Comments on: TV as role model. http://www.typelikethewind.com/2010/04/05/we-are-what-we-watch-and-thats-not-all-bad/ Kimberly Marlowe Hartnett's reviews, news, theories and quibbles. Fri, 07 Oct 2011 17:09:17 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: Kimberly Marlowe Hartnett http://www.typelikethewind.com/2010/04/05/we-are-what-we-watch-and-thats-not-all-bad/comment-page-1/#comment-160 Kimberly Marlowe Hartnett Tue, 13 Apr 2010 15:39:32 +0000 http://www.typelikethewind.com/?p=1104#comment-160 And don't forget <em>Bonanza</em>. Although there was something a little strange about the fact that no one ever seemed to leave home...Surely Little Joe could have found a partner? As for what TV promulgates now, I can only hope others are not watching the trash I'm tuning in for: <em>24</em> (Special Forces retiree breaking jaws in the fight against terrorism); <em>Rescue Me</em> (philandering drunken firefighters who see ghosts); <em>Breaking Bad</em> (cancer-ridden science teacher cooking meth); <em>True Blood</em> (title says it all) and<em> Sons of Anarchy</em> (multi-generational motorcycle gang breaking jaws, philandering, selling arms to meth cookers and fighting off white supremacy on the side). All I can say in my own defense is that everything fell apart when Johnny Carson retired. And don’t forget Bonanza. Although there was something a little strange about the fact that no one ever seemed to leave home…Surely Little Joe could have found a partner?

As for what TV promulgates now, I can only hope others are not watching the trash I’m tuning in for: 24 (Special Forces retiree breaking jaws in the fight against terrorism); Rescue Me (philandering drunken firefighters who see ghosts); Breaking Bad (cancer-ridden science teacher cooking meth); True Blood (title says it all) and Sons of Anarchy (multi-generational motorcycle gang breaking jaws, philandering, selling arms to meth cookers and fighting off white supremacy on the side).

All I can say in my own defense is that everything fell apart when Johnny Carson retired.

]]> By: Charles J. Shields http://www.typelikethewind.com/2010/04/05/we-are-what-we-watch-and-thats-not-all-bad/comment-page-1/#comment-159 Charles J. Shields Tue, 13 Apr 2010 15:27:43 +0000 http://www.typelikethewind.com/?p=1104#comment-159 I don't have a television, but now that you mention it, TV programs in the 1950s had laudable values. Think The Dobie Gillis Show, Andy of Mayberry, Danny Thomas, That Girl, The Real McCoys, Branded, The Rifleman, and so on. What ties them together are really corny values: integrity, fairness, compassion, law and order, education, and good parenting. And while there were model, two-parent families, the father on The Rifleman was a single parent, and Grandpa in the Real McCoys were deferred to (not ridiculed or parodied) because he was older. Oh, I almost forgot, Andy Griffith was a single parent, too. I don't know what values TV promulgates now.... I don’t have a television, but now that you mention it, TV programs in the 1950s had laudable values. Think The Dobie Gillis Show, Andy of Mayberry, Danny Thomas, That Girl, The Real McCoys, Branded, The Rifleman, and so on. What ties them together are really corny values: integrity, fairness, compassion, law and order, education, and good parenting. And while there were model, two-parent families, the father on The Rifleman was a single parent, and Grandpa in the Real McCoys were deferred to (not ridiculed or parodied) because he was older. Oh, I almost forgot, Andy Griffith was a single parent, too.

I don’t know what values TV promulgates now….

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