If you grew up in the States in the 1960s, you watched television. You might remember hearing of Newton Minow’s speech declaring television a “vast wasteland.”
I doubt most Americans remember anything else from the speech other than that famous tagline.
Well, here is a snippet:
“You will see a procession of game shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, western bad men, western good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence, and cartoons. And endlessly, commercials — many screaming, cajoling, and offending.”
Damn, but with hundreds of channels and streaming, nothing much seems to have changed. Luckily for me, there is public radio.
Does the set blare ” game shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, western bad men, western good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence, and cartoons” in my house? Well, yes. Every evening, my wife, a night shift nurse, unwinds and relaxes. She does this to fall asleep for a few hours before going to work. If she is watching the one show I will watch (NCIS), I might join her for an episode. Otherwise I pass by quietly if she has drowsed off, and note which unsolved murder mystery show is on.
The unsolved show I hate worst I hate on technical grounds. I shoot and edit video for a hunk of my living. So I am tuned into how a show is assembled – the musical interludes, visual transitions, and such.
I look at those things as a system of punctuation. They are the periods, commas, and exclamation marks. These elements transform a show from assembled video and audio clips into a watchable show. This series went minimalist and uses the same sorry tinkly piano interludes show after show. Fake phone conversation audio filters and visual devices are also stock and repeat endlessly.
Ick. I am flaccid and disgusted—a Vast Wasteland compressed into one show.
I suspect that Newton Minow is spinning in his grave.
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Newton Minow would be amazed that, as you say, not a damn thing has changed. Or maybe he would just smile and say, “Tell me something I don’t know.” 😏
The Democratic Convention was a lovely break from the norm!!
Something positive in politics for a change.
sounds to me he was spot on.
I mostly watch British TV. I stream it on PBS or via Britbox or Acorn. I hate commercials and the relentless sensationalism in our culture anyway. I dimly remember Newton Minow but I do recall my dad echoing it. “Turn off the GD idiot box!”
I’ve offered to get Britbox for my wife, but she wasn’t interested. It’s just as well. I’d just wind up watching it rather than getting productive work done.
I don’t blame you for not watching TV 90% of shows are either repeated 1000 times or just a load of unwatchable trash these days. I never knew of the speech I think the fellow would be horror struck if he saw what Earth was like now.
We watch a lot of shows from the 60’s, especially the Westerns
Probably better quality than the junk out now.