Sitcom World

There was a time in my Shangri-La world of yesteryear that, by today’s standards, could well be called a Sitcom place to live. This was before immediate “news” from 8000 different talking heads who want you to believe they are the wisest people in the world, have all of the answers and rarely report happenings if they do not fit a particular agenda, or their particular view, which many of us are tired of hearing.

We used to get the news a couple of days after it happened. We did not have the instant reporting of today, and sometimes we are better off because of it.

We are taking all kinds of meds we don’t need because of the anxiety caused by the continuous “SPECIAL NEWS BULLETIN” that we see crossing our screen, and frequently at the climax of the show we had been watching for 54 minutes and don’t  know how it ended. The interruption frequently is a weather report from some place that has nothing to with our location.

National headline, “Joe Blow threatened several people, taken down by citizen but arrested for doing his duty others were afraid to attempt.” A lot of this with our new “poor baby” attitude put into place by our “talking heads.”

We hear broadcasting stations telling us that they are No. 1. My question is No. 1 what? Too much of their time is spent spieling out information we could care less about. We have more people suffering from television ad health diseases than many doctors have even heard of. We used to call it hypochondria. How many times have you watched a commercial that suggested a particular pain you briefly had and momentarily worried you might have this horrible disorder? You look at the side-affects, and faint from the list so long and with words you can’t pronounce or understand.

We are being led by the nose by product money makers for the advertising agency, the networks, and in the end, the company which is selling what we used to consider as “snake oil” in the nineteen and early twenties centuries. Yes FDA, where are you when we really need you? Let’s return to the sitcom world and its advertising. (Remember the Texaco Star?)

How about those that wear hearing aids ban together and force television stations to keep the volume level between commercials and shows the same so their ears don’t burst out of their heads every time an advertisement comes on the air, or maybe discontinue hearing and seeing the Weather Report every twenty minutes day and night? They are even being advertised during the weather report itself. Have you noticed the recorded report made in the morning telling you the weather that has already passed? 

Yes, the days of the sitcom were nice. Families gathering together at home, not each member going a different direction at will; families loving each other instead of chasing their neighbor’s wife or husband; people caring about their neighbor’s welfare instead of building a huge fence between the property lines. Sharing meals on holidays were nice, either with family or friends, or frequently both. Kids playing together, outside, until the street lights came on. 

Give me the sitcoms any day, they were pleasant, nice; a time when the doors were unlocked and we didn’t even think about unfortunate consequences. 

Call me old fashioned, call me out of date with reality…call me anything you want. I just hope those of you reading this live as long as I have and can say the same things about the “sit com” days of your life.