Retro television replication
The writer's strike is still on--yawn. Television has gotten progressively worse over the last few decades. Why were the TV series from the '60s so memorable even when they were horrible than today's shows? Comedies like Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies and the Munsters were silly, not really very funny and had some memorable characters that were complete and utter stereotypes. Yet, Gen X and Gen Y are just as familiar with the shows as were their parents. By contrast, today's network television content is completely unmemorable. Even the most popular shows like Everyone Likes Raymond has become a joke where the punchline is that no intelligent person admits to having ever watched it.
Were the 60's shows "better" because the actors were accomplished stage and screen personalities like Buddy Ebsen, Yvonne DeCarlo and Eddie Albert as opposed to underwear ad children who get the job first, then take acting classes? Is it because the '60s was the era of nostalgia where every shirt, song and show is constantly mined by Gen Y for fashion trendiness?
The content was different, for one thing. The comedies were played straight up, absent the self-referential sniggering that's common to today's shows. Today's dramas are perhaps too serious and seek to emulate big ticket movies instead of the simple escapist fare that was the Fugitive, Mission Impossible or God forbid, Hawaii 5-0.
IMHO, there are only two decent hunks of programming on television. Witty animated series like the Simpsons, Family Guy, Robot Chicken and the Venture Brothers and anything from HBO. HBO has consistently provided the best programming for a decade. The Sopranos and Deadwood rank with the best drama that has ever appeared on TV.
So, what does the future hold for television? Collaborative content and reality programming seem faddish, but I could be wrong. Will the Internet become more than a distribution mechanism and become an alternative entertainment media for full-length, big budget entertainment? Enquiring minds want to know. I expect to see high-quality programming move into pay channels sans advertising, following the HBO example, but surprisingly, it hasn't happened yet.
Posted on December 12, 2007
