Quote Originally Posted by badwhale View Post
Ah well. But what about Star Trek as an example? That was corny as shit, but had T&A, so it worked?

To be honest, I've never seen any old Green Hornet footage.

Will
It is so hard to describe the sucess of those programs in a way that would make sense to a younger generation - a generation that has been filled with entertainment options that were not available during that time.

Star Trek definitely had the chick thing (T&A) going for it, but more importantly - had "state of the art" special effects. you may be too young to remember, but the original recitation in the the radio version of "War of the Worlds" caused widespread panic because people seriously thought Orson Wells was describing an actual event. It was a very naive time.

During that time, Star Trek was very intriguing. It was filled with all kinds of gadgetry and effects no one had ever seen on TV before. They were defintely "cutting edge" at that time. The best way for someone to perhaps kinda/sorta understand it - Watch an old original Flash Gordon episode, and then watch a Star Trek episode. They were worlds apart, yet kinda cut from the same cloth...

However - changes in attitudes were coming. Green Hornet (like a number of other programs on TV at that time) had some of the "old school" mentality of leveraging the success of how things had previously worked, leading the producers to think they should stick to the way things had been done as a means of creating a successful program. They failed miserably...

Add to that - TV at that time had a VERY captive audience. There was not much choice - perhaps 3 or 5 channels - maybe 10, if you lived near a large urban area. And most of the TV stations were filled with silly or "boring" programs. Days were either soap operas or game shows (geared toward the female "work at home audience") and evenings were filled with the news broadcasts followed by the "big production" shows (like Star Trek). The shows were intended to "entertain" those hard working men that had slaved all day and needed something to relax to.

People at that time latched on to one or two shows they were most interested in (Bonanza, Mission Impossible, Star Trek, Hogan's Heroes, etc.) All either had "cliffhangers" or some kind of appeal that created anticipation for the next episode a week later.

What's interesting about this discussion, though - while growing up I was equally intrigued with why the "old timer's" still liked to listen radio broadcasts when TV was so much more "advanced". It seemed to silly. I'd point to shows like Star Trek as a measure of how things had changed since "back then" and use it as an illustration of the "boring" factor of radio. Not to dissimilar to the younger folks not understanding why an older generation would hang on to the original episodes of Star Trek.