It Was Alright In The Seventies.

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Tony Grist

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It Was Alright In The Seventies.	[Nov. 23rd, 2014\|10:32 am] Tony Grist
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.
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Comments:

From:

halfmoon_mollie
2014-11-23 12:53 pm (UTC)

well said.

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From:

poliphilo
2014-11-23 12:54 pm (UTC)

Thanks.

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From:

splodgenoodles
2014-11-23 01:42 pm (UTC)

Comedy is great material for social history. The fact that the idea of a black queen of England was so hilarious does tell us a lot about those times.

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From:

poliphilo
2014-11-23 01:47 pm (UTC)

That's true.

People laugh at the things that make them anxious. When the anxiety evaporates so does the joke.

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From:

fabrisse
2014-11-23 02:57 pm (UTC)

I watched Starsky and Hutch recently. Bits of it were surprisingly progressive for the time; other bits really weren't. The moment which really gave me a "how far we've come" feeling was the opening credits. There just aren't the deep piles of litter anymore.

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From:

poliphilo
2014-11-23 03:38 pm (UTC)

The 70s don't seem so long ago to me- but then I watch bits of 70s Tv and it's another world.

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From:

poliphilo
2014-11-23 03:36 pm (UTC)

Jenny Eclair- I knew her. And Arthur Smith. And dear old Roy Hudd.

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From:

matrixmann
2014-11-23 03:51 pm (UTC)

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.

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From:

poliphilo
2014-11-23 04:23 pm (UTC)

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.

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From:

matrixmann
2014-11-23 04:39 pm (UTC)

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)?

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From:

poliphilo
2014-11-23 06:37 pm (UTC)

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

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From:

ingenious76
2014-11-23 04:46 pm (UTC)

Sitcoms like Mind Your Language and Love Thy Neighbour...dear God. I know it was the early 70s, but did no one have the balls to actually say "hang on, this is actually a little bit offensive?"

Thank God for '10s. We have Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad!

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From:

poliphilo
2014-11-23 06:17 pm (UTC)

It wasn't a matter of balls; most people just weren't very clued up about race. I didn't watch either of those shows, not because they were offensive, but because they were low-brow and a bit naff.

Other times, other values.

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