I don't think any group of people ever watched as much television as American kids living in small towns during the 1970's. This was before CD's, DVD's, VCR's, the Sony Walkman, the Internet, MP3's, or SmartPhones. In the 1970's, there was color television and a bunch of other technologies (radio, record players, books, movies) from our grandparents' time. Most of us didn't even have cable television -- we were stuck with three broadcast networks and PBS.
Of course, we didn't have anything else to compare it to, so we never thought of ourselves as deprived. Bored, yes. But we were still better off than our parents and grandparents, because we had color TV. So we watched. And watched. And watched. I can remember entire summers in the 1970's when I stopped watching only because my mother and father forced me to do something else -- and when I would start watching again as soon as I could. I would watch almost anything. I would start with the CBS Morning News (with Hughes Rudd!), then carry on through game shows, the local news at noon, soap operas until 3:30 PM, old sitcoms (and more game shows until 6 PM, then the local news again, then prime time, the local news at 10 PM, and finally Johnny Carson. Day after day. Month after month. Year after year.
Looking back on it now, and comparing it to my own children, it's amazing how much TV I watched. At a minimum, I would guess that I saw every episode of "The Andy Griffith Show," "Green Acres," "The Brady Bunch," "Star Trek," "Batman," and "Gilligan's Island" -- as well as countless episodes of shows like "I Love Lucy," "I Dream of Jeannie," "The Twilight Zone," "Dragnet," "Adam-12," and many, many others. And that's not even counting the game shows, the soap operas, sports shows, awards shows, and other programming that filled the day.
What made it possible, of course, was that for years, Hollywood flooded America with non-controversial, mainstream programming that would be acceptable to every age group and virtually every belief system. Back then, you could leave your kids in front of the TV and never worry that they would see something really harmful or annoying. The bad guys would always get caught, the husbands and wives would always kiss and make up, the kids would always respect their parents. It was safe and comfortable. The way childhood is supposed to be.
Watching so much television turned all of us into critics. It didn't take long to figure out that some shows were better than others, that some characters were more interesting than others, and that some actors could do more with a part than others. Harry Morgan, who died today at the age of 96, helped me understand this. Of course, I watched the dozens of episodes of "Dragnet" where he partnered with Joe Friday. But then I watched for years as he played Colonel Potter on "M*A*S*H." Bill Gannon, his "Dragnet" character, was recognizably different from Colonel Potter in various ways, and yet you could also see the similarities between them. As a kid, this was a fascinating introduction to the mystery of acting -- how the actor brings both his own personal charisma to a role, but how he cannot simply be the same person every time.
So Harry Morgan taught me a lot about acting, about television, and about art. He also taught me a great deal about police procedures, the geography of Los Angeles, how to act as both a superior and an underling, what it's like in a crowded operating room, and the importance of keeping in touch with your wife while you're away on business.
These days, of course, actors of his quality usually don't want to appear in shows that would be safe for kids to watch at 3 o'clock in the afternoon while their mothers are out in the yard. Everyone wants to be "edgy" and "different." I understand this. It was my generation, bored out of our skulls with plots we had long since memorized, who made shows like "Late Night with David Letterman," "The Simpsons," and "Seinfeld" into huge hits. But I'm older now, and I have more respect for the professionalism, craftsmanship, and decency that went into the shows I saw as a child. And I'm thankful for all the hours I spent in Harry Morgan's company.
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