Golden Girls Still Golden, 3 Decades Later

Television's "The Golden Girls" sitcom, was first introduced to the world on September 14, 1985 and ran on NBC from 1985-1992.  Although Cynthia Fee's rendition of the theme song became better known, it was licensed from Andrew Gold's song which was released a few years earlier (see https://youtu.be/voNEgCKzves for the original artist's release which got some radio airplay back in 1978).  The show was set in a (fictitious) ranch house owned by the character Blanche Devereaux, at least until Season 7, Episode 4 ("That's For Me to Know").  In that episode (S7/E4), Blanche supposedly shared ownership of the house with her two longtime roommates (Dorothy Zbornak and Rose Nylund).  The decision to share ownership was prompted by Blanche's plans to install a hot tub, but she gets more than she bargained for when a city inspector (whom Rose notified) tells her that she either has to lose a renter or make modifications to her home which would cost more than $10,000, which she said she couldn't afford  without raising the rent.  Dorothy suggests selling her and Rose a share of the house as a way of getting around the burdensome zoning restriction.  Blanche finally agrees to make Dorothy and Rose co-owners of her house in order to skirt the law, although nothing more was made of the change of ownership beyond that.

The address for that home was supposedly 6151 Richmond Street, Miami, FL (although no such Miami address exists in the real world, hence no real-life zip code exists).  Viewers must therefore speculate on the actual Miami neighborhood where the home was supposedly located.  We know it was not in Miami Beach, because the girls decide to stay in a Miami Beach hotel as their regular home was fumigated for termites in Season 2, Episode 2 (S2/E2) in the episode entitled "Ladies of the Evening" (in which the girls are mistaken for prostitutes and arrested).

Several different episodes mention various Miami locations, including Biscayne Boulevard, arguably a major north-south avenue transversing the entire city, while another episode mentions Pompano Drive, and in yet another, Rose asks Dorothy and Blanche if they’d like to go to Coconut Grove for lunch (her treat) to celebrate their friendship.  These clues suggest a house located somewhere between Coconut Grove and the affluent suburb of Coral Gables.  However, the reality is there was never a stated area of town they live in, and the homes in the area are neither particularly grandiose, historic, nor is the neighborhood particularly ethnic (ruling out neighborhoods such as Little Havana or Little Haiti).

In real life (at least in the first season), the exterior scenes of the home were filmed at a real house located at 245 North Saltair Avenue, (West) Los Angeles, CA 90049, in the hills of Brentwood (see photo above), although the landscaping of the house is known to look a bit different today. (Its located just west of the 405 highway and just north of Sunset Blvd.)  From the second season onward, exterior shots were actually filmed at the Walt Disney World Hollywood Studios theme-park in Orlando, FL (see photo below) where they built an exact replica of the house, which also became part of the studio tour there, at least until it (the replica) was torn down in 2003 and replaced with a new attraction.

Source: Flickr Partyhare, from Disney Hollywood Studios

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Tearing down theme park attractions is a fairly routine matter; Universal Studios Orlando once featured a full-scale reproduction of the "I Love Lucy" apartment set at the park.  Although the retail store still existed for my last visit, it had been downsized considerably and I believe could be removed to make room for future attractions (if it hasn't been done already).

6151 Richmond Street House Layout Subject to Some Dispute

"The Golden Girls" home layout is also the subject of some dispute, since the actual set routinely only focused on just 2 rooms: the living room and the kitchen.  Occasionally, some episodes featured a bedroom, a bathroom or even a garage, yet those rooms were never part of the show's primary set.  One thing is clear: until "The Golden Girls", the Hawaiian term "lanai" (defined as a veranda, particularly a furnished one) had never become mainstream in the American English language.  At best, people knew of "Aloha" and maybe "Mele Kalikimaka" (Merry Christmas, which was made famous by singer Bing Crosby), but thanks to "The Golden Girls", a new Hawaiian term entered the American lexicon.  Scenes from the actual lanai were relatively few but occasional appearances emerged during the show, including the first season.  But the location of the lanai is, shall we say, open to debate?

Indeed, much like the actual Miami neighborhood, the precise layout of the house was never made clear.  Now, before I get too far, I should note that the actual house layout has been the subject to considerable debate due (in part) to discrepancies observed throughout the series.  The best discussion of these inconsistencies is observed in The Golden Girls' Wiki, which can be found at http://goldengirls.wikia.com/wiki/6151_Richmond_Street.

Different people have come up with varying ideas of the floor plan based on descriptions of the house from the series itself.  Even that can be subject to debate, although people can generally agree on how the rooms looked inside.  Occasional discontinuities are more likely to happen when a show runs for so many seasons.  I've placed several layouts below, or at http://bit.ly/1appwkQ.

For example, in the opening scene (Season 2, Episode 1 [S2/E1], "End of the Curse") shows the outside of the house, and the garage and driveway are on the left side of the house, whereas in the show's intro, the garage is on the right side.  In that episode, the girls raise minks in the garage, which is accessed from the back corner of the kitchen, hence the garage is actually on the opposite side of the house.  Furthermore, the lanai seems to be surrounded on 3 sides by the house, but the hallway leading to the lanai (and the way the girls enter from the left) would put it on the very front corner, surrounded by nothing.  There were also references in the show from Blanche that she could sunbathe in the nude on the lanai without any neighbors noticing.  Among the other inconsistencies include the following:

• The door in the kitchen that supposedly lead to the "garage" was really a passageway to the back hall (where the Girls' rooms were located) to get backstage

• Blanche's room, if you look back at the end of the hall in some episodes, was actually a door to backstage

• In the Pilot episode, the Lanai is located right in back of the living room and Blanche's room is back off to the left beside the lanai

• In other episodes, the Lanai is back off to the left of the living room, and Blanche's bedroom is at the end of the hall

Inconsistencies aside, the fictitious house feels like a second home (much as Lucy & Ricky's apartment did) for an entire generation of viewers.  We know for a fact it was a Hollywood set, as the photo below shows:

Photo of the studio set for "The Golden Girls"

Now, 30 years later, the show's decor seems dated (although a search through Flickr shows that some have found similar furniture for sale, see http://www.flickr.com/photos/skinnytie/4643140232/sizes/z/ for details); it was supposed to be themed like Miami during the 1980s, although wicker was popular nationwide at that time.  In Season 1, Episode 2 (S1/E2, "Guess Who's Coming to the Wedding?"), we see our first glimpse of the lanai when Dorothy confronts her ex-husband Stanley and tears off his toupee while out on the lanai, with occasional scenes in different episodes also out on the back veranda.

2012-2013 Era: Artisians on Etsy.com Bring "The Golden Girls" Home

During the summer of 2013, a scale model (scaled at 1:72) of the main set was made available for the primary set on Etsy (see http://www.etsy.com/listing/108583630/golden-girls-house-scale-model-6151).  The producer got a lot of positive reviews, and came back with several more, which were available for sale about a month later.  The producer sold out quickly on both the original and the subsequent items, suggesting he could find it lucrative making reproductions of the house, although it also suggests that the market for commercial producers could potentially mine for gold with old TV set miniatures, although its unclear whether Disney or any toy companies have much appetite for it.  He has since started selling reproductions of Lucy & Ricky Ricardo's apartment.

Shortly thereafter, another budding craftsman created a set of Lego people (see https://tinyurl.com/3y2n84wv for the news) with the four main castmembers of "The Golden Girls" and sold in on Etsy.com complete with a wicker purse for Sophia, a coffee mug for another, and a Lego cheesecake for all of them to share.  Although the Lego Golden Girls were cute, the price was  higher than the scaled version of their ranch house in Miami, though the scale model of the house sells for more now than it did originally.

Both are selling briskly, suggesting that the market is still healthy for these items.  The point is that these are evidence the show has touched several generations and is therefore likely to remain around for a while longer.

This show, perhaps more than others of the same era ("Family Ties" comes to mind, catch my post on that show at http://goo.gl/DRmhw) seems as timely today as it did nearly 30 years ago when it premiered.  Some of the reason can be attributed to the fact that it has never left the TV airwaves.  Few shows aside from "I Love Lucy" can make such a claim.  The show's origin is attributed to former NBC executive Brandon Tartikoff, who Parade magazine said (see http://ow.ly/scb2r) got the idea for the series while visiting an elderly aunt. His aunt's neighbor was also her best friend, and he was amused at how they constantly bickered with one another, yet they always remained pals.

Origins for "The Golden Girls"

However, it was really "Soap" creator (not to mention "Benson" and a few others) Susan Harris who actually brought the idea of "The Golden Girls" to life for NBC television.  Harris was already an experienced sitcom writer who had previously written scripts for "Love, American Style", "All in the Family", and "The Partridge Family" to name a few.  She also wrote the groundbreaking abortion episode for the Bea Arthur-starring (and Rue McClanahan) series "Maude" in the 1970s which won Harris the Humanitas Prize.  She and her then-husband started a company in Los Angeles to create television programming on behalf of networks.

Ms. Harris had a reputation for being difficult to work with (and for), although her involvement was somewhat limited once the show was turned over to the network.  Susan Harris also had a reputation of creating shows and then leaving them, and she admitted to a reporter:

"It's true. I'm the first to admit that.  My [then] husband has referred to me as a creator-deserter."

However, she added some of the reasons for that.

After "Soap," for which she was constantly writing, she said "I vowed I would never do that to myself again. But it doesn't mean I just write the pilot and take off", adding "I write notes, read scripts. I'm around."

But the show's success can really be attributed to the writers and the cast.

Core Audiences for "The Golden Girls": Beyond Middle-Aged Women

Regardless of the show's origins, it drew audiences from well beyond the core, middle-aged women it was originally intended to target.  For example, a 2005 study by Simmons Market Research determined that more gays and lesbians watched "The Golden Girls" than the general population in any given week.  The show touched on homosexuality more than once: Blanche's brother came out as gay in one episode (and later came back with his soon-to-be husband in another episode), In another episode, Dorothy's college friend was a lesbian who fell for Rose.

Actresses Rue McClanahan (Blanche) and Betty White (Rose) and one of "Golden Girls" writers Marc Cherry revealed what they thought made the show so appealing to the gay community in a meeting at the Paley Center in Los Angeles several years ago (Rue McClanahan passed away on June 3, 2010).  You can catch that short video clip below, or by visiting http://youtu.be/EeW-G1vBKkY:



Taking "The Golden Girls" Off Broadway

"Thank You for Being a Friend: The Musical" was an UNauthorized musical parody inspired by the beloved TV sitcom "The Golden Girls" which premiered in New York back in 2009 and starred a cast of drag queens, but and ended up being pretty successful for an off, off, off Broadway production. (see http://goo.gl/GJmhLo for more background on the show itself).  In fact, there is news that "Thank You For Being A Friend", the unauthorized musical based on "The Golden Girls", will return to the New York stage for several weeks starting on January 8, 2014 until February 12, 2014 (see the news at http://ow.ly/sbP8I).

The parody show is/was unapologetic about the fact that it was borrowing from the original, although it took creative license which also makes it immune to most legal challenges.  For example, the characters' names were Blanchette (described as the varicose-veined vixen) instead of Blanche, Dorthea (described as the brainy ball-buster) instead of Dorothy, Roz (described as the lovable airhead) instead of Rose, and Sophie (described as the wisecracking spitfire) instead of Sophia.  They’re spending their golden years together in a Miami bungalow, and Sophie recently left a nursing home known as "Shady Oaks" (instead of Shady Pines).

The storyline goes as follows: When a closeted, gay (former) pop superstar (originally, it was Lance Bass, although the more recent version supposedly features Ricky Martin; both of whom have since come out publicly) moves next door, and his loud, outdoor sex parties keeps the quartet of cheesecake-loving retirees awake at night. The solution pits the gays against the girls at the Shady Oaks annual talent show: if the women win, then no more sex parties; if the gays garner top prize, the sassy seniors must serve as the party's clean-up crew.

The website for the show (http://www.goldengirlsthemusical.com/) has several YouTube clips, including the opening song number, which can be viewed at http://youtu.be/dTO7HkndFLk or below:



To be sure, the New York parody featuring drag queens as the Golden Girls is not the only one.  Similar shows have been produced in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Boston, Ft. Lauderdale and elsewhere.  Clearly, this is an audience that appreciated the show, but never got to see the reunion they were hoping for.

There have been periodic talks of rebooting the show (including a funny cartoon version featuring the Superfriends, catch my post on that at http://goo.gl/aZkMS for details), but none have yet come to fruition!  While variations of shows featuring four primary castmembers have already been very successful on TV (for example, "Sex and the City" followed the same pattern back in the 1990s), there are now talks that ABC television is looking into developing a new comedy about a few (three) older guys (e.g. retirement age) rather than girls.

Golden Puppets Headed to Off Broadway in Autumn 2016

Laughter, spectacular put-downs and familiar friends as Miami's four favorite Golden Girls - Dorothy, Sophia, Rose and Blanche - all reunited as puppets for a lovingly hilarious live tribute/parody show!

In July 2016, there was news that the show was running in Toronto (Ontario, Canada), and Canada's radio network CBC had a nice interview with Australian writer and director Jonathan Rockefeller, who created the show.  Visit http://bit.ly/2bT36Cv for the CBC interview.  The show originated in Australia (it has a website at http://www.thankyouforbeingafriend.com.au/ which might be worth looking at for more).

But Americans won't have to wait too much longer to catch the Avenue Q-like show in New York, as there is news (see http://bit.ly/2aXFeuZ and http://logo.to/2bDNuky for more) that it will appear at the Daryl Roth's DR2 Theatre (located on East 15th Street) in New York, and will run from September 19, 2016 to December 11, 2016 (though the show was subsequently extended), with opening night scheduled for October 3, 2016.

The show's U.S. website can be found at http://www.thatgoldengirlsshow.com/.  For the record, Playbill reports that the set and lighting was designed by David Goldstein whose work is found at http://www.davidgoldsteindesigns.com/ in case you're interested.

Author P.S., October 20, 2016:  A playwright named Thomas Duncan-Watt of Australia accused Jonathan Rockefeller of fraud, claiming his North American puppet-production "That Golden Girls Show! A Puppet Parody!" was a blatant rip-off of his work (see the news at http://nyp.st/2exN9ko for more details).  "We strongly deny these claims and we look forward to vindication in court," Mr. Rockefeller said in a statement.  The lawsuit had not yet been heard by the courts as of this update.

NBC Universal to Launch Cozi TV in January

Once upon a time, reruns of old TV shows were shown in syndication, often at odd times of day as "filler" programming. Although that still happens to some extent, then came cable, and when that was still comparatively new, there was a network called Nickelodeon which featured programming geared towards children. But the Nickelodeon cable network realized it had a bit of a problem: after dark, their core audience went to bed and was not allowed to watch television! So executives at Nickelodeon came up with a plan to keep advertisers on board which they called "Nick at Night", with programming consisting mainly of reruns of old network sitcoms to lure adults in to watching it. The plan worked - adults did tune in to watch programs they were familiar with but hadn't seen in a while.

Over time, as the number of channels expanded, Viacom turned Nick at Night into "TV Land", a completely separate channel (although Nickelodeon still airs some older programming on Nick@Nite it's now mainly geared towards kids). However, since the advent of digital television, the number of channels has expanded significantly, and today, TV Land isn't alone in showing reruns. In fact, TV Land has been criticized by viewers on Facebook for only showing classic television during odd times and typically in blocks all together rather than an integral part of the programming schedule, instead leaving prime time open to first-run series such as the popular original show "Hot In Cleveland" which stars Betty White, Valerie Bertinelli, Wendie Malick and Jane Leeves as well as "Happily Divorced" which stars "The Nanny" actress Fran Drescher.

Host of New Channels Assume the Former Role of TV Land

Fortunately, today, there are a few other networks operating in the classic TV space, notably RTV (Retro Television), Antenna TV and Me-TV (which stands for Memorable Entertainment Television). Of these, I believe all (or most) are available without cable or satellite service (depending on which media market you live in), but via the digital airwaves.

Cool!

For the moment, I have found some of my personal favs on Me-TV. For example, this past summer, they ran a programming schedule called "The Summer of Me-TV", but among the shows that routinely filled their lineup were "The Bob Newhart Show", "Batman", "Get Smart", "Green Acres", "Gumby", the original "Hawaii Five-0", "Happy Days", "Laverne & Shirley", "Lost In Space", "Love American Style", "Mary Tyler Moore", and "That Girl".  I know, some of them are actually '60s shows that carried over into the '70s (such as "Get Smart" and "Green Acres").

Rival Antenna TV also has a number of shows worth looking into, including "Maude", "The Partridge Family", "Soap", "WKRP in Cincinnati", "Sanford and Son", "Three's Company", "Good Times", "All in the Family" and "Adam-12" as well as a number of shows from the '60s and even one or two from the '80s (who remembers "Too Close for Comfort"?). The simple fact is that much of this is now on the airwaves, so set your DVRs!! I don't have RTV in my area (which is the NYC media market, but I believe that network has better coverage in smaller media markets), whose lineup includes "Fat Albert" and "Archie" cartoons, "The Bill Cosby Show" (the original, not the '80s blockbuster "Cosby Show" which did not carry Bill's name) as well as the original "Starsky & Hutch".

Coming in January 2013: Cozi TV

However, joining these retro rerun networks in January 2013 will be a new addition from NBC Universal to be known as Cozi TV. It will be introduced in most of NBC-owned network affiliate markets (except Hartford, Connecticut, although half of Connecticut also receives New York City stations). Cozi TV will try to differentiate itself with movies that haven't aired in a while, but the new network will also be able to draw from NBC Universal's own vast programming library, including more than a few shows that haven't received much recent airplay, including "Magnum P.I.," "Marcus Welby M.D.," "Charlie's Angels," "The Lone Ranger," "Highway to Heaven," "The Six Million Dollar Man," and "The Bionic Woman."

Cozi TV also has agreements in place with other distributors, including Sony Pictures, so it will not be drawn exclusively from NBC Universal, but the new network has said it will also leave time ample in the programming schedule for local stations to utilize for local newscasts, local college and/or high school sports or, what has become common in the multi-channel TV environment, paid advertising.

The new network's initial branding will be: "Cozi TV. The easiest decision you'll make all day."

Have a look at the commercial that's been prepared for Cozi TV below, or by visiting http://youtu.be/8ANDOXSsHL4:



In the end, competition is usually a good thing.  I would say if your favorite old shows aren't on one of the existing networks, there's a good chance they could appear on Cozi TV.  Set your DVRs accordingly!

Pop Culture Reunion: Family Ties

Some TV shows seem to age very well, while others don't.  One need look no further than "I Love Lucy" which had it's heyday in the 1950s to see one program that seems to have endured the test of time (in Black & White, no less.  In fact, the CEO of CBS Les Moonves recently disclosed that "I Love Lucy" still makes CBS $20 million a year - impressive!).  Indeed, "I Love Lucy" has never left the airwaves since it first premiered in 1951 and while the prevalence of reruns isn't what it was a few years ago, it still continues to entertain audiences as much as it did in the fifties.  On August 6, 2011, Google dedicated one of it's popular interactive "Google Doodles" to honor what would have been the 100th birthday for actress Lucille Ball, whose namesake appears in the title of this classic TV show (see HERE for that, or visit the short link at http://goo.gl/srVSQ).

On the other hand, other programs don't seem to age nearly as well.  In my assessment, a variety of factors play into a show's becoming "dated".  Sure, hairstyles and fashion will always reflect current trends of the times (for example, "Maude" which was a '70s show featuring actresses Bea Arthur and Adrienne Barbeau features not only fashions of the era, but the set's kitchen where Maude had countless interactions with her various housekeepers featured Coppertone-Brown colored appliances which look positively dated today).  While well-written, the content was very much attuned to trends in that era, hence it hasn't been regularly on the rerun circuit until AntennaTV picked it up a few years ago after a long hiatus.  However, aside from fashions, I think a show's basic premise which is at the heart of it's script may also help it stay current, or accelerate a show's decline in relevance.  Maude was very much about women's lib and divorce (both were very current in the seventies) and to some extent, tremendous progress has been made in that area.

Back in the 1980's, for a time, the NBC TV show "Family Ties" was the second-highest watched TV show in America (after "The Cosby Show"), but it's important to note that although cable TV was widespread at that time (indeed, cable subscriptions more than tripled from 15 million in 1980 to 47 million in 1989), the traditional broadcast networks still dominated viewership.  NBC was tops at the time, with what it branded as "Must See TV" (catch my post HERE or by visiting http://goo.gl/Vzbcn for that post) with such shows as "The Cosby Show", "Family Ties", "Night Court" and a host of others that put the Peacock network on top in terms of ratings.

Yet at it's core, "Family Ties" was about the meshing of two different generations, with flower-children/hippie parents raising kids more drawn to then-current Reagan-era conservatism.  But if one looks past some of the very dated references in the show, the core of the show seems to age reasonably well in spite of character Mallory Keaton's (played by Justine Bateman, who is Jason Bateman's - another child actor's - real-life sister) positively dated hairstyles and fashions or Alex P. Keaton's (played by actor Michael J. Fox) repeated references to long-since-retired treasury secretaries and politicians, or even his carrying of a briefcase everywhere, which has long since fallen out of fashion even on Wall Street.

Beyond that, the cast has aged in various ways.

Michael J. Fox, more than any other cast member, achieved superstar status with success not only on TV, but also on the big screen, too.  On the other hand, Justine Bateman who played Mallory Keaton has since worked only periodically (for example, she guest starred in a recurring role on a 1990s sitcom known as "Still Standing" as a lesbian neighbor to Bill and Judy Miller, and Justine Bateman's character had a son who dated the Miller's daughter Lauren).  Just how extensive the references to "current" events and fashions may also play a role.  Towards the end of "Family Ties", there were many then-current references weaved into the scripts, which in my honest opinion is the reason that the earlier seasons of this particular show are more enjoyable than later seasons were.  But beyond the older two children, the other kids are no longer in the entertainment business. Tina Yothers, who played Jennifer Keaton has largely stayed out of the TV business (though she did "work" in a rock band), although she returned to entertainment after a nine-year absence in show business by working on stage in lead role for "Lovelace the Musical", which was a 2004 stage show based on the life of former pornographic movie star Linda Lovelace.

Meanwhile, in March 2010, Brian Bonsall, who played youngest sibling Andy Keaton on "Family Ties" was arrested in Colorado and charged with hitting his best friend with a bar stool (see HERE or short link http://huff.to/7pp7Fq).  But aside from one former child star (one who was on the show for less time than all the others) descending into typical child-star-turned-bad behavior, most are finding things to keep themselves busy and not spiraling out of control.  And, in 2009, actress Merideth Baxter, who played the mother Elise Keaton on "Family Ties" revealed (see http://youtu.be/iRfu_rotO_c for the TV interview) that she was, in fact, a lesbian.  Her coming out story typified what many gays and lesbians did until the 1990s, which was to try and live their lives as heterosexuals, but offers a fascinating example of just how far gay rights have come since the 1960s.

Very recently, it was announced last week that actor Michael J. Fox had signed a plum deal with NBC television for a brand new TV series that will begin in the fall of 2013.  It is being described as a new family television series which he will star in.  The industry trade press also reported that NBC went to pretty great lengths to seal the deal, including committing to the show before anybody had even shot the pilot episode. Also, the show will reportedly feature Mr. Fox as a father and will incorporate his Parkinson's Disease into the script (see HERE or http://n.pr/O2er1N for details).

You can listen to the "Family Ties" theme song "Without Us" below, or by visiting http://www.sitcomsonline.com/sounds/familyties-1.mp3.



Of course, the highlight of today's post is the 2007 cast of "Family Ties" (excluding Brian Bonsall) who reunited on NBC's Today Show after 20 years!  A few years ago, the cast of "Family Ties" (excluding Brian Bonsall) were reunited on NBC's Today Show.  The original link was at http://on.today.com/vAfAyU although NBC has since removed it, but another reunion of the cast was saved by Entertainment Weekly around the same time which can be watched on YouTube at https://youtu.be/6eTf-Pja6g8.



Much of the cast also appeared at the TV Land Awards in 2012, see http://bit.ly/2c7qkGm for the clip.  Of course, the entire series of "Family Ties" can be seen on DVD, and has made appearances on various broadcast and/or cable networks (check your listings for Antenna TV, Retro Television (RTV), or Me-TV).

This was one cast reunion that seemed to be very genuine insofar as the cast members seemed pleased to be reunited.  Unlike some other cast reunions where cast members rivaled one another for another chance in the television spotlight again, the cast of "Family Ties" (minus Andy Keaton) appears happy to be reunited.

Now, Sit Ubu, Sit!
(You may catch the Gary Goldberg book by the same title noted in the cast reunion above at http://amzn.to/PhsxOL).

Shout! Factory Grizzly Adams DVD Release

TV Guide cover Jan. 28, 1978

Well, this was one TV show from the 1970s I truly never expected to make it to DVD: Grizzly Adams (officially "The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams") which starred Dan Haggerty in that lead role.

My recollections of this show were of an older man with greyish hair and a bushy beard who fled life in the city of Denver to live in the mountains of Colorado without any electricity, phone, packaged food or any other modern conveniences.  Now, I was an eight-year-old kid at the time, but I recall this strange man befriending a huge Grizzly Bear he named Ben (after Benjamin Frankin), hence his character name was referred to as John "Grizzly" Adams.  I also recall the guy who would later star as Uncle Jessie on "The Dukes of Hazzard" (portrayed by actor Denver Pyle) playing a  role as another woodsman in (on?) this show, which aired for two seasons on NBC television starting in 1977.

However, I should note that my recollections are actually a bit vague because this show was never really re-run ad nauseum the way many other programs of the same era have been (which solidifies the shows in our memories), but the lead character was, in fact, a convicted criminal, although he proclaimed he was convicted of a crime he did not commit.  Still, the fact that anyone could truly exist and live off the land in the Rocky Mountains meant this show had a loyal following among environmentalists.

While the show was supposedly set in the Colorado Rockies, a very exhaustive and comprehensive website called GrizzlyAdams.net indicates that most of the scenery was, in fact, filmed in the Rocky Mountains of Utah, although much of the filming actually took place in a Los Angeles area TV studio.

Regardless, there's news (see HERE) from TV Guide's TVShowsonDVD.com that the folks at Shout! Factory will release Season 1 (there were only 2 seasons) of "The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams" on DVD, hence the first season of this peculiar show will be digitized and available to future audiences at the push of a button.  The scheduled release date is November 6, 2012.

The aforementioned website (GrizzlyAdams.net) has almost anything one could possibly want to know about this particular retro TV show, including a comprehensive episode guide, so if you want to have a look at what exactly will be included on the Season 1 DVD release this is a good place to do it.  Along with the DVD release, presumably, Amazon.com will also enable live streaming as they do for many other digitized TV shows, so you may be able to watch it on your iPad, Roku player or even with the luxury of a 2-inch screen on your mobile phone!

I'm interested mainly for the nostalgia-value this release may provide, but as with any DVD release, sales of Season 1 is likely to determine whether the second season will ever be released or even digitized.  Amazon.com shows pre-order pricing which is actually better than the "official" release price at just $20.95, so it's priced low enough to make an attractive holiday gift for any aging hippies or environmentalists with a penchant for retro television!

What Happens to TV As We Know It When The Business Model No Longer Works?

Television is a huge part of American pop culture.  Those of us in Generation X grew up in a time when we shared far more of pop culture than future generations are likely to experience.  Indeed, I think it's safe to say we're probably the last generation to have that collective experience.  As authors Gael Fashingbauer Cooper and Brian Bellmont wrote in their introduction to the book "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops: The Lost Toys, Tastes, and Trends of the 70s and 80s" (see my post HERE for more on that book) eloquently observed:

"For a supposedly fractured generation, we kids of the 1970s and 1980s share a far more universal past than kids today.  We all watched the same five channels, shopped at the same few chain stores, hummed the same commercial jingles."

Today's post looks at the topic of television and whether we'll ever watch TV together again.

It's courtesy of my local NPR affiliate, WNYC and ran on May 25, 2012.  They interview two different media guys, specifically David Carr, New York Times media reporter and Matt Zoller Seitz, TV critic at New York magazine.  Have a listen below, or you can visit the affiliate's website at http://www.wnyc.org/story/212463-future-tvs-community/:



Now, in that conversation, New York Times media reporter David Carr makes the following (scary) observation:

"Dish Network announced a technology right before the Upfronts, 'Hey, we can give you a product that's gonna vaporize all the commercials.' My concern as a consumer is that when the business model goes away, all this yummy programming that Matt [Zoller Seitz, TV critic at New York magazine] and I really enjoy might go away."

We may have an expectation as far as TV is concerned that could potentially disappear as we know it.

I don't think anyone is claiming that television is going away... yet.

Far from it.

But the content we've come to enjoy on TV has come at the expense of others (specifically, advertisers) and that business model is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain.  It's not inconceivable to imagine a future where television entertainment becomes primarily a subscriber medium, and those who can afford to pay for it will have the benefit of watching TV from, say their nursing homes, while those who can't will need to live out their golden years in search of something else to fill their days (and nights, for that matter).  Combine that with newspapers and magazines struggling to survive, and it really makes me wonder.

That may be a very pessimistic outlook, although it is a possibility.  I certainly hope it doesn't come to that.

My readers may recall that I recently shared an April 30, 2012 NPR interview with Warren Littlefield (interviewed by Audie Cornish), who was the former President of NBC.  I covered that in a recent post that can be viewed HERE.

Mr. Littlefield defends the current model to some extent, noting that "What audiences want and need are shared viewing experience. And what Must See TV was all about was one network, one night for one decade. And a third of the country would come and watch Must See TV. And you didn't dare go to work the next day because if you hadn't watched, you would be left out of the conversation, that water cooler conversation, that connection."

However, Ms. Cornish does ask "At the same time, you know, if you look at the numbers this quarter for the networks, ABC lost 21% of its average viewing audience.  I mean, this is in the last four weeks. NBC also lost percentage. Fox lost 20%. It just seems as though with the shift, where the eyeballs are going - people watching it on their own - I'm wondering how you still have that same creative process in development if there's this kind of fleeting paycheck."

Mr. Littlefield responded that Must See TV is not doable again, at least not that size and not that magnitude, but he does suggest that it is still feasible to draw a fairly large, widespread audience, such as with a hit like "Modern Family" (ABC) which appeals to adults and kids, audiences of all ages. He says that's still, at nearly 20 million people a week, a pretty broad-based hit that really far exceeds what's being watched on cable. But unlike, say HBO, which is subscription-based, networks can't really do big-budget productions without massive audiences.

The key, at least from my perspective, is that works as long as advertisers are willing to sponsor it.  Let's hope that continues to reach enough people to remain a viable advertising channel.

Luckily I have a pretty substantial DVD collection, much of which is "classic" television that doesn't even get rerun in syndication very much anymore.  But I'd still like to watch TV when I get old without having to pay for the privilege!  

Why Must-See-TV Is History; But Is It The End of "Shared" Pop Culture?

With 200+ Channels, DTV, On-Demand, DVRs, Roku, Hulu and and personal libraries of DVDs, a veteran TV guy ponders the future of one of pop culture's most prominent channels ...

A recurring theme here at "Harvest Gold Memories" is that in the days before digital cable TV and 200+ channels, DVRs, On-Demand programming, YouTube, Hulu and Roku streaming internet video players, TV viewers had much more of a shared, collective experience with this particular form of pop culture (television).  Indeed, as "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops?" authors Gael Fashingbauer Cooper and Brian Bellmont wrote in the introduction to their book (check out my coverage of that book HERE):

"For a supposedly fractured generation, we kids of the 1970s and 1980s share a far more universal past than kids today.  We all watched the same five channels, shopped at the same few chain stores, hummed the same commercial jingles."

That "shared" element is something that's lost when truly customizable TV programming has become the norm, and the trend away from it appears likely to continue.  For advertisers, its easier to sell to different niches of consumers than to try and do mass-marketing.  Although advertisers aren't the only factor behind this trend, they play an important role.

It's for this reason that I found a recent (April 30, 2012) NPR "All Things Considered" interview with former President of NBC, Warren Littlefield very interesting and informative.  Mr. Littlefield posits (and I'm inclined to agree with him) that there will like never again be an experience like what NBC television called "Must See TV" back in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Have a listen below, or by visiting NPR at http://n.pr/L2VEB2:

I'm not one to dwell too heavily on a past that cannot be resurrected, but I do find the issue interesting for a variety of reasons.  Notably, it makes me wonder just how sustainable the notion of being an "American" really is anymore?  One need only look at election results over the past 25 years or so to see the incredible fracturing taking place (according to a new report from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, Americans' values and "basic beliefs" are more polarized today than at any point in the past 25 years).  But politics aside, there is similar fracturing in a once largely-homogenous U.S. pop culture, especially television and to some extent, radio, too.  Mr. Littlefield described what's happened this way:

"We lose some of that massive collective experience," he said, "and that will never come back."

But less anyone be led to believe that all the hyper-fragmentation is good for all parties involved, don't be mistaken: Mr. Littlefield believes it's not specificity that viewers want most; rather it's good television. He added "I think what audiences covet, really, are the high-quality."

Neither he, nor anyone else in television, see the old days with massive TV audiences coming back.  However, we ARE seeing a return to some actual sitcoms after a nightmare of almost nothing but bad reality TV shows on almost every network for several seasons.  Those were seen as cheap to produce, with a cast that worked for free, but who the hell wants to watch reruns of past seasons of American Idol, The Amazing Race, Survivor or The Bachelor/Bachelorette?  That's completely disposable entertainment whose appeal dissipates when the conclusion is aired.

As for quality programming, we're seeing a mixed bag on that.  There are some standouts, but with so many choices, I suspect the creativity of networks and TV producers is being stretched a bit thin.  For every standout like Modern Family or Glee, there are also duds like The Playboy Club or Unforgettable (apparently, it was forgettable, it ended after just 1 season, with the final episode on May 8, 2012).

I would say much of the reason "Must See TV" is history is driven by technology.  Today, viewers don't see television as something they need to schedule their evenings around, but as something that comes to them whenever (and wherever) they want it.  The VCR was the first move in this direction, but few people could really program them (heck, few people could even set the damn clocks!), then came DVRs which made it sooo much easier.  Along with that, we have digital cable with on-demand, as well as streaming internet video via Netflix, Hulu or other sites.  Even if you don't pay for television, digital broadcast tripled the number of VHF TV stations available, and now includes things like RTV (Retro Television) or Antenna TV.  And you can even set your DVR to record something with your mobile phone so it records something you can watch when you get home.

If you're interested in learning more, Mr. Littlefield has a book available entitled "Top of the Rock: Inside the Rise and Fall of Must See TV" by Warren Littlefield and T. R. Pearson.  The book can purchased online, or downloaded as an ebook via the usual places (Amazon.com, iTunes, Google Play/Android Marketplace and elsewhere), or you can check it out at your local public library.  Besides the book, there's also a CD entitled "NBC: A Soundtrack Of Must See TV" containing theme songs featured on "Must See TV" consisting of around 50 songs.  That one, as I understand it, is only available on CD but you can likely find it online.