Sophistication? Blog #3

For this week's class we talked a lot about sophistication in television. Apparently in the beginning of television, networks wanted to bring the New York way of life to the midwestern farmers and housewives of America. This did not sit so well with the morally superior midwesterners. Frightened by images of loose morals, drinking, and Jewish people the midwesterners attempted to fight back. Thus, changes were made, and maybe not for the better. In an attempt to win back the midwestern viewers the networks turned to the least objectionable programming. It seems to me that in this case the new programming should be considered boring. People were probably unwilling to push any envelopes or try anything different. Television of this era just seems so cookie cutter and predictable. Why would anyone want to watch some of these programs? There are always exceptions to the rule and there were probably certain shows that were worth watching, but if I were alive back then I would have been seriously disappointed when I turned on my $450 television set and all my options were replicas of Leave it to Beaver or whatever. I would have opted for the "sophisticated" programming. It seems a little hard to connect this idea of sophisitication to the television of today, being the programming that is available. Is there anything on TV today that should be considered sophisticated? I would have to say that there is, but maybe it is a very small percentage of the total programming of TV. And also, why do we like these shows that are considered sophisticated? Does maybe a little of it deal with attaching that idea of sophistication to ourselves? Throughout my life I have always been a little embarrassed to admitt that I watch television because it has been considered a waste of time. But, if I am watching something that supposedly has merit or quality to it, I don't feel quite as bad. Its okay to sit down and watch Discovery Channel, but not okay to sit down and watch Scooby-Doo or whatever. Anyway, I feel that there is sophistication left in television today and we should try to hold onto at least some of it. Bad taste may have run rampant in this country but total domination can be avoided.