Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for October 19, 2024

It is somehow true that there is both a lot more and a lot less on TV these days.

The screens were smaller and even lacked color but they did entertain us. Thanks JJ.

It sounds like Ed Sullivan is what he’s missing! And it’s streaming on Pluto TV.

It’s all still there on You Tube, just different. And if even remotely possible, politicized.

I see many “human” animals on TV every day.

So true, so true. Arlo speaking for the masses. Where are the Ed Sullivans, Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts, George Gobels, and Ted Macks of today?

America’s Got Talent has all that junk.

I guess after your tenth reality TV show or hundredth You Tube video, you crave the classics.

I hardly watch tv these days. I just tape the movies I like to see, so I can watch them without commercials and stream a lot of movies as well.

And Topo Gigio! Arlo, kiss me goodnight.

My dude, you are old. Young people watch all those things on the internet.

I miss variety shows like Carol Burnett and Dean Martin, etc!

The whole spinning plates on poles.

All in one show. Not on five different channels devoted to one thing!

Let’s go way, way back—to Mrs. Cibber singing Handel’s music. Charles Burney wrote of her, “By a natural pathos, and perfect conception of the words, she often penetrated the heart, when others, with infinitely greater voice and skill, could only reach the ear.” That would’ve been television! But I guess I digress . .

America’s got talent does that stuff

I miss a television show that you could watch with your parents and your children at the same time, and no one would be horrified or shocked.

Heck, I’m old enough to miss vaudeville. My uncle used to take me when I was a boy while he dated one of the dancers. What great shows and variety with acrobats, clowns, comedians (I didn’t always understand the more adult humor), singers, choreographed dancing, magic tricks and once I got to sit close enough to see that the fan dancer was wearing flesh-colored tights, so she wasn’t really nude. Some years later I got to see the last vaudeville show at the Folly Theater in Kansas City when I was on temporary assignment to the Federal Building there. I was disappointed in that one however because it had devolved into pretty much porn content by then. Variety shows on TV in the ‘70s were the only other thing to come close to vaudeville. Who knows, maybe the trend wheels will spin back that way someday. Probably after I’m long gone.

I remember Monday nights and The Firestone Hour. They had classical music and even opera singers. Then there was The Friday Night fights and Wrestling. Haystacks Calhoun and The Mad Arab. Not the glitzy junk they have now.

Now. all we get is one big Gong Show… ☺

I miss the Smothers Brothers.

Ted Mack’s Original Amateur Hour. Great show.

Quit complaining. You COULD be hit with another “Real Housewives Of” series. Either that or more Kardashians.

What? You don’t like 142 reruns of Millionaire Dream Home every week?

That stuff is all still out there my friend, try youtube.

Me too Arlo, me too.

Yep. This would make a good Pluggers panel.

Goodnight Gracie.

Let’s not forget,”The Twilight Zone””Voyage to the Bottom the Sea””Time Tunnel””The Outer Limits””Alfred Hitchcock”and”One Step Beyond”…etc….

There’s definitely a lot more on TV than when we were growing up. However, the quality of the entertainment has diminished greatly. Ed Sullivan would be ashamed…..

I really miss variety shows.

I remember when the opening credits and theme music lasted for at least one minute. And did you know that there was such a thing as a half-hour drama?

I grew up watching variety shows, back when tv shows had brief commercial breaks, instead of commercials having brief tv show breaks.

You get that on AGT right now… that show is definitely a throwback.

Watch PBS for a while. Usually good stuff there.

Yeah! And all that was on the Bozo show.

Oh, it’s there…but you have to pay for it now.

He should watch America’s Got Talent

Bring back Ted Mack and Ed Sullivan and the Gong Show!!!

I love it when cartoonists create strips about what it’s like to be a middle-aged couple raising a family, then do it long enough to start writing jokes about what it’s like to be 85 years old.

Yeah, I’m looking at you, too, Batty!

I suppose America has talent is the closest thing we have to Ed Sullivan, but he definitely has a point.

Now it is true crime, murder porn, medical dramas, police procedural or garbage reality TV. Oh, and sports.

Often watch myriad Ed Sullivan clips on youtube

Husband tends to pick what we watch as I am not interested in any of them. When I am watching TV alone I will run through all the channels with the remote until I find some old show that I know by heart to watch.

We tend to be up late at night (early am) and lately while falling asleep we have on reruns of “What’s my Line” and “I’ve Got a Secret” – they run 2 of each of them – the black & white earlier episodes are better than the later color episodes. I just think of it as background noise.

(Right now we are at the kitchen table – one of our usual TV watching places – here, office, bedroom when going to sleep – and are watching the news.)

Someone in the TV biz lamented that there was now so much content being produced each year that one person could not watch it all, even if that were all they did. (24×7? 40 hr/wk? Don’t recall.)

We reached that situation with books quite some time ago. We survived.