Old TV Shows are Better than New Ones

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Today's television shows seem to be from outer space. I'm serious! They reflect a complete lack of moral fiber. The police are as crooked as the criminals. So-called real-life programs reflect a lifestyle that exists only in books of fiction. But, then, television programs are works of fiction.

It wasn't always that way. Consider, for example, Bonanza. You know, Ben Cartwright (Lorne Greene) was the dad who had reared his sons, Adam (Pernell Roberts), Little Joe (Michael Landon), and Hoss (Dan Blocker), that their privileged life required them to accept the responsibilities that came with it. If someone needed help or was in trouble, they offered assistance. If the bad guys were trying to harm the good guys, they went to the rescue.

Consider the original Hawaii Five-0. Chief Investigator Steve McGarrett (Jack Lord) went by the book and expected his detectives, Danno (James MacArthur), Kono (Gilbert "Zulu" Kauhi), and Chin Ho (Kam Fong), to do the same. True, he gave his team much of the hard work, but let it not be forgotten that he worked until midnight, researching facts of law and writing reports for the governor.

Speaking of Jack Lord, he appeared on Bonanza as a really reprehensible character. No by the book for his character, Clay Renton. You may be sure that the Cartwrights helped the townspeople of Virginia City, Nevada, to reel him in. The episode was "The Outcast" (Season 1).

In the 1980s, television began to show children as being smarter than their parents. One would think that children were born knowing everything, while adults had lost everything. The programming set a very poor example for children who were growing up during those years and made parenting those children very difficult. Shame on you, 1980s television!

In the 20-teens, television began to show human characters as if they were cartoon characters. One character had serious abdominal surgery one week and was running over rooftops and bouncing off walls the next week. Really???

Well, that's my old timer's take on the subject, and I stand by it.