Opuscula What was funny Now isn’t funny; It’s all about age

IN MY NECK O’ THE WOODS we have a number of “classic” tv stations, “classic” translating into “shows from yesteryear,” many monochrome (black and white for the toddler set).

They all come to my tv via a small antenna – no cable or dish needed. The antenna cost, if I recall correctly, about US$20. The house was built and wired for cable, but the cable ports go unused. The house also was wired for telephones in each room, but with Consumer Cellular’s ZTE “wireless home phone base” and a cordless network, those ports also are unused. (See http://tinyurl.com/n56t295 to understand how the ZTE device works.)

I don’t spend much time in front of the tv during the day – after the morning local news, I spend a total of two hours watching westerns; sometimes not even that much. (The horse operas are Paladin with Richard Boone and, usually, Kam Tong , and Gunsmoke with James Arness.)

When my grand-daughter visits I watch Bewitched and Jeannie with her; it’s a hard job but someone has to do it.

Some shows I liked as a youngster no longer appeal to me. Too “silly.” I Love Lucy is one show I can do without. The Three (actually 6) Stooges also are skipped. I guess I’ve outgrown slap-stick.

I suppose as I aged – and the tv sitcoms did not – my taste in comedy changed. I might still enjoy Phil Silvers as Sgt. Bilko, but I’ll skip Jim Nabors and Gomer Pyle, USMC, gaull-ly.

My “taste” in comics also has changed, and still is changing. As a youngster, all the funnies were fun – well, maybe excepting Mary Worth, a soap opera on the comics page. (By the way, Mary Worth fans can find the strip at http://comicskingdom.com/mary-worth .) Now I visit gocomics.com at least six days-a-week and look at small sampling from the long list of available cartoons.

Ally Oop, Andy Capp: skipped.

Auntie Acid, Candorville (to keep up on how the political left is thinking), Over the Hedge, and 9 Chickwood Lane (where the dorks get the girls) all are on my list. Aside from Over the Hedge, I doubt these would have been of much interest to me even as a teenager.

I skip most of the tv westerns -- Bonanza, Big Valley etc. Even the ones I watch I find fault.

Notice how, when the good guy shoots the bad guy, the bad guy is killed. Rarely does the bad guy survive the good guy’s single shot, yet the good guy almost always survives – got to keep the series going.

In real life, that doesn’t happen.

Both the Paladin and Matt Dillon characters are remarkably accurate shots – shots that normally are made only with a rifle. Paladin fires a Derringer at a bad guy 20 feet away and kills him with one shot. The only place THAT happens is Hollywood (CA, not FL). If you, like me, count the number of shots a good guy’s six shooter fires, the total always is more than six -- without reloading! This is made more interesting in that most six-guns were loaded with only five cartridges (they lacked a safety feature; if the gun fell, the firing pin would hit on the empty chamber).

Most cowboy heroes draw and fire as if their pistols are single action. Back in the day, pistols were double action; that means the gun’s hammer had to be manually cocked before pulling the trigger (ergo “double action”). If you get a chance, watch the opening segment of the Lone Ranger; watch as Clayton Moore, chasing a bad guy, cocks his six shooter and fires. Double action. (While there was only one tv Tonto, played by a real Indian, Jay Silverheels, there were two tv Lone rangers: Clayton Moore and, briefly, John Hart. George Seaton, Earle Graser, and Brace Beemer played the Lone Ranger on radio -- for the younger generation, that's tv sans picture.)

I’m happy to have the opportunity to watch programs I enjoyed years ago, but I find that what I enjoyed then is not necessarily what I enjoy now. Laugh-in, yes; Star Trek, no, not even with Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy).

Bob Dylan was right, Times they are a’changin’ (http://tinyurl.com/jgkzmnt) --- or maybe it's just me.

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

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