CNN Headline News. It was exactly what the name says- The headlines, 24/7. I never thought I would get all nostalgic for a freaking cable channel, but damn have things changed for the worse.
Oh, it was easy, they did the news on every half hour, and followed those minutes with weather, sports, and entertainment on a rotating basis. I would sit in the basement with my stoned roommates and we freaking cheered as the Berlin wall fell on live TV.
Now, It’s always some talk radio level dickhead or dickheadess, and oh, by the way, this happened over there somewhere, but now let’s get back to pinhead and the bleached menace…
Oh, and another thing-- Right about the time I was being born, we had the ability and will to put folks on the freakin’ MOON! What happened to that dream, dammit?
The only thing Sci-fi got right besides Permawar was the fucking Cellphone. Yay for Flash Crowds!
Grump grump grump. My son is keeping me awake tonight , and all I can promise him is the world my father dreamed about. If we’re lucky. Well, I can make him some chocolate milk, too. But, jeez.
So what else was better back the day? Besides the whole President/war thing, I mean…
It seems like every cable television network, with a few exceptions (ESPN and Lifetime, to name a couple) experiences niche entropy within about five to ten few years of it going live. How soon will it be until Logo starts airing reruns of The Man Show?
Ha! I remember way back in the day when plain old CNN was just headline news. Then they started covering certain popular subjects for longer and longer, then they introduced the occasional programs until the programs took over the network. But not to worry! They then started the CNN Headline News network so that you had a place to get a quick view of the day’s news, OR you could tune in to CNN for news-related programming. But then CNN HN started covering certain popular subjects for longer and longer, then they introduced the occasional programs until the programs took over the network. Hmmm. Maybe a new network. Call it CNN Headline News Headlines …
Two words: Sesame Street. Elmo is a pustule on the ass of public broadcasting and will be among the first against the wall when the Revolution comes.
For that matter, I remember when PBS children’s offerings weren’t half-hour commercials for lines of merchandise. I understand how it happened, and admit it is pretty inevitable, but it still sticks in my craw. Besides, they’ve never gotten Tom Lehrer to make any more songs for their shows. That’s a crime, dammit.
(Sorry, just got my dose of babysitting this week. Erk.)
Then there were the days, not that long ago, when finding Deodorant didn’t require some kind of secret decoder ring to figure out what the Hell the various scents might be. Or where scentless deodorants were the norm. When Dry Idea gets onto the bandwagon I’m going to be so sunk. That or stinky.
Similarly, once upon a time I could by skin lotion. Now Vaseline alone had 18 different bottles on the shelf and none of them say lotion. I long for a product now labeled “You Ashy?”
Wow, I never would have guessed someone else feels as strongly about Sesame Street as I do. I hate the fact they dumbed down this clever show of my childhood to something I did not want to watch with my kids. Sesame street use to be good for kids up to about 6 and have some appeal to adults. Now it maxes out for 4 year olds and is only slightly better than the EVIL that is Barney.
Cost of college education seemed to be at an all time lowed compared to average income in the US in the Sixties and into the early Seventies. By the eighties, the price shot up completely out of proportion to inflation and salary increases.
Ticket prices for sporting events were a lot cheaper compared to income.
Radio stations were much better in the seventies. There were more stations that played more regional bands and diverse music selections. There were stations were a Frank Sinatra song would be followed by Riders on the Storm. I think radio has become too specialized.
I am nostalgic for the time before cable became common and so most Americans share the common bonds of the limited selection of TV channels. Baseball was on local independent stations. There was barely any VCRs yet or rental stores. It was far likelier that you and your friends and associates were watching the same things and could talk about it. This was especially true of children’s programming. I am amazed that after 4-5 generations grew up watching Bugs Bunny and Looney Toons, there are now many kids that barely have a clue about the Looney Toons.
When an eight year old could leave the house at 11 am on a Saturday (after all the good cartoons were over, natch) and come home at sunset and there was no need to start worrying.
OMG this drives me crazy. They have BREAKING NEWS in huge letters and you find out it’s something that happened hours ago. “Live” footage is more likely than not, not. And they’ll say things like “this just in” and you don’t know if it’s new or not.
Pizza Hut, back when they had “Thick and Chewy” or “Thin and Crispy”. No freakin’ “Homestyle” or “Pan” or “Cheesy Crust Garlic Dipper Hot Fudge Sunday Fondue”. Just Thick or Thin, and they didn’t put on so much pepperoni that you could drive a bio-diesel F-250 to Cheyenne on the drippings from a single slice.
I can’t recall the last time I had a pepperoni pizza that didn’t have too much pepperoni and pools of grease.
