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Is Television a Vast Wasteland?
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20349 |
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Section : |
EDITORIAL
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| Issue
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6 / 1992 |
632 Words |
| Author
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Morton A. Kaplan
Editor and Publisher |
Our special section in Currents in Modern Thought this month is on the television industry, which was called a vast wasteland by Newton Minow, a former member of the FCC. Whether that charge is correct depends upon the shows that one examines. If one pays attention to local and network news, public broadcasting documentaries concerning social, political, and economic matters, highbrow shows, and much of standard broadcasting, the charge is indubitably correct. However, if one recognizes that most cultural activities, at least in the modern period, have been tripe, then perhaps one will be willing to recognize that a surprisingly large number of good, sometimes superb, shows have appeared on TV. And, if that is the case, television has as good a record as publishing--perhaps a better one.
Even the early Western Gunsmoke occasionally had good presentations of social or moral issues. Hill Street Blues, perhaps the best show ever to appear on television, presented satire of a high order without failing to recognize the complexity of the personalities that sometimes were the butt of the satires. If it was not Shakespeare, it may have been good Swift. L.A. Law, particularly in its middle period, despite its occasional liberal bias, often explored moral and social issues with a complexity that some academic exercises miss. The Cosby Show is sometimes accused of engaging in social fantasy, but this is unfair. There are more black professional families than critics may be willing to recognize, and many of these (and other hardworking black families) bring up their children properly and solve problems constructively. I distrust Cosby's politics and dislike his political friends, but he deserves a great deal of credit for showing that good blacks and good whites--and not just bad blacks and bad whites--are brothers under the skin.
It is true that the feature dramas presented on prime time are written for simpletons, with neither motivation nor plot making even minimal sense. Imagine my surprise when double vision resulting from an accident reduced me to watching the soaps for a period. I had expected something even worse than the prime time programs and discovered that As the World Turns and Guiding Light were intelligently plotted and that the motivations made sense. Not great, perhaps not even good, but surely respectable. Furthermore, while an enormous amount of vice and immoral behavior was portrayed, it was not glorified and distinct moral messages got through, including the hurt inflicted by immoral behavior.
And best of all, the commercials sometimes show wit and sophistication that I wish I could find in some
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