The world...is GONE!

[RobertScorpio]

I came across my ADAM -12 DVDS and put one in. Watched an episode, which happened to have Gage/Desotto from EMERGENCY in it..and I got to thinking...where is that world? The world has changed so much in the past 20 years, IMO. I mean, in the 70s, you watch old episodes of I DREAM OF GENIE or BRADY BUNCH or GUNSMOKE and still seem like you were part of those worlds...

But now? so much has changed. I watch ADAM-12 and think, God, where did that innocence go. Then I turn on current tv shows like PIMP MY RIDE or UFC or this crazy show where some rocker dude is chosing which babe he wants to be with next...and wow...

I'm not saying these shows are good or bad..I'm just saying that the world has definately change much faster from the 80s to now than it did from the 60s to the 80s...IMO...

What do some of you think??? Am I just being an old FART? Or...has the world really changed that much in twenty years? Forty years?

Rob

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

People are inclined to think that things were easier long ago. It's natural to think that way. To think there was some magical time, a lost innocence. But it's not true. Things were always complicated.

 

[Lonemagpie]

People are inclined to think that things were easier long ago. It's natural to think that way. To think there was some magical time, a lost innocence. But it's not true. Things were always complicated.

I don't think it's so much that, as...

The little things.

Like, cellphones. It's amazing how many episodes and movies - pretty much anything pre 1990 - would end in about 30 seconds if the characters had cellphones. That's the way the world has changed

 

[Mistral]

Spider Robinson once wrote: "Time passes and the world turns upside down. The thing is, we turn upside down with it, so it all looks normal to us."

I think that's the clearest way you could express the changes that time brings, at least from a personal perception. However, due to the radical technological upheaval of the last twenty-five years brought about by increased electronic miniaturization, even though a show like Adam-12 uses most of the same devices as we use today it all looks different.

 

[Caligula]

What do some of you think??? Am I just being an old FART? Or...has the world really changed that much in twenty years? Forty years?

Twenty years, for sure. Even Disney doesn't seem as innocent as it did when I was a kid. Hell, you don't even need to go THAT far back. For me, personally, the world (not just in television, but overall) has changed drastically in just the last TEN years!

 

[RobertScorpio]

What do some of you think??? Am I just being an old FART? Or...has the world really changed that much in twenty years? Forty years?

Twenty years, for sure. Even Disney doesn't seem as innocent as it did when I was a kid. Hell, you don't even need to go THAT far back. For me, personally, the world (not just in television, but overall) has changed drastically in just the last TEN years!

Thank you..I thought I was the only one...

Rob

 

[hyzmarca]

No the world is actually more innocent now than it was then. The difference is that, back then, they had crappy TV due to oppressive censorship standards.

Consider that the age of swinging, of free love, of bra burning, of cultural revolution, of the mile high club, of chain smoking, hard drinking, fast cars, race riots, student massacres by government forces, COINTELPRO, Vietnam, drugs - lots of excellent drugs, hard-hitting protest songs, the real James Bond, Saturday Night Live, and so much more.

If the Brady Bunch was designed to be like real life in the 70s, then Mike and Carol would have gone to key parties. Or, more accurately, Mike would have gone to bathhouses and Carol would have gone to nightclubs.

And if Adam 12 were written realisticly, there would be a great deal more police brutality and questionable shootings of black suspects.

The difference is that, these says, television is the FCC is less restrictive and television studios are less timid. This is counterbalanced by the fact that motion picture studios are more timid. You could never do Dirty Harry today.

 

[WillsBabe]

The difference is that, these says, television is the FCC is less restrictive and television studios are less timid. This is counterbalanced by the fact that motion picture studios are more timid. You could never do Dirty Harry today.

Very interesting points you make.

Thank you..I thought I was the only one...

Rob

Oh, no. Not at all. I've completely lost my grip on the world in the last 10 years. I was watching a couple of episodes of Starsky and Hutch yesterday. It was supposed to be hard-hitting etc in its day. It looks almost cartoon-like now. However, in light of the interesting post above, it did make me think that the scene in one episode where the bad guys are heating heroine in a spoon an injecting one of the officers seemed shocking, even today. I wonder whether we'd get to see that it that kind of detail on either American or British tv these days.

 

[Super Grover]

I came across my ADAM -12 DVDS and put one in. Watched an episode, which happened to have Gage/Desotto from EMERGENCY in it..and I got to thinking...where is that world? The world has changed so much in the past 20 years, IMO. I mean, in the 70s, you watch old episodes of I DREAM OF GENIE or BRADY BUNCH or GUNSMOKE and still seem like you were part of those worlds...

But now? so much has changed. I watch ADAM-12 and think, God, where did that innocence go. Then I turn on current tv shows like PIMP MY RIDE or UFC or this crazy show where some rocker dude is chosing which babe he wants to be with next...and wow...

I'm not saying these shows are good or bad..I'm just saying that the world has definately change much faster from the 80s to now than it did from the 60s to the 80s...IMO...

What do some of you think??? Am I just being an old FART? Or...has the world really changed that much in twenty years? Forty years?

Rob

I"m with you man, I'd rather watch those old show too.

 

[Mistral]

hyzmarca makes a point but what about Jihad terrorists, dirty bombs, electronic infiltration of national utilities as an alternate means of warfare, Aids, school shootings, "going postal", globally broadcast executions of journalists and relief workers, melting Arctic ice, crack, meth and ecstasy, Republican Christian fundamentalists actively working to subvert the Constitution,anthrax attacks, massive airport security blankets, waves of drug-related murders across the Mexican/Us border, sarin attacks and piracy on global oceanic trade routes? We have our own problems-and the difference today is that so many of them can spill over from a localized situation into a national or global one so very easily.

Damn, now I'm depressed. Dandelion break time!

 

[Dar70]

I think this way to. I think the world changed even more from the mid 60's to early 70's. Watch shows like Bewitched or My Three Sons. Those shows started off with one look and ended up with a completely different one in terms of clothing styles, cars, decor etc. Same with Adam-12 (great show by the way) and Emergency. Also interesting to note those shows started off in the almost universal sanitized world of tv and movies and ended up in the same time slot and era as more risky fair like All in The Family and movies like Midnight Cowboy.

 

[RobertScorpio]

I think this way to. I think the world changed even more from the mid 60's to early 70's. Watch shows like Bewitched or My Three Sons. Those shows started off with one look and ended up with a completely different one in terms of clothing styles, cars, decor etc. Same with Adam-12 (great show by the way) and Emergency. Also interesting to note those shows started off in the almost universal sanitized world of tv and movies and ended up in the same time slot and era as more risky fair like All in The Family and movies like Midnight Cowboy.

yes...good points in your post. I have always found the strategy of TV TIMESLOTS most interesting...I'm going to start a thread about that in a moment..hope to see you there..

Rob