The Cultural Evolution of TV

America needs to grow up.  We used to be an adult-based society.  During the golden age of television, ironically TV drama and comedy were a reflection of real life.  Real life?  Real life.  What we have now is Reality TV.  Ho hum.  More idiots doing nothing.  How is it possible that such inane activities could even begin to provoke the interest of a viewer?  The answer is simple.  It is a device.  It is a formula.  It is contrived.  It does not rely upon true talent or skill.  Take a few hum drum schmoes and put them behind the camera doing something seemingly challenging.  Then use the magic of television production to create a show.  Camera angles and movement.  Dramatic music cues.  Graphics.  It is all show and a shallow one at that.  Maybe the heart of the show does exist in reality.    Possibly the turmoil of the participants indeed is real.   Take strife and produce it with technology, and you get what?  You get what America has been using for entertainment for too long.  It has infiltrated other mediums.  It made its way into the cruise industry.  No one gives a shit about hearing and watching talented performers anymore, because it is passive for the viewer.  What we want is, "The envelope please."  Professional Wrestling.  
Professional wrestling.  While also contrived and fake it can be appreciated for its dramatic flair.  Certainly the athletes are engaged and committed at a spiritual level, but this stage, the jazz stage is limited in scope.  It lacks wisdom and thus any kind of useful message.  It is mere diversion.  Television used to be more than mere diversion.  Upon its inception it was such a new and remarkable entity, former players in radio and stage encouraged its eloquent use.  The possibility of "live" performance via the airwaves was unprecedented.  We could take the spontaneity and improvisation of vaudeville and jazz and broadcast it live via television.  Luckily investors in TV took it many steps further allowing broad and vast content encompassing many realms.  Comedy, drama, suspense, and horror all could be found on television at some point.  America has been stuck in a rut.  Not only have be been stuck in the nervous ticks of the steadicam, new television programming is becoming more and more supernatural and cartoonish.  One of Sony's priorities has been purposely to disguise the line of demarkation between fantasy and reality by blending together animation and live footage.  Is this really a good idea, disguising the truth?  I for one want to know when I am watching something real and when I am watching a cartoon.  As an adult I do not fancy cartoons anymore.  Only when they are laced with the malcontent and sarcasm of a rebellious contingency do they seem remotely appealing.  I have become a realist.  In my past I will admit I have indulged in fantasy.  The problem was I didn't know that is what I was doing.  I was sure that the ideals I pursued eventually would become tangible in my life.  Think again.  Again, America is stuck in a rut.  That rut is this particular aesthetic that exploits genuine human reaction and produces it like Broadway.  Screw a story.  Screw a plot.  Screw a message.  It is time for America to once again grow up and find her roots.  To have a message that is something other than sheer survival, we must understand history.  We must understand the travails of our predecessors.  We must understand our current journey.  Only after accomplishing these things will we once again be able to produce great artistic entertainment.  On a rerun of SNL this past Saturday evening, a band performed that represented such an evolution.  It was devoid of the visceral, low brow, expressionist approach.  It was not appealing to your ID.  Instead refreshingly it displaced itself from now.  Instead it commented on what it saw.  It did not appeal to immediate gratification, because it was confident in its own message.  In essence it was teaching something.  What a novel concept.  Music teaching something.  An artist bringing a message to its audience rather than trying to jerk them off.  On top of that, it grooved.  It grooved hard, but it was cool.  It was David Byrne, but in other characters.  Still I believe this artists approach to this day is the most current form of pop music we have.  While Hip Hop attempts to keep itself alive, and by all intents and purposes it can and will, the music of David Byrne is bringing something completely new to the table of pop music.  It is fresh.  It is positive.  it is invigorating.  There should be more of this music.  I would like to see a neoclassic period in American television.  I would like to see some nod of appreciating to the thousands of television shows that forged its medium.  There are far too many that just sit on the shelves wasted.  Have we changed that much as a nation, that we must shelve our cultural history?  It all ready has happened in music, radio, and television.  All of the media that should be available as America's history is sitting dormant in some television studio's vault.  Our very history is suffocating in a dark dusty room.  Why?  That is a formidable competition.