TV is beneficial for the “mentally ill”? Really? — TV Guide, July 25, 1959
“Perhaps it is better to be irresponsible and right, than to be responsible and wrong.” – Winston Churchill
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As always, the Friday Edition combines a quote with a favorite photo. I tailor these to the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge theme, which this week is “Wrong”.
I set out to see the new Meryl Streep movie today. Due to a comedy of errors, I ended up there about 15 minutes late–and right after two busloads of kids had gone into the theater to see the newest “Wimpy Kid” movie.
Needless to say, I didn’t go to my movie.
Instead, I spent the afternoon at a couple of local antique shops in Arundel, Maine. And while I was there, I received the weekly photo challenge, “wrong”. I couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out what I could do for “wrong”.
Then I ran across a box full of old TV Guides from the 1950s and 1960s. And I remembered anew that to venture into an antiques shop is to venture into history. And sometimes, the views of the past can be somewhat startling.
There were articles about how TV is beneficial for the “mentally ill”, as well as how it can “help” children. There were articles about excessive TV viewing (“upwards of 3 hours per day!”) and the irritations of commercials. There was even an article debunking the concerns of radiation over those newfangled “color televisions”.
I even took a few minutes to glance through an interesting article about how single girls in America were frustrated with the lack of TV shows that focused on the lives of single girls. Back then, Mary Tyler Moore was about the only thing going on. It made me laugh when I thought about how they would react if they could leap ahead to the future and see “Sex and the City”!
Perhaps not all of these little blasts from the past were “wrong”, exactly…but they certainly were an interesting view of life in America in the 1950s, as seen from the perspective of television.
“How TV can help your child”? According to CSU Northridge, American kids spend 900 hours per year in school…and they spend 1500 hours per year watching TV.
A very interesting view of “too much TV viewing”. Note: as of 2009, the national average was just shy of 5 hours/day. I wonder what the author, Norman Vincent Peale, would say about our “national ability to think” today. I can imagine what he might have to say about shows such as Jersey Shore, Real Housewives (any of them), or even the Kardashians?
Even then, noisy TV commercials were considered obnoxious. Some things don’t change! (article by Norman Vincent Peale)
Interesting isn’t it? A lot of what we claim are wrong today were quite right back in the day…
Posted by eof737 | August 11, 2012, 1:19 amExactly. I probably spent a good half hour just looking at the stack of TV Guides. They really are a snapshot of culture at the time. The articles, the ads, the focus, and of course the shows. So interesting! I decided I need to go back and buy one. I teach history, and that’s beyond our sphere of study, but it’s a deliciously weird view of something my kids totally understand: TV.
Posted by AlohaKarina | August 11, 2012, 9:31 amGreat pictures! I often like looking at old print material like these and have a laugh, but I can’t help but think in 100 years time will someone be laughing at our logic and current achievements?
Posted by jonesingaround | August 11, 2012, 5:46 pmExactly! That’s what I was thinking, too. What would make of Snooki and Jersey Shore?
Posted by AlohaKarina | August 14, 2012, 1:20 pmProbably…
Posted by eof737 | August 14, 2012, 2:03 pmWOw, loved it…I love the OLD DAYS… maybe I am too old… LOL
Posted by Jackie Paulson | August 11, 2012, 3:30 amlol! I love that stuff too. It’s fascinating. I’m intrigued by differences–history, cultures, music, foods, viewpoints, places. It’s why I love to travel so much. I’m intensely curious. And it’s downright fun seeing old stuff you remember as a kid. Yesterday I saw someone was selling one of those old tin Band-Aid cans, with the flip top lid. We always had those when I was a kid, before they went to plastic and then paper boxes. And they were selling the tin for $9!! Yikes!
Posted by AlohaKarina | August 11, 2012, 9:36 amThis collection is great! I’ve been studying CMNS for about a million years and love finding people who unearth lovely vinatage stuff like this. Well done.
Posted by Veronica Roth | August 11, 2012, 10:18 amWhat is CMNS?
Posted by AlohaKarina | August 11, 2012, 11:07 amCommunication studies
Posted by Veronica Roth | August 11, 2012, 11:33 am