TV!

Ok, I interrupt my focus on books for a post on television.  One of my people, who is a fan of all things girls-in-the-past, has been watching the Waltons.  What a great show.  Two things I have noticed in the three episodes we have seen thus far (season 1, so long ago). First off there are elderly people in the show -- not only that, those people have actual lives: hopes and dreams -- they get angry and sad and happy.  They live lives that are rich in themselves and not simply as appendages to some other, younger, better folk.  And when I started thinking about this I wondered -- where are the elderly people on TV -- not as jokes or occasional side kicks -- but just ordinary people, who happen to be over 70?  Second thing -- the adults in this show get to have children and yet not be fully absorbed at all times by those children.  Children are shushed and shooed away and real conversations happen between real adults (ok, on TV) -- relationships are explored and, again, people get mad and talk about why they are mad and their anger is just a part of adult life -- not a tragedy, but a normal response to stress or uncertainty.  I will, I am sure, have other observations over the next few weeks (it could take us months to get through all of the seasons!).  I had tried the Waltons once before and we started with a stretch of tragedy episodes: appendicitis and Mama got polio -- my people dislikes the tragedy shows -- but this time we are on a good run of ordinary tales of people in the world (or as some who know me might note: earnest and dreary ordinary tales of people in the world.  And do I love anything more than earnest and dreary from my forms of art?  I do not.).