Tralfaz Sunday Theatre: What's Happening To Television

You hear it all the time. Television was so much better in the old days. News coverage is biased, not like when Uncle Walter was on the air. Too much junk. Anything decent on streaming services gets cancelled. Yes, the old days were better.

Of course, this is all bunk.

Cronkite, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley all had their critics (mainly people who wanted partisan spin accepted as truth). Shows like The Beverly Hillbillies and Gilligan’s Island were among the many shows bashed for being inane. Westerns and detective shows and even the Three Stooges were denounced for violence. The networks let live drama die, and shoved newsmaker interview shows to the least-watched parts of the day, if not emasculating them (eg., Ed Murrow’s See It Now).

In other words, nothing has really changed.

As proof, we present to you this hour-long documentary that aired on NET (it became PBS) on April 4, 1966. “What’s Happening To Television” unabashedly states that quality TV programme should win out over ratings. It never does say where the money would come from to pay for it. The show was rerun later that season.

Interestingly, it does not have a host. Instead, the producers hired freelance commercial actor Joe Sirola to narrate (uncredited) off-camera.

You should be able to play both halves of the show. See how many of these complaints (and excuses) are still heard.