Will people thirty years from now think of today's television as a golden age?
Or is the quality of today's TV greatly exaggerated?
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MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > Will people thirty years from now think ...
Today's television will be remembered as the age that came at the end of what was done for many decades prior. It will not be known as a golden age but as a "nursing home" age as what comes before death for many. There is some quality programming out there but it is lost amongst the myriads of reality television and politically correct programming. There has always been exaggeration in story lines and a lot of it came harmlessly from the stage. The best television is what has always been considered the traditional golden age which is the 1950's - early 1960's which needed a minimum off exaggeration as the material was still fresh. While i prefer many programs from the 1960's such as Star Trek one has to take in consideration the writing and editing of that era which tends to be not of the highest quality even with Star Trek. The second smaller golden age which was big to me as I lived through it unlike the 1950's was the early 1970's with CBS and their Mary Tyler Moore plus All in the Family shows. Good shows came after that time such as Hill Street Blues but there seemed to be much more inferior fare to accompany it. While Seinfeld was the "it" show of the 1990's it definitely can be seen as a product of its time and once you get past the original snark it tends to be mediocre. The Sopranos? The Soprano's relied on the threat of character elimination to keep audiences coming back in my mind. The crime family of that show does not stack up to the characters shown in the movie Goodfella's. There is also a certainly unrealistic nature to The Soprano's in the wealth displayed whereas when you look at Goodfella's most of the gangsters displayed very little outward wealth. In any event a good topic to throw around as we will all have our own ideas on this.
shareI should note that I have seen enough 1950's television to analyze it even though I did not live it. But not quite the same as seeing something as it develops such as it was with the 1970's shows. While the term binge watching was decades away from syndication broadcast of shows such as I Love Lucy allowed many hours of programming to be seen over the span of a month so the same sense of anticipation that comes with a show that is still current is not there. With a current show there is the sense to anticipate what the writers will do so you involve yourself more intellectually which can be satisfying.
shareThanks for your thoughtful reply
The long-winded Season long story arcs so popular today I often find taxing. Stuff like "The Sopranos" started this trend and while I'm a big fan of the show I find "Goodfellas" and "Casino" were able to address the same themes of "The Sopranos," as well as the same storylines, in a leaner, more efficient manner. (Then again, I'm of the opinion, that there isn't a TV serial drama out there that wouldn't be improved by being re-worked into a two-hour movie.)
I don't think the TV of the today is much better than the TV of yesterday. Sixties shows like "Star Trek," at its best, is as well written as anything out there now. Stuff like "The Walking Dead," pretty much "Dallas" with somnambulists, will probably have the quaint appeal '80s sudsers have now, and little else. "Dead," and mostly everything else on TV right now, eschews boldness; instead, it just reflects the current zeitgeist, which arbiters of the current zeitgeist misconstrue as boldness. The shows with legs won't be the prestige shows garlanded with Emmys. Or blockbusters like "The Walking Dead." No, they'll be the ones hugging the periphery -- cherished by a few, ignored by the zeitgeist. It will take future generations to recognize them as today's true gems amidst the reality TV, politically correct poo.
I am glad that my opinion meant something. I tried taking benchmarks from each decade and attempted to find a common means in my mind to compare them with each other. I get what you are saying in that many shows would benefit in terms of quality by compressing the running time but then that leaves the network execs in the position to fill the air time. Yes, take the cream of the cream whether that comes from Star Trek or All in the Family and the writing is hard to beat. At the same time I was trying to consider what else was out there in each era is it would be fair to weigh it as well as the elite shows. Don't get me wrong about the Soprano's as I liked the show but there are some aspects I would change about it if I were in David Chase's shoes. Paulie from Goodfella's living in a working class neighborhood with a house that donn's asbestos shingles and no phone rings more true in my mind for a Capo than Tony does living in an upper middle class neighborhood as a boss. I did not grow up in the NYC Mafia's home yards such as Queens but where I lived in the interior Northeast you could see the mafia in the shadows in a fair number of communities. Just my opinion. Maybe somebody has seen different in their lives.
shareI'm not sure how much is the quality /there is quality/, and how much is the sheer volume of programming. With all the new alternatives to traditional television, artists can create shows for niche audiences, so to me that speaks to greater variety of the stories that are being told.
I don't know if this is an appropriate analogy, but I like to compare it to late 60's and through the 70's in film. When the artists were breaking away from the rigidness of the studio system in Hollywood and restructuring the whole thing. They were gaining more artistic freedom, now it's TV that's allowing for that /in a way/. /corrections are welcomed if I got this whole thing wrong/
As for 30 years from now, if the term sticks, I don't see why they wouldn't call it that. But I do wonder how much and what exactly, is going to actually still be watched then. I'm afraid too much is going to be lost in the "crowd" /much is being lost even now I feel/.