Paley Center for Media

So this spring break was a lot of fun, but the highlight was when myself, Alex, Francesca, and Jackie went to the Paley Center for Media, formerly known as the Museum of Television and Radio. This was my fourth time going, and it will not be my last. I'm not sure why I don't have a membership there already, I always love going there.

Anyway, we get to the museum right when it opened, and were immediately bullied to go on the Visitor's Tour. We couldn't say no--only because we did not want to seem rude. But we went on the 40-minute tour which explained why they changed their name (now the Internet is becoming another source for people to get their media, not just TV and radio) and also showed a video hosted by Barbara Walters that highlighted most of the milestones in television history. After that lovely tour was over, we went to the library archive, where they have hundreds of thousands of television shows and televised sporting events that one can look up and watch. I believe our tour guide said that the most requested event was the Kennedy Funerals (which will probably turn into the 9/11 news reports when the next generation comes in and wants to see it) and the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. It's interesting to think that those are the most popular requests now, what will be in a few years?

So this library has basically every television show that you can request to watch. This was my second time doing the search. First time I did it, I watched two episodes of Rocky and Bullwinkle, a show that I haven't seen in years. It's pretty funny to see how different animation could be and how audiences were still entertained by the crude animation but humorous comedy. I also got to see some old commercials with the show; the one I remember was the Tric cereal ones, that still featured the white rabbit wanting Trix but I think the kids were nicer to him about denying him cereal. Funny to see how meaner we got as the years went by.

This time, I wanted to watch an episode of the Tracey Ullman Show, so I can see what it was about and see a Simpsons short. Unfortunately, the episodes were an hour long (and that's the time limit for non-members) and I would have rather watched two episodes of something. Then, I tried to search for Gumby, but couldn't find that either. Then I chose to watch the Muppet Show, even though I'm probably going to watch a lot of episodes on DVD with my little nephew when he gets older. But I was glad I chose that show, it was so funny. The two episodes had guest stars Alice Cooper and Brooke Shields. Just like Rocky and Bullwinkle, this show was really funny and it was interesting to see the different in entertainment.







So after that we all watched an episode of the Jack Benny show with Johnny Carson. Now THAT was interesting to see for the difference in entertainment in talk show hosts. Jack Benny basically stood there the whole time, cracking lame jokes (I think a total of three were actually funny), and then Johnny Carson came in and all they did was talk and crack lame jokes. The guest was more entertaining than the host in my opinion. But it's funny to think that today. talk show hosts need to be more engaging and entertaining in order to get viewers, and there needs to be more animation and breaks in between the host talking; something like the Jack Benny show would not be appealing to my generation.

So the day was a lot of fun and it made me realize the difference in television and what passes for entertainment these days.