It's not a criticism, it's an observation.
No food, no girls, just
The Fugitive

Mike Cox

In late summer, 1967, five of us, all teenage boys under 18, had saved enough money for a week at the beach, called and reserved a motel, and were ready to go. We thought Mike's 56 Buick would provide us transportation. Our parents weren't stupid enough to let us take a car.

My dad agreed to drive us to Gulf Shores, and Mr. White would pick the group up in a week. Five high school kids would be left alone for several days without supervision. Parents today won't let their college grads go to job fairs alone.

The low point and the high point of the week came on Tuesday. We met some girls on the beach and told them we were having a party. They agreed to stop by. We pooled all of our money for the week and bought beer and snacks. The next morning found us financially unable to buy anything to eat for the remainder of our vacation. We redefined foraging over the next four days.

The girls showed up, but brought their boyfriends. The most exciting thing we did was watch the final episode of The Fugitive. David Janssen was ending his stint as the star of the show, and the network decided to allow Richard Kimble to stop running. It was also counting on high ratings.

The two part series finale was telecast in late August, which was unusual. Television was predictable in my teen years. The season started in September; first run shows continued until the Christmas Holidays, then original episodes returned again until June. Having a season finale just before the season started was unheard of, but both episodes set viewer records.

Last week, ABC breathlessly announced the fall finale for Lost, four episodes into the season. Not only are the networks giving us just 13 episodes each year and splitting them into small three and four week segments, they are trying to trick us with marketing techniques like fall finale.

In 1967, network television consisted of 26 episodes each year. Summer was for reruns and test episodes of possible new shows. Modern TV shows feature 13 episodes, and those are spread out over the year.

Don't get me wrong. I don't want to go back to the days of three networks, antennas with aluminum foil to fine tune reception, or test patterns after midnight. Home entertainment today consists of hi-definition signals, hundreds of channels, and surround sound.

We can pick from movies, sports, music videos, or previously recorded programs. Smart recorders can identify viewer habits and record shows even if you fail to set the DVR. Strolling through a hundred channels, futilely searching for an interesting program, is still better than the old days.

As technology improves, maybe our TVs will read our minds and provide us with whatever we want, whenever we want it. Even better is a device to tell us if the girls we invited to our party are bringing their boyfriends before we spend all our money trying to impress them. That's technology.

MWC423@bellsouth.net