G.I. Joe, Transformers, Wrestling (WWF and Stampede), Thundercats, He-Man, and a Smurf or two. Throw all these into an industrial blender and get a sticky mess. Do it in a metaphorical sense and you get a goo that when splattered artfully on the wall portrays my childhood.
My Great Grandmother worshipped Stampede wrestling. She loved the Harts and the Dynamite Kid, and loved to hate Muccan Singh. I was more into WWF with favorites including Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, and Ricky the Dragon Steamboat, but could still share her enthousiasm for the more local talent. Every day after cartoon and wrestling prime-time, my brothers and I would shun the program warnings by reenacting the dangerous stunts on our trampoline. Ahh, those were the days.
You will notice in that list perhaps a surprising lack of Canadian content. Kids CBC with its annoying agenda of trying to teach kids things rather than properly promoting violence on a global scale did not exist then. I do enjoy Hockey Night in Canada and comedy in all its various forms (please note that this does not include the Air Farce or 22 Minutes since Rick Mercer left). I also like CBC News with it’s Canadian perspective better than other news programming.
George Comstock was quoted as saying that T.V. has become an unavoidable and unremitting factor in shaping what we are and what we will become. Taking this down to a personal level, I will conceed that T.V. has had a large influence on on who I am now. But just as Television instituted the decline of other media like newspapers and radio, I think its influence in its present form is wanning. I base this on my personal experience which I assume can be extrapolated onto the general populace.
I am watching far less TV now than I ever have, maybe two to three times less. It is not as though I don’t want to watch it, I just don’t. I appreciate media that doesn’t take up so much of my time with junk. A 1 hr show is really only 35 mintes if you cut out the commercials. A 2 hour t.v. move in its cut up form is really just over an hour of entertainment. The internet can pare down the fluff to give me exactly the entertainment or information I request. The traditional media and advertisers in my opinion will need to find new ways to make money working on this model.
The greatest match ever.
