As a boomer I share a birthday with TV for the masses. both of us came of age in the 50's and 60's. I remember as a 9-10 year old setting my life around the Red Skelton Show, Tuesdays at 9:30. For those younger than 50, Red was a slapstick funny- man who, on TV at least, seemed to have a heart of gold and a knack for making people, especially my father, laugh. So on Tuesday nights at 9:30, a school night, I'd be given the privilege of staying up late to watch RS with my dad. He would have his chesterfields at his side and I'd endure the second hand smoke, who knew? But it was worth the risk as the boys dad, me and Red shared a laugh.
I was such a Skeleton fan that I gave up my meetings at the Sea Cadets, 'cause they were on a Tuesday. Unfortunately I waited until my dad purchased the entire SC uniform for me before I swore my allegiance the the Red (Skelton) army. I bring up this memory as I just completed watching Netflix series, House of Cards. This 13 episode series is constantly streaming on Netflix and can be viewed at my convenience. I got so hooked on the evil ways of Kevin Spacey that I was watching when I woke up at 6:00 in the morning! While a boomer I have adopted some of the ways of the instant gratification society and could not ration my viewing to once a week for 13 weeks. How far we have come! We now view on demand and on our schedules, not Reds or anyone elses.
This 21st century development has been recognized by several people and was recently the topic of an NPR interview with a person who wrote a book about this phenomenon. i heard the interview yesterday but cannot remember the name of the book or the author, but hey not to worry I'll just google it, go to the NPR website and replay the interview today or whenever.
I also sent my loyal readers a you Tube clip of Red's show in 1961. Don't know if you received it as when it comes to manipulating technology, I'm better with my portable Motorola that weighed 50 pounds, rabbit ears and tin foil.
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