TV of the 1960s

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Trek is so sincere that irony is virtually nonexistent, much less "camp."

 

[Eric Cheung]

That's one thing I think I like about Trek. I'm kind of sick of the cynicism that comes with postmodern irony. I like to think that the idea of New Sincerity might catch on.

 

[scotpens]

In my Media Criticism and Theory class I took junior year I learned that camp was a self-conscious delivery of art or media--it's inherently post-modern. Things like parody and punk rock (especially sub-genres with prefixes like Post and Neo) can sometimes fall into that category. It's usually ironic and meta.

Maybe "camp" nowadays means intentional and self-conscious parody. Back when the term entered the vernacular in the mid-1960s, it meant something closer to Susan Sontag's definition: popular culture that's unintentionally "so bad it's good." Indeed, the words camp and kitsch had essentially the same meaning.

An excellent example of the original definition of camp is the 1980 movie Xanadu. And a good example of the modern definition is the recent Broadway stage musical based on the movie.

I'm kind of sick of the cynicism that comes with postmodern irony. I like to think that the idea of New Sincerity might catch on.

Gee, who'd a thunk it? Sincerity . . . what a concept!

 

[Redfern]

I watched syndicated Star Trek on a primitive cable TV system that carried some pretty fringe stations (channel 42 in Birmingham, for instance--over 100 miles away and which didn't come in clearly unless it was raining).

Channel 42? What a hoot! For three years, from 1972 to '75, I lived probably no more than a mile from that affiliate. Oddly enough, they stopped broadcasts of the reruns from the Fall of '73 until the summer of '75 when NBC aired the animated series on Saturday mornings. Once it was canceled, the live action series was broadcast again.

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

A read through that "new sincerity" article at wikipedia doesn't offer much that makes the movement sound appealing. Bands that didn't succeed? Reality television and Dances With Wolves? "Chicklit?" Really?

I think I'll stick with postmodern ironic detachment.

 

[Forbin]

I think I'll stick with postmodern ironic detachment.

I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter.

Or not.

 

[Tom]

They were and they weren't. It depended on the channel you were watching and whether it was a VHF or UHF channel. Most VHF channels looked good on our TV, but the UHF channels were another story. Often you'd have to buy a loop antenna to see anything. And even with the VHS channels every channel was often at a different level of clarity.

Back then it was all about Location, Location, Location in terms how clear a signal you could get.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I think I'll stick with postmodern ironic detachment.

I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter.

Or not.

 

[Basil]

Trek is so sincere that irony is virtually nonexistent, much less "camp."

I dunno. I always thought "The Cage" was a thinly-veiled swipe at getting addicted to television, using a TV show to warn viewers about the inherent disaster of getting too caught up . . . in a TV show.

 

[Christopher]

I dunno. I always thought "The Cage" was a thinly-veiled swipe at getting addicted to television, using a TV show to warn viewers about the inherent disaster of getting too caught up . . . in a TV show.

I think that's way too postmodern an interpretation. It was probably more a science-fictional iteration of the Land of the Lotus-Eaters from Homer's Odyssey. Stories about the superiority of good, honest work and toil over full immersion in a life of fantasy and sloth have been around for thousands of years; they aren't an invention of the television age. "The Cage" is also heavily influenced by Forbidden Planet, another story about an advanced alien society that fell because it took its mental evolution to a self-destructive extreme. A story about a society that destroys itself by being too intellectual and rarefied is hardly an allegory for a society addicted to television.

After all, in 1964, Gene Roddenberry was an up-and-coming television producer trying to make it big. I doubt his view of the television industry would've been so negative at the time.