"Fantasy Island" Reboot Premiers on Fox Broadcast TV Tues, Aug 10, 2021

When it comes to TV from the mid-1970's to the mid-1980's, for those who weren't yet old enough to be out tearing up the disco floors a la "Saturday Night Fever",  Saturday nights usually meant spending the evening at home watching ABC television from 9:00 PM to 11:00 PM. ABC aired two of Aaron Spelling and former Screen Gems' top TV execs Leonard Goldberg's big TV hits: "The Love Boat" which ran from 9:00 PM to 10:00 PM, followed by another hit known as "Fantasy Island". My recollections of those days are fond; an older cousin introduced me to the shows as a way of living out their own fantasies — sort of.

Both shows were also known as big work opportunities for many out-of-work actors, or those who simply wanted extra paid work. Both shows were similar in that they each ran for an hour time-slot, which is quite rare for non-movies or live sporting events. However, they both were quite popular. That's partially because there were only 3 broadcast TV networks plus PBS television and perhaps some independent stations which showed old re-runs from the fifties and sixties. Cable as we now know it did not exist, and streaming or on-demand content was an even more far-fetched idea.

The original "Fantasy Island" ran for seven seasons from 1978 to 1984 which is pretty impressive. As noted, the show was co-produced by the late Aaron Spelling. These days, the old show doesn't air very much on the re-run circuit (a few networks still run the show, but often very late at night, so its possible to set your DVR's) because the show originally fit into an hour time slot and the shows are simply too long to squeeze into a rerun circuit. Alternatively, it can be streamed on one (or more) of the free, ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) stations including the Roku channel, IMDB (now FreeVee), Tubi, Crackle or PlutoTV. I know I've seen it on one or more of them.

Still, the basic premise was that wealthy and/or well-connected island guests could visit the island and have one fantasy they'd always dreamed about fulfilled. But the guests' fantasies seldom turned out quite the way the guests envisioned. Usually, the fantasies taught some kind of lesson.

To be sure, the original "Fantasy Island" was revered for its cast, most notably the late Ricardo Montalbán and the late Hervé Villechaize (perhaps better known for his starring role as a villain in the 1974 James Bond film "The Man with the Golden Gun" which starred the late Roger Moore as James Bond). The actors were also known for their distinctive accents which lent some mystery to their presence on screen. Mr. Montalbán had a Spanish accent, whereas Villechaize had a distinctive French accent (even though his ethnicity was Filipino, he was raised in France, hence his French accent).

While both series have been released on DVD, unless one borrows the discs from their public library, that's an option which is rather costly for someone merely seeking a walk down memory lane. But for those people, today, free streaming is indeed a viable option.

Of the ABC Saturday night line-up during the late seventies to mid-eighties, today, viewers have the option to watch an entire subchannel dedicated to "The Love Boat" on the free ad-supported streaming network/app known as Pluto TV https://pluto.tv/en/live-tv/the-love-boat which is owned by Viacom CBS. There, dozens of episodes of that long-running show run back-to-back all day, every day. Episodes are also available for viewing on-demand.

But reruns of "Fantasy Island" are not available on Pluto TV. The reason is because the ownership rights were not Viacom's (which owns Pluto TV). However, streaming viewers can now watch reruns of "Fantasy Island" on the rival commercial-sponsored free streaming network (which competes with Viacom's Pluto TV) known as Tubi TV https://tubitv.com/series/300006868/fantasy-island-1977-series which means if you wish to watch the two shows back-to-back as you did back in the late seventies, simply switch from Pluto TV to Tubi TV on your Roku device. Selected episodes from the first, second and third seasons of the original version of "Fantasy Island" are also available free at Hulu. 

Readers may recall that I previously blogged about "The Love Boat" — or at least the outcome of the boat itself — (see HERE) and that isn't the subject of today's post. 

But "Fantasy Island" (which I previously covered HERE) to address that after years, the series had finally made it to DVD, hence the content had therefore been digitized) warrants mention because the old show is now being rebooted and will air on Fox broadcast television.  The first episode of the rebooted "Fantasy Island" will air tonight (Tuesday, August 10, 2021) on Fox broadcast TV at 10:00 PM.

Of relevant note is that in 2018, Fox sold its entire entertainment division (which included broadcast television) to Walt Disney Corp. Disney was not at all interested in buying Fox's bogus cable "news" division. Part of the reason is those channels no longer earn money from advertising generally, but instead relies on revenues from cable carrier fees. With the acquisition of Fox Entertainment, Disney solidified itself as a true media giant (it already owns ABC), competing with the likes of Viacom CBS and NBC Universal. That effectively left Rupert Murdoch and his kids cash-rich (reportedly more than $52 billion) but are now media poor. Few Americans even care what the fossilized old Australian immigrant got from the deal. But the change in ownership brought newfound creativity and thinking to programming decisions for Fox.

Still, if I had to speculate on which of the ABC Saturday night line-up from the mid-seventies to mid-eighties would get a reboot, I didn't envision it would be  Fantasy Island". Part of the reason is because the original "Fantasy Island" was a little far-fetched. 

The original "Fantasy Island" was a fantasy drama television series which was created by Gene Levitt. As noted, it aired on ABC from 1977 to 1984. The series starred Ricardo Montalbán as the mysterious Mr. Roarke and Hervé Villechaize as his assistant, Tattoo. Guests were granted so-called "fantasies" on the island ... for a price. In other words, the guests all received whatever their lifelong fantasies were, but the fantasies that the guests envisioned seldom turned out quite the way they had expected.

There had been discussions of rebooting the old show over the years, but few materialized. In 1998, there was one ill-fated attempt to use "Fantasy Island" as the basis for a horror movie, but it bombed because it wasn't a good concept.

"Fantasy Island" Reboot Is Unique: Women Are Behind It

However, a "Fantasy Island" series reboot was greenlit on December 2020, slated for a 2021 release on Fox broadcast television. The series will be a co-production between Sony Pictures Television and Fox Entertainment. In April 2021, it was announced that Kiara Barnes and John Gabriel Rodriguez had joined the main cast of the series. That same month, it was also announced that Roselyn Sánchez had joined the cast of the series as Elena Roarke, who plays the granddaughter of the late Mr. Roarke, and as already noted, the rebooted "Fantasy Island" series is scheduled to premiere on August 10, 2021 — which is tonight!

The series, which is not necessarily anticipated to be a permanent addition, rather it serves as a fill-in during a period in which new TV content is largely absent from the airwaves other than the horrible and tired "reality" shows such as "Big Brother". The "Fantasy Island" reboot might be a compelling addition with a creative, intelligent reboot attempt. 

More than 37 years after Ricardo Montalbán finished his run as Mr. Roarke, the debonair concierge of an enigmatic, wish-fulfilling beach resort in the Pacific Ocean, "Fantasy Island" is returning once more to network television. But this time, the latest iteration arrives on Fox with women on both sides of the camera.

The "Fantasy Island" reboot was created by Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain, and the new "Fantasy Island" premieres on Tuesday. It centers on Elena Roarke played by Roselyn Sánchez, who is a grandniece of Montalbán's Mr. Roarke who has left her life in New York behind to become the sophisticated steward of the island, where she sates her guests' greatest desires but teaches them that what they want isn't necessarily what they need.

The show reportedly "delves into the 'what if' questions, both big and small, that keep us awake at night," per its official logline. "Each episode will tell emotional, provocative stories about people who walk in with a desire, but end up reborn to themselves through the magical realism of Fantasy Island."

Roselyn Sánchez told the New York Times (see https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/09/arts/television/fantasy-island-returns-roselyn-sanchez.html for the article) "We did watch 'Fantasy Island' as kids and we have such strong memories of sitting in our respective houses and watching Mr. Roarke and his sidekick, Tattoo [played by Hervé Villechaize]," said Sarah Fain, who serves as a showrunner along with Craft. "But we loved the show so much that it very quickly felt like a really incredible opportunity."

In Sánchez, Elizabeth Craft said the creators had found someone who they believe has the perfect combination of "humor, warmth, compassion and natural authority." For the Puerto Rican actress, the show, which was shot on the island, offered a chance to reunite with relatives and many of the same crew members she had worked with at the start of her career.

The production also gave Puerto Rico a much-needed financial boost. "It's really important to the island, to them and to me," said Ms. Sánchez, who opted to postpone her directorial feature debut in favor of shooting the 10-episode first season of "Fantasy Island" in her homeland.

In a phone interview from Puerto Rico, Sánchez talked with the New York Times about the pressure that comes with stepping into the shoes — and iconic white suit — of Ricardo Montalbán, and Latino representation in Hollywood. But she said that the premise of the show is pretty much the same as the original. 

"It's about wish fulfillment; it's about growing as a human being; it's about making dreams come true. Guests come to the island — they have a desire, they have a dream, whatever it is — then the island helps them navigate through a journey that has magic and can fulfill them.

But the fact that the lead role is a female, that's a testament to how the showrunners wanted to do something that is a little more current. Directors, a lot of heads of departments, showrunners — they're all female, behind the camera and in front of the camera. They took some creative liberties that are going to elevate the material, especially the fact that you have minorities in charge as leads. It's keeping up with the current times."

The New York Times asked Ms. Sánchez: "In promotional videos you mentioned that you were a fan of the original. What are your most vivid memories of watching the show as a girl in Puerto Rico?"

Her response was: "We had [the original "Fantasy Island"] in Spanish here. I was born in 1973, and the show was in the '70s, so I was very young. But that moment of the Tattoo character ringing the bell and saying, "El avión, el avión" ["The plane, the plane"] is very vivid.

You have to understand that Ricardo Montalbán, for Latinos, he was like royalty. Just the fact that he was a leading man carrying his own show, and he did it so well, and it was so successful. Having the opportunity to portray pretty much that character and continue the Roarke legacy, it’s a dream, and I do recognize it's a  responsibility. But it's one that I'm embracing with all my heart, and I hope people enjoy me as much as they enjoy him."

Fox has a website for the series (for the time-being, anyway) at https://www.fox.com/fantasy-island/. Over the past few weeks, Roselyn Sánchez been on the promotional circuit for the reboot of "Fantasy Island". However, Fox television has produced a short commercial, followed by a half-hour deep dive into the reboot. You can watch those below, or on YouTube by visiting https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfSNYYNU6TvEPe5VuJ23fimwDy92WSJCz 

 

Vicki Lawrence Re-Emerges on TV as Margaret on "The Cool Kids"

A while back, I shared in a post (see HERE) I did about the "Dead Celebrities Cookbook" (and its sequel "Christmas in Tinseltown"), mentioning that I visited Vicki Lawrence's personal website after buying the DVD set of "Mama's Family", where I encountered a recipe which she shared from another dead celebrity: the late Dinah Shore. The recipe was good, but comedienne and actress Vicki Lawrence is on another career high as of late. She stars as the character Margaret in the new sitcom on Fox television (the broadcast network now owned by Disney) called "The Cool Kids" which premiered in September 2018. The series co-stars Martin Mull, David Alan Grier and Leslie Jordan.

"The Cool Kids" follows three male senior citizen friends at Shady Meadows Retirement Community (a joke on the show was that Allison, the head of Shady Meadows Retirement Community told the residents that they were in Shady Meadows voluntarily, to which they responded "We are? Our kids never told us that!") who are the top dogs until they're blown out of the water by the newest member of the community, a female rebel named Margaret who's ready to challenge their place – it's kind of like high school, only with 70-somethings. In case you hadn't guessed it, the female rebel is played by Vicki Lawrence (age 69 as of 2018).

The cast of "The Cool Kids": Martin Mull, David Alan Grier, Vicki Lawrence, and Leslie Jordan at the 2018 Fox Network Upfront at Wollman Rink, Central Park on May 14, 2018 in New York City.

"The Cool Kids" turned into a sleeper-hit for the Fox broadcast television network, opening to impressive ratings drawing over 9 million viewers, making it the most-watched new series launch on Fox since "New Girl" debuted back in 2011. That initial success prompted the network to order a full season for the show after its trial run.

Vicki Lawrence told the entertainment magazine Vulture that "They were casting this right when we were doing the 50th anniversary of the Burnett reunion. I didn't want to go [to the audition], because I just wanted to go over to CBS and see Carol, hang out, see all my old friends, and visit with all the cool guest stars she was gonna have on there. I could not be bothered. My agent kept calling me saying, 'But this is perfect for you!' And I went, 'It's cute, but really, I'm so tired of going to auditions.'" Of course, she was ultimately persuaded to join the cast.

Vicki Lawrence's Entertainment Career Resume Is Surprisingly Short Due to the Longevity of Her Work

Aside from Vicki Lawrence's 11-season tenure on the ever-popular "The Carol Burnett Show", she has surprisingly few television credits to her name except for the long-running spin-off from that show called "Mama's Family" (I wrote about "Mama's Family" HERE) which ran for six seasons over a seven-year period. That show was produced by Joe Hamilton and began on network television, but was taken off the air after a two season run on NBC, but was subsequently rebooted even more successfully in syndication with a number of modifications, running for six seasons from 1983-90.

Vicki was just age 24 when she first played the abrasive, Southern senior citizen matriarch character of Thelma Mae Crowley Harper, better known as simply Mama, which first emerged on "The Carol Burnett Show" back in 1974. "The Family" as it became known on "The Carol Burnett Show" was so consistently popular that it became one of the recurring skits to endure on the Burnett Show. In "The Family", Carol Burnett played the main character of Eunice Harper Higgins (an emotionally-needy character who often goes off on rants about her lot in life), while Harvey Korman played Eunice's husband Ed Higgins; Betty White occasionally played Eunice's snobby older sister Ellen Harper-Jackson (at least in a few episodes both on "The Carol Burnett Show", as well as on the network television run for the spin-off) along with guest-stars such Roddy McDowall (who portrayed brother Phillip in nearly as many episodes of "The Family" as Betty White did the character Ellen, although Betty White played in both "The Carol Burnett Show" and the network run of "Mama's Family"), Tom Smothers, Alan Alda, William Conrad, Jim Nabors, Maggie Smith, Joanne Woodward, Madeline Kahn, Chuck Barris, Jaye P. Morgan, Jamie Farr, Allen Ludden and Craig Richard Nelson.

Anyway, with her latest character Margaret on "The Cook Kids", Vicki Lawrence plays a character who not only appears much younger than Thelma Harper, but also behaves younger. Indeed, the entire show challenges the notion of aging. In many respects, the series is similar to the way in which "The Golden Girls" upended traditional television depictions of aging, representing characters who were vibrant, and not requiring a young character to carry the show.

When producer Charlie Day pitched "The Cool Kids", he said that Fox pressed him to inexplicably include a younger character in the main cast. "I said, 'That's ridiculous.' Young [viewers] can relate to older characters. Don't make me force in a young character that doesn't fit. And they were kind enough to relent to my yelling."

AARP's monthly magazine introduced "The Cool Kids" this way (see the article HERE):

"Could Hollywood's next movement be #AgeismToo? Consider this: 'The Golden Girls' (which I blogged about HERE), that classic sitcom centered on three 60-something women and one feisty octogenarian, was a Top 10 ratings hit for six of its seven seasons (1985-92). But it's still taken 26 years for mainstream network honchos — at youth-obsessed Fox, no less — to deliver another comedy strictly focused on seasoned types."

In her interview with Vulture, it was noted that "The Golden Girls" did great with college kids. Vicki Lawrence responded by saying:

"We tested really well with the younger audience. Because God knows, they love to laugh at their grandparents. And yeah, I knew many young people that were in love with 'The Golden Girls'. The young audience loved 'Mama's Family'. When I first started doing my road show, I assumed that my audience was gonna be an older crowd from the Burnett Show, and I was really surprised by the fact that so many young people showed up."

Mama's Family Also Did Well With Young Audiences and Gay Audiences

Truth be told, the sitcom "Mama's Family" did much better with younger audiences in its resurrection in syndication. Part of the reason was because NBC repeatedly changed the time-slot for the show in during its initial network run, making it difficult for fans to find it on television. Among the other key changes in its successful syndicated resurrection were a closer focus on just a few cast members; several left the show (or were never permanent cast members to begin with) in order to join (perhaps not surprisingly) "The Golden Girls". Notably, Rue McClanahan left the role as Fran Harper on "Mama's Family" to permanently play Blanche Devereaux on "The Golden Girls" and Betty White who was only a guest star as Ellen Harper-Jackson on "Mama's Family" also joined "The Golden Girls" as a permanent cast member on "The Golden Girls" who played Rose Nylund on that show.

Golden Girls Overlap

"Mama's Family" aired around the same period as "The Golden Girls", managed to draw many of the same viewers (particularly among younger and gay audiences). Other changes to the resurrected "Mama's Family" was a new set, the elimination of the two of characters who were Vinton Harper's two children with his first wife Mitzi (a character never seen on the show), and replacing them with one younger character who was sister Eunice Harper Higgins' son Bubba Higgins. The character Bubba was a key reason the resurrected show did so well in syndication (the time slot where it frequently ran in syndication was another, typically airing early evenings around 7:00 or 7:30 PM). Bubba was played by the buff, ginger actor Allan Kayser. The character of Bubba Higgins always wore extremely tight-fitting jeans, and numerous teenage girls (and gay boys) watched the show mainly to see Bubba and the bulge in his tight-fitting jeans as eye-candy. The other important new character in the resurrection was that of neighbor Iola Boylen played by actress Beverly Archer, who was central to many plots. The character of Iola was a regular in the reboot. Iola was the neighbor and best friend of Thelma, who was written into the show as a replacement for deceased Aunt Fran. Iola is an old maid/spinster who is the same age Naomi, whom she is jealous of for her marriage to Vinton. She is known for being able to knit little trinkets out of dryer lint, and other assorted "crafts", as well as her domestic cooking skills.

By comparison, "The Cool Kids" is a bit crass (by design), and it is also a bit braver with its main characters than "The Golden Girls" was, with a core cast consisting of both men and women (including Vicki Lawrence and her castmates who are men: Martin Mull, David Alan Grier and Leslie Jordan), caucasian and black (David Alan Grier is the black character best known for his work on the early-1990's Fox television hit "In Living Color", and on that show, one of his recurring characters was a skit the show called "Men on Film" where he plays an effeminate, gay, black man named Antoine Merriweather), as well as straight and gay (Leslie Jordan's character is gay, just as the actor himself is in real life) characters. To a large extent, the cast resemble their characters. In many ways, this also reflects broader changes in American society, and although "The Golden Girls" fearlessly addressed most of those issues, they weren't part of the show's core cast.

While "The Cool Kids" isn't quite a "Golden Girls" reboot it comes pretty close. AARP noted "Kids may not yet handle its inevitable jokes about irregularity and, yes, Alzheimer's disease with the finesse of The Golden Girls, but it's heartening to know that the show refuses to treat its characters like doddering fools. The show is less William Shatner in 2010's flop $#*! My Dad Says, thank goodness, and more Betty White as Elsa in Hot in Cleveland."

In the end, success for "The Cool Kids" may teach the lessons "The Golden Girls" should have taught television thirty-five years ago, but they simply did not remember. To some extent, as Vicki Lawrence acknowledged, networks aren't run by old guys in suits anymore. She says "They're just young and adorable." Maybe they are, but the networks are still struggling. Today they compete not only with cable, but with streaming services (both paid and free). The explosion in content has changed what we think of as television.

Vicki Lawrence acknowledged that in her Vulture interview.

Well, everybody's going everywhere. We had that whole meeting with all those people. I’m like, "You're from what, now? What in the hell is Roku?" Then after this meeting, we did these promos: "If you missed The Cool Kids on Fox, don’t forget to check us out on Netflix. Don't forget to check us out on iTunes. Don’t forget to check us out on Roku. Don’t forget to…" At the end of the meeting, I said, “I’ve got a question. How in the hell do you do the ratings anymore?" They said, "Oh, it's very complicated and very different." Television is not like television was at all, anymore.

She's not kidding on that!

You can have a look at the preview for "The Cool Kids" below, or by visiting https://youtu.be/T1-lhUD9YfE. That's followed in the playlist below with an interview by The Paley Center for Media in September 2018 with "The Cool Kids" producer Charlie Day and the cast of "The Cool Kids". That interview can be seen in the playlist below, or by visiting https://youtu.be/wJb5ziNYsas. I've created a shortcut for the entire playlist which can be visited directly at https://tinyurl.com/y27ns6ey.



As for watching "The Cool Kids", it runs on Friday evenings on Fox broadcast television, or it can be viewed on demand (typically free) on most digital cable systems, or even streaming directly on Fox television's YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=EL8p86Z2CBJH-mhmqfMNhcBQ channel, or on other digital channels, including Fox's website for the show at https://www.fox.com/the-cool-kids/.

Author P.S.: A Belated Tribute to Ken Berry

On December 2, 2018, there was the sad news that actor/dancer Ken Berry had passed away at age 85 (see the obituary at https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2018/12/02/ken-berry-star-f-troop-mamas-family-has-died/2183492002/ for details). Ken Berry played the dim-whitted son Vinton Harper on the hit syndicated sitcom (which was initially a network show) that Vicki did with Ken known as "Mama's Family" for six seasons after its 1983 debut. Vicki Lawrence herself acknowledged his passing on her Instagram feed https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq5eVoelrOC/ In addition to his appearances on "Mama's Family", the "F-Troop", Ken Berry was also a frequent guest star on many TV shows, game shows, daytime talk shows, etc. He also did a television commercial for the now-defunct seventies national shoe retailer known as Kinney Shoes which can be seen at https://youtu.be/h8aAFHhaIKc which is a great demonstration as his less-appreciated skill as a dancer. R.I.P. Ken Berry.

Author P.S., Fox Does Not Renew "The Cool Kids" for Season 2:

There was news on May 10, 2019 that Fox television, under new ownership with Disney, did not renew "The Cool Kids" for a second season. Deadline reported that like many sitcoms, "The Cool Kids" started out with solid numbers, but apparently those numbers did not continue as the rest of the season progressed. Still, TVLine reported that the show had solid ratings, even if the show did not have tremendous buzz among youth. It had an average a 0.85 demo rating, meaning "The Cool Kids" ranked fifth among Fox comedies this season, behind only "The Simpsons", "Last Man Standing", "Bob's Burgers" and "Family Guy". Excluding animated sitcoms, it only outranked the previously cancelled "Rel". However, as Vicki Lawrence herself admitted (see above), the manner in which network executives today measure success or failure is "all over the place" with Nielsen ratings being just one component of success, but less quantifiable measures such as social media shares, internet viewership and other factors now playing a role in business decisions. Those, however, are very much a function of a network's financial support to promote a show via those channels. It is unclear what (if anything) Fox did to promote "The Cool Kids" via alternative channels.

Boomers, Gen X, Millennials and Tech

Today's post is a bit unusual for several reasons.  First, it centers on a podcast rather than a TV clip, article, movie or music from a genuine media outlet (like a printed newspaper or magazine).  These days, the number of new online newspapers and magazines has exploded, although not all are legitimate businesses, many are simply mining for web clickbait and may ultimately spam people willing to provide their email addresses.  But the evolving media market is a key part of this story.  My main reservation is that the podcast itself comes from a conservative think tank, rather than a genuine media outlet, so I had some reservations because many such organizations are proven to promote known falsehoods.  But upon listening to the discussion in this podcast, I feel pretty comfortable sharing it.

The origins begin with a new book that will be released on August 14, 2018 entitled "Zero Hour for Gen X: How the Last Adult Generation Can Save America from Millennials" by Matthew Hennessey (available for purchase on August 14, 2018 at Amazon.com, see http://amzn.to/2D1GqPt for detail).  There is a podcast at the end of this post which I am sharing because its interesting and not overtly partisan in nature in spite of coming from a conservative think tank.

Note that the book's author, Mr. Hennessey, is a contributor to the Wall Street Journal, which has been owned by Australian immigrant Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation since 2007.  The Murdoch purchase ended a century of Bancroft-family ownership at Dow Jones & Co. (the WSJ publisher) and it put the premier U.S. business newspaper directly into Murdoch's very partisan media oversight, although its worth acknowledging that Dow Jones has struggled financially since being acquired by News Corp.  The difficulty has more to do with a rapidly changing media landscape than the political leanings of its primary owner.  The new media landscape includes adept outlets including startups like Business Insider which began in 2009, plus traditional newspapers like the UK's Financial Times which have expanded into the U.S., not to mention Bloomberg's ubiquitous terminals at firms all over Wall Street which have rendered the WSJ far less important (and less relevant) than traditional newspapers are, with their less frequently updated publishing schedules.

Immigrant Rupert Murdoch's Struggle to Keep Up With Tech

Indeed, the global television and entertainment conglomerate controlled by Rupert Murdoch and his family renamed its entertainment assets 21st Century Fox (including its TV network and movie studio among other things) in 2013, but surprisingly, on December 14, 2017, it announced (see http://politi.co/2qM81PC for the news) that The Walt Disney Co. had struck a deal valued at $52.4 billion to acquire most of the Hollywood holdings of 21st Century Fox.  All that remains of the original conglomerate he created is what he calls "the new Fox" — essentially, Fox News, Fox Business Network, the national Fox sports networks, his broadcast network and a some local stations.  None of "the new Fox" are considered leaders in breaking important news, and in spite of being quite profitable, they have also won fewer prestigious journalism awards such as Pulitzer's compared to their biggest rivals.  Instead, Murdoch's model has been to use media to advance his particular view of conservatism, often by perpetuating biases of his viewers in order to secure their political votes, rather than legitimate news coverage.

Anyway, in Murdoch's core news business, Rupert Murdoch made a number of atypical missteps since taking control of the WSJ, including a completely incoherent pricing strategy for the newspaper itself (aggressive and unjustified price increases among longtime subscribers, who started dumping the WSJ), a poorly-conceived and poorly-executed Weekend Journal that aimed to compete with the New York Times but which failed by most measures, and perhaps most importantly, rapid turnover of the valuable journalism staff of the WSJ, relying instead upon more freelance journalists without much loyalty to the news outlet they were doing work for, rather than the paid staff who had helped to made it such a great American news outlet to begin with.

About Demographic Groups, And Particularly Generation X

With all that said, this post isn't even a diatribe about about Rupert Murdoch's (un)ethical or even business failings, it's about demographics, specifically Generation X (or Gen X) being squeezed out by the loud and self-absorbed generations before and after it.

In spite of having personal reservations about City Journal, which is published by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research — a conservative think-tank based in NYC, not too dissimilar from entities including the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute — I would just acknowledge that facts (something that the Heritage Foundation in particular seems to have run away from in recent years) should always be considered non-partisan, especially when it comes to demographic trends which are validated by U.S. Census Bureau data and is mandated to be collected by the U.S. Constitution.

I do not dismiss data simply because the source is from an entity whose political leanings are different from my own, although I will not blindly accept them, either (I do the same for more progressive sources) and all media consumers should do the same.

This particular podcast is one I am willing to share because the content is not especially political or partisan, rather it addressed the author's forthcoming book and some of the broader implications of demographics.  In this podcast, Mr. Hennessy discusses with Aaron Renn the fading of the Baby Boom generation, the rise of supposedly tech-savvy millennials (who did not build any of the tech they will be responsible for maintaining), and what he considers to be the challenge for those in-between, known as Generation X and potential implications in the future.

They discuss the fact that Gen X is sandwiched between two large demographic cohorts, and how those cohorts share some similarities in terms of size and the impact their size has on making them both more self-absorbed simply because of their raw numbers.  While some of Hennessey's assertions are more of a warning for his own generation (Gen X), particularly because younger Millennials seem very impatient in spite of their lacking relevant experience and old Boomers refuse to step down even though they really should because they are now too old to continue (especially in governance), the concern Hennessey seems to suggest is that Millennials don't view the world from the conservative perspective that 1980's sitcom "Family Ties" character Alex P. Keaton (played by actor-turned-star Michael J. Fox) is not viewed favorably by younger voters who now outnumber both Gen Xers and Baby Boomers.

Gen X's Ability to Navigate Around Self-Absorbed Generations

In reality, Gen X is not especially conservative from a political perspective, with about one-third being registered Democrats, one-third being registered Republicans and one-third being independent voters.  Also, Gen X has proven itself to be fairly nimble in standing out rather than being swept away by much larger demographic cohort groups before and after them.  Its not that special, but it was a survival skill necessary for a group used to being overlooked, and that's a skill that neither Boomers nor Millennials posses.  It's also a huge credit to Gen X's ability to stand out in spite of the odds which the author doesn't appear to acknowledge.

While it's most likely that Gen X's tenure in political leadership will be short-lived due largely to Baby Boomer unwillingness to step aside and get out of the way, combined with overly-eager Millennials eager to take center stage, its also appropriate to acknowledge that the transition Generation X leadership might prove to be very, very valuable for the country due to several reasons.

As the generation who literally grew up with the computer, one can convincingly argue (successfully) that Gen Xers are the true "digital natives" (the 1983 movie "War Games" which starred a young Matthew Broderick is perhaps the best example) who also grew up in a time of analog television, radio, movies, media, etc. which means Gen Xers are therefore uniquely able to assess the benefits to each way of doing things, and they might more wisely choose a path that seamlessly blends traditional and new methods of doing things than their younger Millennial or older Boomer counterparts.

Beyond that, there's also a degree of maturity that Gen Xers can bring to policy discussions that has been sorely lacking from current Baby Boomer political leadership, which has become overtly partisan and less willing to compromise, which has always been a cornerstone of successful, good governance.  The selfish "my way or the highway" is a hallmark of Baby Boomer leadership in recent years, and its an utter failure in governance.

Also, as already noted, Gen X is neither conservative, nor liberal.  Overall, they are middle-of-the road, with roughly one-third registered as Democrats, one-third registered as Republicans, and the last third as "independents" who are not registered with either of the two major U.S. political parties.

Baby Boomer Ethos: We Don't Care About Fixing Social Security As Long As We Get Ours

There are a number of big challenges on the horizon that Baby Boomer lawmakers have simply refused to address, perhaps hoping to force their younger counterparts to deal with them instead.  One is the ballooning of people their age who are actually eligible to collect Social Security and Medicare.  Privatization is a favored solution offered by many conservatives, but that's really trying to transfer the problem to another party that can take blame for any Boomer failure, rather than a genuine fix.  It's a myth to say that the system will be bankrupt because that's a falsehood; and the numbers prove it.

Social Security Not (Yet) Bankrupt, But Giveaways to Higher-Income Earners Must Stop 

Social Security taxes are paid for by both employers and employees.  Yet for reasons that are unexplained, there is a mysterious cap to earnings that are taxed, which means that Social Security taxes are only paid until incomes reach $128,700 in 2018.  That means for every penny earned over $128,700, no Social Security taxes are paid into the system.  Admittedly, the maximum benefit someone can collect from the Social Security system is also capped, but its always been a tax, not an indemnity life insurance plan or investment.  I would add that the maximum earnings of $128,700 is not especially high, either.  Perhaps it was unthinkable that anyone could earn $128,700 in 1935 when it began, but the few, periodic increases have not kept pace with changes in the cost of living.  Today, that's not even considered a particularly high income level, especially in certain geographic regions of the country.

So the earnings cap for Social Security taxes can and should be increased to a higher level (or eliminated completely), the exact amount is what lawmakers really SHOULD be discussing, with a debate about what that amount should be and why.  We can also discuss whether there should be a certain level of income and/or assets that merit no longer being eligible to receive Social Security benefits.  Remember, its a program to keep the elderly who can no longer work from going hungry or homeless.  But should Rupert Murdoch be entitled to collect as much in Social Security and Medicare as an older widowed woman from Nebraska of modest means gets?  Does he really need or even deserve it?  After all, hasn't he received enough in tax benefits?

Yet Baby Boomer lawmakers have not had a single serious discussion of this matter even now that 10,000 Baby Boomers a day are going on the proverbial dole.  Yet rather than doing anything about the issue, Baby Boomer lawmakers still in office have kept kicking the proverbial can down the road for future American lawmakers to deal with.  The only issue for them is that the solutions future generations make may not necessarily be good for Baby Boomers.  That means middle-of-the-road solutions are arguably the best outcome for all parties involved, except the very wealthy (and the selfish).

Anyway, have a listen to this podcast below, or by visiting the following two links (one is the conservative think tank's "City Journal" magazine article on the author's forthcoming book, the other is the website for the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research's podcast).  Although some of the narrative is speculative or uncertain (such as excessive technology use altering the way Millennials' brains process information), or what the priorities will need to be for the future leaders of America known as the Millennials) but most of the conversation is interesting and relatively on-point.  Certainly, there is a risk of cutting Gen X out of the discussion prematurely, which would be a mistake.  I did like the reference he makes to succession in the British Royal Family.

Whether Mr. Hennessey's prophecy is too worrisome is also a relevant subject to debate.  But I believe its an appropriate conversation for America to have.  Failure of society to do so could mean some very useful solutions are overlooked.

From the "City Journal" Magazine: Zero Hour for Generation X
https://www.city-journal.org/html/zero-hour-generation-x-15332.html

Podcast: Generation X, Millennials, and Technology
https://www.city-journal.org/html/generation-x-millennials-and-technology-15409.html