TELEVISION GOES ROGUE AND THREATENS MY TV COMFORT ZONE
For me, it's easy to argue that TV was the single most important invention in the history of humanity. My first defined memories of TV came when a programming genius at ABC made The Flintstones a prime time animated cartoon.
Yet this past weekend I was ambushed in that safe and comfortable world by a 21st century cartoon and a car show-ironic maybe- but fun...no.
Flash forward past other notable TV moments like the first lunar landing in 1969 to 1979 when the Daytona 500 was telecast live-the one that ended with a crash, a fistfight and a dramatic win by Richard "The King" Petty.
Those are warm and comfortable memories for me-puppy dog moments-overtones of Grandma's fresh out of the oven warm apple pie moments.
Those moments define why TV can be such a positive experience.
The cartoon was South Park. They took dead aim at NASCAR. The car show was Car Business and they took dead aim at 50s fin cars.
I'm the first to admit that I'm not a deep guy- I tend to take things literally so when South Park hangs a "stupid-lowlife" label on all NASCAR fans, I take it personally. Not because I don't get the satire behind South Park (it's not really that deep if you always look at it from a 1st or 2nd year political science major, nouveau-liberal, just moved out of mom and dad's house, looking at 24-7 online porn in the dorm perspective).
But they took a pretty good swing at NASCAR fans and that crossed a line-I'm guessing that these cats are running out of ideas now that Saddam Hussein was benched for good and George Bush is on a multi-million dollar ex –Prez retirement tour.
The other travesty was an obscure show called Car Business-it's some kind of so called car guy show but they lost me when they did a tour of a museum that just happened to have a 1958 Dodge Custom Royal on display.
The two hosts hacked on that old 50s Dodge fin car like it just ran over their dog and then compounded the problem by calling it a Chevy-I'm guessing that they know the difference between a 58 Jag and a 58 Bentley. It's a deeper shot at a car when you pretend you can't or don't even care to know the difference...
But these were typical Euro-centric car guys-one guy even wore the jaunty driving hat that is mandatory for all MG-TC drivers.
After mocking the old Dodge, they stopped to worship their true automotive car god-a 1914 Rolls Royce. Typically these pro Euro-car guys will compare a Porsche 911 to a Dodge Omni to drive home their European car superiority argument and these two clowns were no exception.
That "out of nowhere" backhand on a 50s American classic was wrong –so was the South Park mutilation of NASCAR. Like I said, I'm a simple guy and my TV world is a warm and fuzzy zone.
That world is wildly askew when cartoons and wannabe car shows attack my simple TV pleasures.For that reason, I can officially say that television has gone rogue.
J. Sutherland @ mystarcollectorcar.com
COMMENTS
ANGUS:"I think it's truer now than it was when Gil Scott-Heron said it in the early 70's: The Revolution will not be televised. We're watching the death throws of the media from both our youths - be it 20 years apart. I think the fall line up was the official begining of the end.I don't think South Park is on anyone's radar anymore other then dorm-dwelling-torrent-geeks".
DENNIS:"Trey Parker and Matt Stone the creators of South Park are nothing but a couple of Tofu gulping, Starbuck's drinking "Metrosexuals" who have never stuffed their "Man Bags" in anything with more guts than a Toyota Prius. I quit watching the South Park and Family Guy garbage, years ago".
