| Well, it had his characteristic vehemence and hyperbole, and was a bit too Left- chic, but it was interesting, and occasionally made some decent points. The funny thing is that it was written during a particularly fertile and even revolutionary period in television, with the introduction of show like "All in the Family", "Mary Tyler Moore", and "Mash", and just before a sort of Golden Age, with "Taxi", "Barney Miller", "WKRP", and "Hill Street Blues" waiting in the wings. The lack of perspective is this: the mass media require a lot of material, and the audience is diverse, and much of it is uneducated. Therefore, it is no surprise that a lot of shows should be undistinguished or trite, that is normal. What is important is what is the prevailing standard, the sort of "state of the art", and what shows of high quality manage to capture an audience and leave a cultural imprint? |
