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Village Squire, 1980-03, Page 34P.S. In praise of rotten television KEITH ROULSTON When people meet on street corners and can't think of anything to talk about, they talk about the weather. When columnists sit down at the typewriter and can't think of anything to write about they talk about how terrible television is. We all do it. Everybody who sees himself having an 10 over 68 likes to take a shot at television for pandering to all those millions of people with IQ's below 68. I've done it myself many times. And yet I was thinking the other night instead of complaining about rotten televi- sion we should be praising it. Canada indeed may be saved not by good television but by bad television, the worse the better. Look at it this way: if television was really producing the gripping, educational, uplifting programming we all say it should, how would anything else ever get done? I take myself as an example. There are nights when I drag myself into the livingroom after a day of fighting writer's block , or seemingly insurmountable pro- blems of trying to make one dollar buy three dollars worth of goods or battling three kids at the supper table, and I'm a ready candidate for television. My educat- ed, pretentious mind tells me I can't waste my time watching television so I pick up a book. I read for two minutes and seven seconds and then find myself staring blankly at the pattern on the wallpaper on the other side of the room. My book has fallen on my lap. My mind has fallen, period. I reach for the only thing I can read at such times: the television guide. I'm PG. 32 VILLAGE SQUIRE/MARCH 1980 searching for something, anything,to watch on television. We can get three television stations in our household. We're not attached to cable, being three miles from the nearest town which isn't considered large enough anyway to be serviced by a cable company. It means we're left with Global, which has deteriorated to reruns of five-year-old shows that weren't even interesting when they were new; CTV which has movie mania this year but has been able to find only a handful of good movies to fill it s craving, and good old C.B.C. which manages to find time among it's predom- inance of American shows for the odd Canadian show (some people would say very odd, but let's not get into that.) Anyway on the average night 1 am saved from possible TV addiction by the sheer boredom of what's on the tube. On the few nights when there are good shows on I turn on the set and the first thing I know I've made seven trips to the fridge in commer- cials and it's time for bed. I'm not getting in much better shape either physically or intellectually. But most nights I just don't watch and after a few minutes of exhaustion I finally get involved in doing something else, either pick up the book again and actually read it, tackle some household task that's needed doing for six months (at least) go back into my office and tackle the writer's block again or just play with the kids. By bedtime I have a feeling of having accomplished something. One of the few bits of good news I've heard in recent years is that television audience figures are falling, no matter what television executives can do•about it. With cable television and satellite com- munications and pay television just around the corner people are still rejecting the huge variety of television choices they're being given and turning the set off. We only have to look at the changes television brought to our society to know what de-emphasising it s importance could mean. When television hit North America in the 1950'-s people began staying home. They didn't go to live theatre. Movie houses closed up. People stopped visiting their neighbours. People retreated into the cocoon of their own livingrooms to stare at the blue light of the television set. Television in Canada helped push the American influence over the country even more than movies or radio had. Our image of everything in the world was filtered through the viewpoint of writers, directors, and actors in Hollywood or New York. People stayed home and didn't get involved and left the running of the community, the country to the few "experts" who wanted to do things no matter if it did mean missing I Love Lucy. The decline of television has already meant a certain return to getting involved. Live entertainment has picked up in recent years. People have been travelling. They've been going to museums and art galleries. They've been spending more time out doors. They've been talking to each other again, re-establishing human contacts. No longer are the people they know flickering images on a television screen. Television is far from dead. We shouldn't wish it was dead. It is a medium still with huge potential for good. But I'm not one of those who wishes that the networks would smarten up and provide me with 24 hours a day of television so gripping that I can't tear myself away from the set. Yes good television could teach me about the world, but all the teaching in the world isn't any good if you don't take time to experience It. It's fine to watch pretty girls on the screen but it's a lot more fun married to one. It's nice to see life on television but it's a lot more fun to live it. • Y WEDDING BELLS' ...AND FLOWERS So, your wedding date has been set, and now you are making the arrangements. Your flower order is important. It can help to make the day, and also provide many pleasant memories. We would count it a privilege to serve you on this glad occasion. Listowel Florist Ltd. Ed Van Geest LISTOWEL, ONT. 170 Wallace N. Listowel Phone 291-2040 United No. 461 FTD No. 752675 When you "say It with towers" from Listowel Florist, "you've said it all."