6 Comments
Oct 7Liked by George MF Washington

Network TV shows: The last campfires we gathered around as a tribe.

Nice observation on the themes from '70s and early '80s comedies being more wistful or even melancholy than the shows themselves.

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Thanks… I like the campfire analogy too

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Oct 7Liked by George MF Washington

You made me think of it when you mentioned letting the dog out and hearing the same commercial from next door.

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Oct 11Liked by George MF Washington

Several of these shows -- WKRP, Taxi, Kotter, Cheers -- had a wistful, nostalgic tone and characters recovering from their wilder years. Another with great opening titles was Rhoda, which refreshed its opening sequence often ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXJ45rWJ0Lg ). Two memorable 1970s comedies, All in the Family and The Mary Tyler Moore Show, also tracked and influenced signficant social dynamics of the era. As censorship loosened and attention spans shrunk, 1990's comedies lost their on-the-nose title sequences, but hit a creative peak (Seinfeld, Frasier.) Thanks to Hulu and Netflix, etc., these important milestones of our comedy culture live on for the edification and, one hopes, inspiration of later generations.

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Oct 7Liked by George MF Washington

Amen. Seems they don’t care for openings anymore in films/tv shows & hardly bother with them. They’re a lost art; hard to replicate trendsetting trailblazers like Maurice Binder anyway.

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Barney Miller deserves a mention, although not quite the same in terms of the into. Great shows all!

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