If you’re a Millennial or a member of Generation X, you probably grew up with a good exposure to the music, movies, and TV shows that your parents raised you on.
During the Clinton administration, entire radio stations and television channels were devoted to “oldies” from the 1950s and 1960s, and classic movies from the era were easily found on cable TV or at video stores.
In other words, the most popular content among baby boomers isn’t some niche content that only amateur pop culture historians can track.
In fact, in those days, kids still watching Nickelodeon at 8 p.m. would find themselves suddenly stuck in a time warp, taking them to “I Love Lucy,” “Donna Reed” and “Ozzie and Harry.” “Special” era.
The end of an era?
Of course, Nick from Nite Technically It’s still there, but now, it’s more of an afterthought.
The network has now given up on “SpongeBob SquarePants” in favor of six hours of continuous reruns of “Friends” when programmers think most kids are sleeping.
But it’s nothing like the Nick at Nite of the 1990s, which felt very much like an independent channel dedicated to TV nostalgia.
In those days, entire advertising campaigns and themed weeks were completely independent of the daytime Nickelodeon brand.
While “Friends” airs in the early morning slot on just about every cable network of general interest, Nite’s old-school Nickelodeon offers a slew of well-curated shows, most of which can’t be found elsewhere.
Of course, it features “Lucy” and other beloved shows from last year like “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “Get Smart” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”
But there are also deep cuts like F Troop and The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis that might have faded away if it weren’t for the Nick at Nite platform.
Nickelodeon’s then-idiosyncratic approach of having kids watch shows during the day and old-school sitcoms at night meant that entire generations of kids would be exposed to programming they might have never seen.
Some of these episodes were so old when they started airing after Minions that three generations could enjoy them in the same living room:
The grandma who raised her son with Andy Griffith’s help can sit next to him and watch his 8-year-old daughter giggle at Mayberry’s revelry.
atomization of entertainment
Now, there are many reasons why such scenes are a thing of the past in 21st-century America.
Streaming media and smart devices have created a world where everyone has unprecedented control over their personal media experience.
This hyper-specific level of management results in everyone in the family enjoying their own content in their own room, on their own device.
We don’t lament the demise of this way of life and the good times families used to gather around electric fireplaces (although we certainly did that in the past!).
But we will note that Americans are increasingly divided along a hundred different fault lines.
The fact that we no longer listen to the same programs and giggle to the same laughs may be one of the reasons we find it easier to dislike and distrust our neighbours.
The lack of shared cultural standards may be one of the factors contributing to increased hostility and lack of understanding between generations.
Express our empathy through laughter
Of course, kids still read about America’s post-World War II boom in history books.
But it’s one thing to study that era in school, and another to witness Wally and Beaver’s excitement about dad’s new Chevy.
Statistics on GDP and median household income may promote intellectual Learn about that formative period in the lives of many of our parents and grandparents.
But a 30-minute narrative in which young viewers laugh while watching their peers deal with both universal and generation-specific issues?
Well, this experience can lead to a more visceral understanding.
But perhaps the most important reason to preserve sitcoms from Hollywood’s golden age is that these shows are part of our shared cultural history.
Lucille Ball was a 40-year-old B-movie actress when she convinced CBS executives that she and her husband, a Cuban-born bandleader, had entertainment Comedy talent across the country.
Segregated schools, hospitals, and restaurants still existed in large swaths of the United States at the time.
Two years later, “I Love Lucy” became such a hit that Chicago’s famed Marshall Field’s department store began staying open late into the night from Mondays to Thursdays to avoid competing with America’s favorite redhead.
If this isn’t a uniquely American story, what is?
Of course, the situation comedies of the era established the conventions and parameters of a new art form—easily resolved conflicts, three-camera settings, live studio audiences.
But as a genre as distinctly American as jazz or western music, they also play an important role in the overall history of the United States.
To understand the situation comedies of that era is to understand the daily lives of people who lived in a critical era that grew more distant with each passing year.
It’s one thing to read about the joys and challenges of a country that had just emerged as the world’s leading superpower.
It’s one thing to laugh together as the fictional denizens of that turbulent era try to navigate this new territory in a relatively humane way, maintaining a fondness for great quips along the way.
The 1950s was the first decade when millions of Americans gathered with their families in front of television sets.
Increasingly, we no longer watch the same shows as our neighbors or even the people who live under our roofs.
To forget the shows that bring us together while we are still figuring out what it means to be American would be akin to a cultural tragedy.
Look, we’re not pretending to have a solution to this problem, and we’re not under any delusions that Maynard G. Krebs will anytime soon take over as the hottest influencer in the minds of young Americans today.
But if you want to run the Mr. Ed Marathon with your family this weekend, you might find that a talking horse can spark some meaningful conversations.
