So, you know
it’s kind of sad when you can tell the age of the movies on
television by the degree of morality or lack thereof. You know
what I mean. Here at our house we get about 700 channels of
television. Not that any of it does you any good since about 650
of those are repeats in one form or fashion.
For example, you might get A&E on
channel 51 and channel 274 and channel 367 as well. So why have
it on three different places at the same time? Who knows? It’s
just the way they do it. I guess their theory is that if they
show Lassie at 7pm on 1,000 channels, then they can say …we
offer you 1,000 channels in their advertising. Makes no sense to
me. Does it to you? Anyway, I can handle old crime movies from
the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s but not anything back in the 30’s. Those
are just too hard to handle.
So, the other night I’m bored and
sick and tired of watching the war news as well as how Michael
Jackson lives. I don’t care about Michael Jackson. I turn on the
tube and find this old who done it starring Broderick Crawford.
It was a murder, as usual, but Crawford was the bad guy for a
change. He ends up killing two people and you know by the moral
standards of the day, he isn’t going to make it out of this
picture alive. Sure, enough, at the end he’s confronted by some
homicide cop and they end up in a standoff with guns drawn, and
what does Crawford do? Why he points the gun and the cops and
shoots into the floor, the cops shoot him in self-defense and
it’s all over.
Remember this is a 1950’s film.
Now, fast forward to one we watched last night. In this one the
bad guys get away clean and everybody celebrates outwitting the
cops and district attorneys. Look at how sex was handled in the
not so distant past. In the 50’s married people didn’t even
sleep in the same beds together. Now, that may a little too
puritan for reality, but compare that against what’s available
on network television during prime time. Not to mention what’s
on the cable channels.
Would you want your grandmother
to be sitting on the couch with you while one of these things
were being played out? Didn’t think so. Seems to me we’ve gone
from bad to worse when it comes to television programming. How
can the bad guys win all of the time? When I was a kid the cops
always won…now it’s doubtful if they even get a chance to pull
their guns out before they’re mowed down with some automatic
bazooka of some kind. Another thing I’ve noticed here lately, is
it just me or do all of the new programs seem dark and everyone
tries to out do each other or looking dirty and just plain
nasty? I mean some of these folks look really, really bad.
I’m glad our televisions don’t
have smell, since it looks like these people stink to high
heaven. Looks like the writers have run out of plots and story
lines so they are left to just try and do something visual to
get your attention. I like something with a story, not something
where everyone stands around and pukes. I saw that when my kids
were growing up. I didn’t like it then and don’t much care to
see it now. We’ve all read statistics where we are told that the
average American watches so many hours of television each week.
I’d be willing to bet those numbers are going to start
decreasing if the people writing the material don’t get more
creative and start making things with a story that we can relate
to. I’d rather read a book or watch the moon.
