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Television has come a long way—or has it? First TV I saw was in the summer of 1947 when I
went to spend the vacation with my cousins in Washington, DC. They had a small black and white TV with silver antennae
sticking up from the back. It
rested on a table in the living room and everyone sat around fascinated.
Supper was eaten on coffee tables while we watched an old
Hopalong Cassiday movie that we wouldn’t have paid to see at the
theater. It was a novelty.
Whatever was on the screen was hungrily devoured. Broadcasts were live if they came from a studio.
WTAR in Norfolk, Va., had regular broadcasts in 1950 and people
gathered around drugstores and places open to the public.
One of the favorite shows was a comedy presentation by an old
vaudeville comedian named Jerry Lester who made much out of his “bean
bag.” But the main
attraction was a big, bosomy blonde named Dagmar.
She wore low cut dresses and the jokes were only mildly
suggestive. Censorship was
tight in the movies where the Hays Code refused to let a married man sit
on a bed at the same time as wife, unless he had one foot on the floor.
That’s when double beds were invented—by the movies. It was illegal to buy a copy of James Joyce’s
“Ulysses.” Pornographic
laws were strict and could prosecute anyone who possessed a full frontal
picture of a nude person unless parts were covered.
For a brief time, Maiden Form had on TV live models showing off
the line of bras. Modesty
stopped that and dummies were used. Talent developed ahead of the technology and
morality. Some good
playwrights brought out a few great scripts.
Some talented actors and actresses cut their teeth on television
and moved onto the silver screen. Raymond Burr as “Perry Mason” was a must-see
show. There were Jackie
Gleason, Sid Caesar, James Arness and a lot of other entertainers.
The original “Star Trek” made up in plot and story what the
cheap studio sets failed to supply. Perhaps a good barometer of our society is to
look back at what shop was top in a given year.
First place in 1950 was the Texaco Star Theater, with Milton
Berle as a slapstick clown. Next
year it was “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts,” followed by three
years of “I Love Lucy.” In
1955, “The $64,000 Question” was tops and Lucy came back for its
final year next. From 1957 to 1960, “Gunsmoke” brought its western
morality into top place. Another
western, “Wagon Train,” held it for a year and slapstick came back
for two years in the form of “The Beverly Hillbillies.” The sheriff of Mayberry was in front place in
1967 with “The Andy Griffith Show” said to be still on TV somewhere
in the world every day. “Rowan
and Martin’s Laugh-in” brought offbeat comedy to top position two
years, followed by “Marcus Welby, M.D.” America took a look at its views on race,
politics and society with “All in the Family” for five years
beginning in 1971. “Happy Days” was in for one year and
“Laverne and Shirley” had it two years.
A change of pace came in 1979 when the thought provoking show
“60 Minutes” was number one. They
came back in 1962, interrupted for two years by a nighttime soap opera,
“Dallas.” For four
straight years, beginning in 1985, “The Bill Cosby Show” was the top
show and broke racial barriers with Cosby’s gentle, clean family
humor. The technical progress of television continued.
The quality didn’t. Today offers bizarre programs like people having
to survive on a deserted island, couples who have nothing in common
getting married on television for the big bucks and mindless situation
comedies with canned laughter turned to high volume every time some uses
a vulgar word. The soap
operas show more flesh and suggestive scenes than the witch-hunters
would want to see in a porn shop. I confess I never saw the Jerry Seinfeld show,
and somebody thought he was good enough to rank him first for a while.
Lots of other shows I haven’t seen either, and don’t plan to. I’ll settle for a rerun of a “Dick Van Dyke
Show” or maybe an old Alfred Hitchcock.
My menu is mainly the news, The History Channel or some old movie
made before they had to be coarse and bloody to get attention. It would be nice if someone could come up with
some reruns of Jerry Lester and Dagmar.
I don’t even remember the significance of “the bean bag,”
but I miss that, too.
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