When I was growing up television was lights years different than what we have today. In the late sixties through the late seventies there was no cable television, and even when it arrived around 1978 it was the Stone Age compared to what we have now.[1]We had seven channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13. National broadcast TV was 2 (CBS), 4 (NBC) and 7 (ABC), which astonishingly is the same today. The local channels were 5 (Metromedia), 9 (WOR) and 11 (WPIX). Channel 13, as it is today, was public broadcasting (PBS).
The original programming was on 2, 4 and 7. The day went something like this: news and game shows in the morning; soap operas, more game shows and old movies in the afternoon. Local and national news at dinnertime and then original programming in the evening. The local sports teams were on 9 (Mets) and 11 (Yankees). And that was it folks, six channels, no remote. You wanted to change the channel you had to hoist yourself up out of the Barcalounger. And no DVR, you had to sit through the commercials.
Not that different from what we have today except that channel 5 is now Fox, a national broadcast channel. Also today we also have a gazillion other channels with a cornucopia of mostly unwatchable programming.[2]This is just another example of the law of diminishing returns. The number of channels expands faster than the supply of quality content. You see this in sports like Major League Baseball and the NFL. Expanding the number of teams increases revenues but seriously dilutes the talent pool i.e., having more teams doesn’t mean that number of talented players increases.
Today the quality original programming has mostly moved from the major national broadcast channels out to the premium (HBO, Showtime), quasi-premium (FX) and streaming (Netflix, Amazon, Hulu) providers. This has basically sucked the creative life out of broadcast TV leaving only reality shows, painful sitcoms and derivative hour long dramas about cops,fire fighters and doctors (sometimes all in the same show).
Back in the days of my youth though the supply of content only had three places to go and looking back there were some pretty cools shows.I remember when I was in college we wouldn’t go out until after we watched the Saturday night trifecta of MASH, Love Boat and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Today Saturday night programming is a wasteland of unwatchable dreck but back then it was packed with the best shows. Admittedly we had our dopey stuff like F-Troop. Here’s a sampling of some of my favorites from back when dinosaurs roamed the earth.
The Name of the Game– This was perhaps one of the coolest shows of the era. It was about a magazine publishing house and one of the three main characters would be featured each week (Robert Stack, Gene Barry and Tony Franciosa). Susan Saint James was the editorial assistant to each of them so she was featured each week. It only lasted three seasons but it was so ahead of its time.
Lost In Space– Loved this show. A stowaway (Jonathan Harris playing the scheming Dr. Smith) sends the spaceship (carrying the Robinson family and Major West) hurtling off course from it destination of Alpha Centauri. They crash land on a planet, that miraculously has breathable air, and now they have fix to the ship and figure out where they are. The Robot (“Danger Will Robinson!”), jet packs, hostile aliens… who needs Star Wars?
Bewitched– Picture “Leave It To Beaver”where Mrs. Cleaver is a witch and you pretty much have the premise for this show. Elizabeth Montgomery plays Samantha Stephens married to normal mortal Darrin (played by two different actors over the course of the show’s run). Agnes Moorehead plays her witchy mother Endora. Samantha is trying to live the normal life of a housewife but that never lasts too long before she twitches her nose and unleashes a spell that wreaks havoc. Equally fun is the nosey neighbor across the street, Mrs. Kravitz, who is convinced something strange is going on over at the Stephen’s house.
Hawaii Five-O– Jack Lord patrolling the mean streets of Honolulu in suit and tie. The 21stcentury re-boot pales in comparison. Book ‘em Danno.
The Wild, Wild West – A spy story set in a western. Robert Conrad and Ross Gordon are the agents going up against villains and schemes to bring down the nation. Lots of James Bond-like trick gadgets and that cool evolving panel thing on the screen every time they went to a commercial. Again the re-boots missed the essence of this classic.
The Monkees– A made for TV band that closed each show with a music video years before MTV. Matching outfits, souped up GTO, goofy storylines… I’m a believer!
McMillan and Wife– I’m not saying these were the most politically correct times, try getting away with this title today. McMillan(“Mac”) is the San Francisco Police Commissioner played by Rock Hudson and his wife Sally (Susan Saint James fresh from the Name of the Game), is his unofficial assistant helping Rock untangle the latest mystery. The early seasons are the best.
Night Gallery– Rod Serling‘s follow up to his very scary Twilight Zone series was in some ways just as spooky. Each week Serling, who could creep you our just with his intros, would introduce paintings that figured in that evening’s three mini-episodes. Lost a lot sleep after watching this one. Watch the episode “The Doll”. Whoa!
ARTS ROUNDUP
Reading – “Ready Player One”by Ernest Cline. It took me a while to get into this one. The world’s a mess and everyone takes refuge in the virtual reality world of The Oasis where people interact through their avatars. The Oasis founder, now dead, has left the players with a contest, more of a quest, to find the “Easter egg” and be the ruler of this virtual world. It’s a group of young protagonists versus an evil corporation for control of The Oasis. Whether intended the story also speaks to the loneliness of people retreating from the real world to lose themselves in their technology.
Watching – “Broadchurch”Season 2. This season deals with wrapping up the murder from the first season while introducing the double murder that Detective Alec Hardy (David Tennant) failed to solve before coming to Broadchurch. He and fellow detective Ellie Miller (Olivia Colman) are straddling both cases. It ‘s a complicated and addictive series.
Listening – “Miles Davis and John Coltrane, The Final Tour”. This is number six of the Miles Davis bootleg series.[3]It features complete shows from Paris (2), Copenhagen and Stockholm (2). Recorded in 1960 and featuring material from the Davis classic “Kind of Blue”, this was the last time Davis and John Coltrane toured together. The set lists feature extended versions of Davis songs like “So What” and “All Blues”.
[1]We had a box that sat on the TV that you had to get up move switches to select channels (remotes were soon to follow). Other than HBO and CNN I’m not sure what other channels were available but it did take the number of channels up to about twenty-five.
[2]We’ve all done the “death” scroll where you start at about channel 30 and get up to the low 100’s before giving up and booting up the Apple TV.
[3]I missed a big one in my last post about artists issuing unreleased material: Jimi Hendrix. The man’s estate has put out much more material than he released during his too-short career. If you are a true fan of his music it’s a bottomless trove.