Do you ever think that TV ...
Question: Do you ever think that TV shows, even with all the money spent on them these days, aren't as enjoyable as they were 20 or 30 years ago? If you were not a TV critic and couldn't search out and watch the gems, would the modern TV landscape hold any interest for you? As a child, my mom and I were addicted to
Little House on the Prairie, and later, I used to look forward all day to watching the Thursday night lineup on NBC. But now everything seems so different. If people aren't being tortured, killed and autopsied on camera, they're living in a house together ready to kill each other. I guess it's best that kids aren't addicted to TV like I was, but it still seems the total package just isn't as appealing as it was.
Answer: I don't hold to the notion that TV was that much better in the "good old days" — except, I suppose, when it comes to TV comedy, which really is in a noticeable downturn right now. The modern TV landscape, as you put it, is enlivened and enriched by its variety and diversity, in part because of the many avenues of interest on cable TV. Any year that gives me
Mad Men, Damages, Burn Notice, as well as
Pushing Daisies, Chuck and
Big Bang Theory is fine by me. Now, if you're looking for safe havens like
Little House, you probably have just cause for nostalgia. And I'm not sure that an addiction to the Internet and/or video games is any more healthy than my upbringing, when I was glued, more or less, morning till night to the tube.
