Television Campfire

It's no wonder I watch very little television, all the programs I loved are long gone. All in the Family, Carrol Burnett, Cheers and Hill Street Blues all started off slow in the ratings but the networks kept them around long enough for them to become giant hits. The changes in today's programing has been a natural reflection of the changes in society. Faster paced, multiple stories, multiple lifestyles and characters have all made television much more deserve. I think the sitcoms of yesteryear have survived only to be transformed but in essence I think television right now is what it has always been "the best of times and the worst of times". Everything is about instant ratings and the insane need to target a very young demographic. The 18-34 age demographic is marching television off a cliff and it's a long fall to the bottom. Don't get me wrong I like the 18-34 age group. I even used to be one but it is damaging to hold our whole culture hostage to this very fickle group of consumers. Television needs to wake up! The 18-34 demographic is not paying attention television, it's spending all it's time on computers, cell phones and video games.
Television has gone from being our great national campfire to a series of small, private and personal fires where we are all separated by age, race, and gender. Small fires will never be able to burn as bright as a large campfire is a lesson television should have learned while it was in the Bunkers living room or while it was setting on a bar stool at Cheers. One thing I know, there is no going back to the television of the 1970's. That's a fact I accept just as much as I accept the fact that I am not in the 18-34 age demographic any more.