The "CHILD OF TELEVISION" turns 40.
Published March 24, 2005
Let me repeat a portion of my "Pre-ramble".
When I was born people had breakfast with Barbara Walters, dinner with Walter Cronkite, and slept with Johnny Carson.
That statement dates me. There is now a whole new generation that doesn't get that statement. To them Johnny Carson was the guy who just died, Barbara Walters is the older woman on The View and Walter Who? When I mention Freddie Prinze they think that he's the guy who married Buffy. They didn't understand why I was bothered last year when Captain Kangaroo's (Bob Keeshan) passing was given a ten second mention on the entertainment news shows while ten minutes was dedicated to the Ben & J.Lo break up. I tried in vain to explain that Captain Kangaroo was to children's television what Johnny Carson was to late night television. Around that same time we were discussing production beginning on Meet the Fockers. I mentioned that it would have been cool if Ben Stiller's real parents (Jerry Stiller & Ann Mera) played the Fockers. A fifteen-year-old girl asked, "Ben Stiller's parents are famous?" I explained that Jerry Stiller on The King of Queens and Ann Mera who was recently on Sex in the City are Ben Stiller's parents. They used to be part of a comedy team called "Stiller & Mera". I got no response. I then mentioned that they were as big as Nichols & May (Mike Nichols and Elaine May). Still no response. They appeared regularly on The Ed Sullivan Show. Again no response. I was told that I spoke with Dennis Miller obscurity. It's frustrating that the generation that succeeded mine doesn't care about anything that happened before they were born. Hey, I wasn't alive during World War II, but I know who won.
The other frustrating part about being a Child of Television turning forty, besides looking at how old the guys from Happy Days are now, is what I call the Gilmore Girls factor. Recently I met this young girl who was 18-19 years old. She was wearing very tight jeans, T-shirt, and looking very hot. A few minutes later I met her mother, dressed the same way, equally hot. I realized, I'm more attracted to the mom than to the daughter. How did that happen? I then realized the mom is my age. Oh my God, I'm old enough to be that girl's father. If I were that girl's father, I wouldn't let her leave the house dressed that way. Doesn't she know that there are forty-year-old men staring at her? What the hell just happened to me? I know that age is cruel, but this is hitting below the belt.
To quote Jennifer Aniston in a recent interview, "Forty is the new Thirty", and 4 out of 5 Desperate Housewives agree.
Stay Tuned
Tony Figueroa
- The "CHILD OF TELEVISION" turns 40.
- Published: March 24, 2005
- Type:
- Section: Video
- Filed Under: Video: Comedy, Video: Classics, Books: Children
- Writer: Tony Figueroa
- Tony Figueroa's BC Writer page
- Tony Figueroa's personal site
- Spread the Word
- Like this article?
- Email this
Save to del.icio.us
Comments on this articleComments
I don't think Jennifer Aniston was the originator of the term "40 is the new 30" I think it was said on "sex in the city"
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/27208)
Good post, Tony. I just turned 31, but I can still relate to nearly everything you mentioned. I feel like I'm going through that transitional stage where there's a fully fledged generation younger than me who thinks about and cares about things that I could think and care less about (and vice versa, of course).
It's pretty strange that as a little kid growing up in the early 80s, we had: no cable television, no walkmans, no computer (of course), and no VCR. We had about six or seven television channels to keep us occupied and perhaps a handheld game with little red blips (I still have fond memories of playing Head-to-Head Football, made by Coleco, I think).
Anyway, kids today are growing up in a very different world, and see the world (I can guess) in a very different way than I do.
Okay, end nostalgia.
I'm surprised that the kid you talked to wouldn't recognize Jerry Stiller from Seinfeld? Is even that comedy classic too classic for kids already?