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Re: [ARSCLIST] Half-vast wasteland--was: Slides and inconvenient media (was spin it again)



There were always a handful of worthwhile shows on commercial TV, but IMHO,they began to seriously peter out in the late 90s.I have not owned a television for three years,and have no desire to.My all time favorites run the gamut from "Playhouse 90" (Which I only know from old VHS.) to"Upstairs Downstairs" to "Babylon 5".That said,I think there has been a major decline in programming in recent years.Even "Masterpiece Theater" has been painfully unwatchable for the past few years.I addressed this in a thread a few months ago,when I mentioned at one time,you could regularly see the likes of Toscanini, Vladimir Horowitz,and Charles Munch on regular broadcast TV,and that there are no parallels today.Half-vast wasteland is about right,but it might be a little generous,but like the major labels up until about 25 years ago,there was a broad enough spectrum of quality on television to justify its existence.This  no longer exists.The only  contemporary show I have been at all curious
 about is "Boston Legal",based entirely on this : http://www.boston-legal.org/19-stickit/ep19-stickit.shtml one of the finest soliloquies ever delivered on American television.Is the rest of it this good ?


                                     Roger

Robert Hodge <rjhodge@xxxxxxx> wrote: Omnibus , NBC Playhouse , Project 54, CBS and NBC news documentaries by
the score, Hallmark Playhouse, to nane a few !   
Show me anything that's on the commercial networks that can compare
today !
 
BH
>>> stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx 4/7/2007 10:00 PM >>>
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Hodge" 
> Obviously you never saw American television when at its' prime !
> 
When was THAT?! I started watching television on a limited basis,
at a neighbour's home, in 1951...Howdy Doody and Captain Video,
usually. Our family finally acquired a set in the fall of 1954...
and I watched a LOT of TV until c.1960. After that, my viewing
became more sporadic (although I was lucky enough to see early
Monty Python, with Flemish subtitles, in a bar/cafe in Belgium
in 1973...!).

Don't recall seeing anything I would have thought of as "prime,"
though (maybe "Senor Wences" on Ed Sullivan...?)

Steven C. Barr


 
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