doodavadi

that's what my younger cousin used to call the show dukes of hazzard. several of my uncles still pull out that bit of family history when they want to catch his attention - i.e. "hey! doodavadi!" i was thinking about this while reading the texts for this week... especially as i began to consider what exactly has changed over the last 25+ years that i actively recall being a "tv watcher." talking about this over dinner last night, i found myself in a conversation about the tv of the past and tv of the present. this was not the usual dichotomous and woeful accounting of how tv has changed, but rather a discussion on whether "we" needed the visually projected stimuli in our lives to serve a different function than it does now. that is, with shows like leave it to beaver, dennis the menace, mr. ed, my favorite martian, etc. (all, by the way, staples in my household as i was glued to NickAtNite), were television executives more explicit about their desire for tv to serve a socializing function? while entertainment was certainly a major factor, so, too, were the almost aesop's fable-like morals at the conclusion of many of these shows.

what about programming, now? given the proliferation of venues, stations, and formats available for "tv viewing", has entertainment superceded education as the purpose of television? if i were to answer my own question, i would say that a couple of things are happening. first, i have never seen an interview with a show creator who has noted that there is no lesson to be learned or purpose for a show. no, not even seinfeld, whose "show about nothing" mantra gained legions of fans, was without an educative purpose - that is, you can have smart dialogue about everyday lives and that pushing the envelope is indeed a skill. (now, seinfeld connoisseurs will surely berate me for that simplistic assessment, but i will move on nonetheless...) but for whom is that educative? the television audiences? reviewers? award show people? future/past show creators? in addition, about *what* was this show educative? content? style? personalities?

finally, in this ramble, i wonder - do we expect too much of tv? what if there were only "good" shows on? and not "low brow" types of programming? what if another season of "the bachelor" never aired? and if we never heard another

what then?

and who decides these labels anyway??