TIM REID: The opportunity to see Les Nessman recount the falling of the turkeys in the style of the Hindenburg was just, tears to your eyes. I mean, who takes on the Hindenburg, and does a comedy? Takes one of the great tragedies in this country, and puts it in a comedy show? We went there.
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
AS GOD AS MY WITNESS: Lots of people at the TV Club who had never seen an episode of the show before have roundtabled everyone's favorite WKRP in Cincinnati episode, for which this oral history exists:
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I get that I'm getting older, but it rubs me the wrong way when pop culture professionals- particularly television reviewers/recappers/what have you- aren't versed in anything older than The Simpsons. When I see the same attitudes about movies or music ('I see what Sly & the Family Stone were trying to do...'), I trust that everyone else is dismissing the writer along with me. Television neophytes seem to get a pass, for reasons that completely escape me.
ReplyDeleteIf you've never watched television of the era, don't be a part of the article. I understand that may have been the intent of the roundtable (maybe- though I don't see that mentioned anywhere), but if that's the case, find something more interesting to say than, "It's old, and I like the new stuff."
For me, it's not that they haven't seen it -- you can't watch everything and it is ok to not like a classic -- but the dismissal for not only a highly regarded show/episode and also for the entire era of classic comedies:
ReplyDelete* Sitcoms from the ’70s are hard for me
*I love watching older sitcoms, particularly from the late ’80s and ’90s, but for the most part I have a whole pop-culture gap for shows earlier than that
*whenever I think of older TV shows, it’s hard to picture anything but The Brady Bunch kids singing about sunny days
*I am ashamed to admit that when I saw Tim Reid as Venus Flytrap, I yelped, “Tim Reid was in this!?”
It's the closed mindedness and lack of adventure in checking out something they haven't seen before that's most annoying. The comments about the staginess of it and how horrible VHS looks would sound better if not paired with a sense of "I wasn't peeing my pants every 30 seconds with laughter, how can you olds watch such a slow show?"