The more things change

It's amazing how things have changed in television over the years. I'm not talking from the 1950's compared to today. I mean the 70's and even the 80's. Saturday Night Live is a great example.

Back in the 70's and 80's there were people that thought television was to wild and violent for children. They sited various FCC regulations and codes. They complained that television was morally bankrupt. But cartoons like Road Runner (before he got his Verizon deal) and Bugs Bunny stayed on the air uneditied. At the same time George Carlin was on Saturday Night Live, and had the show shut down by censors because he said a couple of bad words so fast that most of America had no idea what he said before his mike was turned off and the studio lights were shut off. Then the show went immediately to commercial.

In the 1980's it was not nearly that bad. People still complained about television violence and its morally corrupt nature. Shows got racier, especially soap operas. Bugs Bunny and Road Runner, et al., still were uneditied and tens of millions of kids watched Sesame Street every day. But when Charles Rocket said a bad word on Saturday Night Live, the show kept going. He did get fired immediately though, ending his career.

We hit the 2000's and there was an uproar about morality, violence and television. By this time every wrong of kids was blamed on television. Columbine and other similar events were claimed to be the product of television (and not bad parenting). By this time Road Runner and Bugs Bunny were so editied to be unwatchable and without any meaning (just like most shows on MTV). Sesame Street - the episodes from the 70's and 80's - were categorized as adult programs unfit for children to watch. The nation (well some of the more uptight parts of it) lost their minds when there was an accidental exposure of a naked breast for 2 seconds during the Super Bowl halftime show.

And just this weekend, on the 35th anniversary of SNL Jennifer Slater relived moments of the past. **Warning - the video contains the unaltered word**



Noticed her face after she said it? I will give her credit, as well as the other actress, as they just kept going. Good thing the lights didn't go out.

So think about it. Several aspects of television have improved, according to some, while outrageous actions that never would be allowed in the past are ignored. Slater still has a job as of this moment, Sesame Street has become almost as mindless as American Idol, and you can't even find Bugs Bunny on television without looking on cable.

Have things been getting better or worse? Does it matter as almost no one watches broadcast television anymore? And was this a plan by SNL since the show long ago stopped being funny, even to people too young to know it once was funny EVERY episode?

Like Bugs Bunny the Washington Natioal Opera and Wagner are struck down

Sometimes you have to wonder what Odin would have thought. Specifically about Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung a version of the Nibelungenlied. Now some readers may wonder what this opera is and why they might care.

The thing is that far more people know this famous opera than think they do. It has been the subject of multiple stroylines (including an interesting take in the anime Cyborg 009) in film. The music from the various operas have lasted over a century now, and can be heard in fare as diverse as a Bugs Bunny cartoon



to Apocalypse Now – a great scene in the film.



So it’s worth just discussing for at least a moment. And this all came up because the Washington Natioal Opera has just decided to cancel the performance of all 4 operas that make up the Ring. They are doing so because of the current financial difficulty that we all are expereincing. And that is a shame.

To see the full opera is to understand the full story of the Norse Gods and their demise. In total the 4 parts can take up to 4 nights and 15 hours in total. The sheer magnitude of the entirety is unmatched, and perhaps the only medium and story that comes close to the same degree of enormity would be Star Wars (though elements of the story seem to have inspired parts of the Lord of the Rings). Yet this has no special effect, and has been performed long before film existed.

Thus to hear that Washingon National Opera was planning this was a joy. Plácido Domingo would have had his work cutout for him no matter the economy. To hear that Odin, The Norse and Midgard have been destroyed yet again by mere money is sad in a manner.

This means that likely the only way to see the complete Ring cycle will have to be in Seattle in 2009, unless the economy ends that as well. For an opera that has inspired and touched so many for so long, I was hoping for better.