Why did the industry drift away from making wholesome TV shows?

bobcat

bobcat

Well-known Member
Location
Northern Calif
Most of us watched TV shows like Leave It To Beaver, My Three Sons, The Courtship Of Eddie's Father, etc..., and many still enjoy them.
Did the public change, or did the industry just go a different direction and ultimately took us along with it?
Does the younger generation just think they're corny or outdated? Why did society change to edgier stuff?
It seems every generation thinks the one before it was uncool.
 

About the year 2000 in my classroom of 3 year olds there were girls coming to day care with
hair extensions so they had 3 times the hair they really did, wearing halter tops and short short skirts.
Being taught to "twerk" by family members, try to get that bunch to the Hokey Pokey and that will answer
your question.
 
I agree the industry did go in a different direction and took us with it. Honestly I think we can put most of the blame on Jerry Springer. He understood the value of "shock" tv and we went along for the ride. Outrage stirs people up. Younger generations don't really remember a time when things were different.
 

Very few of us can relate to those ridiculous shows that have no bearing on the Real Life of Today. We've been changed by the business of the Vietnam War, and our society will not recover: maybe it will when we are all dead, which is coming up Soon. Americans today drink more, and are drug addled. How else can anyone explain the mess?

Just give me a well written show and I'll watch it, if I can drag myself away from those damn cable news shows. I'm a masochist.
 
It all seemed to coincide with permissive trends in the 1960s that pushed boundaries with shows like Rowan and Martin's "Laugh-In," then a few years later, "All in the Family," and spin-offs like "Maude." Even Carol Burnett got bolder in some of her work. Once the door was open, it stayed open.
 
I realize that society has changed, counterculture is always popular, and I don't begrudge the edgier programs that are always pushing the boundaries. The industry is always chasing eyeballs, and many enjoy watching trainwrecks. I do sometimes as well. I guess I am left wondering if it has to be all or nothing. There are others on the planet who still enjoy that sort, including Film Noir movies.
 
Just look at how dramatically television shows changed by the late 1960s into the 1970s as all media became drastically more permissive. Once they were allowed to, Madison Avenue marketing strongly endorsed all manner of sexual advertising and made sure with their Wall Street corporate puppet politicians allowed it. In a race to the bottom, TV shows and Hollywood movie directors began showing much more titillating scenes as well as allowing far more foul language, and acceptable recreational drug use. The moral influences of declining Christian churches drastically lowered.

The slimy Los Angeles porn industry rapidly rose. When the Internet and cable tv arose, a vast porn industry exploded and is still growing and entrenched because some corporations and their wealthy are making a lot of money with vast numbers of young males disgustingly addicted. With much new telecom, our 3 network broadcast industry giants have declined, as have their now meager range of television shows, replaced by myriad new uncensored telecommunication systems. It was not just a US issue but rather across the world.
 
IrishEyes said:
About the year 2000 in my classroom of 3 year olds there were girls coming to day care with
hair extensions so they had 3 times the hair they really did, wearing halter tops and short short skirts.
Being taught to "twerk" by family members, try to get that bunch to the Hokey Pokey and that will answer
your question.
Click to expand...
That reminds me of the time I was shopping for clothes for my kindergarten-age daughters in KMart. They had low-rise jeans in size 6X! No thanks. (Trying to find them an appropriate dress for confirmation several years later was even more frustrating.)
 
Society has changed. Our values and morals have eroded to almost none. Less people are raised with spiritual grounding. I'm glad I'm old enough to remember better days and won't be around long enough to see it get worse.
 
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Pepper said:
Very few of us can relate to those ridiculous shows that have no bearing on the Real Life of Today.
Click to expand...
I couldn't relate to 'em even when I was a kid, "Parents that are still married to each other & smile at each other once in a while?!, People that live in nice houses and never had cars repossessed?! Who lives like that?!" Maybe it was because we kids that had crappy childhoods all tended to band together, IDK.
 
I guess I didn't see those shows as an accurate depiction of reality. They were just entertainment, and also a reminder that some aspects of life may be worth preserving. Maybe I'm just a dreamer, but to be fair, I've never been a follower. If I see something I like, I don't care if it's accepted by others. To each their own.
 
Schmaltz tv is alive and well on the various cable stations.

I still watch Leave it to Beaver, The Waltons, The Andy Griffith Show, etc…

I also enjoy and relate to anything by Norman Lear.

I suppose every generation has a few cozy favorites that they enjoyed growing up.

These days I’m fine with the edgier Dick Wolf type crime dramas.

I’m not a fan of reality tv but I suppose it’s cheaper to produce than a full blown television series like the Sopranos, Bluebloods, etc…
 
I think there is a trend that began in the 19th century, a revolt against the Victorian era. There were the gay nineties, the roaring 20's, rock music in the 50's and it continues. Clothing got more revealing and morals got looser. It got harder and harder to shock people.

Maybe it was the result of the increase in mass communication, from newspapers and magazines to radio, movies, T.V. and now the internet. The general public is exposed to people who flaunt their extremes and before long they become the norm.

And now, when we see how people acted in the past it seems quaint. Maybe in the future our current programming will seem quaint. I shiver to think about it.
 
I never liked the show "Friends" where most of the time the cast was sitting in a coffee shop having conversations that were (supposed to be) funny. That isn't entertaining to me, no matter how good the jokes may be. I like comedies where people are moving about, engaged in activities. That's just one reason why I can still enjoy watching "I Love Lucy."
 
What I see network TV doing now, is going to more game/quiz shows to ‘lighten the mood’ …. out with the shoot em up drama, and more fun and lighthearted programming… my favorite is The 1% Club

I don’t pay for any cable or other services …. I have only over the air TV anymore with indoor antenna, and I find the new stuff entertaining, cheaper to produce, and good for challenging my old brain. … also and most important for me, relaxing, so I sleep well at night..
 
I as a young person watching Leave It To Beaver and other similar shows enjoyed them but now I see them and they are so simple in the story that it doesn't seem like real life now. Anyway, times have changed and so has entertainment. I think that is the way it has been since early TV shows. More complicated and true to life crime shows and other more serious ones. The comedy shows seem too silly to me.
 
I wonder how much is our own watching preferences making us think there aren't wholesome shows these days? Maybe we are just choosing to watch the unwholesome ones?

When my daughter was young she'd watch That's So Raven, Spongebob Squarepants, etc. So, I'm guessing there are probably still innocent TV shows even today that we don't know about because we don't want to watch them ourselves.

When I googled for popular shows for tweens, I don't recognize any of the shows (but I don't have Netflix or Disney+ which may be why I don't see wholesome young people type shows). Has anyone here watched any of these?

Some of the currently most popular TV shows that tweens like to watch include: ​
Action & Adventure​
  • Stranger Things (Netflix): A massively popular sci-fi horror series set in the 1980s that follows a group of friends investigating supernatural mysteries in their small town.
  • Outer Banks (Netflix): An action-adventure teen drama about a group of friends hunting for legendary treasure while navigating high-stakes adolescence.
  • My Hero Academia (Crunchyroll, Netflix, Hulu): A long-running anime about a boy born without superpowers in a world of superheroes, who is determined to become one of the greatest heroes.
Teen Dramas & Comedies​
  • Heartstopper (Netflix): Based on a popular graphic novel, this heartfelt series follows two boys who discover their unlikely friendship might be something more, as they and their friends navigate school and young love.
  • Wednesday (Netflix): A supernatural comedy that follows Wednesday Addams as she attempts to solve a murder mystery while attending Nevermore Academy.
  • Ginny & Georgia (Netflix): A dramedy about a free-spirited mother and her angsty teenage daughter who move to a new town for a fresh start.
  • Never Have I Ever (Netflix): A coming-of-age comedy-drama inspired by the childhood of actress and writer Mindy Kaling.
  • My Life With the Walter Boys (Netflix): A drama about a teenage girl who moves in with her mother's large family of ten boys after a family tragedy.
Fantasy & Sci-Fi​
  • Miraculous: Ladybug & Cat Noir (Netflix): An animated superhero series about two teenagers who protect Paris from supervillains.
  • Shadow and Bone (Netflix): Based on the popular YA fantasy book series, this show follows a young soldier with magical power who must contend with powerful forces and a shadow-filled world.
  • Locke & Key (Netflix): After their father is murdered, three siblings move into an ancestral home that holds magical keys and secrets.
Family-Friendly​
  • Bluey (Disney+): A very popular animated series centered on a family of dogs in Australia. The show is particularly popular with younger tweens and children.
  • The Baby-Sitters Club (Netflix): This reboot of the beloved book series follows a group of young girls who start their own babysitting business.
 
IMO I feel like the entertainment industry is going along with what the people want. Most seem to want the sex, drugs, alcohol and murder. They're just giving the public what it wants. If nobody watched it they would change their ways and what they're showing.

As society becomes more perverse so will our programming selections. I decided if it gets bad enough, I will go back to not watching anything. I have a couple black and white movie stream sites I can always just rewatch those. Or I might go with one of those Christian movie sites.

I'm no angel when it comes to what I watch but I do have limits and today's programming is coming close to reaching those limits. I spend a lot of time either looking away or fast forwarding through things I don't wanna see.
 

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