time away from her daughter and husband to hang out with her crew, all aged 20 something, in bars and karaoke clubs, as she did when the show first started.

"The target audience does not change," she says. "We had to attract people aged 15 to 25 in 1997, and in 2013 we still have to cater to the same group. It means we cannot relax on old modes."

Competition has been stiff, when many producers have bought copyrights of popular shows in the West, such as The Voice and Top Gear. Happy Camp introduced some games from Western shows, too, but Long has always focused more on exploring local talent and content.

She brought in two younger hosts after 2006 and made the hosting team a well-known brand named Happy Family. The team has released an album and shot a film, which grossed a decent 12 million yuan ($1.9 million) on its opening day, Jan 15.

Like other mainland TV producers, she cannot turn to sex or politics, the two important resources for jokes in Western shows. But she'll never call that a restriction.

"Rules are in every industry," she says. "I feel proud that my show, without sex or politics, still makes people laugh."

Contact the writer at liuw@chinadaily.com.cn.

(China Daily 01/21/2013 page20)