Great shows with less interest
Whatever the universals of comedy might be, some of them translate poorly across time. At least, across recent time; I had the chance to do some retrospective TV watching this afternoon. Stuff that I KNOW to be funny just didn’t catch the interest of my progeny. Go figure.
The PBS outlet ran a special called Pioneers of Primetime. With a catchy title like that, how could I deny myself the view? The premise of the documentary is that the same people who were vaudeville stars became radio stars became TV stars. I admit, much of the timeline preceded me, but the characters were all familiar faces. Milton, Red, Ed, George, Jack and many many more. Perhaps when you are a “little kid”, you don’t judge relative age (or the age or relatives) well, but I watched those people in black and white, night after night. A captive audience in ratings terms, because my set only received one non-snow channel back then.
I still found the jokes to be funny. My kids, less so. No culture, these young people! But the day prevailed, with a screening of The Sound Of Music. This should be a natural; familiar songs, tension of various sorts, soldiers and searchlights, great houses with view on a lake and mountains, familiar songs. Again, not much interest from the younger set. Unknown movie (what???). We put him to work using Google and Wiki to identify the title; cultural monoliths like this one have to be listed and learned.
So now I’m left perplexed. If culture isn’t a genetic trait, what hope is there for the youth of today?
