Current TV Shows Run When You Were a Teenager

Gotta agree somewhat with the Schwammy, the depiction of all white, no problem, they can even have "friends" that are black...all black, no problem, so long as they act like white folks...mix 'em up, problem, no one knows how to write these scenes and even today, they don't always look accurate.

I'd have to search out episodes of 'Julia' and see how they handled the mixed race scenes. My memory is all the hospital scenes were mixed race. A few years later Norman Lear started working regular mixed race scenes into 'All in the Family' & it's spin off 'The Jeffersons'.

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Or would it specifically be the "in the prison population"-bit that would cause trouble?

That. While the white proportion was higher in the prison pop. Then, no one in Hollywood wanted to come to grips with the high number of minorities incarcerated. Or at least in having that many minority race actors in a scene.
 
I'm not sure TV has changed much since 2003. There were even more ridiculous reality shows on the air when I was 18.

The Walking Dead: A reality show where contestants are tricked into thinking they are in the middle of the zombie apocalypse. Coming to CBS for Fall, 2003.
 
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I'd have to search out episodes of 'Julia' and see how they handled the mixed race scenes. My memory is all the hospital scenes were mixed race. A few years later Norman Lear started working regular mixed race scenes into 'All in the Family' & it's spin off 'The Jeffersons'.



That. While the white proportion was higher in the prison pop. Then, no one in Hollywood wanted to come to grips with the high number of minorities incarcerated. Or at least in having that many minority race actors in a scene.

Just a clarification on my post, talking more about themes than scenes, scenes are easy to work around. Sammy Davis Jr's guest spot on Family intentionally end's with Archie's discomfort, and it's funny. George Jefferson's discomfort with the mixed race family in his building, and his son's dalliance with their daughter, is only saved by the utter brilliance of the actor playing George, as this theme is hammered over and over during the sitcom.
 
I can see that. Tho for me in 1972 this was still ground breaking & most of it still around the corner. Lear had a tough fight to get there. The Smothers Brothers lost theirs, Flip Wilson was constantly shot down, & I'm thinking that without Lear's skill and will TV would have changed much slower.
 
Hmm,, I was a 90s teen, so Agents of SHIELD would basically be the David Hasslehoff Nick Fury tv movie as a full series, no Coulson, no Skye, no Mack, etc.
 
Getting back to Mad Men; I'm wondering how core themes like Don Drapers identity theft would have been handled back in 1972, or 1982? Peggy ditching her child at the maternity ward would have lit a fire back then.
 
IMO, in 1972, "OitnB" runs afoul of two things: a mainly black cast & making the cons the "good guys". Don't forget, that's before "The Jeffersons" & "Good Times" showed the networks an all-black cast could sell. You might get a prison story where the guards are central, with a majority black for cons (supporting & guest players), but the stars'd all be white.

"24" you could do; it's a variation on the old movie serials. The "told in real time" is the breakthru idea, there. (You'd probably need Bochco behind it, given his work on "Hill Street".)

I'm thinking "White Collar", maybe "Blindspot" & "The Blacklist", maybe "APB" (it'd probably look more like "Knight Rider" or "Mann & Machine", not necessarily a bad thing). "Gotham", if you can get DC to sign off; maybe "Smallville", too. (I expect cheesy fx, tho...) And maybe (in time) a "GA" spinoff? (Hopefully better than OTL's...) "Flash" might just be made to work, too. "Burn Notice"? With an ex-Agency man as a good guy? Might be a hard sell to a network in '72.
 
Although it's stretching the definition of a current show, :), the Torchwood premise would have worked in the late 70s. Although it would probably have been much more about the reasons for, and the foundation of, UNIT (clearing up after the Doctor!). There had to be some reason for UNIT to exist.

The ideal reason, the Quatermass incidents, couldn't be used as Nigel Kneale wouldn't touch the Doctor with the proverbial barge pole.
 
Was binge watching old Mad Men episodes and was reflecting on how cutting edge they seemed when the show started. Then watch a couple current items available on Net Flicks. I start thinking about how different these shows would have been story boarded and scripted had they been aired on TV back when I was 18 y/o, 1972.

So, of the current TV lineup, consider how they would have been changed to fit the audience of 1972 or the year you were 18. Feel free to add your own selection from currently run TV shows.

GLOW = Glorious Ladies Of Wrestling: Set in the late 1979 or early 80s, premise is a wealthy trust fund heir decides to produce a women pro wrestling TV show. He hires a cocaine addled third tier director & a posse of underemployed & desperate actresses with little athletic experience. The scenes are comic, the characters backstories serious. Includes nudity, wardrobe malfunctions, explicit sex scenes, on camera breast feeding of infants, drug and alcohol abuse on camera, explicit language.

Orange is the New Black: Set currently; the main character is a blonde skinny middle class woman, educated but naive. She is sentenced to two years in a NY State prison for a one time violation of transporting a drug payoff ten years earlier. Story lines of each episode are set in the prison with frequent juxspositions of back story scenes set out side the prison. Scenes have strong comic development, but every story line has severe serious foundations. Strong character and story development of the leading and supporting cast. Includes nudity, homosexual & hetrosexual sex scenes, violence, explicit drug and alcohol abuse> A large portion of the female charters lack a male partner & most of the male characters are unsupportive or exploitive of women. Most of the women characters are dysfunctional, & unable to cope with normal life & problems let alone the severe legal and moral problems they are faced with.

Straight-8: Sci Fi premise. A group of eight individuals become linked telepathically. They live around globe in Korea, India, South Africa, Germany, London, Mexico & the US. Characters ages rare somewhere between mid twenties and early thirties. Story lines draw on the charters becoming aware of their new link, how to use it and help each other, and fighting a stock straight from central casting evil government type who wants to kill or exploit them. Some comedy & feel good schmaltz over ugly dramatic elements of fighting for survival in the early 21st Century. Includes explicit hetro and homosexual sex, transgender story lines, explicit drug and alcohol abuse, violence.

There three TV shows, have at it & include your own selections for discussions.
The Walking Deadline and Game of Thrones Start in 2003 when Iam fourteen until 2009 when Iam twenty.
 
IMO, in 1972, "OitnB" runs afoul of two things: a mainly black cast & making the cons the "good guys". Don't forget, that's before "The Jeffersons" & "Good Times" showed the networks an all-black cast could sell. You might get a prison story where the guards are central, with a majority black for cons (supporting & guest players), but the stars'd all be white.

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Yeah, the suits would barf it up 90 ways. Tho I disagree the characters are good guys. Nearly all in my view are unsympathetic, making some really bad decisions at the worst moments.
 
Yeah, the suits would barf it up 90 ways. Tho I disagree the characters are good guys. Nearly all in my view are unsympathetic, making some really bad decisions at the worst moments.
I was thinking more "starring". If they're as unsympathetic as OTL, there's another strike against...
 
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