This blog is going to be one of the easiest I have written. Sometimes a subject just drops into your lap and you can't help but jump all over it. Sometimes the subject is nice and proper. Sometimes the subject is down and dirty. Sometimes the subject is proper for polite conversation and sometimes it is not. You can decide for yourself if this is polite or not.
I do not know how many people are familiar with TV Land on cable. It plays a ton of old shows. The kind of shows that growing up we would find in reruns on late night TV on one of the UHF channels. If you do not know what UHF channels are I feel for you. You have not had a true adolescent TV viewing experience until you have tried to watch Elvira at 1:30 in the morning and you get excited because you get 30 seconds of non-rolling screen. It was a science to get the rabbit ears in just the right place. Emilee looks so bored as I explain this.
Anyway, I am flipping through the channels and see that "All In The Family" is on. I was intrigued, so I quit surfing and started watching. WOW! Is all I can say. Some of you were probably avid followers of this show when it was on. One of the neat things about cable is that you can see when the show originally aired. So Mom and 'Noid, I am sure that you are familiar with this show because the one I was watching aired in 1971. I was 6 months old when this particular episode aired, Emilee wasn't even thought about, and we were landing on the moon for the 3rd time. The show blew me away!
How many of you have ever watched this show? It would NEVER air today. We have been so over-sensitized to racial comedy and profiling. It is easy to say we have become "PC", but watch one episode of this show and you will see how sanitized we have become. Today's shows are laced with violence and sexuality. I see what they replaced. I can see how controversial that show must have been. I think it would be incredible if TV allowed itself to be as honest with itself today as it was back then. Why do we have to try to dictate policy and beliefs through the shows we watch? Why can't we admit we have biases.
In one 30 minute episode Archie (the main character) takes shots at 6 different ethnic groups. SIX! We go after any group other than white males today and there are protests and threats. He attacked Blacks, the religious fanatics, people of Polish decent, the Chinese, liberals, and women. It was amazing. Watching a show that was true to the beliefs of the times was very enlightening. What show today truly shows the beliefs of the every man? That is what "All In The Family" was trying to represent; the opinion of the acting majority.
The answer to that question is; none I have seen. We are so busy trying to be "all-inclusive" that we lose the connection with who we really are. Who of us can truly say that we have ZERO biases? I bet if you are true to yourself and answer this question honestly you will find that nobody can answer "ME" to that question. We all get frustrated by one group or another. We don't generally like ourselves so how can we like everybody else? So what is my point here you ask.
My point is that instead of dealing with how we really think and feel about each other we have a media culture that simply tries to convert the masses into one train of thought. Now when the Marines do it, they call it brainwashing. When any conservative, and I do not mean wing nuts like Hannity and Limbaugh, tries to make a point about the reality of the interactions between different groups they get labeled as a racist or a bigot. Are they? Or are they simply expressing the views that we as Americans are made to feel ashamed of? Why can't we be honest with each other?
Because people do not want the truth, they want to float through life thinking we can all get along.... If we just ignore the obvious.
Stay Safe,
Rob
Ah Grasshopper, you (and many others) have already missed the best this country will probably ever offer. Today's shows are just the old boring sex and violence. Good for desensitizing you, but not much else.
ReplyDeleteArchie, Meathead, Edith, all of them. It was great. People would actually sit around and name relatives that the cast reminded them of. Pure honesty - until they left the house. Then it was right back to the usual walking on tip-toes so you didn't offend someone. "PC" is not new, just more rampant so we can be inclusive to the point where fudge packers are just misunderstood and need our love.
Being a people person, I was always on best behavior too (Yeah, me. Go figure.), but I loved shows like "All in the Family" and "Soap". Being such a loving and accepting type, I would only watch to get clues about what to expect out in the world. Kind of like you labeling Rush and Sean as wingnuts. You get an opinion. Everyone does. They are kind of like a-holes. Everyone has one and no body thinks theirs stinks.
I must also point out to Joe (above) that you don't have to be black to be considered African American. Lots of whites were/are born in Africa and came/come here. Either way, the term is BS since Africa is a continent, not a country. It would kind of be like a Spanish dude (from Spain of course) moving here and saying he was a Euro-American, or a Continental-American. That is not to be confused with the Continental Kit that you put on the rear deck of your car, but I digress a few decades (again).
Like I said, being a real people person all of my life, I have always been accepting and forgiving - except maybe for dumb, lazy niggers which do not need to be black to have the title, just dumb and lazy with their hand out constantly. That, my friend is the sad part of the 60's. We allowed the politicians to continue FDR's give away programs until we ended up with a whole new class of people - all looking for something for nothing. Then we were constantly beat over the head to accept it.
Shows like this were a deliberate attempt to make any one that disagreed with the "proper and polite acceptance" look even dumber or less PC than they might actually be. People who spoke up or disagreed with "society" as the liberal saw it were even called "Archies"
While it is true that the show was funny, make no mistake - it was all well thought out and part of a bigger goal. Yeah. Another plot. And that is why they call me...
'Noid
I totally agree with Jo! Blacks are more racist than anyone I have ever met! Even Uncle Butch! (who by the way...is who I think of when I think of Archie Bunker.) I don't really know an Edith. If I did....I would shoot her.
ReplyDeleteARCHIE BUNKER IS MY HERO!!
ReplyDeleteLove, love, love 'All In The Family'. I became a convert when I was pregnant with Christopher; I was stationed at Wright-Patterson, and was staying with my Aunt and Uncle, who live only about 20 minutes from the base. My Uncle Allan is an 'All In The Family' devotee.....and he made me one, too.
Keep watching, Rob. If you're lucky, you'll get to see the classic episode where Archie gets locked in the basement while waiting for a repairman to come fix their heat. Having found a bottle of vodka, Archie drinks a better part of a fifth, calling it a 'Blanket In A Bottle'.....and passes out. He is awakened to a booming voice from upstairs, telling him, "I'm coming to get you, Mr. Bunker!", Archie, still drunk and cold--thinks he is dying and it is the voice of God. When the voice says, "I'm coming down the stairs now, Mr. Bunker!" Archie is disappointed, saying he'd always wanted to see Him come through a wall......
......and looks up when he hears the voice standing over him only to discover......
....God is a black man. His reaction is PRICELESS!!! I laughed until I cried.
And there's my all-time favorite exchange between Archie and Gloria: when Gloria is telling Archie that half the murders in America are committed with handguns, Archie's response was: "Well, would it make you feel any better, little girl, if they was pushed from windows?"
Lynn