Television

It is difficult to comprehend the cultural impact of broadcast television in the 1970s. There were only three national networks and PBS. Almost no other source of news and entertainment was available. That meant that everyone you knew was watching the same programs…at the same times. Television schedules dictated viewing habits, and family life revolved around set program times. There was no cable TV, and the commercial Internet was twenty-five years away. There were no DVRs, VHS tapes, or other on-demand content. You watched the popular programs when they aired, or you had no idea what people at school were talking about the next day.

Yet, we watched a lot of TV. The shows I remember most from childhood were Happy Days, The Brady Bunch, Gilligan’s Island, M.A.S.H., Flipper, Charlie’s Angels, and The Love Boat. Of course, there were Sesame Street and Saturday morning cartoons in earlier days and Magnum P.I. in later years. On Sunday nights, Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom with Marlin Perkins was never missed. It was followed by The Wonderful World of Disney. I also remember watching the miniseries Roots when I was ten years old. That was also about the time that Saturday Night Live debuted, and I begged to stay up late enough to watch. In college, we spent hours watching reruns of Dallas.

In Ms. Roach’s eighth-grade English class, I wrote an essay about my favorite program, M.A.S.H. In the essay, I wrote that the show was set during the Korean War. She scratched out the word “war” and angrily noted that it was a “police action” because the United States Congress had never declared war. Ms. Roach said the same thing about Vietnam (she proudly marched in multiple protests.) I didn’t have an opinion about her politics, but I didn’t like red marks on my homework.

A friend in grad school claimed to know every plot detail of all 117 episodes of The Brady Bunch. I never once saw him get stumped by classmates' questions. My recollection of storylines is much more limited, but the impact of these programs on me and the culture itself was immense.

Nothing in today’s media landscape can match the viewership of the shows I grew up watching. Even without the ability to select when you watched, 35% of households in the US would tune in to All in The Family every week. The most popular scripted shows today are watched by about 2% of households. This fragmentation of the modern media environment has robbed us of the collective and shared experiences we once enjoyed. Do you remember who shot J.R.?