The descent into Hell: 1984

Eddie Albert comes face to face with Big Brother in 1984 (1953).

In Christian theology, the "descent into Hell," as enumerated in the Apostle's Creed, refers to the time between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, when Christ descends to the realm of the dead, bringing salvation to the righteous who had died since the begining of the world. The Church believes this to be a triumphant occasion, the victory over death and liberation of those souls destined to reside in Heaven.

There are many kinds of Hell, other than the theological kind. There's Hell on earth, a Hell often of our own making, and when you descend into this kind of Hell, it's not so easy to see it as triumphant. There's one thing that all these versions of Hell have in common, though, and that's the loss of freedom, the enslavement of the soul, the stench of death. We are, I think, engaged in such a descent now; I say "engaged," because I don't think we've hit bottom yet, not even close—if, in fact, there even is a bottom. It is the Hell of totalitarianism, a Hell that has, over the years, played itself out many times on television. The relationship between television and totalitarian dystopia is, I think, an interesting and ironic one; it could be said that television both sheds light on and perpetuates totalitarianism, at least in its modern incarnation. 

And so it seems particularly appropriate today that we begin an extended look at this particular descent into Hell by returning to Apocalypse Theater for one of literature's most famous stories, one that spawned two television adaptations within five years of its publication: 1984.

George Orwell wrote 1984 (or Nineteen Eighty-Four, if you prefer) in 1948, and for those of you into numerology, it might be interesting to ponder that it was 36 years between 1948 and 1984, and 36 years between 1984 and 2020. Then again, it might not be; I suppose it depends on your outlook.

Orwell's world is one that's become familiar in both literary and political history, a world built on  censorship, government surveillance, mutual suspicion, and the suppression of any forms of dissent, populated by agencies with names like the Ministry of Truth, which controls the distribution of information and makes appropriate "adjustments" to the historical record so that they conform to the latest pronouncements of the government; and the Ministry of Love, home of the infamous Thought Police, charged with the arrest and "rehabilitation" of those who practice dissent against the government. Orwell's concepts entered the lexicon almost from the very beginning, concepts such as Big Brother, the Two Minute Hate, Thought-Crimes, Doublethink, and—perhaps the most famous and most sinister of them all—Newspeak. You know the highlights; War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength, 2+2=5. To paraphrase that great philosopher Chico Marx, "Who ya gonna believe: Big Brother or your own eyes?" 

The first visual adaptation* of 1984 came just four years after its 1949 publication, and perhaps tellingly, it was made not for the movie theater, but for television. It aired on September 21, 1953 (the height of the McCarthy era), as part of CBS's Studio One, in a production written by WilliamTempleton, directed by series mainstay Paul Nickell and with a cast that included Eddie Albert (above) as the protagonist, civil servant Winston Smith; Norma Crane as Julia, his colleage and forbidden lover; and Lorne Greene as O'Brien, the underground member who turns out to be an agent of the Thought Police. The Studio One production dramatically condensed Orwell's story to about 50 minutes, typical of most hour-long shows of the day. Although today's reviewers are mostly critical of the show (especially in comparison to subsequent productions), contemporary reviews were more favorable. The New York Times praised Albert's performance and called the overall production "a masterly adaptation that depicted with power, poignancy and terrifying beauty the end result of thought control—the disintegration of the human mind and soul." 

*The very first adaptation was on radio in 1949 (they didn't waste any time, did they?), broadcast on NBC University Theater, starring David Niven as Smith.

It took only one year for another television version of 1984 to appear, this time on the BBC, and this adaptation won far more critical praise, both then and now. It was written by Nigel Kneale, who the year before had created the much-loved sci-fi classic, The Quatermass Experiment and was produced and directed by Rudolph Cartier, one of the BBC's best. Winston Smith was played in this version by a very young Peter Cushing, with Yvonne Mitchell as Julia, André Morell as O'Brien, and Donald Pleasance as Syme, the creator of Newspeak, who eventually becomes an Unperson.

At nearly two hours, or twice the length of the American version, this 1984 was a much more detailed adaptation of Orwell's work. It also created no little stir, with many viewers calling to complain about the show's "subversive nature and horrific content," and a number of protests in Parliament. Other MPs, however, rushed to the show's defense, pointing out that "many of the inhuman practices depicted in the play" were "already in common use under totalitarian régimes." The Queen and Prince Philip weighed in, letting it be known that they had watched the broadcast, and had "enjoyed" it. Thus emboldened, the BBC staged a second live broadcast four days later, and it is this rebroadcast that has been preserved on video.

The fact is, any adaptation of 1984 should feel subversive and horrific, because it is. As brutal as the world of 1984 is, though, there's an even darker thought behind it, for as essayist Scott Bradfield has pointed out, "For Orwell, the horror of totalitarianism was not that someone would impose it on you, but rather that you might be all-too-prepared to submit." Or, as Benjamin Franklin put it, those who would trade privacy for a bit of security deserve neither privacy nor security. We can quibble about what Franklin really meant (the quote actually comes from a debate over taxation), but one of the great attributes about being a genius is the ability to synthesize a thought, even if it isn't the thought you were thinking of at the time. 

I find it interesting that there hasn't been an adaptation of 1984 since 1965 ("The World of George Orwell: 1984", a second production of the 1954 BBC adaptation, which aired as part of a season of Orwell adaptations on the BBC program Theatre 625), when the Cold War was hot and the West was about to explode in an unrest that, in significant ways, continues to this day. Radio, yes; a big screen version (in 1984, of course), and movies that could be said to be in the spirit of Orwell. In fact, the last time television broached the subject was in the famous Super Bowl commercial by Apple, which might have been prescient in linking modern technology and a future 1984 society (though perhaps not in the way Apple intended). But then, as I said, the relationship between television and totalitarianism is a complex one. I don't know; maybe television has a reason for not revisiting it.

Orwell's attack on totalitarianism wasn't aimed solely at communism; 1984 takes many of its ideas from post-World War II Great Britain. Undoubtedly, one of the reasons for the book's eternal popularity is that both left and right can point to its contents as representing an existential threat to freedom and liberty. But since we're on the subject of chilling statements, try this one on for size. It comes from Orwell, in correspondence with, of all people, Sidney Sheldon, who had purchased the stage rights to 1984 from Orwell. In one letter, Orwell wrote that the book "was based chiefly on communism, because that is the dominant form of totalitarianism, but I was trying chiefly to imagine what communism would be like if it were firmly rooted in the English speaking countries, and was no longer a mere extension of the Russian Foreign Office."

That, my friends, is what we face today. It takes no great stretch to make the connections between Orwell's creation and our world today; if you glance at the headlines on any day of the week—Communist crackdown in China is "Beyond George Orwell’s Imaginings"—the parallels become clearer. And if you think that it can't happen here, in the land of the free and the home of the brave, you haven't been paying attention. 

So the next time someone—perhaps in the government or the media—tells you that Freedom is Slavery and Ignorance is Strength, remember the words of the prophet: "Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter." (Isaiah 5:20) And ask yourself what you will answer when someone asks what two plus two equals.

The Six Degrees of Alex Trebek via Starcade

Wink Martindale's video vault of vintage television finds its way through an interesting kiddie television show of the early 1980's, Starcade, which ran from 1982-84 when Parker Brothers money ran out even with decent ratings (and a show I remember from my youth).

Jim Caruso and Mavis E. Arthur, among others, pitched a video game-based television show and filmed a pilot in 1981.  The original host of the pilot was Mike Eruzione, the hero of the country following his game-winner against the Soviet hockey team a year earlier in Lake Placid.  The pilot with Mr. Eruzione took 24 players, with eight players playing one of three different games in a tournament.  A second pilot was later ordered a few months later, with someone best known then from High Rollers and later the flop Pitfall hosting this pilot.  It was evident that this pilot was still a game in development.

The same person hosted two more pilots and did the editing himself.  When the show was picked up, the daytime Battlestars was being done and he was doing pilots for a Merv Griffin revival that would take him to the rest of his life, so he could not do this video game show.

The oddities of this show turned out to be even stranger.  Mark Richards hosted the first 23 shows before executives did not like his work, so for the rest of the show's run, it was well-known Treasure Hut and Jackpot! lead Geoff Edwards who hosted the duration of the show until its ending, it was very popular and people auditioned.  And you could even hear Edwards using his signature phrases at times, while we later learned one video game was his favourite and he'd notice that when it was chosen.  Edwards, of course, as we noted in his obituary in 2014, was a well-known hosts who also hosted Chain Reaction and even a few episodes of Let's Make a Deal when Monty Hall was sick.  Edwards was also Mark Goodson's first choice for Family Feud (something I've noticed with Goodson-controlled versions;  Joe Namath was Mr. Goodson's first choice for the 1988-95 version).

But wait . . . there was more twists and turns from the pilot and the first host.

Despite the failure of Mark Richards, the man who producers wanted to host Starcade after seeing his pilot but was unable because of other commitments later hired Richards to be a contestant coordinator of the syndicated show and moderate practice games for contestants in the first season. He released those recently.

The current person doing the practice games for Jeopardy!, as he has for the past decade, is Clue Crew member Jimmy McGuire, s a candidate to take over hosting the show and I believe is the favourite for taking over that show that caused Starcade to not have its first choice as host.

REFERENCES

PC Police Again, and An Old Movie Reference for a Vintage-Themed Show

T
he PC Police Strikes Again.  Our modern Zinn/Hannah-Jones worldview of history strikes again, and the real Curse of the Bambino roars its ugly head again.

In the early years of the NFL, team nicknames often were influenced by the local baseball team that often shared the ground with the NFL team.  We saw that with the Giants at the Polo Grounds, the Bears at Wrigley Field, the Lions at Briggs Stadium, and the Braves at Braves Field, which became the Redskins when they moved to Fenway.

The real Curse of the Bambino has been the number of men's and women's football and futbol teams, lacrosse teams, and other teams that have called Braves Field, or later after its configuration changed, Nickerson Field, home, were short-lived.  Nickerson was also the original stadium of the Patriots.

The 50-year old Blackfeet Nation-designed logo is being retired at the behest of the PC police, disregarding its post-merger titles won during the Jack Kent Cooke era after the Blackfeet designed their logo.  How have we become a nation that claims history is offensive?  It seems today's leftist crybabies have the floor, and cannot be thrown off it.  We saw it with CrossFit, and now we see it with the entire anti-police movement, the anti-history movement, and even sports teams with names these activists dislike.

If we keep up with this, only the liberal activists will always be right.

Vintage Movies Strike Again.  Radio Television Luxembourg's Press Your Luck 2019 on ABC has done it again.  In the first season, a winner from the 1983-86 revival of Bill Carruthers' flop Second Chance that lasted much longer (only being done in by the antics of Mark Goodson) appeared.  In January (when the shows were filmed), one episode features the one demographic that few would expect to be pushed on television (over 60 years old) playing.  All three contestants on the July 19 episode were champions on the 1983-86 version.

But the episode's name harkens back to Spielberg characters from Poltergeist II: The Other Side, where Carol Anne utters the signature phrase:  "They're back!"  And the reference for the champion of champions episode carries that exact title, celebrating the fact former champions return 35 years later for a "champion of champions" match.  It had me thinking vintage television reigns supreme again when doing revivals of classic game shows for a new generation to play.

The Emmys proved it

T
he Emmy Awards proved what is truly wrong with television today.  The three biggest winners are premium pay services HBO (34 wins), Netflix (27 wins), and Amazon Prime (15 wins).  Without a Kyle Busch Rule in effect, premium pay is pushing the envelope in X-rated material.  Netflix spends more money on television programming than the broadcast networks, even when the three major networks (as established by the NFL— Fox, CBS, and NBC) spend mostly on acquiring NFL rights, college sports, and golf.

As we've noted on television many times, "TV-MA" is a code meaning X-rated programming spoken here.  Without a Kyle Busch rule, studios are deliberately pushing the envelope and airing X-rated programming that the studios push to critics.  Then, the critics push the recommendations to get people into buying these services and watching the X-rated material.  When the nation's most watched regular television series (NCIS) is not even nominated for Emmys while X-rated material is allowed, have we reached a boiling point?  Is quality on television now regulated based on how banal they are where the X rating is best?

What good will it be when television focuses on adults-only programming?x

Hong Kong . . . and an NBC announcement

A
 release from NBC regarding their top-rated show on television that starts in a week with a special Thursday episode had me reminding myself of what has been happening in Hong Kong.


If, in the words of the late Jim Lange (from the 1980's version) or if you're even older, James Narz (aka Tom Kennedy) from the 1970's version that the lady we now know as the Mrs. Frank Gifford was part of that version, you "listen and name that tune," you will catch the reference to this tune with the recent NBC announcement.

Can you identify the reference?

#DennyDelivers number of channels, anyone?

I have to roll out a FedEx Toyota with a boatload of cash delivered by NASCAR superstar Denny Hamlin to the winner of the PGA Tour championship in East Lake -- but really it's an annuity the winner doesn't take home now, it is kept for the player in the future.

But that reminds me of his Toyota's number -- #11 -- and this disturbing statistic I caught while scanning channels today. This year's MTV Video Music Awards  air on eleven different channels under MTV's control. That's as bad as ESPN's College Football Playoff and, in alternating years, the NCAA Men's Final Four and Championship when AT&T carries them.  How have we spun numbers where 11 different limited access channels air major events instead of one broadcast network channel, which is what college football and basketball once were?

Just sad how far we've fallen when you use 11 different channels to air one show for one night.

In 2007, we were stunned by a "relevant Bible study" for youth in church featuring MTV stars.

And of course, in 2003, after the Spears-Madonna-Aguilera incident, we called all three of them to the Big Red Truck.  This time, who gets called to the Big Red Truck?

July 23 Notebook

Now That's a Watching Party.  The husband of a contestant on RTL's Press Your Luck 2019 (airing on ABC, produced by the German television network Radio Television Luxembourg) made some crazy tee-shirts for the viewing party when the episode she taped in May debuted.  Contestants of the ten-episode summer third revival of the 1977 Second Chance (ABC daytime) and 1983-86 Press Your Luck (CBS daytime) William A. Carruthers Company and 2002 Whammy! The All New Press Your Luck (GSN) production were told of their air dates afterwards, and a watch party was organised by the contestant's husband.

Ironically, the contestant's opponents ended up with red fur as both of her opponents were disqualified from the game for reaching the Chinese adage why elevators do not carry the number of a certain NASCAR Monster Energy Series champion that won his first race Sunday.  (It's used in Asian-themed cooking shows also why they assign certain number of servings they avoid that number of servings too!)

Is This the Future?  The controversy over the Women's World Cup National Football Team that won it all continues.  But meanwhile, as we see masculine failure around us, the question will arise as more "equal pay" and "equal use of venues" becomes the issue thanks to Title IX, and even research by groups.  In college, a student who was my classmate did his Senior Thesis paper on how Title IX abuse ran him out of his previous college, as he was a wrestler on scholarship and lost his scholarship and his admission to the school as a result of abusing the Patsy Mink Education Act of 1972.  I made a reference in 2012 to the consequences, but after women scored $3,000,000 in the last World Cup and men were BUST (as they say in RTL's Card Sharks bonus round, another classic game show revived for 2019, but I am not a fan of how slow the game is because Joel McHale doesn't do it the way Bob Eubanks and the late Bill Rafferty or Jim Perry did the game), the debate opens.

The controversy over the national football team will be a warning for parents of boys.  The feminine superiority and masculine failure wil lead to the advancement of ideals in high schools, as we see participation of sports by boys drop and girls rise in many states.  Friday Night Lights will soon be girls' high school futbol, with dance teams dancing at halftime.  Boys will soon be losing their entire extracurricular activities as Title IX activists will ensure only girls are allowed to have events, and boys will not.  Dance teams are replacing cheerleading at many schools because it is girls only while cheerleading is becoming coed in order to give boys who are proficient at gymnastics (which for men is a strength sport, as seen in high bars and rings) and want to be in CrossFit (gymnastics activities are required in those events) a chance to participate in strength activities.  In New York, we learned when new schools opened, only girls could have sport activities in the schools to meet Mink Act rules.  Will boys be subject to these heinous rules in new schools first as schools try to appease the wishes of these authorities working to eliminate masculinity?

You wonder what's next.

What Are You Teaching?  Visiting a church in the area after a long day out of town, there is a discipleship training class (which is an evening Bible study before church services).  As we went through Elijah's story of discouragement, somehow Mendelssohn's Elijah came back to my head after reading about "O Rest In the Lord" and "If With All Your Hearts".  Those songs were written from the oratorio based on the Bible.  Compare that to today's modern worship songs based on feelings of the writer, and not a single part from the Bible.  Go figure.  Why are we teaching feelings instead of objective Word?  That's part of the problem in our culture today.

Regietheater Run Rampant.  So MGM/UA and EON have decided James Bond is retiring and will be in Jamaica for the next film, while regietheater freaks have replaced him with . . . someone in the PC world.  This person fits all the checkmarks of the modern progressive movement.  What?

A Tribute.  The Take-No-Prisoners editor of The Washington Times, Wesley Pruden, died Wednesday at 83, hours after just another hard day of work for the legendary editor.  The man who was that newspaper from its 1982 founding all the way to the end of his life just hours after finishing up another day at the office leaves a legacy of a newspaper he edited and knew how to do things.  Sadly, Amazon, which indirectly owns the rival The Washington [BLEEP], left insults at Mr. Pruden's stepchildren that Media Research Network noted.

An appreciation of Wesley Pruden can be found here.

And here is Pruden's last column.

The Age of the Clueless White Guy

The current Hollywood crusade (well, one of them anyway) is inclusion and color-blind casting.

The live-action adaptation of Disney’s The Little Mermaid will feature an African American as Ariel; the new 007 will be a black female. Other characters originally established as one race and one gender have been played by those outside those groups in projects related to Harry Potter, Frozen, Marvel’s Thor, and nearly every other fictional construct introduced in times now rebuked as less enlightened.

As a result, though they would never dare say it aloud or post it on social media, actors cursed with the affliction of being Caucasian may wonder if there will now be fewer roles open to them.

But fear not – this shift in perspective has resulted in a new and flourishing growth segment in the lucrative field of television commercials: the clueless white guy.

If you choose to watch a few commercials instead of fast-forwarding past them, it won’t be long before you’ll spot one of the copious examples of this popular trope. Usually, the ad opens with our dim-witted protagonist saying or doing something no rational human being would ever dream of doing, until he is shown the error of his ways by a smarter, better-looking, and just plain cooler person of color.

I was going to list several examples, but watch TV for five minutes and you’re sure to spot one. Or check out this compilation that someone put together on YouTube.


To be clear, there have been clueless white guys in commercials dating back to the 1950s. Demonstrating the benefits of one product was frequently achieved by introducing some hapless soul still using ‘brand X,’ who has yet to realize what he’s been missing if he’d only switch.

But as everyone else in those commercials was also white, there was no association between his race and his obliviousness. Today these same scenarios play out with the same frequency, but when it comes to filling the role of the dumb sap, casting directors find themselves limited in their options. To have a white person explain to a person of color that the product they are using is wrong would clearly send an inappropriate message. Reversing the roles is the easiest way to avoid condemnation.

Is there anything wrong with this? I don’t know. If every role should be open to every actor, that should mean heroes and villains, geniuses and dullards, cool kids and nerds, can all be played as easily by a man from Hong Kong, Mexico City, or Somalia as they can by someone from Nebraska.

If this is penance for the stereotypes of decades past, then it’s apparently appropriate to right a wrong against one group by perpetrating it on another. Once everyone gets to be in the alpha class for a while, perhaps we’ll reconvene and figure out something else.

Either way, the Republic will survive. And as an observer of television I just find it interesting. If this writing gig doesn’t pan out, it’s good to know that I may have a future in commercials, as the guy who can’t figure out how kitchen appliances work.

Those who forget history . . .

A recent ABC news release announced that of their two RTL Group television revivals, Press Your Luck with Elizabeth Banks will air after the Rose Ceremony final for The Bachelorette, a production of AT&T.

After noticing ABC's schedule, I found historically, the decision did not sound appropriate for a new generation to play the same games their grandparents played, and a show that many from my generation remembered watching in the 1984 and 1985 summers that was a revival of Bill Carruthers' Second Chance that increased the emphasis of the bonus board and changed how the question round was played.  It also launched the career of Savage Steve Holland, who later animated Eek! The Cat and eventually became known for two movie flops (Better Off Dead, One Crazy Summer) that gained exposure airing on HBO late nights, who animated the show's signature villain.

ABC should have inserted the Joel McHale-hosted revival of Card Sharks after the rose ceremony.  If you're not familiar with that, note the career path of The Bachelor's casting director, Lacey Pemberton.  Think of the connection and see why McHale, not Banks, should be after the rose.

Good Friday with Bishop Sheen, 1956

I often make the point on these pages of how much things have changed over the years, not only in television but culture in general.

Bishop Fulton J. Sheen's Life Is Worth Living ran on DuMont, ABC and in syndication from the early 1950s through the late 1960s.  Blessed with a sharp mind, a whimsical sense of humor and a gift of gab, Bishop Sheen brought his ecumenical message to millions of viewers each week; as Brooks and Marsh put it in their Complete Guide to Prime Time Programming, the word "homily" would be strong for the friendly, accessible talks from the good Bishop.

A half-hour of religious programming in prime time on a national broadcast network would be unthinkable today - that pretty much goes without saying.  And while that is one measure of the change in television between then and now, it's actually another point that I'm thinking of: the idea of a "talking head" as entertainment programming.

There were no fancy graphics, no special effects, on Life is Worth Living; the closest thing being the invisible "angel" (actually a stagehand) responsible for erasing the blackboard Sheen used to illustrate his points.  People watched and enjoyed that, week after week.  As someone wrote not long ago about the Dick Cavett shows, it hearkens back to a day when conversation was actually considered entertainment - and by that I mean actual, you know, talking, rather than shouting, interrupting, declaiming, insulting, offending, and what have you. Of all the changes we've seen in television over the years, I think this is one of the most underrated and underappreciated.

What we have here is either from Good Friday, 1956; It was sponsored (as I recall from the version I have) by Progresso, and presented without commercial interruption.

All Class -- Thanks, Debi!

We discuss television often, primarily on the other blog, but this report that came to my attention tonight is a time to say "thank you" to a legend who just announced her  retirement after 43 years.

Debi Chard, the affable Iowan who moved to South Carolina in the early 1970's, serving part-time as a legal secretary to Jean Toal and was a radio news reporter in her early career, moved down 26 in 1976 and joined WCSC-TV as a reporter and anchored the Saturday news broadcasts. Her career later made her a top-level anchor and allowed her to be the fourth cog in WCSC's legendary Bill Sharpe, Charlie Hall, and Warren Peper newscasts when it expanded in 1991. After 43 years, she announced 
her retirement on their Thursday evening newscast.

I remember growing up watching her do news.  Now she's retiring after a wonderful career.

Looking for the perfect gift? Why not "The Electronic Mirror"!

Still hunting for that perfect gift? Or, like the people on the Black Friday commercials, are you thinking about a little treat for yourself? It's not too late - allow me to suggest my book, The Electronic Mirror: What Classic TV Tells Us About Who We Were and Who We Are (and Everything In-Between). 

The Electronic Mirror looks at how classic TV acts as a time capsule, telling us how life used to be, and in many cases how things got the way they are today. Not only does it feature many of your favorite shows and stars, it also places them in context, explaining their meaning and significance. As Carol Ford (Bob Crane: The Definitive Biography) says, "You won't watch TV the same way again!"  Best of all, you'll have fun along the way. If you like It's About TV!, you'll love The Electronic Mirror. And at $12.95 (plus shipping, unless you're a Prime member) it won't break the bank.

The link above takes you to the Amazon link, but The Electronic Mirror is also available at Barnes & Noble.com, as well as many other online retailers. And if you really want to make it a special gift, how about a signed copy? After you've placed your order, just send me an email (the address is on the sidebar) with your address, telling me who it's for and how you'd like it signed, and I'll send you a bookplate that you can insert in your copy. Don't be shy; I won't bite!

I'm very proud of The Electronic Mirror, and I'm confident you and your favorite classic TV fan will enjoy this trip through television history. Order now, in time for your gift-giving!

Opera Wednesday: Deseret, by Leonard Kastle

Back in 2017 (and at the TV blog), I mentioned Deseret, the made-for-TV opera by Leonard Kastle, which aired on NBC in 1960, and has seldom been performed since. The opera tells the story of a woman who, against her will, finds herself engaged to marry Brigham Young, the leader of the Latter-day Saints. Deseret received mixed reviews on it's premiere; even so, I wish it would pop up somewhere. One of my complaints about the rash of new operas in the last couple of decades is that we ought to be paying more attention to the underperformed operas of the past, rather than spending money on new ones that may only be performed once or twice themselves. (It also says something about the days when operas were seen, at least occasionally, on broadcast TV, but that's a discussion for the TV blog).

I'm told that a video copy of Deseret exists at the Paley Center in New York, but I was quite pleased to discover, quite by accident, an audio recording of the opera as it was broadcast back then on NBC. Check it out sometime, if you're so inclined.

Paying $30 for the final episode of a season?

In college, we had a group of friends that went to the student centre and organised pay-per-view watch parties for fake fights (aka "Professional Wrestling").  I learned from them that professional wrestling was a femme genre of television, the daytime serial drama, for a male audience, in effect each week's episode was a continuing story as we see with the five-day-a-week dramas that appear in the afternoon aimed at women (and it's proven that way;  Pop TV reairs all Sony dramas in the prime-time access hour).  As I researched the importance of pay-per-view in the fake fighting industry, whether it was WWE, New Japan, AAA, or Sinclair's Ring of Honor, which is the current squabble as Fox affiliates in many markets -- including mine -- air Ring of Honor, as it is owned and operated by the station, I learned that a wrestling pay-per-view is designed as a tie-up to end numerous storylines or keep extending them into another season.  In essence, they are season finales and a new season starts with the first episode after the pay-per-view event.

With that fact, I wondered what would happen if network television shows such as the NCIS franchise had a similar angle.  At the end of the 22 to 25 episode season, the season finale is aired not on network television but on pay-per-view at a cost of $30 for the final episode.  What might viewers think if those season finales, which may be double episodes, are pay-per-view shows after the other 21 to 24 episodes aired on network television?

That is how professional wrestling "seasons" are organised.  While Royal Rumble is a "season finale" for one season, it starts a story arc that will run to two seasons (No Escape* and WrestleMania).  Viewers pay for the pay-per-view that ends the first "season" and again for the end of the second "season" in this story arc.  Just imagine if Dallas had "Who Shot J.R.?" as a pay-per-view and then the opening of the next season on network television began the investigation, and the next pay-per-view episode determined who was the shooter.  That is exactly how professional wrestling works.

Television prophetic?

As I drove up US 378 to the area near the start line of Saturday's half-marathon that ended in complete disaster (disqualified at the sixth mile), I saw a sign promoting a play by a local theater company in the area.

Angrily after the disqualification I had thought of suicide and hearing "Suicide is Painless" in my head afterwards came (see "The Pain of Losing" for references). That theater sign was the problem.  And that's because of that sign from the theatre promoting a play based on a 1970 movie and later a television show that even to this day is known for its ratings shares that are higher than any Super Bowl could ever have. What show was it?

Retro TV Friday

Wink Martindale's site is known for posing classic television clips, especially in relation to appearances on quiz and game shows.  Recently, he posted the pilot for a television show that ended up much differently than what was originally envisioned between him and and Merv Griffin that led the show to lasting just one season.  But note the names referenced in the pilot for "Headline Chasers" that was sent to the National Association of Television Programming Executives in the mid-1980's for the concept he had developed for production.  In the first round (which became the third in the final version that made it to air), note the clues referenced in the first question.  In the third round (which became the first in the final version that made it to air;  eventually letters were added to the headline when clues were later given), note the first headline.  Both the clue in the first cover and the subject of the first headline are back in the news on this very time in the present in 2018.  The first is a mid-30's child of the People cover subject that was referenced in the clue recently tied the knot with an actress that was a model on a Dutch postcode lottery game show franchise.  The other, now 50, is appearing on another European game show franchise starting next week, and I personally met 28 years ago!

So what indeed goes around comes around, as we saw with the headliners referenced in the pilot for a show that Mr. Martindale admitted was ruined by Mr. Griffin's own staff.

Stars - do I even know them?

Scanning over the cast of Dancing with the Stars' Series 27, I had to think how old most of us have become when we could not even identify most of the "stars" on the cast list.  The three stars who would fit more into a PGA Tour Champions field based on age than a ballroom dance competition are three of the four names I remember a bit from my childhood.

Nancy McKeon, 52.  "Jo" from The Facts of Life, she is the third cast member to appear in the Auntie Beeb franchise (Cloris Leachman in S7 and Kim Fields in S22).  Of course, one recurring character in that show ended up as one of Hollywood's leading men in George Clooney, and Lisa Welchel actually caused a firestorm when she refused to allow her character to have premaritial sex and forced Embassy to rewrite an entire episode in the final season.

John Schneider, 58.  Oh to remember the days of a young film star who was a teen, jumping a 1970 Dodge Charger across Georgia through rivers, bridges, and the rest.  He wasn't meaning any harm, of course, but Sheriff Little would bust them for crossing the county line.  Of course, we later remember him as Superman's father, but he has proven faithfulness over these years.

Mary Lou Retton, 50.  America knows her as a 16-year old gymnast whose 10 made her a legend and the matriarch of US gymnastics.  For me, it's my 14-year old self seeing her speak locally and sign my program from her speaking engagement, along with a kiss.  For today's generation, she is the mother of two LSU gymnasts.

The fourth name of the cast I could recognise is Demarcus Ware, 36, a former NFL player who ate quarterbacks and running backs for a living.  Other than those four, who are these stars?

Regietheater on television!

Three cases of nasty "regietheater" came to our attention this week, and sadly, most Americans are unaware of the attempt to push the wicked agenda on television with classics is rampant the way operagoers are aware of this problem.

First, we have the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is taxpayer-funded, similar to Public Broadcasting System, National Public Radio, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in the United States.  They partnered with notorious X-rated television outlet Netflix to produce "Anne with an E," a television series supposedly based on Lucy Maud Montgomery's book franchise based on the life of Anne Shirley, which in all consisted of ten novels and short stories.  Now it has come to attention that the Justin Trudeau-controlled organisation has decided, with the King of X-Rated Television and the producers, Moira Walley-Becket, has decided to make a character a sexual deviant, much against what the characters Mrs. Montgomery wrote over a century ago.  Of course, this attempt to appease the "quotas" that Hollywood elites and leftist activists such as the Prime Minister are pushing is nothing more than a repeat of regietheater.

Second, Mark Millar is now concocting with Netflix (them again, note the coincidence?) for a series that is more Buddhist thinking than Christian in its nature.  The series features a twelve-year old boy that, according to official releases, claims he is "reincarnated" as Jesus Christ, with the full Bibliospeak of "turning turn water into wine, make the crippled walk, and, perhaps, even raise the dead."  Just reading those statements has me thinking there is too much Hindu influence in "reincarnation" and even in Tibetian Buddhism, which has not seen this practice for over 78 years as the current Dalai Lama was "discovered" by an elaborate clique that selects the person as the new Lama in question.  This "American Jesus" Netflix is advancing has all the signs of Tibetian Buddhism's elaborate scheme to discover a new Lama.  I cannot see the sense in this except for regietheater.

Third, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company's DC Comics brand has decided the fourth season of Supergirl, as it has continued since its move to The CW, pushes the perversion agenda further.  One character was made a sexual deviant, and now a new character will be a man who claims to be a woman.  Just how much more regietheater can this Supergirl be considering none of these perversions would have been acceptable in a DC Comic strip when the brand was first revealed?  Even television you expect children to watch is being perverted to advance this evil agenda.  What gives?

Those of us with opera appreciation have learned of the problem on the live stage.  Now television is being rapidly infested with this that they demand not only tolerance but celebration from every segment of culture, despite being demolished at the ballot box, they use elite institutions to force their agenda down, reminiscent of the King of England's attack on the Colonies in the 1770's that led to a founding document of this very nation.  What will AT&T and Netflix push down next?

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WORKS CITED

Tess Frarand, "Season Two of (CBC's) and Netflix's Anne of Green Gables Show Surprises Families by Making a Character a Lesbian," Movie Guide.

Jennifer Maas, "Mark Millar’s First Slate of Netflix TV Series and Films Includes Superheroes – and Reincarnated Jesus", The Wrap, July 17, 2018.

"Supergirl TV Show To Introduce First Transgender Superhero," Movie Guide.

Retro TV Friday

On a recent episode of ABC's To Tell The Truth 2016, Alex Trebek became the second former regular host of the Goodson-Todman franchise to serve as a panelist; previously, Bill Cullen, who hosted the 1969-78 version of the show on occasion when Garry Moore was absent, and hosted much of the 1976-77 season after Moore's retirement, was moved back to panelist for the final season. Trebek was the third host of the 1990-91 NBC series that was short-lived because it faced a notorious CBS ratings juggernaut in daytime that still holds its own today.

When I learned Mr. Trebek was appearing on the 2016 version of the classic, ABC made a slight blunder because they did not want to viewer to know the history of the show; the 1969 version's theme song, complete with vocals, was to have been used in the 1990 version. In fact, Score Productions went to Nashville for Take 6 (a black gospel group originally) to record the vocals of the 1969 theme for use in 1990. For some reason, NBC did not approve of Take 6's vocals, and for the broadcast version, it was removed. The 1969-78 theme would have been a nice touch for Mr. Trebek's appearance. Let's enjoy the Take 6 version of the 1969-78 To Tell the Truth theme, and note how that version also used many principles of the classic logo and an updated version of the crossed-finger logo.

What gear is that sportscar in, Mr. Clarkson?

Fans of a very popular British motoring programme in its best known form will be excited to hear he is back on terrestrial television in the UK fronting the revival of a very well-known Sony Pictures Television programme.  ITV and Sony had this video released for this legendary hit's return to the UK airwaves.