Frazz by Jef Mallett for January 23, 2021

And the answer is… $Money.

Correction. only if you subscribe to TWO godzillion streaming services.

And 90% of everything on the streaming services is crud, so it’s still the same problem.

When I was Caulfield’s age there was nothing to watch on 4 channels, and they all signed off before midnight.

I am danish – when I was that age, there was one (1) Channel, and my parents TV was black-and-white. The good thing was, that when talked about TV-shows at school, everybody was talking about the same thing. ;-D

29 years ago the complaint was that you had to pay for 57 channels when you only watched 5 of them. Now the complaint is that it’s too expensive to pay for every streaming service. Which is true, if you get to them all at once. But we have the choice to pick only what we want to subscribe to, and can cancel them at anytime, which is what people wanted in the first place! I don’t get it.

In New York City in the ‘50s, there was always something good on. the million dollar movie, the early show, the late show, The late late show, and The late late late show we’re almost always worth watching.

Jerry Lester did Broadway Open House for a little over a year in early 1950’s. Lots of yocks and comic routines. Most late night shows since then stemmed from that success, as did the careers of dozens of ftv comedy stars.

A good Bruce Springsteen Movie? Bruce Willis or Bruce Dern – maybe. There are a few others. But a good Bruce Springsteen movie? – at least not as an actor.

Ain’t it the truth, ain’t it the truth?

I grew up in Flint (yes, that Flint) in the ’60s. My dad used to work for a tv/radio sales/service shop, and put up a deep-fringe antenna on the roof with a motor to aim it. We were able to get the three Flint channels, multiple Detroit channels, and even a couple of Canadian channels.

“Godzillion?” The only place I’ve ever encountered that is in the writings of J.R. “Bob” Dobbs. Are this kid’s parents subgeniuses?

Was more behind the set than in front (don’t forget to short -circuit under the insulating rubber cup before pulling the wire out of the picture tube), but did enjoy some of the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movies, and Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes.

I remember variety shows, music, dance, comedy skits. I always loved the skits where the actors would break character and laugh at their own jokes.

Gazillion. Not godzillion.

So many good responses this morning! ….. nothing to add!

Thank God that we still got books…..

Everything is more complicated and expensive today.

On a completely different subject, isn’t the word “gazillion?” I don’t think Godzilla has anything to do with it.

Easy Caulfield, profit and the desire for dominance is still driving the train.

all the forced “updates” on the computer just seem to bog things down

Fall 1950, St Joseph, Crusader Rabbit!!

Money, money, money!

Bruce Springsteen gave a pretty good performance 3 days ago, and it was carried live on all the free networks.

This is one of those moments to step back, in that we went from something that we were getting for free, to something that we had some control over that we payed for, to something we had even more control over and has better quality to something we have even more control over and is arguably better quality that we have to pay for. All the while we can still get stuff for free – that arguably has improved as well. For some – Caufield’s complaint is something of a “first world problem”.

Nobody noticed that Frazz admitted that he watches tv?

29 years ago Weird Al wrote “Now why did I ever pay for this junk? I hooked up eighty channels and each one stunk.” 80 channels… Weird Al for the win.

I had expected him to hit the really big numbers like vigintillion.

Definition of vigintillion

US : a number equal to 1 followed by 63 zeros— see TABLE OF NUMBERS

also, British : a number equal to 1 followed by 120 zeros— see TABLE OF NUMBERS

Examples of vigintillion in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Physics theories suggest that sometime between 10^34 (1 decillion) and 10^64 (1 vigintillion) years from now, the protons found in the nuclei of all atoms will decay.— NBC News, “How humans might outlive Earth, the sun…and even the universe,” 20 Dec. 2017

https://www.bing.com/search?q=vigintillion&cvid=b762135e937a44bb9eab662a34e5f686&FORM=ANAB01&PC=DCTS

I have a basic cable package. One channel has a bunch of good shows (all reruns, but still good) that are on almost every day. The only problem is they run the garbage shows first and the good shows are all on after midnight.

My father doesn’t believe me when I tell that within five years, the Super Bowl will only be available via pay-per-view.

I stopped watching television way, WAY back, when A&E stupidly cancelled an excellent program: “Nero Wolfe”. I really haven’t missed it. When I want to watch a series, I do so on DVD.