Did Mr. Rogers Let Us Down?
So, I'm out doing laundry today, at the local venue. It's a nice little place, clean and well run, and it sports a TV lounge arrangement for the patrons comforts.
Myself, I prefer to sit in my car and listen to the radio, but sometimes, while folding warm, dry unmentionables, I will be subjected to whatever happens to be on. Usually it is the insipidity of daytime tripe like "The Price Is Right" or one of the myriad TV courts with the snarky judges (who agrees to undergo this arbitration, anyway? Yikes.). But today, apparently, I had come in the wake of someone with small chil'enses, because Mr. Rogers was on.
I never cared for the show as a kid -- I only liked the Land Of Make Believe, and even that was a bit creepy -- but I can see the value in it for small children.
The show did a bit about a factory that made harmonicas. OK, well enough. Then the sappy song, and off it went.
As it had ended, another patron, a dumpy middle-aged lady, turned the channel (quite contrary to the sign which tells you Not to do that, but to Ask The Attendent...but whatayagonnadoo?), and on comes Jerry Springer. Deep shudder of distaste. Whenever I wonder who watches That Show, I have to shudder. Is this elitist?
Now, as I am folding faster, I fall into a revery. I begin to wonder how a generation raised on the self-esteem and individuality respecting and affirming of Mr. Rogers finds itself enthralled to the likes of Jerry Springer; I could not find a greater juxtaposition of meanings and content than between those two TV Icons if I tried. And what does it say about us that these programs can be found gracing the airwaves at virtually the same time of day?
(Short answer: that the "children", of all ages, are watching!)
Could it be that Mr. Rogers let us down?! Or did we let him down? Did the well meaning parents of America actually watch his show, or echo it's messages in their lives? Or did they just use TV as the convenient baby-sitter which it seems to have evolved into? Further, as a babysitter, has it not failed to instruct? Or rather, failed to instruct Well?
Perhaps, one might argue, if Mr. Rogers' message did not take, then likely neither will Jerry Springer's (which is to say: lighten up!). To this I can only say: Fred Rogers represented the extremes of kindness, whose good intentions seem always destined to be trampled into the dust by the valueless hordes of rank idiots which comprise the drooling masses of America's shallow psyche.
Apparently the uplift he offered was too free and easy, and therefore not valued. Else, why would any adult person of any perspicacity be caught dead watching, or even entertain the notion of watching, the kind of Stuff ("Crap" is too light a term, and nothing more suitable suggests itself to me, at the moment) that is on TV in the daytime? What Mr. Rogers pointedly avoided, and what we so desparately needed (in hindsight), was Tough Love; for parents to field, not yield, responsibility for the future citizens in their care.
Hollow entertainments are fine, to each his own, and it is nothing new to denegrate TV, which in itself is blameless, but aught we not to take a moment to understand that the Medium not only is the Message (as McLuhan wrote), but that it is only as substantive a Messenger as we make it; it embodies a reflection of ourselves which we aught not ignore, nor simple-mindedly embrace.
P.S. I just think these pictures are funny...
Myself, I prefer to sit in my car and listen to the radio, but sometimes, while folding warm, dry unmentionables, I will be subjected to whatever happens to be on. Usually it is the insipidity of daytime tripe like "The Price Is Right" or one of the myriad TV courts with the snarky judges (who agrees to undergo this arbitration, anyway? Yikes.). But today, apparently, I had come in the wake of someone with small chil'enses, because Mr. Rogers was on.
I never cared for the show as a kid -- I only liked the Land Of Make Believe, and even that was a bit creepy -- but I can see the value in it for small children.
The show did a bit about a factory that made harmonicas. OK, well enough. Then the sappy song, and off it went.
As it had ended, another patron, a dumpy middle-aged lady, turned the channel (quite contrary to the sign which tells you Not to do that, but to Ask The Attendent...but whatayagonnadoo?), and on comes Jerry Springer. Deep shudder of distaste. Whenever I wonder who watches That Show, I have to shudder. Is this elitist?
Now, as I am folding faster, I fall into a revery. I begin to wonder how a generation raised on the self-esteem and individuality respecting and affirming of Mr. Rogers finds itself enthralled to the likes of Jerry Springer; I could not find a greater juxtaposition of meanings and content than between those two TV Icons if I tried. And what does it say about us that these programs can be found gracing the airwaves at virtually the same time of day?
(Short answer: that the "children", of all ages, are watching!)
Could it be that Mr. Rogers let us down?! Or did we let him down? Did the well meaning parents of America actually watch his show, or echo it's messages in their lives? Or did they just use TV as the convenient baby-sitter which it seems to have evolved into? Further, as a babysitter, has it not failed to instruct? Or rather, failed to instruct Well?
Perhaps, one might argue, if Mr. Rogers' message did not take, then likely neither will Jerry Springer's (which is to say: lighten up!). To this I can only say: Fred Rogers represented the extremes of kindness, whose good intentions seem always destined to be trampled into the dust by the valueless hordes of rank idiots which comprise the drooling masses of America's shallow psyche.
Apparently the uplift he offered was too free and easy, and therefore not valued. Else, why would any adult person of any perspicacity be caught dead watching, or even entertain the notion of watching, the kind of Stuff ("Crap" is too light a term, and nothing more suitable suggests itself to me, at the moment) that is on TV in the daytime? What Mr. Rogers pointedly avoided, and what we so desparately needed (in hindsight), was Tough Love; for parents to field, not yield, responsibility for the future citizens in their care.
Hollow entertainments are fine, to each his own, and it is nothing new to denegrate TV, which in itself is blameless, but aught we not to take a moment to understand that the Medium not only is the Message (as McLuhan wrote), but that it is only as substantive a Messenger as we make it; it embodies a reflection of ourselves which we aught not ignore, nor simple-mindedly embrace.
P.S. I just think these pictures are funny...