Re: FATHER KNOWS BEST, Season 3 - Coming in June
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Originally Posted by Tim Tucker
Personally, the point I mark as when the deterioration became unavoidable is April 5, 1987, when Fox started broadcasting. Rupert Murdoch has never resisted lowering the tone of TV if he thought it would make him more wealthy. He has much to answer for.
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Actually, TV started declining right from the start.
As soon as the decision was made to make it free and advertising-supported (as opposed to a pay service, like the telephone) the handwriting was on the wall.
At first, only relatively wealthy people in bigger cities had television -- they tended to be somewhat better educated than average -- and thus there were things like NBC Opera (can you imagine that today?), the Bell Telephone Hour, Hallmark Hall of Fame (even doing Shakespeare), serious dramatic anthologies like the U.S. Steel Hour and Playhouse 90 -- etc. etc. etc.
As more and more people owned televisions, and it spread everywhere in the U.S., the 1960s saw most of the older types of programming die off in favor of things like "The Beverly Hillbillies" and "Green Acres."
The trajectory was downhill, culminating in Jerry Springer and "reality" TV.
Years ago I read a science fiction story, written in the 1950s but set in the first decade of the 21st Century (and here we are!), in which television featured people hunting and killing each other, because that brought in big ratings.
I used to think, "No way could that ever happen!"
Now I'm not so sure.
Of course, Murdoch and Fox played a huge part in destroying any last shreds of decency on television.
It worked out OK, though -- it leaves me plenty of time to watch DVDs!