On Thu, Nov 7, 2013 at 11:13 AM, Ron Casalotti <[email protected]>wrote:
> *"It's good to be in something from the ground floor. I came too late for > that and I know. But lately, I'm getting the feeling that I came in at the > end. The best is over." - *Andy Greenwald via Tony Soprano > > Are we at the end of a TV era? Are landmark shows like the Sopranos, > Homeland, Breaking Bad and the Walking Dead the last of their breed, > relegating us to derivative versions of shows gone by? Interesting > arguments for the affirmative. > > TV Eats Itself: Welcome to the end of the Golden > Era<http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9933512/the-sopranos-walking-dead-end-tv-golden-age> > It is an interesting article and certainly worth discussing. My first observation is that Golden Ages flame out quickly and if that is what happened in TV, it is no anomaly. As much as we would like to see this wonderful creativity continue, it is just possible that another Golden Age is not around the corner and we will have to satisfy ourselves with more mediocre content that echoes the groundbreaking previous work. We can find Golden Ages for all of our entertainment: movies, TV, rock music, Broadway, newspaper comic strips, comic books, etc. The fact that there was a time that the creativity welled up, under whatever circumstances, and then flamed out does not mean that it is no longer worth our while to see a play see what is on TV tonight. Greenwald notes that TV of the '00s followed Hollywood in the '70s: "In both cases a combination of bravery and desperation led to the empowerment of the sort of idiosyncratic hotheads the studios (and especially the corporations behind the studios) would normally prefer to suppress or avoid." I wonder if there are analogies to be made with other Golden Ages like the Renaissance or classical music. Another point is that this Golden Age came when the TV model is going through a huge disruption and what the influence of the disruption is on the beginning of the age and on the end of it. And if disruption due to technological change plays a role in past Golden Ages, like the printing press on the Renaissance or the crafting of musical instruments on classical music. -- -- 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 --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
