Our little theatre group puts on plays, etc. every month. I like to direct the plays, and have found that re-creating some of the old radio and TV shows that many of us remember is usually enjoyable. There are web sites that feature complete scripts of old time radio shows, and anyone is more than welcome to print them out and use them.
Many people have said to me, "Oh, let's do a Fibber McGee and Molly show, or Abbott and Costello." When I plow through those scripts, I am often offended by the cruel dialogue that passed for "humor" in those days. I loved Fred Allen back then; his show is now stale and often offensive. Many of these shows have endless jokes about how stupid women are, what poor drivers, making fun of foreign accents, drunks, etc. They would not be funny now.
Yet, some of the humor has held up. We've found that Jack Benny was and still is largely inoffensive. His black character, Rochester, usually outsmarts Jack, who himself is often the butt of the humor. His bandleader, Phil Harris, is supposed to be drunk a lot of the time, that's the only dubious humor I've found, not too bad compared to the rest of the shows.
On TV, All in the Family was the turning point. The humor was directed against Archie, the bigoted (but still lovable) character, instead of some unfortunate minority.
So, here I am saying once again: let's not get too sentimental about the good old days.
