I have become gravely concerned over the past several days about the state of this country’s youth. Primarily, I am concerned that they have their own state – they should live amongst us and learn from their elders while we are subsequently amused by their loveable antics. But I digress.
Every night I turn on the television and am appalled by the tons and tons of drivel offered by television stations. Hour upon hour of stupid sitcoms, mindless game shows, voyeuristic reality television, and more bouncing lifeguard cleavage than you can shake a stick at. No doubt you can see the focus of my concern – how can kids keep up with it?
The sad truth is that they can’t. I see it all the time – kids hanging around our soccer fields and basketball courts, going to our gyms, walking in our parks, reading, and picking up art skills. TV has pushed the younger generation away from its mildly radioactive glow and left an entire era disenfranchised. Can we bring them back?
I sincerely hope we can. How can they be denied the education we had? Even now, the lessons stay with me. For example, even as a graduate with honors in Political Science from Duke University, I remember the sequence of events in the final “Newhart” (the little inn in Vermont is bought by the Japanese who turn it into a golf resort and everyone ends up dressed in kimonos until Bob gets fed up and is about to tell the Japanese off when he gets hit in the head with a golf ball and knocked out but then wakes up in bed with Suzanne Pleshette who was his wife from the first Bob Newhart show and the very last line in the series is when Bob says to his wife, “You know, you really oughta wear more sweaters.”) better than I remember the sequence of events during the Cuban Missile Crisis (Kevin Costner kicks Castro’s butt).
The list goes on. How can we be satisfied with the next generation watching shows with Brandy when we had Nell Carter? Wasn’t the sun a little brighter when Jim J. Bullock was the wacky neighbor on “Too Close for Comfort” instead of the center square on “Hollywood Squares”? Wasn’t life a little simpler and the air a little sweeter when we knew that Mr. Belvedere would hang up our coats and that Benson was running the Governor’s mansion?
Those shows taught us about perseverance in the face of adversity. Would today’s TV have the sheer guts to keep “Will and Grace” on the air if Grace left? Hell no! But not our day of TV – when Valerie left “Valerie’s Family’” did TV give in? Never! They brought in Sandy Duncan and they made it “The Hogan Family” and we learned to love them just the same! That was the kind of spirit of our day. I weep for the generation that must wander lost and cold in the snow asking, “Where is our Sandy Duncan?”
I guess I am just saying that in this day of cable TV and thousands of programs to choose from every day, youth has lost the common bond of watching a few shows as a nation – no matter how awful they might be. Our generation had the common bonds of joy and hardship. For every year that we had to suffer the interminable pain of Lisa Bonet on “A Different World” we had years of relief watching the new, fresher “A Different World” with Sinbad.
One day, perhaps the next generation will find their Valerie Bertinellis and their A-Teams. Until they do, they’ll spend their time making friends, exercising, and furthering their education. I weep for the future.