Thank you all for your many lovely comments in response to my latest update! And now, as always, for my response to your responses...
Glad to be reading it. I really should comment more often on the timelines and stories I read, given my own annoyance when no comments come...
Thanks for the compliment
I always appreciate comments from new people. All of my regulars started out as new people, after all!
LordInsane said:
It would seem to be a good example of never living it down: an overall uncommon scenario that is often thought to be a rather common scenario (in this case, partly by including episodes where a plot point is that they aren't actually examples).
Star Trek, being such a bulwark of popular culture, is laden with these, actually.
Count me relieved.
Now, at least, it makes sense.
I defy you not to laugh at
this. I
defy you, good sir!
phx1138 said:
Yep, an iconic quote. Ever notice how little medical magic he ever did, compared to [
inferior CMO character, who also mothered an inhuman abomination]?
(TBH, while the show was airing, & before [
verboten], I didn't either...
)
I would advise you to tread
very lightly, for you are disparaging my absolute favourite character in the series
phx1138 said:
I had the idea Kirk & The Gang were supposed to represent the usual, & Dekker (Decker?) & Garth & the rest the aberrations. (If the universe needed saving so much, tho...
)
That may have been the intention, but as far as we know from the canon, Kirk may be the
Only Sane Man in all of Starfleet - along with his crew, of course, whose consistent competency really is a sheer delight. Especially in comparison to certain
later starship crews...
phx1138 said:
(Also, the connection of the Doomsday Machine to the white whale I don't get. "Obsession" & Moby-Dick, yes.)
Decker is Ahab, the planet killer is the white whale, and his crew and ship represent the lost leg and his thirst for vengeance (with the ironic twist that his ship, left for dead, instead becomes the instrument of the planet killer's destruction; doubling as a MAD allegory).
phx1138 said:
Hmm... Active dislike? Or just indifference? I'm in the "really don't care" camp, with one or two exceptions.
I do like some of their music, from the early years especially. But once they go psychedelic, I definitely lose interest.
This will be interesting to see...will the absence of Bob Barker have any effect upon the longevity of The (New) Price Is Right? Going into the 2000's, it was just about the only game show surviving in what used to be the morning block for that genre.
And
that is the proverbial $64,000 Question
And definitely one that will take time to answer...
joea64 said:
I'd like to see Jeopardy go on more or less as OTL; I've seen both versions (with Art Fleming/Jack Pardo and Alex Trebek) and I'm hard put to it to say which one is better. I do know that Jeopardy is one of the few game shows I've ever watched which presented a real intellectual challenge to me; like a lot of other people, I've tried to guess the questions to the answers (and I once had the home version of the game).
I'm very fond of
Jeopardy! as well, and like everyone of my generation, I find it almost impossible to imagine a format different from that of the present incarnation (however much those in charge
insist on removing
every last thing that made it so beloved and iconic in the first place - and I blame Sony, because of my eternal loathing for that company, and all its works). But you, like many of my readers,
are in fact old enough to remember the Fleming version, obviously with fondness in your case. And you're
still requesting that it be cancelled and (eventually) replaced with the syndicated version, as IOTL? We'll just have to see about that.
As far as I know, my only reader old enough to have clear memories of the original Bill Cullen version of
The Price is Right would be Chuck, and I'm curious as to what he - or anyone else who might have seen it - thought of the show. From my understanding, it was a far more sedate, conservative affair than the modern version - as different as night and day
joea64 said:
You didn't mention Concentration, which was still running in the early 1970's, and which I had the home-game version of in my childhood as well.
I decided to stick to a "Greatest Hits" format for both game shows and soaps, or else the post would have been more than twice as long, and would probably have taken several more days to write. One that very nearly made it in was
The Dating Game. I love that Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass soundtrack! But I do like to maintain at least the
illusion of narrative flow, so it was cut for pacing.
joea64 said:
I never got into Hollywood Squares, but that was certainly because, being hard of hearing, I found it just about impossible to follow the repartee in those pre-closed-captioning days.
I'm just now noticing that I'm discussing a lot of the personalities in this timeline from a hearing person's perspective: Shatner, Cosell, Lynde, and of course Wawa all have very distinctive voices, and I'm taking the reader's ability to recognize them (or at least
discover them) for granted. I'm glad that you're able to appreciate this timeline despite that
Also, since we're on the topic of reader accommodation, I also want to address any colour-blind readers who might be having trouble reading my colour-coded annotations. I would be happy to produce different versions for anyone who asks; please feel free to PM me about it, if you don't feel like mentioning it out in the open.
joea64 said:
Speaking of which, aren't the first substantial experiments in CC supposed to be getting underway about now? Remember, OTL, closed-captioning will roll out about 4 or 5 years from the current point in this TL. For those who don't remember, I got one of the first CC units, which was, as might be expected from the late 1970's, a comparatively bulky - about the same size as the average late-1980's VCR - unit which was, of course, controlled via analog switches and dials.
I tend to write about new concepts when they culminate into a definitive event (or product, in this case), as we'll soon see when we get to the space program update in the next few weeks. I've now officially inserted the closed-captioning post into my master list, so I can promise you that we
will get to it in due time
joea64 said:
And, even though it now seems to have expanded to occupy virtually the entire morning, The Today Show's basic format really hasn't changed that much...Was Good Morning America on at that time? And will CBS be able to develop a decent challenger to the Peacock Network's morning behemoth TTL?
For those who are not aware, The
Today Show is now
twice as long as it was in the 1970s; it runs from 6 to 10 AM weekdays (with a weekend version as well, having ultimately replaced our beloved Saturday Morning Cartoons). To answer your question, though,
Good Morning America did not debut IOTL until 1975. And as for CBS... well, they certainly can't do much
worse than IOTL.
All those pets will go unspayed and unneutered!
And all those models, announcers, and other staffers will go unmolested and undisparaged! It's a double-edged sword
But seriously, I don't really watch game shows that often, so I can't really offer any specific comments or critiques, but I can say this was a great update!
Really? Aren't you a college student? Aren't all television sets on all college campuses permanently tuned to
The Price is Right?
But thanks for the compliment, all the same
A question - when and for how long do local and national tv news run in the evenings in this era?
Excellent question. Local news usually airs four times a day in this era - at Sign-On, 12:00 Noon, 6:00 PM, and 11:00 PM - generally for half an hour. National news, hosted by Walter Cronkite at CBS, John Chancellor at NBC, and Howard K. Smith at ABC, airs at 6:30 PM, following the local evening news, for another half-hour. In other words, the scheduling is broadly similar to that of the present day IOTL.
Glen said:
A comment - I would suggest backing off in the WaWa stuff - it comes across as taunting people with speech impediments and is a jarring note in an otherwise excellent timeline. Feel free to critique thew journalist/tv personality but do not dwell so much on her pronounciation. Of course this is up to you.
Because it's been a while since we've seen Wawa, I may have gone a little overboard there to compensate. I'll revise the post, taking your criticism into consideration. For the official record: there are many reasons to disparage Walters as a journalist that have
nothing to do with her speech impediment. I've already alluded to some of these over the course of this timeline, and more is yet to come.
They are quite dated, but here is the surprising part - my media saturated 8 year old sat through all four episodes in a row for each and enjoyed them. This is very anecdotal but makes me think that children of the early seventies might just enjoy these too.
That's not at all surprising, considering that, in the UK,
Doctor Who was very much a children's program during its original run - hence the "Behind the Sofa" phenomenon. And indeed, ITTL, children on both sides of the pond adore
Doctor Who.
You obviously have no vewy gweat fwiends in Wome...
I tend to prefer Great American Hunters to Imperial Roman Prefects:
Be vewwy quiet... I'm hunting wabbits! Heh heh heh heh...
The Blue-Eyed Infidel said:
Speaking of which, any differences with Monty Python so far?
(
Insert stock Monty Python reference here)
We'll hear about Connie Booth's husband and his comedy troupe in due time, I can promise you that much.
With "Star Trek" pushing the acceptance of sci-fi forward, would we see any difference with the supernatural soap opera "Dark Shadows?"
Another excellent question. I decided not to save "Dark Shadows", because the series has strong fantastic elements, with a gothic, romantic tone; whereas
Star Trek and Moonshot Lunacy in general would disproportionately benefit science-fiction alone (hence the Saturns being created
solely to recognize that genre ITTL). And, therefore, any changes were mostly negligible.
CobiWann said:
Loving this timeline so far. I've passed it to a few no-AH friends who are also enjoying it. Keep up the good work! Your dedication to detail is astounding.
Welcome aboard, CobiWann! And thank you very much for your very warm compliments
I really appreciate that you find my work good enough to pass on to "outsiders". And hello to all of you! Thanks for reading along.
I'm wondering, does this offer more opportunities for women hosts? AFAIK, only Betty White has ever hosted a game show.
Which, ironically enough, was called "Just Men!" She won an Emmy for it, too. As for
other women? Only one way to find out!
phx1138 said:
Also, IMO, because its target audience tends to be better-educated. (Is saying I've been a fan of the new version since it started a humble brag?
)
So you remember when
everything about it was awesome. That is
definitely worth a little bragging
phx1138 said:
Any prospect of it being more like
"Definition", instead?
(A much more
interesting show, IMO. {BTW,
skoal.
})
I beg your pardon? The word is
intriguing, thank you very much
And no,
Wheel of Fortune, by definition, has to have a wheel. Otherwise, it's just
Definition. And what does
Definition have, IOTL, that
Wheel doesn't? Just three little words:
Soul Bossa Nova!
phx1138 said:
One aside: I've never noticed the "sewiouswy"...tho TBH, I don't recall every paying really careful attention to her interviews, since her voice alone irritates me.
To be fair, her speech impediment is not
that pronounced, and most parodists exaggerate it for comic effect (as is their wont).
This latest update has produced some really thought-provoking questions, which I always like to see. That's part of the reason why I generally err on the side of
not sharing too much information in my updates, because you've all gotten so good at filling in any blanks yourselves. One additional reason why I decided to post a comprehensive overview of the situation as of 1972-73 is because, as I've implied previously, we're on the precipice of some
big changes in popular culture. This is very much a time of transition. Moonshot Lunacy is finally on its way out, and a
new craze is slated to replace it, and take the First World by storm...