10 Differences between old TV and new TV

New and old.  The good old days.  New fangled.  Everything seems to have changed. Not the least of which is TV.  Our main source of entertainment in the 70's and 80's is still a major source of entertainment now.  But it has changed a LOT.  We just might not have noticed it.  Imagine if you came from 1979 to visit now and watch some TV.

10.  Wow is that big! -  The first thing that would strike our time traveler would be the sheer size of the tv.  Back in the day, a REALLY big tv was 35 inches and it weighed upwards of 150 lbs or more.  Glass tubes and phosphors.  It was dangerous to sit close to the TV what with the radiation and all (wives tale).  Now, big lightweight screens that show more colors than the eye can see.  Our friends of the past would be amazed.  Not only is it big, but everything is produced on a much more polished scale.  Everything looks bigger AND looks better.  The next generation of TV's will be upwards of 120 inches and show more colors than is actually possible for your eyes to see.

9.  Lots of gray areas -  Now that we are watching TV we find that it's harder to tell the difference between the good guys and the bad guys.  The only white and black hats to be had now are computer hackers.  Back then, good guys were very good without more than one flaw.  Usually that they got mad too fast.  Tv used to be about showing us how we wanted to see ourselves.  Now TV is often about showing us what we don't really want to see, but can't look away from.

8.  How many channels are there? - If you have cable or satellite TV, you have more channels than there are hours in a week.  You get more channels on Air TV as well, but not many are watchable.  This was a long running joke, but now they aren't channels anymore, they are other things like Netflix and Hulu that come through other devices and play on your TV.

7.  Why isn't anyone watching TV? - One word, INTERNET  Kids don't even bother watching TV.  They are more about games and YouTube or Vine or whatever the flavor of the month is for sharing media.  Everyone wants to be known for something and it's more interesting for the kids to watch that than stupid tv shows.  When I was a kid, everyone had the fleeting idea that they could be a star and famous.  Now, you can be, just to a smaller audience, but anyone can go 'viral' and without an agent!  So who needs TV?  Besides, everyone likes to watch cats anyway.

6.  Is everything police Shows? -  Apparently someone decided that Police shows were the only ones that were interesting at all.  So now all shows are police dramas?  Well, not everything, but most things.  There are one or two doctor shows and a couple of comedies about dumb people.  But everything else is Police Investigators.  They have better technology than we can have for another 10 years at least and they solve every crime and the criminal is always the right guy, unless they find him early in the show and then it's the wrong guy.









5.  Is this for real? -  Sorry I said Police shows.  The OTHER TV programming is the reality TV show.  In the 70's and 80's they didn't have a name for reality TV, they called it things like Battle of the Network stars and That's Incredible! and Variety shows like Carol Burnett.  All of those go away and now we have gritty regular looking people doing things that don't look that interesting if you do it, but when they do it!  Wow, it's captivating.  To some people.  Of course, it's all scripted.  Not by words, but by action.  They will set up situations so the real people will look the way the producers want them to.  Everyone's life is more interesting if you get to edit it.

4.  Lawyers and drugs didn't exist in the 70's - Back then, tv commercials consisted of Beer, and Cars.  A rather surprising combination.  Well, today the majority of the commercials are Drugs and Lawyers.  Hmm...yet another surprising combination.

3.  I just started liking that show, where is it? - Networks don't let a lot of grass grow anymore when a show doesn't hit the top of the charts right off the bat, they pull it harder than a punk teenager pulls a fire alarm. Sometimes they will let the story run to the end of the season but not often.  Of course technology has made this a lot easier and cost effective.  Remember, they don't care if YOU like it.  They care if ALL of you like it.

2.  These commercials go on forever! - 1982, the first infomercial for a product guaranteed to promote hair growth took a whole slot of programming.  In 1984 the FCC took restrictions away from commercials that made it easier and more legal to push whole blocks of time dedicated to sales.  Originally TV shows were crafted by the sponsors to be a showcase for their product.  Then networks separated out the commercials from the entertainment.  Now, rather than showing TV reruns on off peak times and paying syndication fees, the networks will show infomercials and get advertising money.

1.  Hey they have the TV I'm used to on! - Everything old is new again.  So now that TV has shifted so much from what it was there is a whole new category of TV network.  The nostalgia networks!  There are several of them.  MeTV, AntennaTV, Cozi TV.  They all rerun the hit shows of the 50's through the 80's.  Sure, they have commercials.  Mobility Scooters, supplemental Medicare insurance, end of life insurance and Adult protective underwear.   Hey, I didn't think I was THAT old!  Well, I'm not getting any younger.





There's my latest.  I appreciate all of your eyes reading my thoughts!

10 Christmas Holiday Programs

It's that holiday season again.  It comes once a year, but it almost seems like it never really ends.  Maybe some time in mid July, but for the most part, you are either preparing for, or recovering from, the Holidays.  Of course if you are a child, then the Holidays only mean that you are about to partake of one of the 4 paydays afforded you as a child. 1. Christmas, 2. Easter (candy only), 3. Halloween (candy only) 4. Birthday.  The great part about being a kid is that these things just happen to you.  And it seems that everything around you changes to accommodate the holiday you don't understand why, but it's pure magic. When I was a boy during Christmas, a big part of the magic was the TV programming.  There was no on demand, there was only TV Guide.  If you missed it, you were a year away from the next broadcast.  In no particular order.

10 - Frosty the Snowman - The non-secular show. By non-secular I mean that it had no specific affiliation to Christmas whatsoever.  A story about a dumb snowman and his magic hat.  It always seemed to air at Christmas time, even though it might have been better suited around February when there are no holidays of note and just winter.  It seems that it had a sprig of holly around the title, I guess that was enough to tie it into Christmas.  More than it has in the song certainly.  Yet that song would also make it's way into the grade school program.  Still I would watch it and any other special show that came up and it occupies my memories with the sounds of Happy Birthday!

9 - Rudolph - One of the greats.  Rudolph has always been around and it took me quite a while to realize that Rudolph was not one of the initial reindeer.  The outsider, the underdog, the hometown boy makes good.  The ultimate story of triumph over adversity.  That's what this story wanted to be and to a great part was.  Misfit toys, Dental Elves.  This show had it all.  This was the first show that I remember seeing in stop motion.  It had such a weird look to it, I loved it.

8 - Santa Claus is coming to town - Another stop motion great, the story of Santa Claus.  It featured a red haired guy named Kris Kringle that looked quite a bit like Glenn Campbel.  He had to figure out a way to get toys into kids away from the watchful eye of the dreaded burger meister meister burger.  Well you know the story, because you've seen it as much as I did. More fun stop motion. In fact, after this show, any other show that used similar stop motion techniques would immediately bring Christmas to mind. Defrocked winter wizards were the most compelling part of this show for me.  It taught me that once you no longer have evil in your heart, you have no power for your magic.  I'm not sure if that's a good or bad lesson, they didn't really elaborate.  It also contained a great song that was non-Christmas.  Put one foot in front of the other.  yay!

7 - Year without a Santa Claus - This had less to do with Santa and more to do with two warring factions of the weather world Heat miser and Cold miser.  They had the same song but switched the lyrics to suit their specific climate.  'They call me heat miser...whatever I touch...melts in my clutch...I'm too much'  Loved that song.  Apparently they called a truce long enough to allow snow in southtown U.S.A.  I think it's somewhere in Alabama. It's been remade a few times (the song) so I think more than just me liked it. Had they remade the show for current times.  I think they would be called the climate change brothers. Stop motion again, but worth watching every year.

6 - The Grinch who stole Christmas - The great Boris Karlof narrated this show about whos in whoville.  These are the same whos that Horton had heard.  Boris also voiced the menacing Grinch.  Classic show animated by Chuck Jones of Looney tunes fame.  This show was just about the spirit of sharing and community.  Not heavy handed, just fun.  I loved the dog.  The who carol made up in who language was also nice. Little Cindy Lou who.  The cutest little slug you ever saw!

5 - A Cricket in Times Square / Very merry Cricket - This one didn't show up as often but I saw it enough times and had memories attached to it, that it made sense for me to add it since this is my blog.  I was supposed to be doing forgotten homework when this show came on (also animated by Chuck Jones).  Rather than do that I sneaked to the edge of the door frame to watch the show.  Followed by a zip back to my desk to pay small attention to the assignments that I still don't remember.  Well my dad caught me and closed the door.  I received a well deserved scolding.  For that reason I still remember this show.  Otherwise, I'm not sure it comes on that much anymore.

4 - Star Wars Christmas Special - Speaking of never comes on.  This show was a bomb from the get go.  I remember seeing it when it aired and MAN was it a stinker.  Just horrible.  You can find it online for viewing if you have a strong enough constitution.  This must have been a part of a contract or something because nobody looks too happy to be in it.  Give the Wookies their due.  Apparently they had Wookee Christmas.

3 - The Little Drummer Boy - This is really the only story that speaks directly to the story of Christmas by inserting the drummer boy heard in fictitious song into the Nativity.  Another stop motion animation in the same style as Rudolph and Santa.  This song made famous by the Von Trapp Singers.  Yes, THOSE Von Trapps.  Had quite a bit of play in the 50's.  The show itself kind of creeped me out for reasons unknown.  I think it was because they painted a smile on the kid and made him drum.  That painted smile reminded me too much of clowns.  I think it's safe to say that everyone hates clowns.

2 - A Christmas Carol (1971) - Charles Dickens wrote the definitive story about Christmas spirit in the Christmas Carol.  It has been made many times.  The only reason I choose this model over the myriad others is because it was perfect in my memory.  The Muppet Christmas Carol holds a very close second and still a dear place in my heart.  Were it not for that strange love song and reprisal in the middle of it, it might have gained first.  The animation from 1971 was something I stumbled upon and didn't see it in the standard weekend nightly holiday schedule.  It would come mid day on a Saturday but I still remember the feeling of it.  Even when it was happy, it couldn't quite get away from the Dickensian England that engulfed it.  It had all of the elements of the story that you needed in a format digestible by a kid.

1 - Charlie Brown Christmas - Charles Shultz didn't even like this show!  He thought it was really poorly animated.  Yes, it probably was.  The cartooning itself wasn't what I would call polished.  My kids to this day will take all of the flaws in the cartooning of all of the Peanuts specials and make fun of them.  But the voice acting by those kids and the music by Vince Guraldi propel this into my favorite Christmas program bar none.  The story itself seems so somber.  It's as much a story about fearing that you will outgrow Christmas as it is a celebration of the Holiday.  I love it as much as an adult as I loved it as a kid.

In 15 days I'll stumble across the deadline with another list of 10 things.  You'll probably be too busy to read them, but stop by for a cup of hot chocolate!  Holidaze are upon us.  Don't allow the trappings that surround the season become more burdensome than the Holiday warrants.  Often it's more than enough to just be together for the holidays.

Top 10 shows RUINED by the suits (management)

You could say that suits are the bad face of capitalism.  When I say suits, what I mean is poor management.  There is of course good management, but that is rare and not constant.  I've had a couple of career directions in my time and I've noticed a few things about management.  Elements of management can be taught, application of good managing principals must be practiced.  If you are not a good manager, you will probably be able to recite all the elements of management by rote, but will have a hard time showing your ability to apply them.  Poor managers believe that good management is all that's required to make a financial success and that everything can be improved.  Both of these ideas are completely false.  History is rife with things that have succeeded despite poor management and there are many things that have been improved beyond their optimum.

What does this have to do with Suits?  In the case of Suits, one would think that all they are focused on is money.  This is patently false.  Suits are only focused on themselves.  Their hubris is so great that they can not see that the decisions they make are obviously self serving and probably bad.  They are the clear cutters of the forest of creativity.  They try to shoehorn in processes that 'look good on paper' only to have them fail miserably and then accuse those under them of screwing it up.  Suits have ruined a lot of different things over time.  I will focus on TV/Movie entertainment.

10. Return to Gilligan's Island -  Ahh Gilligan, How I've missed you.  The show was so pure and innocent it was wonderful.  If you don't know the story, I won't waste my time explaining it to you.  I suggest you go to a proper fan website and see for yourself.  How did the suits ruin it?  This was in the golden era of TV and Movies before the Internet and before special effects.  The only way to make specials and have them be seen was to put them on network TV and usually sprinkle in some stars or athletes in for good measure.  How did the suits ruin it?  Well this is the first show I can remember that was Sequeled to DEATH.  Not an easy death, but a long drawn out hammy b-movie kind of death.  With a cracking 3 made for TV sequels not to mention a cartoon version called Gilligan's Planet (I'm sure you can guess the premise.  It got Lost in Space I'm afraid).  This was the first time I saw a show I loved get beaten to death as it was played over and over like a hit single until you can't stand the sound of it anymore.  Oh yeah, guess what, a feature movie is in the works...*sigh*

9. The Matrix Sequels-  The matrix was a groundbreaking movie on several fronts.  It propelled a couple of actors to super stardom that might otherwise have languished in obscurity (yes Keanu I'm talking about you.  I loved your role in Bill and Ted's, but were it not for the Matrix, you would have remained Ted Theodore Logan.)  The first matrix story was perfect right down to the end.  It was the only movie I've ever seen that started to spur Pseudo religions based on it's story.  The suits, smelling money and self aggrandizement managed to cobble together 2 more stories that made precious little sense but made several dollars because people were hoping to catch lightening in a bottle with a formula that couldn't be repeated.

8.  Highlander Movies - Duncan McCleod of the Clan McCleod.  This is one instance where a Movie was really not as good as the TV series it spawned.  But because the TV series was so popular the Suits decided that more movies would be good too.  They weren't.  The first movie was good, the sequel was confusing and by the end, they were just money grabs targeted at an all too eager fan base that wanted to see a GOOD Highlander movie again.  This one suffers from the writers constantly breaking the rules of the immortals.  They are very clear.  Immortals walk the earth with regular humans and the only way you can kill one is to cut off his/her head.  This leads to a lot of sword fights which are very cool.  Problem is, it also leaves you with one Immortal eventually.  Even the TV show was ruined by the main actor (Adrian Paul) starting to believe too much of his own press and thinking he can make it outside of a successful series.  He came back to reprise his role in one of the later crappy movies and the series has finally been buried.  There is a rumor of a reboot for this franchise, but I doubt it will materialize.

7. TMNT Movies - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  The fan base for this comic series is pretty deep because it's just kitchy enough to be cool.  Once those movies came out you could see the merchandising greed come to the fore.  It was shameless.  The first movie did ok, but the sequels...oh my.  Vanilla Ice?  Ice Ice baby?!? Are you kidding?!  It was clear that the initial cool of the concept had stayed with the first movie.

6.  Spiderman -  Uggh!  Poor Spiderman.  One of the best comic book adaptations to movie ever and for the time it and it's even better sequel would not be topped until the Dark Knight would come later.  Both films still stand as excellent examples of how to translate a comic book to a movie.  The third film on the other hand was better off left unmade.  The suits had a field day with this one.  When executives are telling you what to put into your film because it 'tests well' or 'provides a positive merchandise avenue'  It's because they don't care about the story, they only care about the money.  The 3rd movie took elements of some of spiderman's best stories and ground them into a mealy pulp.  It took the good side/dark side story from superman 3 (a film the suits touched, but didn't quite ruin) instead of bringing any number of good stories already pre written from comic books.  Bah!  Stupid suits.  And now they are re-making spiderman again.  This one smells of suits too, but I'm crossing my fingers.

5.  Dead Like Me - This quirky TV show makes my list thanks to Netflix (for showing it) and Showtime (for kiling it).  If you have a chance to see it, give it a shot.  The language is coarse at times and the subject matter is always death, but the suits at Showtime decided that instead of continue on with this series that was really good and quite unique, they would try something totally different because they wanted to be more like the Sopranos.  So drop a good show with a terrific ensemble cast and replace it with who knows what.  They then scraped together a sequel movie that not only broke the major rules of the TV series but did a milk-toast job of it.  The characters were written in such a cold fashion it was as though the only thought was to grab a couple more dollars and finish the series once and for all.  There were disagreements between the director and the production company.  When this happens, the creative one usually looses.  Perhaps he was difficult to deal with, or maybe the suits just didn't like him.  Problem was he made a great story and made it fun to watch.  Suits can't deal with ego that isn't their own.  Bottom line, watch both seasons of the show.  DO NOT under ANY circumstances watch the movie.  I don't care if it's on netflix. I don't care if someone has it on.  Just say NO.

4.  Heros - This show had SUCH promise.  It really did.  This was more about suits that didn't know how to deal with the writers strike.  That's a hard thing for a show to overcome.  Especially a show with a difficult plot line and a hard series of rules to expose.  It started out really good and then the show slowly lost more and more cohesion until they just decided to stop it all together.  I liked it a lot right to the end, but I think my views are not in the majority.  Bottom line.  Suits should have been better to the writers in the first place and maybe they would have avoided the problem that killed this cool show.

3.  Firefly -  Such a fine show beginning to end.  1 season.  Yes one.  Sometimes suits really lose touch with the public and can't see the appeal of a show that is so good that they just drop it into obscure time slots and let it die.  Only to be picked up by another studio and sat upon to make sure of it's demise.  Let's put it this way.  If it's not a cartoon, Fox probably didn't understand it.  The director has done some fine short work since this tragedy.  Give it a look. A little adult content, but no more than pg-13 I think.

2.  Superman Quest for Money - Christopher Reeves was an Iconic actor in this role.  He was so good that many say he couldn't get work anywhere else as a result.  But who would want to get away from being the man in blue?  Well after Superman IV Quest for peace, I'm sure Chris did.  I'm not sure who wrote the movie or if it was even written at all.  But That movie was definately someone pitching a wad of money at some actors in order to get the super fans of Supes to pony up money they could probably ill afford to part with.

1.  Star Wars -  The mark of a great movie franchise is how long it lives beyond it's actual expiration.  The concept was epic.  The Story was mythical.  It was so much bigger than it started out that nobody could have known.  The problem with Star Wars is that the creative genius turned into the suit.  In coolhand Luke, a famous line was uttered:  'A man's gotta know his limitations'  This couldn't have been more true for George Lucas that appeared to try very hard to kick over his own sand castle.  One of the big errors was Making Han Solo shoot second.  Lets face it, if Han really shot second, he would be dead and the story would be about how Greedo collected on a big bounty and the Empire succeeded for many millenia.  Tree-bound teddy bears (ewok's) and Jar Jar Binks began to pepper the bloodline of Starwars turning it into a bit more contrived than it should be and a bit more tragic than it had intended.  Had George gotten out of the way in the story line in order to let some talented people write some scenes that were willing to say 'George, You are great at snappy action, but you really suck at love stories' to his face, the movies could have been beyond incredible.

This list is FAR from comprehensive, and really just a few examples that I could come up with.  If the suits could just realize that many times good management comes from NOT doing something.  A lot of things would be a lot better.

Thanks for reading!  See you in a fortnight.

P.S. Special thanks to my wife Stephanie for correcting a few glaring errors in this blog that I really should have recognized.  teks.