Our sister station WCTX MyTV9 is running a slew of Bewitched episodes this afternoon. It was serendipity Helaine and I found them We’ve become hooked on watching. You don’t often get a chance to feast on 40-45 year old TV shows.
“Everyone we’re watching is dead,” I offered up. On TV they’re forever young. Life isn’t as forgiving.
It was a different TV landscape back then, I’ve yet to see my first black, Hispanic or Asian actor. I thought the sixties was the era of enlightenment? We ought to be ashamed of ourselves.
How old was the cast? In the mid-60s as I watched they were grown-ups. Some, like Darren’s boss Larry, seemed downright old. Perceptions change.
Larry Tate (played by David White), the guy with the grey hair, was around ten years younger than I am now! Seriously, that’s worse than sobering. He was cast specifically to be the old guy!
There were no serious issues raised. There were no contemporary social references. These sitcoms existed in their own walled garden without continuity from week-to-week and where a principal character like Darren could be re-cast without blinking an eye.
It’s still fun to watch.
The style of comedy back then, for lack of a better description, was more “pleasant” than it is now. More slapstick. I wish we had that now…
Of course I HAD to comment on a Bewitched post! I have noticed this as well while watching old sitcoms. People looked older at an earlier age back then. They were retiring in their 50’s, dying in their 70’s… now people are retiring in their 60’s and living closer to 80. And these days people are trying harder to look younger.
Samantha is spot-on. Watch an episode of Burns and Allen (available on DVD in only the better “dollar stores”)… from say 1954 or ’55… George Burns is not yet 60, Neither is Larry Keating (“Harry Morton”). Harry Von Zell isn’t even 50. They all looked like our fathers and uncles!