Trappings Of The Old Show

I was thinking the other day about old television and radio broadcasts. Before I started mentally ranting about the television networks' abandonment of their civic duty in the news division, I was thinking about how a show would begin- that is to say, the little snippet before the opening credits. To see it now, it feels quite indicative of the times, and definitely puts me in the right state of mind to watch a show of whichever period. Some times, the announcer would proudly declare the network's employment of some new technology. The roll-out of color television took place over a long period of time, so many shows over a number of years were thusly tagged.

I observed another example of the broadcast preamble from watching 'All In The Family' the other day. Before that classic song plays and we see Archie and Edith together at the piano, we hear the words, "From Television City in Hollywood!" They're spoken by a smooth and deep voiced man of even an earlier era than the show- a man after Archie Bunker's own heart, it can be imagined. I have no small amount of admiration for that announcer, and what he and others do for a living. It's a powerful instrument he had. To have been able to use it then with that material to work with would really have been something.

The reason the words that announcer spoke are notable is what one can infer about American audiences of the time. At that time, to say what he's saying really meant something. It feels to this writer, years after the fact, as if there was no political baggage associated with Hollywood- no resentment or bitterness felt by the viewer watching from the heartland or the old South. To be told that one was getting entertainment from Hollywood was to be assured that you were in the hands of trusted and admired professionals who lived the imagined lives of Steve McQueen or Angie Dickinson. Today we know better.

The announcer references two places that are to most people even now more fantastical creations of the imagination than actual places grounded in reality. There was this effort to stoke the imagination with evocative place names that didn't necessarily appear on any map. Even if the place named in no way lived up to its description in real life, it seems as if those responsible for a show could secure a more favorable reaction by generally creating the impression of shows being handed down from some grand place almost too glamorous and exciting to be in the same universe as Grand Rapids or Tallahassee. I know I felt that to be true as a boy in 1980s Phoenix as I tried to imagine the environs which held Nickelodeon and those who created it.

That we should all be more knowledgeable about the source of the shows we watch and therefore incredulous at such things that I've above described is sad in a way. It's really like the whole Garden of Eden thing, with us losing innocence by seeking knowledge. In this area, I don't especially feel any better off. It's too bad.