You know you are getting old when:

[2jakes]

We moderns, with the benefit of another several decades of exposure to electronic media, are perhaps more savvy and less accepting of the artifice in those old "interviews."

I don't know that. Just wondering, is all. Did the audience back in the day roll their eyes at those productions? Did they play along? Or were they oblivious?

We need to see about borrowing a time-traveling “DeLorean”.

I’ll drive, I get upset stomach if I’m a passenger.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We moderns, with the benefit of another several decades of exposure to electronic media, are perhaps more savvy and less accepting of the artifice in those old "interviews."

I don't know that. Just wondering, is all. Did the audience back in the day roll their eyes at those productions? Did they play along? Or were they oblivious?

There were criticisms in the fan press of the day at the "phony sounding" interviews, but most people just accepted it as a convention of the medium, right alongside the smarmy soap-opera announcers with their chummy "say ladies..." and the ridiculous scripted endorsements in commercials. "That's right, Red! Old Golds sure are A Treat Instead of a Treatment! After the game I'm going right out and buy a carton!"

Occasionally you'd get a genuine spontaneous moment on the air. There were exceptions to the scripted-interview rules for quiz and audience-participation shows, although a censor kept his hand on the button just in case. Probably the most notorious bit of spontaneity occured on a 1948 broadcast of a daytime quiz show called "Double or Nothing" on CBS. The host, the ever-cheerful Broadway comedian Walter O'Keefe, was interviewing a young woman who was going on at length about a friend of hers who had a male friend who was feeling depressed. O'Keefe seemed to be nodding off with the long-winded story until the young lady related her suggestion to her friend: "I told her 'he should get a nice looking girl like you and take her home and just have a big screwing party!'"

The censor, like everyone else in the studio, was brought right up cold on that one.

O'Keefe managed not to swallow his microphone, and hustled the lady right into the question-and-answer part of the game, but he was clearly flustered for the rest of the show. All CBS could do about it is tell the West Coast affiliates who had recorded the show off the line for later broadcast to destroy the transcription. Which, of course, none of them did. Snicker snicker.

 

[Zombie_61]

...Worse is that others will read it and accept it as the gospel because of who the writer happens to be.

Singer/songwriter/musician Tom Waits once told a story that he overheard his older children advising his younger children to not ask for his help with their homework, specifically history homework, because his older children swore he made up an entire war. Given his sense of humor, I don't have much reason to doubt that actually happened. On the other hand, he could have made up that story as well.

We need to see about borrowing a time-traveling “DeLorean”. I’ll drive, I get upset stomach if I’m a passenger.

I get an upset stomach just thinking about driving or riding in a DeLorean. It's a terrible vehicle that would surely have faded into oblivion if not for it's use in the Back to the Future movies.

 

[vitanola]

There were criticisms in the fan press of the day at the "phony sounding" interviews, but most people just accepted it as a convention of the medium, right alongside the smarmy soap-opera announcers with their chummy "say ladies..." and the ridiculous scripted endorsements in commercials. "That's right, Red! Old Golds sure are A Treat Instead of a Treatment! After the game I'm going right out and buy a carton!"

Occasionally you'd get a genuine spontaneous moment on the air. There were exceptions to the scripted-interview rules for quiz and audience-participation shows, although a censor kept his hand on the button just in case. Probably the most notorious bit of spontaneity occured on a 1948 broadcast of a daytime quiz show called "Double or Nothing" on CBS. The host, the ever-cheerful Broadway comedian Walter O'Keefe, was interviewing a young woman who was going on at length about a friend of hers who had a male friend who was feeling depressed. O'Keefe seemed to be nodding off with the long-winded story until the young lady related her suggestion to her friend: "I told her 'he should get a nice looking girl like you and take her home and just have a big screwing party!'"

The censor, like everyone else in the studio, was brought right up cold on that one.

O'Keefe managed not to swallow his microphone, and hustled the lady right into the question-and-answer part of the game, but he was clearly flustered for the rest of the show. All CBS could do about it is tell the West Coast affiliates who had recorded the show off the line for later broadcast to destroy the transcription. Which, of course, none of them did. Snicker snicker.

I just listened to a transcription of the broadcast which has been posted on YouTube. Thanks for introducing me to it. Wally O'Keefe's obvious discomfiture is really very funny. I always found him to be a bit obnoxious. Not so here.

 

[tonyb]

There were criticisms in the fan press of the day at the "phony sounding" interviews, but most people just accepted it as a convention of the medium, right alongside the smarmy soap-opera announcers with their chummy "say ladies..." and the ridiculous scripted endorsements in commercials. "That's right, Red! Old Golds sure are A Treat Instead of a Treatment! After the game I'm going right out and buy a carton!"

Occasionally you'd get a genuine spontaneous moment on the air. There were exceptions to the scripted-interview rules for quiz and audience-participation shows, although a censor kept his hand on the button just in case. Probably the most notorious bit of spontaneity occured on a 1948 broadcast of a daytime quiz show called "Double or Nothing" on CBS. The host, the ever-cheerful Broadway comedian Walter O'Keefe, was interviewing a young woman who was going on at length about a friend of hers who had a male friend who was feeling depressed. O'Keefe seemed to be nodding off with the long-winded story until the young lady related her suggestion to her friend: "I told her 'he should get a nice looking girl like you and take her home and just have a big screwing party!'"

The censor, like everyone else in the studio, was brought right up cold on that one.

O'Keefe managed not to swallow his microphone, and hustled the lady right into the question-and-answer part of the game, but he was clearly flustered for the rest of the show. All CBS could do about it is tell the West Coast affiliates who had recorded the show off the line for later broadcast to destroy the transcription. Which, of course, none of them did. Snicker snicker.

I can only imagine what future generations will make of all the "reality" programming on TV these days. Any adult person capable of reading the Burger King menu would know that the programs are staged in their entirety. And they have to be, to succeed as entertainment.

That in and of itself is not sinister. Yes, there's an attempt to make things seem other than what they actually are. That's show biz. The lives of home remodelers and antique store operators aren't so damned compelling without cutting out the boring parts and prettying up the fun stuff.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I appeared twice on the PBS "History Detectives" series, and both times there were irritating bits of staging that I resisted going along with as much as I could. In one of these we were filming at a recording studio on Long Island which they wanted me to pretend was mine -- but I drew the line at that, because I respected the guy who they borrowed the studio from, and I didn't like that they weren't letting him appear on camera. I got into a bit of an argument with the director about this, but he finally saw it my way and agreed to make it clear that we were "meeting at" this guy's studio and at least mentioned his name.

I imagine that kind of stuff goes on at all these shows, and I suspect most participants go along with it without kicking just for the thrill of being on Tee Vee.

 

[Just Jim]

Singer/songwriter/musician Tom Waits once told a story that he overheard his older children advising his younger children to not ask for his help with their homework, specifically history homework, because his older children swore he made up an entire war. Given his sense of humor, I don't have much reason to doubt that actually happened. On the other hand, he could have made up that story as well.

I can remember growing up and hearing on the tv and radio about the "black pajama-clad guerillas" in Viet Nam. Being a little kid of course, I thought we were fighting giant monkeys wearing black pajamas, and pondered if their PJs had footsies.

A few years later (when I was maybe in 7th grade), my baby brother had to write his first book report. He chose a book on WWII, knowing I'd read it, and thought he could just get me to tell him the storyline. His report detailed the war in the Pacific, when valiant US Marines defended the country from the Penguin Army of Antarctica. His paper came back with a note to do it over after actually reading the book, and to not listen to his brother Jim. After taking his little daughter to see Happy Feet, he had to explain that while the penguins were friendly now, they were once a mighty enemy.

 

[tonyb]

I appeared twice on the PBS "History Detectives" series, and both times there were irritating bits of staging that I resisted going along with as much as I could. In one of these we were filming at a recording studio on Long Island which they wanted me to pretend was mine -- but I drew the line at that, because I respected the guy who they borrowed the studio from, and I didn't like that they weren't letting him appear on camera. I got into a bit of an argument with the director about this, but he finally saw it my way and agreed to make it clear that we were "meeting at" this guy's studio and at least mentioned his name.

I imagine that kind of stuff goes on at all these shows, and I suspect most participants go along with it without kicking just for the thrill of being on Tee Vee.

Well, it IS a visual medium, and a person can understand how they might want to shoot a scene about oldtime radio in a radio studio. It might make for a simpler to follow storyline if they could say they met up with you in YOUR studio, rather than introduce what is really superfluous information.

Was the studio equipment needed? If not, there is a lovely irony in their happiness to engage in a bit of fiction for the sake of introducing atmosphere and, presumably, in so doing lending the story more credibility.

 

[HadleyH1]

old is only a state of mind

some get older than others

others remain good looking

it's all in the genes and mind

thats all

 

[HadleyH1]

63 year old Christie Brinkley and her daughters on each side

some never get old

that's ok too

 

[HadleyH1]

another photo of Christie Brinkley who is 63 y/o ....nothing wrong with that.....many 20 years old would do anything to look like that....but then it's all in the genes ...hehehehe ....sorry....that's how it is!

ok....I made my point....I'm out of here now lol

 

[HadleyH1]

one last thing

if you as a woman looked like that in the 80s (that's again American Christie Brinkley)

well you are not going to look too bad in 2018 hehe

goes without saying....ok cool...good we understand here then.

 

[HanauMan]

We moderns, with the benefit of another several decades of exposure to electronic media, are perhaps more savvy and less accepting of the artifice in those old "interviews."

I don't know that. Just wondering, is all. Did the audience back in the day roll their eyes at those productions? Did they play along? Or were they oblivious?

I don't think that the audience back then were gullible at all. I think that they, despite the lack of a modern electronic media, were pretty savvy about the real facts, even if that meant getting much of their information 'through the grapevine'.

I can recall a similar situation back in the 1970s when we lived in West Germany. There was a plan to evacuate US dependents out of Europe in case of Soviet /Warsaw Pact aggression. This was called the NEO order (Noncombatant Evacuation Operations). The military held NEO exercises and we'd attend meetings about it, even as 5th and 6th graders. The official line was that we'd all be shipped out by 'plane and flown back to the US. It may have worked if the Soviets had given a months' notice of their intentions to invade Germany, but that was never going to happen!

However, we saw it as moral boosting propaganda. The folk in the western part of Germany may have had confidence in the evacuation, but those of us living close to the border (we were based just twenty five miles from the border) didn't give it a snowball chance in hell of working. If the Soviets had invaded we'd be over run within a matter of hours. The autobahns heading west would have been bombed and the bridges destroyed. We lived a good two and a half hour drive from Rhein Main, on a good summer's day drive. It would take even longer if war had commenced as the roads would be full of military traffic and people fleeing westwards. Rhein Main air base would have been bombed at the start of war to prevent any supplies being flown in, therefore no planes would have taken families out. NEO for us meant certain death on the autobahns. Things may have worked better in the late 1980s - 1990s, but in the 1970s it was just feel good propaganda. Even as 6th graders, my friends and I didn't think it would work BUT we were somehow reassured about it nevertheless.

 

[2jakes]

I don't think that the audience back then were gullible at all. I think that they, despite the lack of a modern electronic media, were pretty savvy about the real facts, even if that meant getting much of their information 'through the grapevine'.

I can recall a similar situation back in the 1970s when we lived in West Germany. There was a plan to evacuate US dependents out of Europe in case of Soviet /Warsaw Pact aggression. This was called the NEO order (Noncombatant Evacuation Operations). The military held NEO exercises and we'd attend meetings about it, even as 5th and 6th graders. The official line was that we'd all be shipped out by 'plane and flown back to the US. It may have worked if the Soviets had given a months' notice of their intentions to invade Germany, but that was never going to happen!

However, we saw it as moral boosting propaganda. The folk in the western part of Germany may have had confidence in the evacuation, but those of us living close to the border (we were based just twenty five miles from the border) didn't give it a snowball chance in hell of working. If the Soviets had invaded we'd be over run within a matter of hours. The autobahns heading west would have been bombed and the bridges destroyed. We lived a good two and a half hour drive from Rhein Main, on a good summer's day drive. It would take even longer if war had commenced as the roads would be full of military traffic and people fleeing westwards. Rhein Main air base would have been bombed at the start of war to prevent any supplies being flown in, therefore no planes would have taken families out. NEO for us meant certain death on the autobahns. Things may have worked better in the late 1980s - 1990s, but in the 1970s it was just feel good propaganda. Even as 6th graders, my friends and I didn't think it would work BUT we were somehow reassured about it nevertheless.

I once asked my grandmother about the depression in the 1930s and what she experienced.
It was very interesting.
I feel the same about what you have written.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[scottyrocks]

old is only a state of mind

some get older than others

others remain good looking

it's all in the genes and mind

thats all

Easy to say when you're gorgeous. haha

 

[LizzieMaine]

Well, it IS a visual medium, and a person can understand how they might want to shoot a scene about oldtime radio in a radio studio. It might make for a simpler to follow storyline if they could say they met up with you in YOUR studio, rather than introduce what is really superfluous information.

Was the studio equipment needed? If not, there is a lovely irony in their happiness to engage in a bit of fiction for the sake of introducing atmosphere and, presumably, in so doing lending the story more credibility.

They needed a turntable that could play a specific type of recording disc -- I invited them up here to my actual studio, such as it is, but they didn't want to leave the NYC area. Which I can understand, but I didn't like the way they talked their way into using the Long Island guy's studio and then tried to freeze him out of the show. The world of vintage-radio recording technicians is a small one, we tend to know each other if not by face than by reputation, and we tend to stick together.

No money changed hands during any of this, other than their paying for my plane ticket and hotel room, so I felt like my colleague should be getting *something* for his trouble.

 

[tonyb]

They needed a turntable that could play a specific type of recording disc -- I invited them up here to my actual studio, such as it is, but they didn't want to leave the NYC area. Which I can understand, but I didn't like the way they talked their way into using the Long Island guy's studio and then tried to freeze him out of the show. The world of vintage-radio recording technicians is a small one, we tend to know each other if not by face than by reputation, and we tend to stick together.

No money changed hands during any of this, other than their paying for my plane ticket and hotel room, so I felt like my colleague should be getting *something* for his trouble.

So at your insistence they said something to the effect of "we met up with Liz at Joe Suchandsuch's Long Island studio"?

FWIW, I was once identified in print as having an academic credential I lack. It was an understandable mistake, seeing how most people in the field had that credential and the assumption was that I did, too. But of course it bothered me, seeing how credibility was of more value in that line of work than just about anything else, academic credentials included.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Yep, that's how it was done. It would have been nice if it had been that way from the beginning, but they did see my point and I grant them that. I've never liked performing material I didn't write.

 

[tonyb]

... I've never liked performing material I didn't write.

Especially when the audience is left to think those words are the performer's own, as is the common practice on "reality" TV.

 

[belfastboy]

I appeared twice on the PBS "History Detectives" series, and both times there were irritating bits of staging that I resisted going along with as much as I could. In one of these we were filming at a recording studio on Long Island which they wanted me to pretend was mine -- but I drew the line at that, because I respected the guy who they borrowed the studio from, and I didn't like that they weren't letting him appear on camera. I got into a bit of an argument with the director about this, but he finally saw it my way and agreed to make it clear that we were "meeting at" this guy's studio and at least mentioned his name.

I imagine that kind of stuff goes on at all these shows, and I suspect most participants go along with it without kicking just for the thrill of being on Tee Vee.

My friend is a cinematographer. He worked on episodes of Real Housewives. Staggering the amount of film they need to shoot to capture a few minutes of actual usable screen time.