Here’s what nobody’s talking about in the entire Tucker Carlson SNAFU. It’s not about Tucker Carlson. It’s not about Fox. It’s about the changing of the guard.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the dominance of network TV has dwindled over the last two generations. With the advent of easy-to-access cable TV over the last forty years, viewers have weened themselves from the network nipple.
This change in behavior hasn’t necessarily occurred deliberately. The very act of presenting so many options paralyzes viewers into non-decision. This is a common reaction to what behavioral psychologists call “choice overload.” But don’t give them credit. Alvin Toffler first introduced the concept in his 1970 book Future Shock. He called it “overchoice.”
Of course, if you want to be a stickler, choice overload is merely a derivative of Continue Reading “Tucker Carlson Signals Old-Style Broadcast TV Business Model Faces No Tomorrow”
Film Vs. TV: A M*A*S*H Revelation
M*A*S*H 1970 Film Poster Distributed by 20th Century Fox. Source: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
A while back, a friend asked to borrow our copy of the movie M*A*S*H. He was so excited. He watched the TV series diligently and remains a fan of it to this day. He was so excited to see the movie.
Now, normally I don’t lend things from my library. I’ve learned that’s the quickest way to create a permanent hole in my shelf. But I trusted this guy, so I lent him the movie.
He returned the movie with no expression on his face. I asked him what he thought. He answered, “It was… different.”
Yes. Yes, it was.
The movie M*A*S*H feels more like Animal House. The TV series “M*A*S*H” may have started out like the movie, but it ended with a sense of “Little House On The Prairie.” Between the two, we saw our culture shift.
But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.
We’ll start with the TV series. The television viewing world buzzed with anticipation when Continue Reading “Film Vs. TV: A M*A*S*H Revelation”