The influence of television over the years

Some personal reflections…

As a child back in TV’s infancy (the 1950’s), or even if you were already an adult back then, this new black-and-white thing called “television” really opened up a whole new world of excitement and wonder for us.  Unlike today's hi-res, behemoth, plasma/LED, "smart capabilities" standards, it was a rather crude beast that entered the privacy of our living rooms, and brought the outside world in with it.

You had to wait for about 30-seconds for it to “warm up” before it actually came on, but the anticipation was well worth it.  Once some blurry images finally came into view, it usually had to be further coax into submission by turning the dials and adjusting the antenna just so.  Like some mad chemist at work in his lab, it was all tweaked manually, usually by the dad, with no remote control to help him along.  Maybe one of the best things about TV was that you had “invitation control” over it.  Unlike that pesky neighbor or the uninvited friends who overstay their welcome, you could just “boot them out the door” by turning the TV knob to “off.”  No hard feelings… goodnight and goodbye!

There were many influential shows for us kids to watch, way back then.  I am sure that they had a lot to do with forming the personalities and values of us baby boomers.  I imagine that still holds true even for today’s kids, as they watch their favorite personality-forming shows.

Some of the earlier ones I remember are Mighty Mouse (my childhood cartoon hero), Captain Kangaroo, Pinky Lee, Howdy Doody (I so wanted to be the Indian Princess and tried to fix my bangs just like hers), the Mickey Mouse Club (I wanted to be Annette… didn’t every little girl?), Circus Boy, Captain Penny (he showed a lot of the Three Stooges shows).  At Christmas time, to the sound of jingling keys, we would all sing:

♫♪♪ Mr. Jing-a-ling, how he ting-a-lings

keeper of the keys.

On Halle’s seventh floor, we’ll be looking for,

you to turn the key. ♫♪♪

I also remember a show where the kids would compete to win a chance to “scoop out” as many pennies as they could, from a big barrel of them, in a certain amount of time.  Most of those kids were pretty good with that little metal sand-shovel scooper, as they sat there on their knees, furiously scooping away, from the bigger bucket into theirs.  Their efforts probably amounted to all of $5 worth of pennies, but it seemed like a million dollars to them, and to me. :)

But the years passed and our tastes changed.  We started growing up, while TV was growing up with us.  The “family values” theme was very successful, with favorite shows like Father Knows Best, The Donna Reed Show, and Leave It to Beaver.  They tried to show us how we should live as a family, providing us with healthy family role models as they dealt with those simple problems that cropped up in everyday life.  The family theme continued with I Love Lucy (I believe the greatest comedy ever made… it’s still makes me laugh to this day), The Nelsons (Ozzie, Harriet, David and Ricky), Superman, Ed Sullivan, and the Dick van Dyke Show.  The plight of single parenting showed up in shows like The Andy Griffith Show and Bonanza, where the nuclear family was no longer intact.

Perhaps the greatest series (and the great great granddad of all sci-fi) to ever hit the airwaves was, in my opinion, The Twilight Zone.  I still occasionally DVR some of my favorite episodes they put on during the holiday marathons.  One of my favorites was “Little Girl Lost,” but it’s hard to pick any one favorite.  They were all great and gave us much to think about.  Rod Serling was a creative genius way ahead of his time, and it’s sad he died so young.

And who can forget the other popular sci-fi program of the day, “The Outer Limits”?  I loved the beginning:

There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to — The Outer Limits.

And the show’s ending:

We now return control of your television set to you, until next week at this same time when the Control voice will take you to… The Outer Limits.

By now, barely cracking my teens, Friday nights meant time for gathering on the floor around the set with cousins, along with our staples of pizza, Pepsi, Jones’ Potato Chips, and Ghoulardi (Ernie Anderson, Cleveland’s own) with his “B” movies that we all laugh at these days as being real corny (The Head, The Cyclops, The Tingler, The Blob, etc.).  Big Chuck and Hoolihan came along a little later and I didn’t think they were as good.  But then again, I was continuing to grow up, so “silly” was getting more so for me.  You can only take so much “silly” before it finally wears thin.

I would put it at about 1968-69, when we got our first color TV.  That was a real thrill.  New shows like Mission Impossible (still one of my favs), Star Trek (TOS), The Carol Burnett Show (also a comedy for the ages), and Laugh-In were all big on the TV agenda for me.

TV during the next period of my life is kind of a blur for me, as I began to venture outside to the real world.  In my very early 20's by now, I do remember liking the Mary Tyler Moore Show, and later on Seinfeld, Cheers, Frazier (still a favorite) (love the premise… a couple of uppity-up guys who see themselves as very sophisticated, but still have to deal with the crude and rude real world around them of everyday people).  I was a big fan of Star Trek (TNG) also.  But my favorite Star Trek series of all time was Voyager.  I loved Captain Janeway.  At first I didn’t care for her, and thought she was a bit of a know-it-all with an attitude, but as the series progressed, I developed a great respect for her character.  The Doctor was my favorite on Voyager, but I think “Q” ended up being my all-time favorite Star Trek character, with Data a close second.

Fast forward... These "senior citizen" days, I mostly watch the news and political shows; as a political liberal, in particular, I watch MSNBC.  The comedy of today isn’t funny to me anymore.  Too slap-stick and dumb (not witty) comedy, with piped in canned laughter.  ‘Course, canned laughter is nothing new; some of my other favorite shows had it too.  Guess we still need help in knowing when to laugh. ;)

Hope you enjoyed my little trip down TV memory lane.  And what a trip it has been!!  I wouldn't change a thing. :)

Like in the Outer Limits, I now turn the control over to you:  

So, tell me of your favorite TV shows over your lifetime, and currently.  How have they shaped your life?

Thanks for reading and recommending!

(Authored by Primal Soup)