Who Killed J.R?
Trying desperately to convince my parents I should be allowed to stay up to 10pm to find out who killed J.R was quite a task.
I mean, come on, this was the biggest question in any household in the 1980's. Dallas was prime time viewing and gripping! But television stopped at midnight in the 1970's and 80's and even getting to see the Good Night Kiwi was a real big treat.
However by the time I turned a teenager, my priviledges improved slightly and on the odd occasion I could skulk into the lounge and watch the American drama show unfold.
Now you can just google youtube and find out anything, but back then if you missed a show, that was it, no reruns, no internet, no video to tape it (at least not yet.).
I was never really a big Dallas fan though as I loved the much more intense "Dynasty". Perhaps it was the fashion, the gorgeous Linda Evans or ruthless Joan Collins but I did whatever I could to coax my parents into letting me stay up and watch.
Telly in those days was just plain better. Sweetness and light graced the screen from the 2pm Saturday Matinee with Shirley Temple, Doris Day, to Dean Martin and Cary Grant. I remember watching these on our old black and white tv, and I would sit there glued to the films every Saturday afternoon. I loved them.
I do of course remember the day our colour television arrived, and the many times leading up to this new arrival of banging the old black and white tube to try and stop the fuzzy lines from appearing.
With colour camespacemen, jeannies, witches, magic, romance, everything a youngster would enjoy.
I Dream of Jeannie, to Bewitched to Get Smart were cheery shows where you drifted away to a world where everything was happy and free of troubles. Good clean televison.
The tunes and melodies of these shows stuck with you unlike much of what is like on the box these days.
Then at 7.30pm the dramas and action started.
Shows I loved and watched week in, week out as a kid included The Love Boat, CHiPs (Califonia Highway Patrol!), Mork and Mindy (nanu nanu!) Buck Rogers, Battlestar Galactica, Wonder Woman, Fantasy Island (the plane, the plane) , to BJ and The Bear and Little House on the Prairie.
I loved Little House on the Prairie but it was rather sad and used to make me cry!
The most crazy show was probably The Six Million Dollar Man. For the girls, The Bionic Woman came a little after.
Late night viewing started at 8.30pm which was a bit of contentious issue if you bedtime was 9pm!
Thomas Magnum investigating the latest murder as Magnum P.I., Boss Hogg ruling the Dukes of Hazzard (just the good old boys theme song by Waylon Jennings), to The A. Team, Starsky and Hutch, MIami Vice, Falcon Crest and Hart to Hart.
Then there were the British comedies - George and Mildred, Upstairs Downstairs, Man about the House to Are You Being Served?
Technology in those days was in its infancy. Video recorders didn't come until the late 1980's and they were very expensive. Sony Walkmans and Apple were about to change the world. Michael Jackson started moonwalking.
Radio cassette players lead to massive ghetto blasters!
The days were simpler, easier in many respects, nothing bombarding you with a milliion messages you had to answer in five minutes, no telephone calls beaming into your palm, just pad and paper and tv that stopped at midnight. No silly reality tv shows. No parents working two jobs. Houses were cheap and so were utilities. $6 an hour was alot.
But now kids are tooled up with ipods, cellphones, so many gadgets you wouldn't know if you were arthur or martha. Kids are tuning out, escaping a reality they didn't ask for or do they even need.
I want a more simpler life for kids, green grass to play, a slide to slide down, a path to travel. Bunsten burners to blow up in class. A teacher who wants to be there. Clouds to count. Stories and vim.
Things need to change.