If you've been reading this blog for any length of time you'd be right if you've gotten the impression that I don't have much time for current TV programming. I realize that I'm at present watching a programme that aired in the seventies and was set in the forties. Yes life was simpler back then, at least in hindsight, and the setting is backwoods rural. But at least those who watched this programme were given some idea of how a family with healthy relationships functioned. I realize that having multi-generations of a family living under the same roof may no longer be practical in our modern lifestyle but if you look through the current TV schedule and remember that the average child spends more time in front of the TV than with its parents what kind of familial standard is being held up as the ideal given the programming available. Does our ideal family have a divorced, wise-cracking Mother, an older son who deals drugs and packs a gun, a daughter that hops in and out of her boyfriends' beds if they make it that far, live on social assistance, abuse drugs prescription or otherwise, use foul language, and display a total lack of respect for one another?
Does this profile reflect our concept of the ideal family? Is it necessary that TV play to the lowest common denominator? Don't get me wrong; I find Bible-thumping goodie-two shoes born-again programming as nauseating as anyone but I do long for programming that represents the 50% of the population that manage to stay married past 20 years, keep their kids off drugs, and stay on the right side of the law. Surely someone can come up with story-lines that make a family that actually functions look exciting. Surely programming can be interesting without a body count, kids on drugs, sexual impropriety, foul language, and bad manners.
1 comment:
You'd think someone could do it right? Ha ha ha, but I beg to differ about long-term marriages being 50%. Of all Sammi's friends there are only 2 other families who have the original Dad's around. So I'm thinking long term marriages are not the average thing, & maybe we are even a minority.
I was just talking with a friend who was complaining how her daughter is not teaching her children proper manners by saying “Thank You “ after being given something, or independence, because she still chooses the clothes they wear and the oldest is 10 years old. Between us we decided the downfall to the family has been the “working woman” Its much easier and less of a bother to do it yourself quickly rather than teaching a child to do it for themselves, and who has the time to wait around for Thanks anyway. No one uses it nowadays. It’s just a rude world out there. So we grannies have decided it will have to be up to us to correct the children when we see it. So she proceeded to do so much to the dismay and angry looks of her daughter. Also I think you are right about the TV..way to many children are learning Bart Simpson values for family life.
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