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Turn it off, and tune in
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Turn it off, and tune in
  I’ve developed a bad habit of leaving the television on all the time, whether I’m watching it or not, whether there’s anything I want to watch or not. That kind of noise is addictive—you get so used to it, you can’t feel comfortable without it. So I’ve been turning the television off lately. After a week, I was able to enjoy the quiet again. Well, relative quiet. What got my attention, and made me realize the television needed to be off, was “Law and Order.” It was a good show, I enjoyed the first, oh, 20 episodes I ever watched. Back when Jerry Orbach was alive and playing Lennie Briscoe. But there must be several hundred episodes now, of the original show and its many permutations.  They say a show has to reach 100 episodes to go into syndication. Evidently when you have as many episodes as “Law and Order,” you can be syndicated on a hundred different stations. Honestly, I’m pretty sure that show is being rerun on so many stations that if you desired it, you could watch it 24/7. I’m surprised no one has launched an “All ‘Law and Order,’ All the Time” network. Even a show you really, really like gets tiresome if it’s on all the time. You start seeing flaws in performances, continuity problems, great honking factual errors. You start talking to the characters. For instance, when a character you know is going to die in a few minutes promises another character, “I’ll always be there for you,” you say things like, “Don’t be too sure.”  That’s when you know it’s time to turn off the set. Turning the television off, and turning it on only when there’s something I really want to see, has made me enjoy it again. It’s also made me think about my relationship with television, over the years.  Have you ever enjoyed the look of horror on kids’ faces when you tell them how, when you were little, there were only three channels? Four where I grew up, if you counted public television, but I never watched that because every time I turned it on there was a wildlife show wherein some animal was killing and eating another. I didn’t watch nearly as much television then. That’s probably why I enjoyed it more then. How many of you remember “Sky King” and his niece, Penny? It’s the first show I can remember wanting to watch enough to remember when it came on. Do any of you remember the name of Sky King’s Cessna? What about “Whirlybirds”? “Twelve O’Clock High”? What about Lloyd Bridges in “Sea Hunt” or Broderick Crawford in “Highway Patrol”? The first TV show crush I can remember was on Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (not Edd Byrnes) in “77 Sunset Strip.” Remember?  Those old shows probably wouldn’t entertain me as much now as they did then. I’m a tougher audience now. But I’d watch them, if someone put them back on the air. I’d watch them because I haven’t seen them for 40-some-odd years. If I live another 40-some-odd years, I can’t imagine yearning for episodes of “Law and Order.” There’s a lesson in there—it’s one Disney has already learned, with it’s policy of putting classics like Cinderella and Snow White “in the vault” for 10 years, before unveiling them to a new generation of young parents who want to share a part of their childhood with their own children.  I remember when “The Wizard of Oz” aired once a year, and it was a big deal. Neighbor kids would come over, and there would be snacks and soft drinks. Now it’s on all the time, and less fun to watch. Like that gem, some of the stuff I loved as a kid was already old when it was new to me. My lifelong love of mysteries was probably born one summer vacation when one of the networks scheduled either a Charlie Chan or a Sherlock Holmes episode every Sunday afternoon. I still have a little of a crush on Basil Rathbone. Anyway, there are some memories for you to consider. And some lessons, too—if you’ve developed the same bad habit I did, turn off the set and leave it off. When you turn it on again, you’ll be surprised how much more enjoyable it is. Oh yeah – it was called the Songbird.  |
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