Watching TV

I was born in 1948 and don't remember a time when there was not a TV in my home. It has been a constant in my life. The TV was tuned to the Today Show when I was getting ready for school in the mornings and we watched soap operas when we came home for lunch. I learned how to do homework while watching TV. When I turned 13 I was allowed to stay up to watch the shows that came on at 10:00 pm. (The trick with that was I had to be able to get up on time the next morning or I couldn't stay up for a few nights.)

Now you should understand that my parents were night owls. My father was a bartender who didn't get home from work until after 2:00 am. My mother had been a nurse before she got married and was very used to staying up and getting by on not a lot of sleep. And with no husband around at night the TV and telephone were my mother's friends.

I can remember before starting grade school that if I woke up before my mother went to bed she would let me come downstairs with her and we would bake muffins (from a box mix) and watch the late movie on our local station. Ed McMahon (pre Johnny Carson) was the local announcer who would introduce the movie and do commercials. Once the movie was over so was the broadcast day and the station would play the national anthem and go to a test pattern.

I remember a lot of trivia about TV. I remember "Winky Dink" where you had a film that went over your screen so you could crayon on it as part of the program. I remember Miss Frances and "Ding Dong School". I remember 15 minute soap operas at lunchtime and I remember it being a big deal when they went to 30 minutes and then 60 minutes. I remember the reason I wanted to stay up late was to watch Vince Edwards as "Ben Casey". I loved Richard Chamberlin as "Dr. Kildare". I remember a series called "Circus Boy" with Mickey Dolenz (who later became famous as a Monkee). I remember a news report about a fire at Lady of the Angels school in Chicago (and the fire drills we had in school after it happened). I remember Arthur Godfrey, Dennis Day and Queen for a Day. I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis and Peyton Place and a presidents assassination.    

The thing is I remember a lot of TV's past but a lot of what I see now barely leaves a ripple in my consciousness. Back then we had 3 channels and it seemed like there was always something worth watching. Now we have more than a hundred channels to choose from and most of the time there isn't a lot to choose from. A cousin of mine wrote today the he had spent an enjoyable hour watching reruns of "The Rifleman". It was a boyhood favorite of his and he really had a good time watching it. So with cable he was paying to watch a show that was more than 50 years old that cost him nothing to watch when it was new.

My problem is not with cable. My problem with TV today is the lack of imagination in programming. We are inundated with cheap reality TV. Really..."The Bachelor"? They couldn't come up with something better? I remember "The Defenders" and "East Side West Side" and "Naked City". Surely there are talented writers out there who can come up with a plot line and script. That would put actors and grips and studios back to work on something that the public will watch.    

We are the public. If we don't watch what the networks put on they will be forced to come up with something new. Let the programmers know that ""We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it any more".       

If all else fails turn on some music and read a book. Your imagination can cast anyone you want in the lead role and you can go to a library and borrow a book about anything that interests you for nothing.

Don't watch what you don't enjoy just to fill up time.

Bye for now!