The WordPress Daily Writing Prompt monster strikes again. But instead of going on some diatribe of what a little TV nerd I was, this seemed like the perfect exercise in turning the archives of this blog into one of those “choose your adventure” deals.
What TV shows did you watch as a kid?
That’s a surprisingly complex question because the cultural sponge that is this blog is literally dripping with references to classic television. The Rockford Files is my favorite show ever, which is why it tops the leaderboard in number of appearances.
From there, it doesn’t require a crystal ball to see I was also an aficionado of “cop” shows. The references are everywhere, but the most target-rich example comes in my comparison between famous fictional cops and legendary hockey goons.
One of those fictional cops was Jack Webb’s Sergeant Joe Friday. Webb produced several shows, all of which centered on cops or firefighters. Subject notwithstanding, Webb TV was a regular guest on my screen. He even made a movie which got an installment in my series Sports Analogies Hidden In Classic Movies. As such, this blog dishes up more than just random, world-wide Webb references.
Along that journey, you might discover my obsession with old game shows. There’s no better snapshot of what America looked like at a given time than television chock full of “everyday” people. It’s that quasi-warped perspective that allowed me to be the guy to pen a theory that The Price Is Right was invented by a diabetic.
But to be honest, there’s one man responsible for this blog’s being an homage to my weird pop culture memories…Gene “The Singing Cowboy” Autry. He was the original owner of baseball’s California Angels, and in the early 1970s, Autry found it difficult getting his team on television in a market dominated by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Autry’s solution was to buy his own television station. Now that every Angel game could be broadcast, the problem was with what do you fill the rest of the day? With his Hollywood connections and being the dawn of the syndication era, Autry built an independent station full of old movies (not surprisingly heavy on westerns), syndicated game shows, and other programming courtesy of some powerful TV producers…including Jack Webb.
In other words, if you give a dopey sports-nerd kid a TV station full of baseball in the pre-cable era, you can’t be surprised when that dopey kid grows up to be an dopier blogger wringing his nonsense from that combination sponge of sports and culture.
Face it…you’re reading the evidence. Take the plunge at your own risk.
You can see all my WordPress Daily Prompt responses here.
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