[mythtv-users] "Generational" TV, was: OT: 3D TV

Brian Wood beww at beww.org
Wed Jan 13 01:28:06 UTC 2010


On Tuesday 12 January 2010 06:07:28 pm David Brodbeck wrote:
> On Jan 12, 2010, at 4:08 PM, Eric Sharkey wrote:
> > On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 5:56 PM, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
> >> No, many people, including me, think that TV was better back then
> >> than it is
> >> today.
> >>
> >> It was "entertainment", not junk, and the industry was still in the
> >> hands of
> >> the people who created it, and not the bean counters who control it
> >> today.
> >>
> >> The Honeymooners actually started out as a 12 minute skit on Dumont's
> >> "Cavalcade of Stars", it later became a half-hour show.
> >
> > Hmm.  What could be funnier than threats of domestic violence?
> >
> > I guess you had to be there...
> 
> I gotta say, if you adjust for cultural windage, there's a lot of
> really funny stuff in The Honeymooners.  Yeah, some of it makes modern
> audiences cringe, but there's a lot more there than wife-beating humor.
> 
> I also think people dismiss modern TV a bit too easily. Yeah, there's
> a lot of reality show crap and "World's ___iest ____."  But there's
> also some really sharply written comedy, like "30 Rock."

I recall one day looking at the overnight ratings for the NYC market. There 
was Leno with about an 8, and some other first-run late-night show with a 7, 
then there was the "Honeymooners", with about a 20.

When a 50-year-old rerun is beating the crap out of your first-run stuff, you 
are in serious trouble.

Granted the "Honeymooners" probably plays better in NYC than anywhere else, it 
was still a good show, and remains so today.

For all the "to the moon" comments, you certainly never saw anyone get hit or 
hurt, and the show almost always ended with a loving embrace. The show 
accurately portrayed the trials and tribulations of young married couples of 
limited resources at that time. Today's shows seem to like to focus on the 
worst elements of our society, witness the popularity of the multiple CSI type 
shows.

I'll grant that there is *some* good stuff today, but you have to wade through 
so much garbage to find it that it's not worth the effort.

Of course Myth's commercial skipping makes the wading easier.

One thing I always like to do when watching old H'mooners episodes is look for 
the black halo effect, caused by secondary emission from the image orthicon 
targets, as well as shadows from the Fisher Mike booms. Trying to figure out if 
the secondary emission problem was with the original or happened when the kine 
(a film of a CRT screen, pre Ampex-1000) was made is always interesting.

I also like to look for "banding" on old All in the Family shows, originally 
recorded on 2" quad machines.

</nostalgia mode>, sorry for the OT.


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