Enough Said! When It Comes To Daytime TV, Things Just Don’t Seem To Change
Don’t quote me on this, but it seems to me the more things change, the more they stay the same. In this case, I specifically refer to daytime television. I feel I can speak as somewhat of an authority on this issue based on the amount of daytime TV I consumed as a child.
Mind you, I didn’t just get to sit around and watch daytime TV any time I chose. I had to be sick enough to be home from school to do so. Then, TV watching was a vital part of the convalescing process.
It was a key ingredient in the speedy recovery kit that included 7-Up, Kool-Aid, Popsicles, soda crackers, Kleenex, that orange flavored St. Joseph’s Children’s Aspirin - and eventually a little Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup, along with a stainless steel bowl by the couch to gauge progress.
I mostly watched game shows. In the far reaches of my brain, I can still recall “Concentration” with Hugh Downs - with hair. The “Wheel of Fortune” of its day, a person could play along with “Concentration” contestants and think them foolish for not being able to figure out an easy puzzle. Even though you were screaming the answer right at them.
Conversely, of course, you would think yourself foolish playing “Jeopardy” with Art Fleming. Even today, with Alex Trebeck, I’d be lucky to earn enough cab fare from that show to ride around the block. And only then if I could resist wagering it all away on the Final Jeopardy answer - in the form of a question, please. Along with the shows that required personal knowledge and thought processing were those that invited you to see the thought processes of others at work. Shows like “Password” with Allen Ludden, and “You Don’t Say” with Tom Kennedy. These shows gave the viewing public the answers then let us watch the contestants try to give those answers to someone else, usually a celebrity contestant. Someone who had gained their celebrated status in some way before appearing on the show.
Oddly, this particular aspect of daytime TV has not stayed the same. It has, in fact, diametrically changed from my youth. It used to be that “celebrity” contestants were shown to be relatively normal people with no inherently better mental agility than anyone else, just a lot more money and a little better ability to remain calm in front of cameras.
Today, people on daytime TV have no more money than anyone else and their “celebrity” status springs solely from showing just how relatively abnormal they have become, often showing little or no mental agility at all much less any ability to remain calm in front of cameras.
Today, instead of shows that make people think, we have shows that make people talk. And not only talk, but squirm. Instead of urging audiences to cheer the contestants, today’s daytime TV show hosts more often urge audiences to jeer them - in the form of a question, please.
Today, Sally, Jenny, Ricki and Geraldo appear to be more like referees at a cock fight, if not active participants in the pastime of poking caged animals with sharpened sticks to see how they react. And then televising the reaction into waiting homes across America.
So you see, it’s like I said at the outset: the more things change, the more they stay the same. Still today, you have to be sick to watch daytime TV.
MEMO: Michael M. Ashcraft is a free-lance writer based in Kansas City, Mo.