2008 Woodie Awards
Letter
Television evolution not neccesarily for the better
Issue date: 12/7/07 Section: Opinion
Originally published: 12/6/07 at 7:47 PM EST
Last update: 12/6/07 at 7:53 PM EST
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I remember a time when I could sit down with my family and watch Friday night television.
We could realistically enjoy a half hour of the entertaining, though perhaps cliché and unrealistic, story-line that kept our attention and sometimes mildly amused us.
We'd even sit through the commercials to await the thickening plot of the Seaver's or the Huxtable's family dilemma.
That was about 12 years ago.
In my mid-20s now, I don't think I've sat in the same room as my mother watching TV since I was in high school.
Sure, I have been in the same room while the TV was in the background, but as soon as I realized that "South Park" had mistakenly been left on and that we were about to be serenaded by a singing piece of excrement bellowing out our favorite Christmas carols, I soon realized that this may not be "dinner-time friendly."
Television executives have found a loophole in the system though. Get any jackass with a college degree, an ounce of creativity, and no morals and make them television show writers and creators.
Goodbye thought provoking plot. See ya later values and creative story-line.
Hello shock value and a dangerous portrayal of "reality."
"Gilligan's Island" has been replaced by "Temptation Island." "I Love Lucy" is now "I Love New York."
Where can we go from here? Is television screwed? Maybe the answers lie in the origins of television. We need to understand how it has evolved, or regressed (depending on how you look at it).
Whether it was Farnsworth, Marconi, Baird or whomever was finally credited with the invention of television, they are all spinning like a rotisserie chicken in their graves today.
I hardly believe that it was the intentions of these men to see Paris and Nicole working at Arby's or 20 gold-digging bimbos fighting for the "love" of some washed-up celeb that no one has heard about since the Berlin wall fell.
But what kind of message are we sending to our children? That finding love is as simple as running through an obstacle course or winning a scavenger hunt? Television networks used to really try hard to make television entertaining without compromising its integrity.
We could realistically enjoy a half hour of the entertaining, though perhaps cliché and unrealistic, story-line that kept our attention and sometimes mildly amused us.
We'd even sit through the commercials to await the thickening plot of the Seaver's or the Huxtable's family dilemma.
That was about 12 years ago.
In my mid-20s now, I don't think I've sat in the same room as my mother watching TV since I was in high school.
Sure, I have been in the same room while the TV was in the background, but as soon as I realized that "South Park" had mistakenly been left on and that we were about to be serenaded by a singing piece of excrement bellowing out our favorite Christmas carols, I soon realized that this may not be "dinner-time friendly."
Television executives have found a loophole in the system though. Get any jackass with a college degree, an ounce of creativity, and no morals and make them television show writers and creators.
Goodbye thought provoking plot. See ya later values and creative story-line.
Hello shock value and a dangerous portrayal of "reality."
"Gilligan's Island" has been replaced by "Temptation Island." "I Love Lucy" is now "I Love New York."
Where can we go from here? Is television screwed? Maybe the answers lie in the origins of television. We need to understand how it has evolved, or regressed (depending on how you look at it).
Whether it was Farnsworth, Marconi, Baird or whomever was finally credited with the invention of television, they are all spinning like a rotisserie chicken in their graves today.
I hardly believe that it was the intentions of these men to see Paris and Nicole working at Arby's or 20 gold-digging bimbos fighting for the "love" of some washed-up celeb that no one has heard about since the Berlin wall fell.
But what kind of message are we sending to our children? That finding love is as simple as running through an obstacle course or winning a scavenger hunt? Television networks used to really try hard to make television entertaining without compromising its integrity.
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