WHEN TV WASN'T MOSTLY CRAP.

This week I have been watching on British TV (Acorn) something you can't even get on American TV anymore, though it was once very popular. Actually I think it would still be popular if the profit-makers didn't decide that we must watch their crime shows, reality TV, and quizzes. I'm talking about anthology TV, in which every week presented us with a different story, a different cast, and a completely new, non formula, slant on life.. Now we are fed weekly episodes of predictable sitcoms, endless CSIs, and totally scripted "reality" shows. Most people won't miss anthology programs because they haven't been exposed to them. But when I was growing up Americans watched dramas, musicals and comedies by the greatest writers of the time. Every week the riches included Playhouse 90, Studio One, The Kraft Television Theater, and superior offerings on other weekly anthologies named for  Goodyear, Philco, Alcoa, and other leading manufacturers. Many of these nightly programs were based on classics by Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Chekhov, O'Neill, and other legendary writers and by such current luminaries as Rodgers and Hammerstein, Paddy Chayefsky, William Inge, Arthur Miller,
Terence Rattigan, even Stephen Sondheim. And since they often had a single sponsor, they were only interrupted by three of four commercials. So today, not only can't you see quality anthology programming, but the formulaic programs you can see come with a generous helping of as many as twenty commercials in a half hour.  Is this really progress?

Shown above: Scene from the 1962 drama Requiem for a Heavyweight with Ed Wynn, Keenan Wynn, and Jack Palance. Just one of the popular anthology dramas that went on to become a major motion picture.