greatestescaper
One of the Regulars
- Messages
- 293
- Location
- Fort Davis, Tx
It was a show that stood out among the general run of seventies television for the quality of its writing, along with "All in the Family" and the Mary Tyler Moore and Bob Newhart shows. Those four programs probably did more to shape my own tastes in comedy than any other media of the time, and I was later impressed to learn how many of those writers had deep roots in radio.
People will go on about how today is the "golden age of television," but that stops at drama. There is very little comedy on television today that's as well-written as the best sitcoms of forty years ago. The best writers working in TV during the '70s were working in comedy.
I was just talking with my grandmother the other day, catching each other up on what shows we were watching, and my grandmother explained that she was not watching any comedy shows. I told her that for years I've been avoiding comedy, especially since the writers today often fail to have a punchline of any kind, and yet add a laugh track. I find myself asking, where was the joke in that? Why is that funny? And why do you seem to think that adding laugh track makes something funny? That's not to say that there is not good comedy out there today, it's just very hard to find. And most shows are a poor imitation of the comedy greats like Bob Newhart! Which makes me especially grateful for the internet, as I can call up all these classic shows.
And, on a similar topic, lately I've been sharing the Dean Martin comedy roasts with my friends (we're all in our late twenties), and we're all of an opinion that roasts today are a pale shadow of those which featured Don Rickles, Bob Hope, and other Dean Martin regulars.