On Fri, Feb 4, 2011 at 10:22 AM, Bob in Jersey <[email protected]> wrote: > > Jon Delfin, to Kevin M., in part: >> I would contact PBS to complain about these shows, but I'm sure that >> there's no one there who possesses the ability to feel shame. > > From www.pbs.org/about/contact : > > "Have a question or comment about PBS? > Write our *Viewer Services department*. [Link to > http://www.pbs.org/about/contact/viewer-services/] (Please note that > due to staffing limitations, we are unable to respond to inquiries > that are addressed by our Frequently Asked Questions page.)"
Complaining about the shows isn't going to make them better. The first series, which Tim refers to, seems to have been made with a larger and at least tried to be more comprehensive. I will speculate that the first series did well enough that the producers were asked by PBS to do another series. Their approach was to get actors in a studio and get comments about their work in different genres and then put together clips from old series and the actor comment segments into hour shows. They added quotes from other interviews with Rod Serling, James Arness, others, and covered iconic shows of the genre like Bonanza and Dragnet because they couldn't leave them out. What the series is really lacking is a TV historian or critic to give a perspective of how and why the genre rose and fell or which shows were actually groundbreaking (whether they had stars available for interview or not). There was mention in two of the three aired episodes that the early success of Batman pushed Lost in Space and The Girl from UNCLE to go in that direction. I would say that the later seasons of The Wild Wild West also went in that direction and in all cases those shows were unwatchable. Even Batman dropped steeply in the ratings in its second season and the camp phenomenon proved short-lived and ultimately unsuccessful. I would have liked to see some acknowledgment of that. In the end, though, I think of this kind of series as an extension of the doo wop shows - find something your core audience has warm memories of and celebrate it while not mentioning any shortcomings. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
