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Okay, I admit it: I’m old-fashioned enough to enjoy ‘Andy Griffith Show’

There it is, my “secret vice” besides just loving to read good old, hold-in-your-hand newspapers, I love to watch those corny “Andy Griffth Show” reruns.

Call it a silly weakness, but I really get a kick out of the old Mayberry gang. And, by the way, I even enjoy the mid- to late-60s episodes after Don Knotts left. Many “purists” among fans won’t consider post-Knotts episodes the “real” show. (I do, however, draw the line at anything with Ken Berry or “Mayberry R.F.D.” associated with it. Ugh.)

Of course, my family will tell you I’m an absolute sap for ANYTHING nostalgic. From television shows to the old hassock setting in front of our old sofa, I enjoy the “old ways” most of all. Well, okay, I have no dislike for more modern furniture — I have no budget for it, either, so that works out about right!

Speaking of “old ways”: Don Knotts and many of the others associated with the best of “Andy Griffith Show” times are gone on now. With Griffith himself hovering in his mid-80s now, I suppose it’s only a matter of time until he, too, is gone. With that, a true American icon will be gone.

But we’ll think “happy thoughts” of longer life for old Andy, as well as Jim Arness and other aging stars of that early era of television.

Morning television — ‘news’ programs or entertainment?

For quite some time, my wife and I have enjoyed watching some of the early morning “news” programs put on every weekday morning by the networks. You know the ones I’m talking about on CBS, NBC, ABC, and now Fox and CNN, and I suppose other cable networks.

And for quite some time, we have appreciated the chance to get to know the morning personalities that are the mouthpieces/faces for each network. I say “get to know” because they almost seem like friends who come into our home each morning.

But in the last couple of years, we finally woke up to the fact that this morning “news” stuff really is far, far, FAR more entertainment and advertising than it is news. For example, this morning on NBC’s offering they kept bouncing back and forth from their NYC location to Orlando, hawking the latest Orlando vacations and tourist traps getting ready to open this spring.

What really tipped the scale for me today wasn’t so much their palaver for Orlando, but rather the time they devoted to interviewing a young actress 1) totally unknown to us, and, 2) who plays a supporting role in a TV medical drama we’ve never watched.

Toss in their usual round of recipes and fashion displays, and before you know it there’s really no news.

I’m not sure why that irritates me as much as it does. I’m probably just mis-remembering the lack of news content on such shows all along. But it sure seemed to me that they used to be more news and less entertainment. Ah, well, it’s probably just me!

Two brothers all movie fans should applaud; one now gone

Peter Graves, who died yesterday at his home at the age of 83, was one of two famous actor brothers all movie fans should applaud. The other is James Arness, best known as Matt Dillon, marshal of Dodge City, Kansas, in the classic western series “Gunsmoke.”

Arness, now 87 years old, is still alive, despite any Internet rumors to the contrary.

Between them, Graves and Arness shaped television drama — and made some really campy 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s movies — for several generations of fans. Graves was best known to many of us “oldsters” as the enigmatic, head spy Mr. Phelps in “Mission Impossible,” the television series. He will be missed.

As a kid growing up in the 1950s, Jim Arness (always “Matt Dillon” to me) was my hero. He was physically huge and played the strong silent hero to perfection.

Farewell, Peter Graves. And hang in there, Jim Arness!

Why are daily ‘soaps,’ medical shows, legal dramas so popular?

Ever thought about why the daily “soaps” on daytime television, medical shows, legal dramas, and other such well-worn forms remain so popular on television? It’s my belief that we all have a streak of the voyeur in us. We really want to take a peek behind the window blinds of other people’s lives — and the soaps, melodramas like medical shows and courtroom dramas, and even some of the so-called “reality” shows on television, give us socially acceptable ways of taking those peeks into other people’s lives.

So should we do a sort of cultural “shame-on-us-all” about-face and abandon all such television or movie fare?

Maybe. But, of course, that’s never going to happen. Too many corporations and individuals are depending on our cleaned up version of voyeurism for their fortunes.

So should we simply enjoy those guilty pleasures we get watching the inner workings, fortunes and misfortunes, of these fictional people that parade through our televisions? I would suggest that, if you feel uncomfortable watching ANYTHING on television — from trendy fiction to sensationalism on the so-called “news” broadcasts — you probably should punch the button on your remote and turn it off.

Heck, you could always find a good book. Or read a magazine or newspaper, even??

Wisdom for us all to be found in the ‘funny papers’

Many years ago when I was a kid, we called the comics page in our local newspaper “the funny papers.” Nowadays, of course, newspapers themselves are failing fast, and some of you may not realize what a “comics page” is — but trust me, it’s a collection of printed comic strips such as you find at some Internet news sites.

If you follow such things, perhaps you’d agree that one of the all-time greatest comic strips (well I think so anyway!) is “Pearls Before Swine.” “Pearls” focuses especially on the everyday lives and adventures of Rat, Pig, Goat, Zebra, and a neighborhood family of crocodiles.

Far and away, my favorite character is Pig. Pig reflects a fresh sense of innocence in everything he does. He also comes off as probably not too bright, and he generally suffers at the hands of Rat, his closest friend and a contender for World’s Most Cynical Living Creature.

In the current series of strips, Pig has created what he calls his “Internet Happy Box” — a place, he says, to get away from the Internet, where people are always mean to each other. His Internet Happy Box doesn’t really DO anything. He explains: “Well, it’s just like the Internet, only it’s not hooked up to anything and you can’t communicate with anyone and its dark.”

Gotta get me one of those Internet Happy Boxes, I think. Every time I turn on the TV, or listen to the radio, or even read the newspaper — I am assaulted by “Sky Is Falling! Sky Is Falling!” goofiness being screamed by people who haven’t a clue what “socialism” is, or what health care reform is actually being considered, or who simply haven’t a speck of “pay-attention-and-discuss-this-rationally” civility in their bodies.

Ah, well. What’s the use. I’m off to see the wizard. Shopping list in hand, Medifast coupon code before me, and a bit of cash left in my debit card. Hi ho, Hi ho, it’s off to work I go … Oh, yeah, don’t want to forget to pick up that Internet Happy Box on my way home …

Have a great day, and throttle back that blood pressure just a notch if you can!

British display sense of great class, banning Savage and hate-filled Kansas ‘preacher’

The British have shown some real class, in my opinion, by putting radio talk show madman Michael Savage and the hate-filled, hateful, crazy Kansas preacher and his daughter (I’m not gonna bother looking up or publishing their names here) on a “banned” list.

It’s a great day for America, everybody, when we can rely on the British to do such a common sense thing. Now if we could just convince various radio and other media networks to dump Savage (VOLUNTARILY, of course, not calling for censorship here) and learn to ignore the preacher idiot, we’d all be better off.

How do you feel about these clowns?

How about those Oscar Awards, eh? Or did you even notice?

When I was a lad back in the 1400s — no, seriously, 1950s-60s I mean, watching the Academy Awards, the Oscars, each year was a big deal of sorts in our household. It was fun to see movie stars/starlets/actors/actresses and see which films and actors were honored. From what I heard about Sunday’s televised broadcast, it was one of the lowest rated ever, though it was up in viewership several points over last year.

(One of the films that failed to whip “Slumdog Millionaire” for Best Picture was “Frost/Nixon.” I have not seen either film, but I DID “come of age” or reach maturity during the days of Nixon’s vice presidency and later presidency. So one of these days I expect to rent “Frost/Nixon” and see just what they’ve done with the guy. A quick Google on “Nixon” turns up entries about “Richard Nixon,” but oddly enough, the top entries are for Nixon watches??)

Conventional wisdom is that the film industry flourishes during recessions and hard-times because people use films to escape the hardships of job loss, economic loss, etc. If contemporary America is any indication, that might be changing. At least box office receipts and Oscar ceremonies don’t seem to be doing all that well. Perhaps that’s due to so many online and DVD film options in our time.

Do you prefer going out to a movie theater, or do you instead rent a lot of DVDs? Leave a comment for this totally informal, unscientific “survey” of America’s viewing habits and let us know!

I’m really going to miss good old ‘ER’ on Thursday nights

Any of the rest of you reading this big fans of “ER”? You know — the long-running medical drama that anchored NBC’s Thursday night television lineup for about 200 years?

I guess it only seems like 200 years. And, frankly, the show has become just a tad worn and probably ready for the end. This is the last season, and they’re pulling out some stops to get former series actors back into the episodes before the end. (I just saw something about unsubstantiated rumors that the mega-star of the founding series cast, George Clooney, will probably do a cameo, but NBC isn’t confirming it. Big surprise.)

I truly have been an avid fan of the show. Sure, it’s little more than a prime-time soap opera, but it was much more than that for many seasons. The writing was great, the acting superb. I’m not sure exactly when it began to change.

But at some point in recent years, “ER” changed from good drama to sappy melodrama. I overlooked the way they first chopped off Dr. Romano’s arm with an errant helicopter blade — then two seasons (I think it was two) later killed Romano off by having, yes, a helicopter fall out of the sky and land on him.

Perhaps, though, Romano’s demise was the beginning of the end of the really best “ER” episodes. I mean, come on, nobody’s THAT unlucky with helicopters in real-life are they??

I can’t think of any especially odd or quirky characters from big-city life that haven’t been in and out of the “ER” at one time or another. Perhaps, oddly enough, they never had a Chicago injury lawyer or other honest-to-goodness “ambulance chaser” come along. I don’t recall much crossover between “ER” doctors and lawyers. But probably there were some.

So, even though I’ll admit “ER” has fallen on hard times, I would have been perfectly willing to watch it a couple of more seasons just to see what sort of interesting stuff was going on with the younger, newer generation of doctors. Ah, well. All good television eventually comes to an end. Guess I’ll be cast back onto watching “West Wing” reruns …

Thanks to McCain, Letterman for the political change-of-pace: humor for a change

Every election campaign offers its share of humor, most of it unintentional, i.e., debate gaffs or stump speech gaffs, even the choices of political candidates running for office.

But it was refreshing last night to watch John McCain’s long awaited appearance on David Letterman’s show and be treated to some great humor.

Heck, I’m NOT a McCain supporter and I felt a certain sympathy for the poor guy’s squirming — and some admiration for the way he handled the whole situation.

If you aren’t familiar with the background on the whole issue, it goes something like this: The night before the first House vote on the economic bailout, McCain was scheduled to be a guest on Letterman’s show. One hour before he was to be there, McCain canceled, by calling Letterman and telling him he couldn’t make it. He said he was compelled to rush back to Washington and be there to do anything he could to help resolve the looming economic crisis.

A day later, Letterman found out McCain had hung around NYC long enough to be interviewed by CBS Evening News, AND had stayed overnight in a NYC hotel before going to Washington the next morning!

For two or three weeks, Letterman has skewered McCain unmercifully on each night’s monologue over the matter. Last night McCain finally appeared on the show.

To howls of laughter and applause all around, he had a simple explanation for the incident. McCain’s words: “I screwed up.”

Good job by Letterman and McCain last night. If you didn’t see the appearance, I urge you to check around the CBS website and YouTube and I’m sure you can find it. I applaud both McCain and Letterman for giving us some great entertainment as Election Day draws near.

I also urge you to get out and vote. I ask you to vote for Obama — but most of all, I appeal to you to get out and vote. That’s a great part of what America is SUPPOSED to be all about, isn’t it?

I must be getting old: Television technology has me stumped

The last time we got a television was one my son gave us about six years ago — maybe seven? It’s a nice but very heavy digital television with a 28 or 32 inch diagonal screen, I don’t even recall that much. I do know it’s heavy, and that it takes up a lot of depth setting in the corner of our living room on the entertainment center where it perches.

I absolutely do not understand new television technology. What, in terms that really MEAN something to me, is the big difference between a plasma TV and an LCD TV? If I get a plasma TV, and find a plasma TV mount to hang it from the ceiling on along one of my old house’s walls — why is that better or worse than a flatscreen LCD TV? And, is there a difference between flatscreen TVs and LCD TVs??

I’ve watched some news features on various television shows comparing all the TV technology and talking about buy and giving them for gifts. But I really don’t understand any more about it than I did before I watched the so-called “explanations.”

All I can conclude is this: It’ll be a few years in this economy before I can get the money for a new TV anyway.

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