ALLNEWSUX: GOLDEN AGE OF TELEVISION MY ASS!!!

The other day I heard one of my co-workers say that while he didn't really enjoy new music or new movies that he felt 2017 was the "Golden Age of Television". I have heard a few others proclaim this sentiment and of course if you were to look at TV shows of 2016 and 2017 on IMDb, you'd falsely believe they were the greatest shows ever made based on their absurd, impetuous 9+ ratings. There are so many things wrong with this. First of all, for anything to be "Golden Age" it has to be older, more classic and have stood the test of time. If you're watching or even thinking about Game Of Thrones, Stranger Things or The Walking Dead 20 years from now, THEN you can tell me how classic they were or how these shows came from a superior age of television history. Today, it is not difficult to get a TV series. Of course I don't mean that you and I can just come up with an idea and somebody will put it on TV...that would be a serious exaggeration. What I mean is back when there were only 3 major networks your TV series better be at the top of it's game in order to be picked up. You needed talented stars, interesting plots and original ideas. As with every medium there were some poor choices being made from time to time, but those TV shows were shunned and not given many episodes whereas in the 21st century, a simply awful series can stick around for years and anyone who dares to criticize these shows negatively is simply labeled a "troll". Also in this new century of television there are literally hundreds of networks you can try getting a TV series with along with options from online stations and sources like Amazon, Netflix or Hulu. In part thanks to the simplicity of streaming, suddenly dozens of companies, who have zero television experience and have no business whatsoever creating TV shows are doing just that. If I showed you a TV Guide from 1986 you'd recognize 90% of the shows whether you were alive back then or not because that's what "classic" really is. With 21st century television the opposite is true because if I showed you a listing from your average cable or satellite service, you wouldn't be familiar with 90% of the 852 shows now playing. A few decades ago you would have never seen some Armenian assistant to a blonde trust fund ditz suddenly become the most famous person on the planet who is working on the 8th season of her idiotic, fake, falsely labeled reality show. From at least the 1950s through the 1980s, network execs made a point to get only the best and most talented actors and actresses they could afford and very rarely would they give a series to some flavor of the week actor. In 2017, it's hard to find a flavor of the week pop culture footnote who DOESN'T have his/her own series!
Some may say I'm coming off like some grumpy old man who says things like "back in my day...". Hey, I'm not saying you can't enjoy some new TV shows, but until you've done your homework don't make silly proclamations about how This Is Us is the best anything or that every episode of Game Of Thrones deserves a perfect 10 out of 10. Remember, there was a time when you could watch Cheers, The Cosby Show, Family Ties and Night Court all on the same night on the same channel. For 30 years every generation of children had wonderful, memorable cartoons to wake up for every Saturday morning...no longer. During the late 1970s you had unforgettable gems like Happy Days, M*A*S*H, All In The Family, The Dukes Of Hazzard and Three's Company all being produced at the same time! If we want to ever properly use the term Golden Age of Television we need simply to remember that the 1950s with I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Honeymooners, The George Burns And Gracie Allen Show and The Twilight Zone were that true "Golden Age". The TV shows you see today are simply not of the high caliber that many of the networks played in the decades prior. You enjoy them and you can talk to your friends about the latest episodes and it makes you feel like you're a part of something, but if you're ever going to be a proper critic you need to be able to differentiate between what is actually good and what you happen to like at the moment. If we were all able to do that we'd get a much clearer look at our televised past and in turn it may actually improve the television of the present. I’m just hoping that the next time the chance presents itself for you to watch some older television from Monty Python’s Flying Circus to The A-Team to Ultraman check it out…it just might make you look at your latest favorite a bit differently.

*if you have any interest or ideas on a TV, internet or radio project, email me allnewsux (at) gmail.com