In 2019, I wrote the following concerning the latest inane PC language policing in the world of sports to come down the pike at the time:
“It so often appears there is no refuge from the world of cheap virtue signaling and manufactured outrage in the West today. No innocent outlet, no harmless diversion, is safe from this tiresome manifestation of cultural decay. It’s critical to realize that this feeling itself is one of the primary goals of political correctness. It is intentionally designed to make you feel weary, angry and beleaguered.”
Dropping professional sports and cutting the cable have proven to be two of the most impactful ways that I have personally reduced the mental irritation of this rot. I cannot say I have missed either for a single second. Like many Americans, though, this has left me scrounging around looking for viewing options. (It should go without saying, Netflix is not an acceptable alternative.) Many of us have found an oasis in old television shows and movies posted online.
This isn’t only about nostalgia, which I would argue only plays a very small part in the phenomenon. There is something more going on here. Americans in significant numbers are intentionally rejecting the entertainment options of today and turning to straightforward and often largely forgotten programming from the past to serve as a refreshing detox for the brain. Human-centered television that is well-acted, tells a good story, and entertains once really existed. And any moral lessons offered up were grounded in basic and timeless themes of human behavior.
‘Clean’ and ‘Less Cynical’
If you long for such a simple and winning formula, it’s hard to beat mystery and police detective shows from the 1960s and ‘70s. There’s a lot out there, but I enjoy seeing what I can find off the beaten path.
Ghost Story, later renamed Circle of Fear, was a supernatural suspense drama that ran for only 23 episodes in 1972-73. It is about as non-politically loaded a show as you can possibly find. Here’s a thread of reader comments posted for one episode:
- “I love 70s nostalgia shows, they are so less aggressive and less cynical than poisoned agenda 2000s stuff.”
- “You mean the Liberal Agenda stuff.”
- “You’re right. There were still writers back then who simply had no agenda other than to deliver a good story. I miss those days, and shows like these take me back.”
- “It’s just clean and fun. It’s almost eerie the way there’s no hidden socialist or progressive agenda. It’s all apolitical.”
Circle of Fear is not top-tier television by any means, but that last comment is particularly spot-on. The total lack of subversion in the several episodes I watched is almost physically jarring. This made for pure viewing pleasure even when the story wasn’t that stout.
Another great thing about these older, more obscure shows posted online is how one discovery can lead to something much better.
Somehow, Circle of Fear pointed me to Thriller, an outstanding U.K. crime drama that ran from 1973-76 and features some of the best acting you will ever see in television. Most episodes are easily found on YouTube. The storylines are usually excellent, but even the weaker offerings always contain high-quality acting.
There is no political stupidity whatsoever and the glimpse of 1970s England, frequently focusing on the countryside rather than the dreary cities, is a genuine treat.
The show’s creators wanted to also sell it in the U.S., so one American actor stars in every episode. For whatever reason, this proves to be a winning device. It’s also a lot of fun to catch talented British character actors from the era who became well known in the States for their turns in major movies.
Among those to be found in Thriller are Brian Blessed, best known as Vultan, leader of the Hawkmen in Flash Gordon, Philip Stone, infamous for his haunting role as Grady, the original caretaker in The Shining, Michael Jayston, who played doomed Czar Nicholas II in Nicholas and Alexandra and Ian Bannen, Robert the Bruce’s leper father in Braveheart.
California Dreamin’
Then there are the boilerplate American ‘70s detective shows. Standouts like Hawaii Five-0 and Columbo need no touting; both were defined for years by strong scripts and a firm reliance on polished guest actors.
Bullwinkle and Jay Ward promoting a TV show (Photo by Bob Campbell/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
A couple of cuts below that high watermark is Cannon. Played by William Conrad, an accomplished voice actor who was the brilliant narrator of The Bullwinkle Show cartoon, Frank Cannon is a rotund Los Angeles private detective. What makes the otherwise middling (it’s just OK) show an enjoyable watch is the gorgeous backdrop of early ‘70s Southern California. It’s impossible not to watch Cannon without pondering conditions in the Golden State today. Yes, 50 years is half a century and the world has changed mightily since 1971, but how did America ever allow a state containing some of the most beautiful stretches of land to be found anywhere in the world to become what it is today?
These kinds of thoughts are inevitable when watching the non-toxic TV of the past. In one episode, Cannon goes into a 1970s supermarket – in all its glorious retro ‘70s imagery – to look for a suspect. While there, he buys a bottle of wine.
He then leaves the supermarket, goes to the parking lot, puts the wine in his unlocked, windows-fully-open car and then heads to the other stores in the shopping complex to ask about his suspect.
The heck with the plot. I’m watching this and all I can think is: I cannot imagine living in a society so trustworthy that I can put that bottle of wine in that car and leave it unattended, without a care in the world for its safety. Never even entertaining the thought that it might not be there when I got back. And he did it like it was the most natural thing in the world.
It’s not nostalgia to ask: How do we get back to that parking lot?
~ Read more from Joe Schaeffer.
