57 years ago, Newton Minow described television content as a "vast wasteland". And that was before PBS invented the pledge drive.
My children consider it a mark of how modern life has passed my generation by that my wife and I still sit down in front of the television set on most evenings and watch a little broadcast television. On the distant planet inhabited by the young and hip, television sets are extra-large video screens for gaming while they're at their parents' house, whereas television content, which they define as "sporting events + whatever can be found on Netflix" is viewed on the considerably smaller screens of personal devices. The highest-tech devices I had in my college dorm back in 1979 were a black and white TV with rabbit ears, a land line phone (pretty luxurious; some of the guys in my hall used the pay phone outside my room), a mini-fridge and a manual typewriter. When my kids have gone off to college, we've provided them with microwaves, Keurig coffeemakers and notebook computers, but they have all snickered patronizingly when I've offered to load a flat-screen TV into the minivan on moving day. "Dad, I don't need a television." An Xfinity account, yes, but apparently not to watch anything on an actual television set.
I'm not a gamer, and I poke around a little bit in Netflix but don't love it as much as the critics do (some of whom strike me as trying too hard to keep up with the young 'uns, who probably don't read their criticism anyway if it appears in newspapers and magazines). I do record television programs on a DVR, about half of which I end up watching. But if something is actually being broadcast at a particular time, and I happen to be available at that time, I'll sit down and watch it then and there. I grant that the commercial breaks are painful - in fact, I usually watch 2-3 programs at any given time, flipping from one to another when the first goes to commercial break, which drives my wife buggy - but watching what comes on, when it comes on, is what I learned to do as a young kid, and I've never quite broken the habit.
Never quite - but the day may be approaching when I kick that particular habit, because network television content is getting really, really bad. I detest reality television shows, and that's pretty much all the major networks program during prime time. We subscribe to a slew of cable channels, but apparently not the ones that have consistently interesting television on them.
So for the last 10-20 years, I've found myself gravitating more and more to PBS. No commercials, and on more evenings than not, it's not bad. I'm a huge fan of Live from Lincoln Center. I like the Masterpiece Mystery series. I like Nova and Nature and American Experience. In a pinch, I'll watch Antiques Roadshow and Call the Midwife. I liked Downton Abbey and I like Poldark. Those programs cover 4-5 evenings of the week.
But -- while PBS doesn't have commercials (except for the 5 minutes each hour between one program ending and the next beginning), it does raise money via this awful invention called the pledge drive. I understand the necessity. I get it that public television is constantly at risk of getting its funding cut by our priorities-all-screwed-up Congress. I even contribute, about once a year, to my local station. And on a couple of occasions I've manned the phone lines and taken pledges down at the station.
My complaint is the pledge drive programming. I am sure the wizards in charge of deciding what to televise on a particular evening know what they're doing. But I find their pledge-drive programming to be pretty much unwatchable. Normal, non-pledge-drive PBS programming is sort of highish-middle-brow (which puts it about six cuts above what is on ABC or Fox at the same time). But during pledge drives, PBS reverts to full-blown populism. If it's not a retirement-investment huckster, it's a hawker of brain health or a diet quack. Or retrospectives of popular music from before my time. Or ersatz Irish music. And then the pledge breaks themselves are 12 minute segments of my life that I'll never get back. If I'm not mistaken, Downton Abbey was the most popular thing PBS ever has shown. Why don't they just rerun that 3-4 times a year?
There's got to be a better way.
I may be among the three or four people on the planet who hated Downton Abbey as an exercise in apologetics for the aristocracy, and who can't stop comparing the old and new Poldark. The only improvement in the new Poldark is Aidan Turher shirtless and that pirate guy. However, Raber loves a "costumer," so there we are.
ReplyDeleteThey don't run Downton Abbey because it costs them too much money. I agree that programming nosedives during pledge week, and I'm pretty sure they could do better. Daniel O'Donnell. Ye gods.
We got started watching Grantchester and sort of enjoyed it until it devolved into a soap opera. Let's see, Vicar Sydney goes to London with Geordie the cop, gets involved with a murder, drinks too much, sleeps with a barmaid, and comes back and lies to Hildegard. (Maybe we shouldn't be so quick to want to jettison celibacy!)
ReplyDeleteThen we watched DCO Banks and got totally turned off by the graphic violence. Graphic violence seems like it is a given across the board. I barely watched any tv prior to retirement and didn't miss it. I think I'll go back to sitting on the couch fiddling with my tablet while my husband watches sports.
I have satellite with local channels and a DVR. I have a Vonage pseudo-land line. I think this is basically for the sake of my mother. Eventually, I think I'll probably end up with small screens only, no cable, no satellite. Or maybe just a smartphone to keep a toehold in the 21st century in combination with good old paper books.
ReplyDeleteThe current pledge drive locally is night after night of tributes to the crooners of my youth, including a Lawrence Welk religious hour that ran to two hours with breaks. I didn't remember that trombone players could smile while playing, and I lament the numbers of polyesters that had to die to make LW shows possible.
ReplyDeleteThat year when you had to buy a new TV or get a box for your old one if you were too cheap to have cable, we agreed to throw the old one out. The kids were afraid we would have nothing to do and bought us the big old monster flat screen that sits in the living room. We still resist cable. So: I watch English Premier League football (soccer) when its on the network on Saturday afternoon. We watch someone's's evening news, CBS or NBC (not ABC, which has abandoned the use of verbs) and the PBS NewsHour. Decreasingly I watch some pro football, but I can't get my mind off head injuries, so that watch time has shrunk year by year. That is it. That nice TV the kids got us so we wouldn't be at a loss for things to do is just a black box most of the time.
As we grew older, we found it harder and harder to understand the accents on the British shows like Poldark. Lord Peter's chauffeur Lugg perpetually seemed to be saying "nhnhmmbhmilord." You miss a lot when the chauffeur can't be understood. The pledge breaks lasted longer for us, but they used to be Stephen Sondheim's birthday bash or something made-for-pledge breaks. And the breakers would say, "Where else can you get programming like this?" to which we would sing in unison: "Nowhere but here during pledge time." But now the breaks are extended play versions of K-Tell ads, or so it appears to us.
The kids watch very little TV. When I ask what they think of Jennifer (it is Jennifer, isn't it?) Lawrence, they draw a blank. (I do, too, but she seems to be ubiquitous off screen, so I wondered what she does on screen.) The kids' kids -- that's our grandkids -- do everything on cell phones. The great-grands are here this week, and they look at or TV set as if it were a windup Victrola. So there you are.
We have to get cable or satellite here, because otherwise you can't pick up anything unless you have about a 30 foot antenna. So we have a cable package with high speed internet (I wouldn't miss tv, but I would definitely miss internet) and a faux land line. We would drop the land line, except that it doesn't add much to the cost and all our family members have that number.
DeleteWhen I was a kid in south-central Michigan, Lawrence Welk used to come on late Saturday afternoons on one of the UHF stations, right after, or right before, Hee Haw. My parents enjoyed Lawrence Welk - they liked the big band sound. He had his regular cast of featured performers, right? - the couple that danced, the organist, the accordionist (was that Lawrence himself?), and I think there may have been a clarinetist. I'm sure there were vocalists, too, but they didn't lodge in my memory banks.
DeleteBtw, Lugg was Albert Campion's dogsbody. Lord Peter's batman was Bunter. I've never actually seen a Lord Peter series on PBS, but that series of books is the best of its ilk by a country mile - at least that I've run across. Dorothy Sayers was a writer. Some good 1920s and 30s feminist themes, too, especially when she introduced the Harriet Vane character into the mix.
Jim P, perhaps use your DVR more frequently? We DVR every show we watch. Set up automatic recording. We can't bear to watch commercials! The only real time programming we watch are sports shows, (actually, only my husband watches.)
DeleteMy husband likes sports, so that means ESPN. Which means we can't get away with an antenna alone. We are trying to "cut the cord" and have bought a new antenna that can handle HD.
We will also need another package like SLING so that he can watch sports on - about $40/month.
We get Netflix and Hulu on our son's subscription. There are a fixed number of devices that can use it at the same time, but we've only hit a traffic jam once. They live in California, and the 3 hour time difference pretty much handles it. When we can't find anything at all on TV we can usually find something of interest on Netflix.
We watch PBS more than any other station. Since we are older than you, Jim, we do enjoy all the 60s music on pledge nights, including the folk music of the era, Simon and Garfunkel, Peter, Paul, and Mary, the various British groups and vocalists, ABBA, etc. But we DVR the shows, skip through the pledges (we do contribute every year, to support them, with the bonus that we can also use PBS Passport). One of our sons gave us a Roku several years ago so we could watch Netflix and Hulu, but it can access PBS streaming also. We sing along and are transported back to being young, and enjoy ourselves immensely. We never watch Suze Orman and similar shows.
Katherine, DCI Banks is dark. Have you tried Midsomer Murders? Murder mysteries with a sense of humor - very "camp". They've gone through a gazillion seasons at this point and still going. They are on their second Chief Inspector Barnaby (the second is a younger cousin of the first. Try to watch the first seasons if you can and then the current). You can get the older episodes on Netflix. Also we like the various based-on-Colin Dexter novels series - the original "Morse", Inspector Lewis, and now, Endeavour. You have to go to Netflix or one of the other services to get Morse, but they sometimes re-run the Inspector Lewis series.
Thought Downton was the best soap opera ever - great costumes, great settings. They were wise to end it when they did, though. Running out of interesting story lines and getting a bit tooo soap operish.
Also enjoy Call the Midwife. Enjoy Grantchester, but didn't like Amanda. There is a new priest for the next season, but the same cop. I am guessing that he married Amanda after he left the priesthood last season since he couldn't marry her and stay a priest during that time period. We also enjoy the Father Brown mysteries - definitely not dark! Not crazy about Poldark. All that dark glowering, and the unrelieved evil of the nouveau riche guy who married the idiot Elizabeth. But, I might watch it again if there is nothing else on. Nice scenery when they are above ground.
We usually watch one, sometimes two, hours TV each night. I sometimes watch on my tablet, shows my husband isn't interested in, like the Great British Baking Show - a great escape from the terrifying realities of what is happening in our country and the world. Who would have ever guessed you could work suspense into a show about 10 amateur British bakers competing to be the finalist? I will say, I have a whole new respect for real bakers, and will be more willing to pay the prices charged for their fancy breads, pastries, cakes, etc than before I watched the show. And I don't even bake.
Occasionally there is a dark show that I found interesting - like The Tunnel. My husband didn't like it, so he skipped most episodes and I would catch up on PBS passport on my tablet.
I will have to try Midsummer Murders and Call the Midwife. We are still catching up on the first season of Grantchester and watched another episode last night. But I think I'm done with it, I can't stand to watch somebody be as big of an idiot as Sydney is being. I don't care for Amanda either, I think he should have married Hildegard.
DeleteABBA. My god. Raber listens to it in the car when I'm not there (probably while eating the sugar donuts the doctor told him to lay off). He made The Boy go with him to see Mamma Mia. He said they were the only men in a whole theater full of women over 50.
DeleteAnne, we also like the whole Colin Dexter tree of series spawned by Morse. We believe it's inevitable that there will be an "Inspector Hathaway" series after "Endeavour" runs out of steam (which it might have ... for some reason the last episode we watched felt like a series-ender. Katherine, if you think Sydney the Anglican priest needs a good kick in the behind, what till you check out Young Morse and his uncanny ability to snatch loneliness from the jaws of incipient romance).
DeleteCall the Midwife has had some very high moments, but it jumped the shark a few seasons back - basically, when Nurse Lee left. I had marveled, after a couple of seasons, that the drama of childbirth is perennial (and that's coming from a guy!) but I've probably hit my satiation point for the time being. My wife and one of my daughters really like it, though, so I watch it with them when I can't motivate myself to spend my time better.
The thing about Downton Abbey is that every plot line was propelled along so briskly. The scenes were brief and it never got stuck in the mud. It sort of kept me trotting along with it.
Jean, tell Raber he can take me AND my husband next time.
DeleteWe first saw Mamma Mia at the National Theater in DC. It was a packed house, and pretty well balanced gender wise - mostly older couples who were young with ABBA. The cast was great and had everyone up and singing and dancing in the aisles. What surprised me was that there were a fair number of younger people too, and they were also singing and dancing. It was great fun.
So, of course we own the movie and the sound track. We put on the movie when we need an upper - especially in dead, cold winter. My husband has a workroom and he usually has music playing. Mamma Mia is one of his favorites, but he is eclectic in his musical tastes, so it might be Mozart or Beethoven or Beach Boys or Spanish guitar. I never know what sounds will come floating up the stairs.
Jim, there will be another season (at least) of Endeavour. It's a huge hit in England. They set it up to make the move to Thames Valley CID last season. As you may recall from Morse and Lewis, they were with Thames Valley in Oxford, not with the Oxford City Police. Thursday was going to retire, but since he blew his retirement money on an incredibly ill advised loan to his brother, he can't retire, can he? He will be back.
DeleteOf course, Endeavour always ends up a loser at the romance game. After all, Morse died a single man. John Thaw, who did an amazing job playing Morse, was dying of lung cancer when they filmed the last season of Morse. He knew he was short on time, so shooting the last episode (The Remorseful Day) must have been difficult for both Thaw and the rest of the cast and crew.
Morse was a heavy drinker and smoker, and so Endeavour is well on his way to borderline alcoholism already, and setting himself up for his future demise from too many cigarettes.
I would love an Inspector Hathaway, but who will be his sergeant? Stay tuned.
Anne, I'm with you all the way on Morse, although I didn't know that backstory about John Thaw.
DeleteWasn't there a black woman police officer character introduced during the last season of Lewis? There's your DS for Hathaway.
Btw, after Lawrence Welk sort of faded away, it was replaced by Sha Na Na on that UHF station schedule. My grandfather liked all those shows.
Delete"Lawrence Welk - they liked the big band sound. He had his regular cast of featured performers, right?"
ReplyDeleteExcept, Welk didn't have a big band sound. He fooled a lot of people. But the band numbers typically featured four bars of brass, four of strings, four of reeds, two of the organ or accordion and two of the whole band. And whatever it was, it ended up sounding like a polka. So "Basin Street Blues" would end with the usual bump-de-bump-de bump, bump, bump," and the maestro would appear to say, "The boyza sure can play jazz." Welk's instrument was an accordion, but he had an accordionist who could smile better while playing solos.
I had forgotten all of this, but a friend who can't stand it has a wife who loves the re-runs. He reported to me that the black guy who dances solo (no mixed dancing in those days) was lauded one night as "a credit to his race" by the mestro. So I watched most of the next two weeks' shows, and it all came crashing back on me. I saw things I shall never be able to unsee. (My wife said, "Why are you doing this?" Ha, time off Purgatory.)
I used to like Lawrence Welk when I was a little kid because of the Lennon Sisters. I especially liked Janet, the youngest one. Before we had a tv we would go over to my grandma's to watch it on Saturday night. Nana liked Joe Feeney, the tenor, who was from Grand Island, NE.
DeleteI especially like it when he tried to be hip and do a little rock. Yep, still sounded like a polka. I know guys who are a little rough around the edges but still idealize the Lennon Sisters. It's a safe bet to play Lawrence Welk for my mother. He comes in handy sometimes.
DeleteWe get Lawrence Welk at 7 p.m. every Saturday night on PBS, pledge drive or not. Raber loves it. It's all Czechs and Germans in this area, and they can't get enough of that stuff. Myron Floren used to play his accordion up at Zehnder's in Frankenmuth.
DeleteWhich reminds me of the many accordion jokes My brother, who owns a music store, tells: Welcome to heaven, here's your harp! Welcome to hell, here's your accordion!
My mother believed Lawrence Welk was a crypto Nazi, and we were not allowed to watch it at home. She truly believed he would be hauled off like Eichmann some day, "him and all his Hitler Youth."
My grandmother's both loved Lawrence Welk, so my brother and I watched it there. We thought it was unintentionally hilarious.
"That's our show-a, frents, put a zong in your hard."
Check out "The Polka King" on Netflix. Not a fan of Jack Black but I found this dramatization of a true story hilarious. Immigrant Jan Lewandowski lived the American Dream by starting a Polka Band, tour business and a ponzi scheme.
DeleteOnly in northeast PA.
DeleteLawrence Welk was not part of my family's life when I was growing up. The bits I've seen haven't encouraged me to seek it out either!
DeleteHow about Liberace? I could watch that guy 24/7. Count how many times he winks at the folks at home!
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GITRzdNihM
We were kind of sorry when Sabado Gigante went off the air. We used to watch it once in a while, it was kind of fun. We know a little Spanish but not fluent in it. However much of Sabado was sight and you could kind of follow along.
ReplyDeleteIf you like Lawrence Welk, you will love Stan and Yosch Schmenge—The Happy Wanderers—especially in this tribute to the music of John Williams. Who knew he was originally from Leutonia?
ReplyDeleteDavid - that is too scary! Is that SCTV?
DeleteJohn Candy! If I could go on a date with anyone living or dead, he would be my first choice. Here he is as the food repair man: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ypH-lSyPeaw
DeleteEnglish accent problem? Somewhere above someone did. All the mysteries have caption options. Check your remote for "Options". Hit. Scroll down to "captions" Hit. On remote hit exit and you should get the captions on Midsummer, Endeavour, Sargent Lewis.... I think even Foyle's War had captions.
ReplyDeleteAlas, the original Endeavour ("Morse") made from Dexter's novels did not at least in our Region (U.S.)get subtitles. Have they ever been given any? Anyone know?
Yes, the current Endeavour appears to be petering out! We are about to watch the last piece of Series Five. I am sorry to see them go. On the other hand, give enough time we can go back to Foyle...or Lewis...or Endavour and start over again.
I liked Foyle, too! I like smart but not-particularly-cutting-edge people.
DeleteMargaret, the next season of Endeavour is being filmed this summer. The series will continue, although in the Thames Valley CID, instead of Oxford City Police. It will be broadcast in 2019.
DeleteWe liked Foyle's War also. A good series. It did have closed captions. I have been using CC for years now, so I think I saw Morse with captions, but I don't remember if it was on PBS or Netflix. It's not on Netflix at the moment. Perhaps it will come back on PBS at some point. I hope so.
Katherine, another more "lighthearted" murder series is Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. PBS runs it. It is an Australian production, set in Melbourne in the 1920s, and besides the murder of the week, offers some spectacular costume design - her wardrobe is amazing.
Miss Fisher comes on Ovation from time to time, too. There were a couple of other Aussie series we liked. One was Doctor Blake. The other, don't remember what it was called, but it was about this husband and wife evidence tech team who solved mysteries. Doctor Blake wasn't exactly light-hearted, but the other one (whose name escapes me) definitely was.
DeleteFWIW, about half the series we've been talking about didn't actually come on our local PBS station, WTTW. But for a number of years there was a second PBS station in Chicago, affiliated with the Chicago City College system. But WTTW bought their bandwidth last year and shut down the rival. Sort of reminds me of Trump having the Inquirer buy Stormy Daniels' kiss-n-tell and bury it.
Thanks Anne. We thought season five would be the last... so we have a season six to look forward to. We have asked ourselves whether season five is really as good as previous seasons. Looks like a different production scheme, acting not as good, and plot details muffed more than usual...But still!!!
DeleteAnd right about Grantchester...silly!
Margaret, I also think that series 5 was not quite up to the previous series. Let's hope that it gets back to where it was. It seems that many shows get off track a bit after four or five seasons. Some quit while they are ahead, and some die a slow death until not renewed. But, even with a few weaknesses last season, Endeavour was still much better than 99% of what is on any of our hundreds of cable stations.
ReplyDelete