Greetings from La Puente, California, USA!
View of San Gabriel Valley from Pacific Palms Hotel on Thursday, August 6, 2009
View of San Gabriel Valley from Pacific Palms Hotel on Thursday, August 6, 2009
I miss many things. I miss cable television. I miss scripted shows Eureka and Stargate: Atlantis on SyFy. I miss reality shows Dirty Jobs and MythBusters on Discovery. I miss Top Chef on Bravo, GRSSK on ABC Family and Psych on USA. They entertain me, an hour at a time. But what I miss more is the traditional 30-minute, laugh(track)-filled, filmed-before-a-live-studio-audience, singable-theme-song, family-friendly and family-centric comedy. Where is the next Family Ties, Growing Pains or Home Improvement?
Family comedy is comfort food, especially in these sad economic times. I miss the idyllic innocence of The Brady Bunch. I miss the “Urkel” calamities of Family Matters. I miss the sidesplitting slapstick of 3rd Rock from the Sun. But new comedies are often missing something. All shows have slowly surrendered second by second to commercials and theme songs have taken the brunt of the blow.
Full theme songs (and opening credits) still exist – check out The Big Bang Theory. But more often we hear just a few musical notes and see a title card for a few seconds – The New Adventures of Old Christine for example. Far from insignificant theme songs are deeply ingrained in our culture. Hear “Movin’ On Up” and “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” and The Jeffersons and Cheers come to mind. Conversely think of Three’s Company and The Facts of Life and you recall their eponymous themes.
Theme songs serve a purpose. On The Beverly Hillbillies and the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air they tell full back-stories while on Green Acres and Who’s the Boss? they distill the show premises. Others set a tone like the unique snappiness of The Addams Family theme and the 1950s pop of the Happy Days theme. And they are not limited to comedies. The Dukes of Hazzard had “Good Ol’ Boys”, Greatest American Hero had “Believe It or Not” and The Heights had “How Do You Talk to an Angel?” Remember those?
As new shows ditch theme songs, older and longer shows are edited down. But if I Love Lucy lost its opening credits to more commercials, it would not feel the same. I understand that everything changes for better or worse. Fewer people wear watches as their cel phones have clocks. Now when seeing a watch, I think that the wearer is more classy. Maybe with theme songs so rare, a new show with one gets more distinction.
I miss many things. But other things I will not miss. Every so often, after the rare rainstorm or on a windy day in smoggy SoCal, our visibility feels endless and colors are more vibrant. The weekly photo was taken on a breezy evening from a local hilltop hotel. Perhaps a theme song would make the view more perfect. As for smog one day it will be gone entirely and I will NOT miss that.
Angelo
