Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for August 05, 2020

Here, in panel three we see the representation of an automobile…urinating?

“Tinkle, tinkle”?

Arlo seems to have aged backwards during the last 35 years.

“Start tomorrow. You’re as good as half ere ye start.”

Writing good drama without violence is easy. The problem is that it’s not what network executives mean when they say “drama”. They mean action-adventure.

And don’t forget the big fire-ball explosion in slow-motion, with the hero out-running the explosion!!

1986. Ahh the good old days. Well . . . .

Kids will never lose that innate blood thirst.

When TV sets were wooden!

This touches on an aspect of European crime shows that is to their advantage. Not having car chases and shoot-em-ups requires plot and dialog to take their place.

I remember seeing a Bugs Bunny cartoon in that time. Black Jacque Shellaque was determined to settle Bugs’s hash once and for all. He was seen, shotgun in hand, approaching a waterfall from which our hero’s singing came. Then there was a time shift: the singing had stopped and the villain tramped away visibly happier. Our hero pulled the waterfall aside to reveal a thoroughly trashed Victrola.

The mass shootings since that Grand Experiment suggest it was not a success. I’m not clear on why anybody thought it would help. The world is bigger than cartoons… barring these, of course!

The no mouth thing is weird looking.

Then the guns were replaced by laser guns and light sabers….. at least they haven’t been invented yet.

Things that make you go Hmmmm: A 1983 study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that cartoon violence is harmless and hilarious, no matter whether you’re adult or child, native or foreign, rich or poor, cat or mouse. This finding is consistent with Freudian, arousal, and superiority theories of humor.

Thanks for using the modern semi-meaningless term “gun violence” which didn’t exist in 1986. Like ‘hot’ without ‘cold’, ‘up’ without ‘down’, gun violence can only be useful is there is also club violence, knife violence, etc.

Ah, so that’s why Sledge Hammer! only got two seasons. He should have shot more cars I guess.

…and Lee Atwater using ‘Willie Horton’ ads to scare white people about black males

Gun violence? I watch some of the old westerns sometimes (Bonanza, Gunsmoke) there isn’t a show that gets by without at least someone getting shot – usually to death. By the time the series ends, the main character must have been shot dozens of times.

In the 50s and onward TV was a reflection of our society at that time. Nowadays the shows are not. Hence we bought old shows and some new ones like Burn Notice and more and lots of the ones we like as kids…Leave It To Beaver, Donna Reed, Happy Days and the list goes on. We are rewatching them now; along with many others from the old days.

Soooo . . . how about you don’t let the kids watch it, if you’re concerned. It’s called “parenting”.