• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, August 3, 2017

I admit it: My age is sometimes an issue when it comes to assessing new TV shows.

It’s not that I lack an understanding of what a show such as “Life of Kylie” is supposed to do. It is designed to appeal to a younger generation of pop-culture crazed 20-somethings or teens for whom following young, rich celebrities on social media is something akin to a religion for them.

Based on my viewing of the premiere episode of “Life of Kylie” -- which premieres this coming Sunday night on E! -- the Kylie Jenner-Kardashian faithful will be well-satisfied. The show will more than meet their expectations.

My incomprehension of this phenomenon stems generally from an inability to empathize with this need to follow celebrities in this way at all. I don’t think there is any equivalent in my experience, possibly because social media of the type now available to everyone did not exist when I was younger.

Based on the media we did have, our generation was not as deeply informed about, or involved in, the lives of celebrated personalities.

For us, it was mainly weekly magazines -- supermarket tabloids and People -- and daily TV shows such as “Entertainment Tonight.” Even discussing something as antiquated as “weekly” media marks one as terribly old-fashioned if not downright old. (For the record, I’m in my 50s.)

On “Life of Kylie,” the challenges of social media are among the topics that 19-year-old Kylie frets about. Among other things, you will learn how hard she works to post selfies that are just right. Who knew the art of selfie-taking was so complicated?

In the premiere episode, you will meet Kylie and her support staff. These include her makeup artist named Ariel, her hair stylist named Tokyo (he doesn't appear to be Japanese) and a personal assistant named Victoria.

In Kylie's world, no one has more than one name. Full disclosure: I have tried for years to be known only as “Adam,” but this idea has never gained traction for me.

The storyline in Episode One involves Kylie agreeing to accompany a young male fan to his senior prom as his date. In the process, we learn that Kylie was home-schooled, and so busy working as a model when she should have been in high school that she missed her own senior prom.

Kylie regrets this, but since her life now seems to be going swimmingly, you get the feeling it’s not really something she thinks about very often. She has other concerns, such as her underused Lamborghini.

You read that right: In one scene in the 21-minute premiere episode of “Life of Kylie,” she laments that she never seems to take this Lamborghini she owns out of her garage.

The car is shown in loving close-up, however, just in case we didn’t get the message: Kylie owns a drop-dead and presumably expensive Lambo that she never drives. My goodness!

The fact is, on the show, Kylie comes across as nice. I once interviewed her older half-sister Kim Kardashian and had much the same reaction. Kim was a great interview -- friendly and polite, which is more than I can say for any number of celebrities I have interviewed.

The photo accompanying this blog post is the only one the E! p.r. department made available for “Life of Kylie” on the proprietary Web site NBC-Universal maintains for press and publicity materials.

The photo seems intended to symbolize that Kylie is multifaceted. Whether she is or she isn't I leave for her young fans to decide.

The other day, while browsing in a Manhattan bookstore -- the Strand at 12th and Broadway -- I overheard two 20-something store employees, a male and a female, talking about the new “Gong Show” airing this summer on ABC.

He asked her if she had heard of it. She said she had, but had not seen it. He mentioned that he had heard the show was a “reboot” (his word) of an older “Gong Show,” but he was nevertheless unsure of this.

Eventually, a slightly older store employee filled in some of the facts about “The Gong Show” and the man who created it, Chuck Barris (who died in March at age 87). This older employee got some of the facts wrong, but no matter. (I did not intervene.)

What amazed me was this: There was a time in my life when it would have been inconceivable to me that anyone would not know about the original “Gong Show” or Chuck Barris.

But here we are. Young people think this summer's “Gong Show” is a new concept perhaps invented by Will Arnett.

And another Kardashian-Jenner has a TV show. Many of us of a certain age don’t understand this phenomenon, but unlike many others, I don't tend to wring my hands over the Kardashians and their influence. 

Kylie and her show belong to a different generation. They are welcome to it. 

“Life of Kylie” premieres Sunday night (August 6) at 9 Eastern on E!