One of my favorite subjects is the history and cultural influence of television, and since I am a HUGE fan of classic TV shows from the 1950s through the 1980s, I would like to make this the topic of my blog. Since “classic” can also refer to shows after the 1980s, I will refer to my topic as “Vintage TV and it’s Cultural Significance.”
Unlike many Millennials, I enjoy vintage TV much more than I do current TV. This includes sitcoms, dramas, variety shows, news programs, documentaries and even commercials. It is not only fun and entertaining, but it is also a portal to our past. I am passionate about learning of television’s role in the entertainment of our past, and how it has shaped our society. I am deeply concerned that knowledge of our early television heritage will be lost to future generations because of the general lack of awareness of television’s cultural significance. This is because television, for many years, had been considered a lesser form of art, therefore vintage TV is much less talked about in media.
That’s not to say that the topic of vintage TV’s cultural influence is absent from media. Printed books about early television history and culture have always been plentiful. Filmed documentaries on the subject are few, but when they are produced, they are (in my opinion) fantastic. One standout series is PBS’s Pioneers of Television. This summer, Amazon Prime introduced a new vintage TV web series called Then Again with Herbie J. Pilato. Of course, there are plenty of journalistic pieces written about specific classic TV series and their actors/actresses in newspapers and internet news sites.
In most internet culture however, the subject of vintage TV and the significance of it’s programs is sadly underrepresented, even within the context of television as a whole. For example, there are sites, like this one that list “the 50 best TV shows ever,” which are clearly biased to more current series. It’s hard to think about vintage TV as “niche,” but on the internet, it seems to be treated as such. Nevertheless, there are fantastic sites like the AV Club which highlight older content, and fantastic blogs that celebrate vintage TV’s triumphs like Television Obscurities, MeTV (which is also an over-the-air vintage TV channel), and The Paley Center For Media’s Paley Matters, all of which I read regularly. Message board posts of fellow consumers and television historians on the Home Theater Forum, Radio Discussions and Sitcoms Online are also incredibly interesting to read. The content creators, though not always credible, are generally well-informed, so they offer a lot of interesting insight. If I find a conversation that sparks my interest, I will research and seek out more information.
I hope that one day vintage TV series will be as well revered as a Renoir painting, a Bach composition, or a Clark Gable film. I am greatly looking forward to sharing my thoughts on the matter.
