Sixty-some years of TV
As many of you know, I don't have a television set, haven't had one for a number of years, and see no reason to buy one and subscribe to a cable service. The last time I recall having a television set in my living quarters was before I moved to Texas and was living in a cabin along the Delaware River up north. There was coaxial cable strung all over the acreage, providing TV reception to the four buildings scattered around the property.
But that's not what has been amusing me in the past few days; rather, I've been thinking back on what shows I miss, the ones I loved at various times, and the broad range of show types that took my fancy at any given time. If pinned down to rating a show as the best TV show in my lifetime ... from my perspective, of course ... it would have to be The Carol Burnett Show. Putting her, Harvey Corman, Tim Conway, and Vicki Lawrence together on a TV set was, whether extremely clever casting or an incredibly lucky coincidence, guaranteed to produce brilliant, hilarious, often ad lib craziness.
However, if I spend that much time on all the shows I have enjoyed greatly, this post will go on for pages. For now, I just want to list, fairly briefly, the shows that I watched frequently, sometimes religiously, because of their humor, acting, writing, subject matter, or any combination thereof. When we got our first TV, I remember two shows as being special favorites: Kukla, Fran, and Ollie and The Ed Sullivan Show, the former being Burr Tillstrom's pre-Henson hand puppets (and, I'm sure, one of Jim Henson's inspirations), along with Fran Allison, the very tall foil for the cloth creatures; the latter a variety show that introduced such legends to the American viewers as The Beatles and Elvis Presley.
I did watch a number of the multi-episode British dramas such as Upstairs, Downstairs and Brideshead Revisited; and I liked them, but not nearly as much as I liked the BBC's various mystery series, featuring Lord Peter Wimsey, Sherlock Holmes, and Agatha Christie's Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot.
Since my days of mostly seeing TV when I was living in or staying at motels, friends' homes as a housesitter, or other long-term access to TV, a couple of series have been enjoyable, including Tim Allen's and Jerry Seinfeld's. The occasional, rare really, guest appearances of Steven Wright, Robin Williams, or the late George Carlin were highlights, as well.
Well, Harry Shearer is on the radio at the moment, and I can't divide my attention between LJ and listening to one of my (very few) favorite radio shows. Not only does he make me laugh and reinforce my cynicism, the music he plays is actually music: melodious, in tune, and not performed by people who scream into microphones.
But that's not what has been amusing me in the past few days; rather, I've been thinking back on what shows I miss, the ones I loved at various times, and the broad range of show types that took my fancy at any given time. If pinned down to rating a show as the best TV show in my lifetime ... from my perspective, of course ... it would have to be The Carol Burnett Show. Putting her, Harvey Corman, Tim Conway, and Vicki Lawrence together on a TV set was, whether extremely clever casting or an incredibly lucky coincidence, guaranteed to produce brilliant, hilarious, often ad lib craziness.
However, if I spend that much time on all the shows I have enjoyed greatly, this post will go on for pages. For now, I just want to list, fairly briefly, the shows that I watched frequently, sometimes religiously, because of their humor, acting, writing, subject matter, or any combination thereof. When we got our first TV, I remember two shows as being special favorites: Kukla, Fran, and Ollie and The Ed Sullivan Show, the former being Burr Tillstrom's pre-Henson hand puppets (and, I'm sure, one of Jim Henson's inspirations), along with Fran Allison, the very tall foil for the cloth creatures; the latter a variety show that introduced such legends to the American viewers as The Beatles and Elvis Presley.
I did watch a number of the multi-episode British dramas such as Upstairs, Downstairs and Brideshead Revisited; and I liked them, but not nearly as much as I liked the BBC's various mystery series, featuring Lord Peter Wimsey, Sherlock Holmes, and Agatha Christie's Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot.
Since my days of mostly seeing TV when I was living in or staying at motels, friends' homes as a housesitter, or other long-term access to TV, a couple of series have been enjoyable, including Tim Allen's and Jerry Seinfeld's. The occasional, rare really, guest appearances of Steven Wright, Robin Williams, or the late George Carlin were highlights, as well.
Well, Harry Shearer is on the radio at the moment, and I can't divide my attention between LJ and listening to one of my (very few) favorite radio shows. Not only does he make me laugh and reinforce my cynicism, the music he plays is actually music: melodious, in tune, and not performed by people who scream into microphones.