The 1970's: The Golden Age of Every Pop Culture Genre
It's Friday, you've reached the end of the internet. You're out of pieces to read, your go-to rotation of sites is as exhausted as Big Pelf. Panic sets in. It's only mid-morning, and the balance of the day yawns before you.
We've all been there. Here's a fantastic piece by Todd Van Der Weff of the A.V. Club that will occupy minutes-upon-minutes of fun, a tour of the great sitcoms of the 1970s. All in the Family, Taxi, Barney Miller, Good Times, and Sanford & Son just some of the jewels that emerged from funky times. For me, Barney Miller stands out as a lost and underrated classic. Abe Vigoda slays, and the opening theme song features and impossibly funky bass-line. The video excerpts chosen for the piece are killer, I highly recommend the WKRP in Cincinnati scene where Loni Anderson (Burt always had good taste) and Herman Hesseman almost get down.
The twin beauties of growing up in pre-internet age were syndication and a handful of channels on the teevee. Thus, a young coachie had no choice but to peep all these classics on channels 5, 9 and 11. Today, in the internet age, we have access to everything yet nothing unites us, pop-culturally. These great shows already lived on far beyond their time, but the time when they are remembered is already drawing to a close. Inevitable.
The piece also covers a couple of lost gems, like Bridget Loves Bernie, about an Irish Catholic who falls for a Jewish cab driver. Freddie Coups should keep an eye out for his alma mater P.S. 6 in the intro where the Bridget character works. In this clip, wait for the 1:44 mark for the "Zoinks! Sitcom Premise" moment.
I get to relive my childhood twice a year to vote, and I am taken aback by how small the hallways in an elementary school feel now.
Not yet pictured in the opening credits is the Scientology center across the street from the school. They probably hand out Xenu dolls and rocketships to kids now.
there are few weirder or more out-of-body experiences than going back to one's old school and walking the hallways and walking the staircases. just plain eerie.
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4 comments:
From that article:
"In 1973 and ’74, CBS aired four shows in a row on Saturday nights: All In The Family, M*A*S*H, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and The Bob Newhart Show."
Wow.
Not as venerable as the never-changing FOX Saturday night lineup
I get to relive my childhood twice a year to vote, and I am taken aback by how small the hallways in an elementary school feel now.
Not yet pictured in the opening credits is the Scientology center across the street from the school. They probably hand out Xenu dolls and rocketships to kids now.
there are few weirder or more out-of-body experiences than going back to one's old school and walking the hallways and walking the staircases. just plain eerie.
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