Was television ever dignified and honorable?

Question

My grandmother refuses to watch anymore, because she said it is Satanic now. Is this possible? If so, when did it get bad, about what year did it slide?

Answer 1

It was probably dignified and honorable back when it was only shown in black and white.

Answer 2

Well, I really can't speak to the progams that were on around the time when television first began airing syndicated shows - I'm not that old. lol.

I do remember back in the 80s when I actually enjoyed watching it in the evening and I had a "schedule". I knew which shows I wanted to watch and what day and time they came on. There was more family-oriented shows on back then. I liked the Cosby Show, Family Ties, A Different World, the Golden Girls, Charles in Charge, Growing Pains and so on. I couldn't stand to miss those shows. Your granny's right though - TV these days is nothing but a waste of time, overall. (Satanic is a tad harsh, but I can see how she would say that. A lot of the shows display and encourage people with little to no morals to continue doing what they do. There's nothing a respecatble, upstanding citizen could learn from I Love New York, for example. Certainly nothing Godly about that train wreck. {The show *and* the young lady!})
Now, there is only one show I watch regularly and that's Grey's Anatomy. The rest is just background noise for me as I do other things.

Answer 3

Television at one time tried to produce class material.

Games shows like What's My Line had true stars on the panel, comedies like Your Show of Shows had brilliant writers like Woody Allen, Neil Simon and Carl Reiner - all who went on to win Tony's or Oscars for their work.

Shows like Queen for a Day that featured a winner from the audience, in fact honored the winner and never never made them eat spiders or live on an island or race around the world.

Variety shows like Ed Sullivan featured true stars from ballet, music, drama and comedy - it was not a lame talent show.

So, yes, television at one time tried to be dignified and honorable.

The turning point (in my mind) was the huge popularity of America's Funniest Home Videos. While there was a show called Candid Camera before, this was different. AFHV featured clips sent in by the viewers, in other words it was very cheap to produce! A B-grade host and a studio audience and they made millions! This opened the door to other low cost (no writers, actors) shows -- the talent shows (I know, nothing new but suddenly there were a bunch) and reality shows. Both of these styles of entertainment cost almost nothing to produce.

It appeals to the voyeuristic side of our humanity (what your granny would call satanic) because it has zero value. Eating spiders, singing off key, hit in the nuts by a baseball bat, melting down on camera, all these things have appeal but no value at all.

Television at one point did have dignity. But now it caters and panders to the lowest possible standard - sex and blood and envy.

Answer 4

1969

Answer 5

Yeah I guess it's always been but it really started with shows like number 96 and continued on from then with shows like "chances" (I think that was the name of that show in the early 90's), and let's not forget the debauchery of them all BIG BROTHER !!! or should I say "BIG BROTHEL"!!!! Even the commercials are pathetic 90% of the time!!

Answer 6

It's all about getting your attention so they can sell you stuff. And--no, it's never been really dignified.

Answer 7

probably when it first came out! jk around the mid eighties, it did start to slide!

Answer 8

it progresively gone down hill from the 1970s