It was an ordinary day. Reading my latest AARP magazine. In case you didn't know what AARP means, it is American Association of Retired People. And...that would include me! Great stories about just about anything imaginable, but with stories primarily geared toward their retired members. One such story in the latest issue was about the 10 TV shows that changed our lives. As I sat holding my magazine, I tried to think about what shows they might present to their readers. Well, after reading all the stories, I guessed only half of them. Naturally, just in case you aren't a subscriber to the AARP magazine, I will list the 10 shows so you too can see what shows the magazine thinks were that important to be on the top 10 list.
Show #1 - The show that Made Food Hip: The French Chef that ran from 1962 to 1973. Description began with...Back when Americans were gobbling frozen TV dinners and those quivering Jell-O desserts, Julia Childs cooking show, The French Chef, which ran from 1962-1973, snapped us out of our culinary trance, making us believe we all should consider croquembouche for dessert. The show led to a variety of new cooking shows and competitions with rock star chefs who make dishes for our sophisticated palates. Some presentations I enjoyed while others I could have done without.
Show #2 - The show that Made Us Love Planet Earth: The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau/The Cousteau Odyssey that ran from 1966-1982 (combined). Mr. Cousteau first wanted to be a pilot, but after driving his dad's car off a cliff, he channeled his energy toward inventing the Aqua-Lung and took us all on a trip to the bottom of the sea. His shows helped inspire a renaissance in nature programming on TV and ignited the environmental movement. I had a good friend that taught how to use underwater gear and we both enjoyed the show.
Show #3 - The show that put a mirror in front of America: All in the Family that ran from 1971-1979. Norman Lear's show broke tradition by tackling tough but real topics such as race, feminism, and homosexuality. Mr. Lear's parents were the couple that the show was partly modeled after and the arguments between Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor) and his "meathead" son-in-law (Rob Reiner) were prompted by the liberal and conservative debate in George Bernard Shaw's play Major Barbara. Lear wanted to get people thinking and talking about the issues of the day. Who didn't enjoy this show?
Show #4 - The show that inspired us all about the future: Star Trek. By focusing on aliens rather than humans, Star Trek smuggled contemporary social commentary past censors! It did open our eyes "To boldly go where no man has gone before." NASA even hired actress Nichelle Nichols to recruit astronauts. Scientific American actually called Star Trek "the golden standard of scientific plausibility in TV entrainment." My children enjoyed this show more than I did.
Show #5 - The show that changed the way we sleep: The Tonight Show. Once upon a time, after the 11 p.m. local news told us about tomorrow's weather, American's turned off the TV and went to bed! The Tonight Show changed all that. Sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer joked that the show ruined America's love life, and filmmaker Billy Wilder called Johnny Carson, it's host from 1962 to 1992 "the Valium and the Nembutal of a nation. He has captivated the American bourgeoisie without ever offending the highbrows. Carson was a trusted, reassuring commentator on current events. He helped shape a sense of consensus; somehow his gags helped us sleep better. I was usually in bed asleep when this show came on the air.
Show #6 - The show that turned sport into spectacle: The Super Bowl. TV os why football replaced baseball as America's most popular pastime. Monday Night Football's 1970 debut made polysyllabic commentator Howard Cosell a legend. Remember Howard? And, who could ever forget Joe Namath's 33-yard scoring pass? Plus, Sunday Night Football has been the most popular show on TV for 12 years in a row. But, the biggest sports show of all, without question, is the Super Bowl. The most watched show in American TV history was the 2023 Super Bowl LVII, when 115.1 million fans tuned in. The centerpiece of the music industry, the Super Bowl halftime show, features some of music's top stars. Wouldn't have missed any of the Super Bowl games.
Show #7 - The show that revealed the true nature of war: M*A*S*H. TV had already taken on war in gritty dramas such as Combat (1962-67) and lighthearted comedies like Hogan's Heros (1965-71), but the war show that earned more than 100 Emmy nominations was M*A*S*H. It was the first to blend violent horrors and sitcom high jinks in a way that still influence shows all the way through Breaking Bad and Barry. It won a Peabody Award for "the manner in which comedy is used to lift the spirit and, as well, to offer a profound statement on the nature of war." It's two-and-a-half-hour long finale is the most-watched series episode ever, with 106 million viewers. This show really made me laugh.
Show #8 - Made history feel real to us all: The Civil War. Ken Burns' docuseries The Civil War (1990) ignited a hunger for history that TV watchers never knew they had. It's trademark storytelling tricks were slow pan sets of archival documents, with haunting fiddle music and moving commentary by intellectuals such as Shelby Foote. Foote became so popular that fans sent him marriage proposals, and his The Civil War trilogy. helped spark a long-term craze for historical bestsellers. The Civil War touched our emotions, making the war seem like our own tragic family dramas, not a remote event dimly remembered from school lessons. Watched some of the episodes, but wasn't my type of TV show.
Show #9 - Before Law & Order (1990-2010), we had cops shows and shows about courtrooms, though never a show about the particulars of both catching suspects and then prosecuting them, in cases ripped from the headlines and brilliantly tweaked to create maximum drama. A 2015 study found that watching the Law & Order franchise, particularly the stories on Law & Order:SVU, made viewers less likely to believe myths about rape and more apt to be insistent about seeking consent. Law & Order helped drive the immense proliferation of true-crime shows on TV. For some reason I never watched the show. Perhaps it ran at the same time as one of my other favorites ran.
Show #10 - There used to be good guys and bad guys, but The Sopranos (1997-2007) made us root for Tony Soprano, a mob boss who kills both the innocent and those who are guilty as sin. He's a family man who can't trust his murderous mother and whose wife averts her eyes from the sources of their comfy life. The show succeeded by breaking longtime TV rule, with startling violence, cynical comedy, morally ambiguous characters, and plots and subplots that stretched out across several episodes. This was one show that I didn't care to watch and never watched a single episode!
Perhaps you might have a show that you enjoyed more than the 10 listed here. I certainly did, but I guess I might have been one of a few that did enjoy them, thus they didn't make the top 10 list. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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