Damn Boomers, Damn Media
I apologize in advance to anyone who is a member of the Baby Boom generation, but really, people...
So I'm reading my latest issue of Newsweek, which has a little article (p. 10) about the new version of that PBS favorite "The Electric Company" which will begin airing next week, an lo! A reference to Boomers!
Excuse me?????
Boomers?
That's right, here it is:
"Still, boomers might be disappointed to hear that the new 'Company' stays as far away from the original as possible."
Well, here are the facts. The Electric Company was produced from 1971 to 1977, then ran another eight years in re-runs until 1985. It was aimed at elementary-school aged children. It focused on basic reading skills, those taught in first through third grade, roughly ages 6-9 years. The Baby Boom generation, was born from 1946 to 1961 or even 1964. (Different authorities provide different end dates.) Some people even divide the Baby Boom in half, with the "boom" proper being the people born between 1946 and 1956 or 57, and the second half referred to as "Generation Jones" or the "young boomers".
So in 1971, when the show first aired, the children in its target demographic would have been born in 1962, 1963, 1964, and 1965. Each year that the show was on after that would have dropped off one birth-year contingent and added another. If you accept 1964 as the Baby Boom cut off year, by the third year of its run, the target audience would have all been members of the post-boom generation, usually referred to as Generation X. It's not a Boomer show, folks. For the majority of its run, the show targeted and served Gen X kids. Only the very, very first Millenials would have caught its last season in re-runs.
I am so freaking tired of stories having a "Boomer" angle. This story is not about a shared cultural experience of that generation. They got Howdy-Doody, they got Woodstock, they got the Beatles, they got the lunar missions, they got hippies, they got disco. But my generation got Children's Television Workshop and its two genius productions: Sesame Street and The Electric Company. (And later, 3,2,1, Contact, which was not so genius, but good.) The early Millenials got Fraggle Rock (if their families had HBO).
The worst thing is that there are so damn many of them that there will always be a "Boomer" angle to our media stories, unless I live to be the freaking oldest person on the planet. (In other words, they'll all be dead.) I don't know if they are actually that self-absorbed or if it's simply that the media has that on its checklist, something like this:
a) Does the story have even a tenuous connection to the boomer generation?
b) If not, does it have a connection to their parents, the so-called "Greatest Generation"?
c) If not, does it have a connection to their children, the "Millenials"?
d) If none of the above, kill it.
I'd also like to point out that the conceit of the "Millenials" being the children of the "Boomers" is an artificial construct of socio-economic status. My husband, born in 1970, is the child of two boomers, born in 1948 and 1952--but they were young, in college, in fact. Many, many of my slightly younger Gen X peers are in fact the children of Boomers who had their kids on the young side, either because they didn't go to college and settled down fairly early or something unexpected happened as in my in-laws' case. It's only among a fraction of the college-educated members of that generation child-bearing was delayed for some years until the 80s (Dave Barry, Anna Quindlen, et al.) And then it was like they invented parenting! Like they invented sex! And feminism! And Rock and Roll! And drugs! (All of which were invented by other generations.)
So I'm reading my latest issue of Newsweek, which has a little article (p. 10) about the new version of that PBS favorite "The Electric Company" which will begin airing next week, an lo! A reference to Boomers!
Excuse me?????
Boomers?
That's right, here it is:
"Still, boomers might be disappointed to hear that the new 'Company' stays as far away from the original as possible."
Well, here are the facts. The Electric Company was produced from 1971 to 1977, then ran another eight years in re-runs until 1985. It was aimed at elementary-school aged children. It focused on basic reading skills, those taught in first through third grade, roughly ages 6-9 years. The Baby Boom generation, was born from 1946 to 1961 or even 1964. (Different authorities provide different end dates.) Some people even divide the Baby Boom in half, with the "boom" proper being the people born between 1946 and 1956 or 57, and the second half referred to as "Generation Jones" or the "young boomers".
So in 1971, when the show first aired, the children in its target demographic would have been born in 1962, 1963, 1964, and 1965. Each year that the show was on after that would have dropped off one birth-year contingent and added another. If you accept 1964 as the Baby Boom cut off year, by the third year of its run, the target audience would have all been members of the post-boom generation, usually referred to as Generation X. It's not a Boomer show, folks. For the majority of its run, the show targeted and served Gen X kids. Only the very, very first Millenials would have caught its last season in re-runs.
I am so freaking tired of stories having a "Boomer" angle. This story is not about a shared cultural experience of that generation. They got Howdy-Doody, they got Woodstock, they got the Beatles, they got the lunar missions, they got hippies, they got disco. But my generation got Children's Television Workshop and its two genius productions: Sesame Street and The Electric Company. (And later, 3,2,1, Contact, which was not so genius, but good.) The early Millenials got Fraggle Rock (if their families had HBO).
The worst thing is that there are so damn many of them that there will always be a "Boomer" angle to our media stories, unless I live to be the freaking oldest person on the planet. (In other words, they'll all be dead.) I don't know if they are actually that self-absorbed or if it's simply that the media has that on its checklist, something like this:
a) Does the story have even a tenuous connection to the boomer generation?
b) If not, does it have a connection to their parents, the so-called "Greatest Generation"?
c) If not, does it have a connection to their children, the "Millenials"?
d) If none of the above, kill it.
I'd also like to point out that the conceit of the "Millenials" being the children of the "Boomers" is an artificial construct of socio-economic status. My husband, born in 1970, is the child of two boomers, born in 1948 and 1952--but they were young, in college, in fact. Many, many of my slightly younger Gen X peers are in fact the children of Boomers who had their kids on the young side, either because they didn't go to college and settled down fairly early or something unexpected happened as in my in-laws' case. It's only among a fraction of the college-educated members of that generation child-bearing was delayed for some years until the 80s (Dave Barry, Anna Quindlen, et al.) And then it was like they invented parenting! Like they invented sex! And feminism! And Rock and Roll! And drugs! (All of which were invented by other generations.)