Special to The Star-Herald
The new PBS documentary, Pioneers of Television, is broken into four parts which focus on the early classics in four genres: sitcoms, late night, variety and game shows. Last week, I watched the first installment looking at the classic sitcoms, The Honeymooners, I Love Lucy, Make Room for Daddy, The Andy Griffith Show, and The Dick Van Dyke Show.
At first I was disappointed to see that each episode focused on just a handful of classic shows, but the approach actually worked. Pioneers of Television takes the time to look at stars and actors, the conception of the shows, and the subsequent influence each show had on television history.
Like many similar documentaries, a lot of the fun of watching is in the favorite clips from the classic shows. But I also really enjoyed some of the less-tired clips, like an excerpt from Lucille Ball’s radio show (and precursor to I Love Lucy) My Favorite Husband from CBS radio, and excerpts from Andy Griffith’s comedy album, What it Was, Was Football.
Since I spend so much time analyzing current television programming and trends, I was refreshed at revisiting some of the classics. For one thing, I gained a whole new appreciation for Andy Griffith. While comedians Jackie Gleason and Lucille Ball thrived off the energy of a live audience, Griffith took the opposite approach with The Andy Griffith Show.
Like many of my favorite sitcoms on TV now, The Andy Griffith Show was filmed with one camera, like a movie. Griffith feared that a live audience would lead to the dumbing-down of the show into a long series of one-liners, and wanted the freedom to put more depth into the stories and character development. And the approach certainly worked, as the show was one the highest rated in its time and ran for eight seasons – and the show still runs regularly today in syndication.
Presently, such commitment to story and characters may not lead to a long-lived series, but nevertheless, still has the same resonance with fans.
The fourth and last in the series will look at game shows, such as Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, and The Price is Right, among others on Jan. 23.
Elizabeth “Liz” Gartley, of Houlton, has a BA in media studies from Emerson College in Boston. She has studied abroad in the Netherlands and Australia, and most recently interned at a production company in Hollywood. She can be reached online at egartley@gmail.com or leave a message for her at your local newspaper office.
By Liz Gartley
