Those of an age will recall a fellow named Newton Minnow, who denounced U.S. television in the 1950s as "a vast wasteland." Given that at the time U.S. TV boasted such things as Playhouse 90 Requiem for a Heavyweight), Omnibus (with Alistair Cooke - I remember watching several episodes that had Peter Ustinov portraying Dr. Johnson), and even top-flight commercial shows like Peter Gunn, it seems safe to say that Newt didn't know a wasteland wheh he didn't see one.
By the bye, has anyone thought that Plato's myth of the cave has proved wonderfully predictive of the age of reality TV?
Fun fact: The boat on Gilligan's Island, the S.S. Minnow, was named after Newton Minow.
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