the wayback machine

[calimac]

Oh, does this ever take me back. I watched eleven of these seventeen shows. I can't believe I wasted so much time in my childhood on what, when I've seen them since, were moronically-written and miserably-directed comedies. The opening credits were by far the best and most memorable parts. (That's the original theme music for I Dream of Jeannie. The next year they expanded the cartoon and got a much catchier song.)

In those days, watching prime-time television was like attending the panels at a three-track convention. You could only watch one thing at a time, and that only when it was on. So I would plan my schedule each year very carefully.

This was a major occupation of mine during the ages of about 7 to 13. After that I lost interest and gave it up, and hardly watched any television programs for another 30 years.

Comments

[sturgeonslawyer.livejournal.com]

Interesting ... I remember watching only 5 of those shows, and the existence of two more.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Five is the number of these shows that lasted more than two years. Two more are the ones that lasted more than one year. Maybe they're the same.

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

Why are you so incredulous? When you're a kid and it's all new to you, almost anything can be pretty interesting. That's why tiny kids can be entertained by Barney and Teletubbies, and why some of the worst jokes are incredibly funny.

Mind, I think it helps if you've hung around families with kids. This phenomenon was sort of encapsulated by one conversation with Hope & Karl, whose kids loved a show where all the jokes were basically stolen from Friends. Or young people who adore books that we, as grownups, know have major weaknesses. Jaded is too strong a word: "better read" explains it.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

What makes me incredulous is that I remember them as being better than that. The suck fairy has really been at them.

It's not a universal downgrading of the things one liked as a kid. Just about all the books I liked, from earliest childhood on, I still cherish now. A few TV programs have survived. The Addams Family is still watchable. I still think The Prisoner is good, although it's not as awesomely mystifying as I found it at age 12. But 60s TV as a whole ... it's dreadful stuff.

I never liked stupid jokes as a kid, and my brothers, who did, still like them now. My youngest brother is now a respected 49-year-old law professor, and he can't explain to me why he still thinks the mere mention of certain naughty words, regardless of the joke content of the context, is inherently hilarious to him.

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

Oh, I see! I thought you'd already seen the suck fairy and were being harsh with your young self. Never mind!

Oh, and I know people who are younger than us who don't get The Prisoner at all. Funny, these side effects of growing up without a Cold War subtext to everything.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Of course that level isn't the one at which I found The Prisoner mystifying at 12. I merely realized that it was more complex and subtle than my 12-year-old self could understand. I figured if I saw it again at a greater age, I'd grasp it better. And indeed I did, though I had to wait what seemed an awfully long time to get the chance.

But I believe you that the lack of a Cold War context has led some younger viewers off. My biggest political-reference shock in media came when my nephew, who, ironically, later became an aeronautics engineer doing secret CIA-type stuff, commented while watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail that Dennis the peasant ("Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony") was a libertarian. No, no! He's a Marxist!