tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6956070.post3745045975185147885..comments2023-11-03T11:37:13.579-04:00Comments on Something Old, Nothing New: The Essence of Late '70s TVJaime J. Weinmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15128500411119962998noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6956070.post-91173904119306530672009-06-30T18:54:07.003-04:002009-06-30T18:54:07.003-04:00I have to wonder if nostalgia isn't coloring y...I have to wonder if nostalgia isn't coloring your assessment some...I don't think WKRP owes Anything to THREE'S COMPANY, for example, not compared to what it owes to, say, M*A*S*H (the generational split, somewhat more convincing in WKRP, for one). But, then, I hated most of the intentionally stupid programming of that era, and while UNITED STATES wasn't successful artistically, either (though a decent try to import a bit of PBS drama sensibility into a sitcom format...back when there was PBS drama, my goodness), it woudld be for me vastly less tortuous than sitting through an episode or even a fragment of THE ROPERS or MORK AND MINDY. HOT L BALTIMORE was another example of the kind of thing you're getting at, the attempt to be wild and salacious, that didn't quite come off, but again, as I remember it, a child of LOVE, AMERICAN STYLE and LAUGH IN as much as the other Lear/Yorkin Tandem sitcoms of the time. For me, the relative sophistication of THE ROCKFORD FILES was an oasis (or VISIONS, one of the better of the late '70s PBS anthology drama series...not quite up to PBS HOLLYWOOD THEATER in the early '70s or AMERICAN PLAYHOUSE in the '80s, but not too shabby).Todd Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6956070.post-1505396181779599452009-06-28T15:22:03.896-04:002009-06-28T15:22:03.896-04:00Brandon Tartikoff was Fred's most famous proto...Brandon Tartikoff was Fred's most famous protoge, but it was the instincts of Grant Tinker that kept him from crashing on the same rocks that wrecked Silverman, until Tartikoff tried to run Paramount Pictures.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6956070.post-31406935506449017962009-06-28T08:30:29.022-04:002009-06-28T08:30:29.022-04:00Ah, the Curse of Fred Sliverman. Fred, of course h...Ah, the Curse of Fred Sliverman. Fred, of course had risen to prominence at CBS first by dumbing down the network's Saturday morning cartoon lineup, and when he was promoted first to assistant and then to head of prime-time programming was assumed to be part of the cadre of execs who were going to "culture up" the prime-time schedule -- Fred was in the No. 2 spot when CBS massacred its rural comedies in the 1970-71 period, just before and after "All In the Family" debuted.<br /><br />But watching what he did once he moved to ABC, you have to wonder if Silverman also wasn't one of those who thought throwing away an entire demo of "unsophistcates" was the right idea, or at the very least, that the networks weren't taking advantage of the looser rules on censorship from a sexual angle. The greater emphasis on sexual-themed shows and the lack of guilt in doing promos for those shows that reveled in their unsophisticatedness is really what made ABC No. 1, Fred a pile of money and inspired a vehemence among TV critics against a network executive that has yet to be surpassed (though to be fair, while the changes to "Happy Days" and the "Charlie's Angels"/"Three's Company" stuff was the most notable shift in the pre-/post-Silverman era, he was smart enough to leave Danny Arnold alone on "Barney Miller")<br /><br />Fred did show that, once a market becomes saturated with a certain type of programming, there's a limit to how much you can sex-it-up/dumb-it-down and get the audience to follow you, as was the case when he went to, and failed at NBC, much to the enjoyment of media watchers everywhere. And people forget Silverman was the one who began the rise of the second era of rising sophistication in network TV when he green-lighted "Hill Street Blues". Problem was he had become the New Coke of TV execs by then and had to be shown the door by NBC (even though today, the network's position is even worse than it was under Fred 30 years ago, but the same group of hacks running NBC keeps going on, and on, and on...)J Leenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6956070.post-50248649291142329222009-06-28T00:09:01.317-04:002009-06-28T00:09:01.317-04:00Indeed, the later part of the 1970s were what defi...Indeed, the later part of the 1970s were what defined the decade (the same could be said for the '20s and '50s); otherwise, why would "That '70s Show" have initially taken place in 1976? As someone who got out of college at that time, it was largely a sad period for television, as if the Visigoths had taken over. It reached its <i>reducio ad absurdum</i> when Fred Silverman took over NBC, resulting in the collective network equivalent of "Heaven's Gate." Dreadful banality.<br /><br />There was good TV if you knew where to find it. You mentioned "WKRP," but let's not also forget the brilliantly subversive "Fernwood/America 2Night," which was smart by being exceedingly stupid.VP81955https://www.blogger.com/profile/11792390726196611188noreply@blogger.com