![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
And if you casually recognize that quote you watched way too much TV in the late 70's and 80's.
I've been watching episodes of WKRP - I know a guy who purchased the whole show from one of those bootleg DVD places. The production quality of the disks is crappy, but since rumor has it that the music licensing rights mean that the show is unlikely to be properly released on DVD, so I take what I can get and I don't feel a lot of guilt - I'll buy the show if they ever do release it.
And even after 30 years (whoof does that make me feel old) the show is still good. Not perfect, some parts have aged poorly, but compared to recent attempts to watch shows from the later 80's which are now dated and trite (including, alas, Remington Steele) it is an absolute gem. It is interesting to see how some things have changed - the older men disregarding Bailey just because she's female, the episode where Les contemplates jumping off the building because of a rumor that he's gay.
More interesting is how some parts of the shows premise now bother me: the station shifts to a Top 40 rock format because that's where the money is, but in doing so takes the last non top-40 rock station off the air. That sort of chasing the next big thing is what bugs me in modern media. If the station was the only non-rock option surely they had a large captive market, but those fans of the former format are mocked as being old fuddy-duddys. This lets the show have it both ways in the modern style - they're Rock and Roll rebels who don't have to take anything from that elevator music crowd (yeah, wouldn't want to play any of that boring jazz or swing) while at the same time conforming to the entire rest of the market. Commodified Rebellion, yours for just $19.95. Ohio residents add 5% sales tax.
I've been watching episodes of WKRP - I know a guy who purchased the whole show from one of those bootleg DVD places. The production quality of the disks is crappy, but since rumor has it that the music licensing rights mean that the show is unlikely to be properly released on DVD, so I take what I can get and I don't feel a lot of guilt - I'll buy the show if they ever do release it.
And even after 30 years (whoof does that make me feel old) the show is still good. Not perfect, some parts have aged poorly, but compared to recent attempts to watch shows from the later 80's which are now dated and trite (including, alas, Remington Steele) it is an absolute gem. It is interesting to see how some things have changed - the older men disregarding Bailey just because she's female, the episode where Les contemplates jumping off the building because of a rumor that he's gay.
More interesting is how some parts of the shows premise now bother me: the station shifts to a Top 40 rock format because that's where the money is, but in doing so takes the last non top-40 rock station off the air. That sort of chasing the next big thing is what bugs me in modern media. If the station was the only non-rock option surely they had a large captive market, but those fans of the former format are mocked as being old fuddy-duddys. This lets the show have it both ways in the modern style - they're Rock and Roll rebels who don't have to take anything from that elevator music crowd (yeah, wouldn't want to play any of that boring jazz or swing) while at the same time conforming to the entire rest of the market. Commodified Rebellion, yours for just $19.95. Ohio residents add 5% sales tax.
