The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn Free Enterprise And Pay Television IT has been a long time since I have entered any complaints about our television programs. I hope none of my friends have...
...So the other day, as I was strolling in from my daily conversation with the postman...
...What was discovered, naturally, was that these urgent pleas come from the neighborhood of the broadcasting companies and the great advertising agencies...
...In this part of our life the old American idea of an equal chance for everyone has been repealed...
...I have even grown more and more broad-minded about Westerns...
...In this sacred field, where the fine arts give their all in the service of advertising, there shall be but one way of doing things...
...I hope none of my friends have jumped to the conclusion that I have became satisfied with everything I see on the lively screen...
...The British have shown that great works can be performed over the air with dignity and perfect artistic effect...
...It is quite possible that after a year or two of trial they will be discarded and forgotten...
...If we were not the most patient people in the world, we would have started a rebellion long ago...
...And there I found a full-page editorial with which I couldn't have been more in agreement...
...Aside from the endless commercials, the feature of our present TV system to which I really object is the time splintering...
...Pulling constantly against the stream gets monotonous...
...Within the past week I have looked at several really wonderful programs...
...The investors who put up the money will lose...
...At any rate, they apparently believe that "low-brows" buy most of the soap, perfume, cathartics and automobiles...
...I think it leaned over backward to be fair to the sponsors and producers of our present programs...
...I heartily agree that we now have a good many first-class shows...
...I just got tired of writing about the subject...
...I turn to them even before I read the "Postscripts...
...Every politician is prepared to die for it...
...But suppose it does happen...
...To begin with, the editorial was perfectly fair to everyone...
...It reports that nine bills were introduced into the last Congress forbidding the Federal Communications Commission to authorize any free-enterpriser to try out pay television...
...The advertising sponsors seem to think that practically all Americans are "low-brow...
...How can Congress pass a law to keep them from making bad investments...
...I don't usually agree with them...
...No group of viewers has any right to demand that all video time be devoted to entertainment which suits their particular tastes...
...And if the constantly recurring station-breaks are prolonged by the heaped-up commercials, the most beautiful play or symphony will be turned into a sorry mess...
...I have always liked the editorials of the Saturday Evening Post...
...Members of Congress are receiving hundreds of letters urging them to oppose any change in our television system...
...The editorial mentions a long list—sports events, Leonard Bernstein, "What in the World," etc...
...But I don't believe they deserve as much as they are getting...
...And as for commercials, we now sometimes get three of them piled on top of each other...
...Certainly, the total number of really topnotch offerings has not grown shorter...
...If any outsider tries to come in with something new, pass a law...
...That sort of thing has often happened...
...The title itself put the whole argument in a neat and knockdown form: "Why Not Let Pay TV Have a Trial Run...
...Cutting them into snippets takes the heart out of them...
...At first they paid little attention...
...They are used to letters from cranks...
...The Post editorial gives a good account of the bouts which Oren Harris, Chairman of the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, has fought against pay television...
...If a two-hour play is performed in one hour, the plot gets lost in the shuffle, the whole performance will make no sense...
...The Post editorial failed to mention what seems to me to be the most serious aspect of this problem...
...But there is always something lively, clear and bracing about them...
...Why should they not be allowed to lose...
...Tell him to stay out...
...The scenery usually is splendid and the horses are wonderful actors...
...People with low standards and little taste also have a right to attention...
...Many of the greatest creations run for an hour or two hours...
...But there still is much too much bad programming...
...But now I have received powerful support— and from a surprising source...
...I just naturally turned to the editorial page of the Post...
...In fact...
...But soon the mail became so mountainous that its sources had to be looked into...
...The humorists are as unfunny as ever...
...But not here...
...Our peculiar method of ladling out TV entertainment has not improved...
...It is a sad day when we cannot at least equal the British in a field of artistry...
...Everything is sliced into 13-minute periods...
...We all know that the various pay systems may not work...
...It is interesting to see who it is who is opposed to free enterprise...
...Shakespeare and Beethoven didn't plan their works for such tight timing...
...They are too big-businessy for me...
...Competition is the life of our industrial system...
Vol. 42 • February 1959 • No. 6
