In the late 1950s we came up from Tennessee to such a strange place known as Brooklyn. We went from two TV channels to eight. I thought there would always be something on that I would like to watch. Boy, was I wrong.
In the 1960s we went from black-and-white to color and up to 25 inches for the size of the TV screen. The latee 1970s introduced us to the VCR and “time shifting” so we could record a program and see it later. And keep it. Or rent a movie and see it uncensored and without commercials.
In the early 1980’s we got Laser Discs with better picture, better sound and “letterboxing.”
In the mid-1980s we got stereo on broadcast TV. But it wasn’t until 1990 that cable came to Queens New York and we got 20 more channels.
The real purpose that of getting cable then was to improve our broadcast pictures. Of the 20 channels maybe five were interesting. It did introduce us to subscription TV such as HBO with no commercials. The network broadcasters in the 80s were not so much worried about cable as they were of locally owned stations which competed with their own.
On Long Island, in 1996, the big jump, was made when we went to DirecTV and got about 100 stations including 20 or so that were subscription. While TV broadcasting had become a bit more mature, with shows like St. Elsewhere and Hill Street Blues. Censorship still thrived and shows such as NYPD Blue were routinely sanctioned by the FCC for showing adult content. And I was getting very tired of formula TV sitcoms, police dramas and network standards. Cable TV shows began to have great adult content. The Sopranos and Sex in the City on opened the door wide for serious drama on subscription television.
We have now entered the era of streaming with very adult comedies and dramas. While advertisers always want the youngest audience streaming wants the audience with the most amount of money… and that’s an older audience.
But now, there really is always something on I could watch.
CBS ON LINE
My family subscribes now to Hulu, Amazon, Netflix, and Disney. While that sounds like a lot we share. Being fans of Star Trek we decided to give CBS a try especially since they give you a free month at the beginning. What did we have to lose? Well, we lost a few hours of our time.
CBS has a very limited amount of original material. There are no new movies just a few new TV shows. They have several dozen old TV shows available for viewing which are also available on other services. These are the TV shows that I really want to get away from and not see over again. So for $10 a month there was only the two new seasons of Star Trek Discovery and the Twilight Zone.
Star Trek Discovery: In creating a “prequel” they made a mistake with Star Trek Enterprise. Sothey decided to go back and make the same mistake again. This show doesn’t look like anything I’m familiar with. It looks far more modern than the original series which is supposed to come after this. The visuals are outstanding and the sound, and Dolby Digital, is very good. I was totally bored and unimpressed by the stories and the acting. Part of Star Trek is always been its humor and the relationships of the characters, that is not here. After we finished the first season, we went through a couple of episodes in the second season where nothing seemed to happen. So we skipped to the seventh episode and then to the end. Even if we enjoyed it there was not enough on this station for us to want to pay a monthly fee. I also think it is a mistake to have two concurrent continuities for the same show at the same time, one in the movies and one on TV. SMALLVILLE and Superman Returns, the Flash and the Justice League movie, are examples of where that just doesn’t work. And now Star Trek, with its movies, wants to give us two (three if you count the original) continuities of Star Trek.
The Twilight Zone: Did not impress us at all. The stories are longer than the original series and rather pointless. Rod Serling was unique. I don’t want to spoil any of the stories but it is a pale imitation of the original.
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