It Was Alright In The Seventies.

[poliphilo]

Here's a clever idea. The archives of the TV companies are full of shows too offensive ever to be shown again in their entirety. What on earth should we do with them? I know; let's repackage the worst bits as social history.

The bad art of a period of social change is always going to be more embarrassing than the bad art of a period of stability: the old certainties have gone, the new ones are still being crafted;  the ground is all churned up and because the artists are persons of limited intelligence and imagination it's as if they are wearing blindfolds- and the puddles and ruts receive them. The '70s were a decade of sexual revolution, women's liberation and mass immigration. There was just so much to get wrong. Here's Frankie Howerd, a closeted gay man of a certain age- out of touch, going with the flow and- there are girls and black entertainers on stage with him and- oh dear, o dear, o dear!  And here's an episode of the Goodies that believes it's sending up apartheid. Let's just say they meant well. Bill Oddie as he now is has been corralled into watching his younger self slinging the racist epithets around. He squirms, tries to come up with excuses and fails. "I'd rather not go there," he says.

But, really, could we be where we are now if we hadn't been there first? How would we know what the unacceptable looks like if we hadn't seen it. Trial and error,  boys, trial and error.

Comments

[matrixmann]

What one can say even about old TV shows and series is: It's all culture. In comparison with what the Greeks or whoever from the antiquity age did it may seem less valueable and less worth the archiving, but in fact what these people have been producing then was nothing else than what they produce today. They had their theater of scandal - of blood, sexual intercourse and violence - too.
There was barely a main difference to what they choose today - the only that's different is: It's so long ago that you can see what it drew afterwards.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

And it all has value.

These old shows may make us cringe but they have a lot to tell us about ourselves- which, I suppose, is exactly why we cringe.

[matrixmann]

Therefore it has value.

Looking at the ancient Greek stuff, if they did the same, and how much it is praised as "cultural heritage", you can just put a little bit of pride to yourself, too.
Who knows what one is going to say about this age in a hundred years (depending on there's something left of the cultural products that are produced these days)?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, who knows. I'm sure we'll be judged and found wanting by our descendants.