Re: TV Channels : Time to Thin the Herd

On Fri, 30 Dec 2005 02:11:17 GMT, "Steven L."
<sdlitvin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>WQ wrote:
>
>> The 3 nets did quite well in being all things to all people, with
>> the late '50s to early '70s stretch being the one that delivered the
>> most genres at any one time of any era, everything from cops to
>> westerns,.sitcoms to variety shows, military-themed shows to social
>> dramas, sci-fi to first-run theatrical films, news and doumentary
>> specials [that were actually news and documentary specials and not the
>> murder of the week story] , cartoons to spy adventures ... you name it,
>> and that period had it, all on just 3 networks.
>
>No they didn't.
>
>Genres that were woefully underrepresented on the 3 nets included:
>
>Children's programming: Mister Rogers Neighborhood and Sesame Street
>were on PBS, not on the 3 nets. On the 3 nets, Rocky and Bullwinkle was
>the only prime-time children's show (NBC Wednesday evenings).

No there was some children's programming in the larger markets: Ray
Rayner, Romper Room and Captain Kangaroo, in the morning; Bozo's
Circus at noon, Garfield Goose at 3:30 in the afternoon.

For Prime time, there was Family Classics on Sunday (Saturday?)
evening, and Walt Disney's _Wonderful World of Color_.

>Adult programming: Shows like The Sopranos and NYPD Blue and Sex And
>The City did not exist.

Hmmm. Define "Adult programming" a little bit better, please. Do you
mean something that children shouldn't watch at all, or do you mean
shows that were primarily for adults?

Dragnet and The Fugitive weren't for kids. Neither was Combat! or Rat
Patrol, or Gunsmoke. Laugh-In certainly wasn't something I'd let a
young kid watch alone. And I'd think twice about Then Came Bronson.

> And needless to say, no porn of any kind was
>allowed on the 3 nets, even after midnight

I'll give you that one.

>Science/health/history programming: Again, PBS was the only place for that
The 21st Century (with Walter Cronkite,) Mr Wizard, That was the Week
that Was, Meeting of the Minds. And all three nets had a dedicated
science reporter attatched to the evening news team (one was Jules
something... Jules Bergman. I remember him demonstrating yaw, roll
and pitch during one of the space shots, with a balsa model of the
capsule.)
>
>Movies uncut without commercial interruption: Not available on any channel

Give you that one, too.

>First-run movies shortly after theaters: Not available on any channel.
> (The movies the nets showed in prime time were usually several years
>old at the very least. In other time slots, the movies could be a
>decade old or more.)

This one I'll give you part credit on. Pretty much the soonest a
theatrical movie made air was a year or so after theatrical release.
But there was also _The Hallmark Hall of Fame_ for movies that never
were released to the theatres at all. And the various TV showings of
things like Once Upon a Mattress and R&H's Cinderella

>Sports other than baseball and football: Golf was shown only rarely;
>soccer and poker not at all

Auto racing. Skiiing (though not as much as it is now.)
Ice skating. Horse racing. Track and Field. Basketball. _Wide World
of Sports._ The Harlem Globetrotters.

>Home shopping: Not available on any channel
Plenty of ads for Ronco, though.

>Food, cooking, recipes: Julia Child on PBS was about it
Galloping Gourmet

>Religious programming: They broadcast exactly one prayer just before
>the station signed off for the night
Mass for Shut-ins, The Magic Door, Midnight Mass at Christmas and the
Easter service (both from the Vatican, or from the local Cathedral.)

>Women's programming: Not available on any channel

Need a definition here, too.
But even without the definition: Lee Phillip, Dinah Shore, the early
years of Phil Donohue.

>Black entertainment: Not available in prime-time on any channel (Soul
>Train was broadcast only in mid-afternoon)

>Hispanic entertainment: Not available in prime-time on any channel

>My conclusion: In your nostalgia for TV of the past, you've implicitly
>assumed a vibrant PBS to supply all the children's, cultural, and
>special-interest programming that the 3 nets didn't supply.
Your conclusion is erroneous.

>I don't
>want to go there. I would rather have more cable channels and see PBS
>phased out.

.

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  • Re: TV Channels : Time to Thin the Herd
    ... >> and that period had it, all on just 3 networks. ... > Children's programming: Mister Rogers Neighborhood and Sesame Street ... > Movies uncut without commercial interruption: ... > First-run movies shortly after theaters: Not available on any channel. ...
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