Creating Television: Conversations With the People Behind 50 Years of American TV
A Volume in LEA's Communication Series, © Copyright 2004
Robert Kubey (kubey@scils.rutgers.edu)
Director, Center for Media Studies (www.mediastudies.rutgers.edu)
Professor, Dept of Journalism & Media Studies, Rutgers University
What about Television's Influence On The Culture?
(TV's sins, remarkable increase in pure quality)
Each quote is followed by the page number in Creating Television where the full quote can be found.
Sid Caesar:
. . . The rise and fall of the American Empire? That's what it is. When you start making cruelty
an entertainment, this to me is insane. 30
Network Executive and Producer, David Levy:
We are in the midst of a cultural pollution that is just as dangerous as the environmental pollution. . . .
They live in it. They’re surrounded by it. They don’t analyze it, they don’t think about it. 87
Grant Tinker:
I guess, among television's sins, the most obvious and the most mentioned are making a bad or mediocre
product; the witless forgettable product that many of us sit through all the time. If television were only more
daring and more diverse in its offerings. TV is just repetitiously giving you situation comedies and dramatic
shows that all look rather alike...TV does have some sins to answer for, in the area of gratuitous sex, violence and language. 99
Executive and Producer, Lee Rich:
I think the quality of television has gone up remarkably. I’m talking about the pure quality of the thing, the writing,
the set decoration. You go back and look at the so-called golden age of television, which is total bullshit, and you
will see the difference. 103
Grant Tinker has said that he felt the tragedy of American television was that so little stuck to your ribs.
Tinker sets himself up as a god of what television should be. And what this bullshit about sticking to your ribs?
Many programs leave one with a rather empty feeling after watching.
You have an empty feeling about eating Chinese food, too. It’s your perception of it. Maybe my perception is totally
different. You or I are not the criteria for what is good or bad…..The American people, in their numbers, will tell you what the like. 104
Question to musical special producer, Gary Smith: After years of working in TV, would you say that the tastes of the public have changed?
I would subscribe a little bit to that theory, but I think it's entirely possible that we have been guilty in playing a part in reducing the taste level or reducing the expectations of what things can really be. Although I will also tell you that I am very proud of what television has done in the television movie field compared to what theatrical films have done. I think that the opposite is true there. I think television movies address themselves to issues and social problems and tackle a lot of things that theatrical films won't. Theatrical films are supposed to be - the real art form. That's bullshit. I think television films can take tremendous credit and the industry deserves a tremendous amount of credit for raising the taste standards and the expectations of what should be dealt with in subject matter for drama in television. 242-243
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