These Are The Times A funny thing occurred to me while watching a segment of Tiny Toons Adventures on youtube. In watching the episode entitled 'Potty Years' featuring a Baby Plucky Duck undergoing potty training, I am enamored by the wholesomeness---the mere innocence of the episode. Within that 5 minute cartoon segment there was a great deal of depth that has been lacking in today’s cartoons. While watching Baby Plucky’s antics, I did not feel as if my intelligence was being insulted or that I was being bombarded with the idiocy that harkens to a bored apathetic generation. Watching that segment was like breathing fresh air, devoid of contaminants and other forms of putridity. I say all of this merely to address a concern that has been plaguing me. Sociology has taught me that the social conditions that one faces is not solely exclusive to one but is part of an ongoing social phenomenon. Bearing this notion in mind, I feel that I may not be alone in feeling that television---media in general has developed into a highly desensitizing factor moreso than ever. When I look back at the shows in the 80s and 90s…I see quality television. I see an era where TV shows had morals…an era where television programs provided thought provoking insight that was not superficial or over the top mindless drivel. Granted you had shows that were mediocre to say the least. But you had your Boy Meets Worlds, your Wonder Years, your Doogie Howers. Television was at its prime. The Tanners were the wholesome family that greeted you alongside the Winslows Friday nights on ABC’s TGIF. Whereas Pete and Pete Wrigley, Alex Mack, The Midnight Society, Doug, and the Rugrats gang were all present for an outing of SNICK. We stray away from the 90s into the next millennium and we approach an era where television programming goes on a steady decline as far as morale. Wholesome sitcoms that were present at 8’oclock are replaced by reality shows better known as edited source material that is crafted into a 22 or 44 minute episode with a storyline. (I understand that reality shows have been present since the 50s--- ala hidden camera surveillance shows (Candid Camera) and game shows---in spite of the controversial game show scandals via shows like Queen For A Day). I could nitpick all day on issues such as television shows no longer having catchy theme songs or thought provoking shows like ‘The Pretender’ getting the axe. But I won’t. Rather I will focus on the main issues that have led to a decline in television morale. I will start with the Bush Administration. I am not oblivious to the fact that Bush’s War on Terrorism has caused a great deal of economic instability. With the increase of gas and food prices (food deliverers need gas too, people) ruckus becomes imminent. Truth be told there is a lot to be angry about ---War Crimes et al. As a result you are left with Americans who feel betrayed, hurt, and frightened by their country. Hasbro’s G.I. Joe once gave the notion that the Americans were the good guys along with the line ‘Well now you know…and knowing is half the battle.’ Are we no different than the Cobras? The hurt faced by Americans manifests into anger and soon one encounters a barrage of angry Americans protesting the war. Go to public online forums and read about the many Americans who voice their hatred for the country and the people in office. Witness the Americans who have lost their religion, becoming atheist or agnostic. Witness the Americans who have fallen into depression, succumbing to narcotics. Witness the Americans who engage in sexual promiscuity with no care in the world. Witness the Americans who no longer frown upon a kid uttering a profane word but instead view it as an endearing joke. I can go on and on… Granted these are not the only times that these issues have been prevalent. They were present during the Nixon era, the Reagan era, the Clinton era…social problems have been in existence since the beginning of time. I am simply talking about the debilitating factors of wholesome television and how the decline in wholesome television has spawned a generation on the verge of pandemonium. When I watch television now, television speaks to me. It tells me that I am flawed and that I am damaged. It tells me that it’s okay and normal to go out and indulge in debauchery and promiscuity to escape social problems. It tells me that it’s okay to make excuses for my socially destructive behavior rather than trying to change. It tells me that I am selfish, self-centered, and egotistical. It tells me that it’s okay to sleep around before I could find true love. It tells me that everyone is flawed, nobody is perfect---so it’s okay to bear a rebellious ‘nobody can’t tell me nothin’ swagger. The politicians are shady. Heck, you even have television evangelists revealing themselves as two-faced greedy swindlers. Television tells me it’s normal to have an entourage of superficial friends who will desert you if you step outside of their makeshift circle. Television tells me that it’s okay to use people to get what you want or cheat to get a head. Television tells me that it’s normal to have mommy or daddy issues and that it’s normal to get involved in a relationship that plays akin to a dictatorship more than a partnership. Television tells me that it’s normal to worry. It’s normal to live with fear. Oddly enough, I’m reminded about these themes at the movie theatres, while listening to radio stations, and in conversations with an assortment of people ---ranging from co-workers to family members. Television is reflexive of the times. I am aware of that. But I cannot hold back in voicing my concern of being programmed. Correction re-programmed. The notions of double-speak in George Orwell’s 1984 are becoming a reality. Let’s talk in a universal language that everyone understands. It’s not ‘cool’ to use big words often in public---they are only to be utilized when trying to when an argument or when telling a joke to win an audience over for such creative albeit ‘random’ word usage. Let’s resort to using text lingo in everyday conversations…(OMG...look at so and so) or TTYL…because saying ‘I’ll talk to you later’ doesn’t roll of the tongue quite as easily. Needless, to say you find such antics present in your typical television teen drama. There is no room for smart teen dramas like Rob Thomas’ Veronica Mars to remain on air. She’s far too intelligent for the average MTV demographic. Ask CBS C.E.O. Les Moonves; he’ll tell ya. And originality in today’s programming…HA!!! More like rehashes. Once in a blue moon you’ll have geniuses like J. J. Abrams, Damon Lindeloff, and David Simon who craft great television like LOST and The Wire. But now we jump into a new sub-category--- from wholesome television to quality television. What is quality television? Quite simply quality television is television that is of high caliber. These are your trendsetters---- your shows that create a mark that could inspire other shows. For example, one could say that David Lynch’s insanely cult classic Twin Peaks is what had inspired the insanely cult classic The X-Files. These are the shows that contain elements that have yet to be seen on television---engrossing storylines that are fresh and original. I pose this theory--- that the quality in American television is directly proportional to the stability of America. Right now America is unstable, as a result television programming is unstable. When Bush was not in office, quality television was on an upscale. In the days where television has been replaced by youtube videos of people committing random acts of God knows what, television viewership has declined. With television shows being available at the click of a mouse key…is there even a need for television? We have approached the era of thefacebook and myspace. Everything is becoming web based. Soon DVDs and Blue-Ray Disks will be replaced via downloadable web content. Electronic music and pop music are slowly edging out, much like the disco, hip-hop and R n B. What’s the point in having a talented singer when you have a vocoder or autotune machine to compensate for lack of vocal range in an artist? The goal is to be original, to be the best, to stand out, to be different--- not much different than grade school when it was about who could run the fastest? Who could hold their breath the longest? Or who could ride a bike without handle bars? Somewhere along those lines--- from the decline in wholesome and quality television--- we have lost our way. We have forgotten how to love ourselves, our families, and our friends. We have succumbed to the ‘me me me’ dynamic. We have become so hardened to the point of being dismissive to the words of a preacher, a teacher, a mentor, a parent---labeling them as mere words---in one ear and out the other. Our learning devices are no longer found in books but in the present external factors that surrounds us. Someone does us wrong…so everyone be damned. There’s no room for forgiveness when harboring hatred. Women are labeled as hoes. Men are labeled as dogs. You have women resorting to lesbianism; men resorting to homosexuality---openly or on the D.L. You have real estate agents and greedy corporations, ‘pimping’ the system to the point of a near economic collapse. You have prosperity preachers still preaching on prosperity just to get enough to pay off that car note for that new Lexus. The vicious cycle never ceases. Calamity breeds contempt and hell falls to the world. Disney lied. Fairy Tales don’t come true; not in this era. Oh, no. In this era Aladdin the pauper can’t be with a beautiful princess like Jasmine. The good hearted Simba can’t be king, with the nefarious Scar usurping power. Prince Charming doesn’t exist. The Beast could never be with Belle because he’s ugly, and Cinderella remains in rags struggling for her comeuppance. The reality is grim. Your hard labor results in two things---The rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. Your happiness comes at the expense of someone’s anguish and pain and vice versa. That is the reality we have been re-programmed to believe. The problem is some people are so confused they don’t know what to believe anymore. As a result they find escape through sexual pleasures and drinking…in hoping that for several minutes they could escape the grim reality of life. This is what media teaches me… It teaches me to be uncivil. And as much as I want to flip the channel or turn off the television, I find difficulty in doing so. Because I don’t want to be left in the dark. *FADE SOUND PICTURE OUT* | 
