I find it fascinating that the 1970s are so widely vaunted as "The Golden Age Of Television". Can somebody please explain? For instance, the BBC's "I Love The 1970s" site places Monty Python in 1970.
It began in 1969.
"Ah," say '70s fans," but it was at its height in the early '70s!"
Oh, I see.
Not The Nine O'Clock News was "at its height", and indeed had the line-up we all remember, in the early 1980s.
But it appears on the BBC "I Love The 1970s" site on the 1979 page.
"Ah," say '70s fans, "But it BEGAN in 1979."
Um... er... does not compute.
Meanwhile, let's not forget the 1970s had its fair share of dross (Take The Wife or Rings On Their Fingers, anybody?).
And for every The Sweeney there was a few dozen flops.
And didn't the 1960s and 1980s also have lashings of memorable and innovative TV shows?
I think they did.
Do we reject the 1960s because the shows were largely in black and white?
Do we reject the 1980s because it was the era of Thatcher and Reagan?
The "Golden Age of Coronation Street" is also apparently the 1970s. But the show slipped catastrophically in the ratings in the early '70s! And I find many of those episodes unwatchable. Things perked up brilliantly when Bill Podmore became producer in 1976, but that hardly qualifies the WHOLE of the 1970s as being the "Golden Age" of Corrie, does it?
The '70s had some great TV.
It also had loads of trash.
Rather like the 1960s and 1980s.
So, people, please try and CONVINCE me otherwise, please! Try to make me see what you see.
And comments such as:
"70s woz great, wot are you talking about?" will not be published.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Whenever the '70s are mentioned the same old list of programmes is reeled out to justify its so-called golden age status. Yet I could reel out masses of programmes from the 1980s in reply.
There are so many great tv shows from the 70's which don't even get as much as a word of note these days. While, like you said, the same old, same old takes all the credit. The 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's and even today has it's good moments as well as it's awfully horrific moments!
Post a Comment