Much as I'd like to give a "Boy, Howdy" to Lileks and Steyn for their deft takedowns of the endless PC arrythmns regardind "Looney Tunes" there's at least one other culprit that needs to be blamed for the fall of Saturday Morning TV.
Yes, I speak of Saved by the Bell, the show that ran for eons without having, as near as anyone can recall, a single noteworthy, or memorable, or even particularly funny moment, the show that encouraged kids to throw aside whimsy for mindless hip preening, the show that furthered the lame ecapsulation of high school as a universe unto itself, and an important one, the show that seemed to be wallowing in its own nostalgia while still on the air. I mean, for the love of sugar cereals, who in their right mind wanted to watch a show about school on a Saturday Morning?
But they sold it, and we bought it, and by the truckload. And it isn't really our fault. Much as some folk would like to hold the 80's-90's as some kind of Golden Age of Television, I remember too well the gar-bazhe to which I willingly subjected myself. For every *M*A*S*H* and The Simpsons there were ten Perfect Strangers, Websters, Full Houses, etc. And I sat through all of them, and believed myself entertained. These were the things the adults were supposed to enjoy, that appealed to their sophisticated humor. And it sucked fish guts.
Incidentally, the only show I watch religiously now is The Apprentice. Watching these corporate lobotomy patients explain themselves to Mr. Bottom Line is a manifest joy, as is watching their babbling egos collapse like a Phillistine temple at the utterance of two little words.
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