Since in or around 1947-48, The elephant in the room has been the television set. Originally with only a black and white picture, the televison, or TV, as it's become to be known, has entertained us like nothing has before.
In the years prior to the TV, we had to actually leave our house to get entertained. We had to go to theaters or dance halls, or somewhere like that. Then the radio came into our lives. But, with the radio, you had to have an imagination. We all know how hard that is. We had to imagine pictures in our heads to go with the sound, or story. But then the TV was created and the pictures in our head was right there, for all to see.
The early TV programs, (remember, back then they were not yet called "shows", they were programs), were mostly westerns. There were tons of westerns. All the bad guys had guns. All the good guys had guns. A few of the good guys didn't carry guns but always won the fight, somehow, anyway. For instance, The Rifleman, starring Chuck Connors and Johnny Crawford. This was probably my favorite western. Chuck Connors portrayed Lucas McCain, an old west rancher who just so happened to be the best gull-danged gunman west of the Pecos, or something like that. But he did it with a rifle, not a pistol. Every week we would tune in to see old Lucas kill, at least, two or three men. In the several years that The Rifleman was on the tube, Lucas McCain must have killed somewhere around 200 men. And he did this all while teaching his very young son, Mark, that killing was wrong and he taught the boy the golden rule. Which was, it's him or you!
Other programs on the television in those early days of broadcasting were police shows, doctor shows, comedy shows, song and dance shows, game shows, gangster shows, kid's shows, soap opera shows, horror shows and a whole bunch of other shows.
Another of my favorites was Perry Mason. Raymond Burr played Perry Mason, a big city lawyer who never lost a case...N-E-V-E-R! This was one of the few shows that began in black and white and lived on into the age of color TV. Another was Gunsmoke. A show about Matt Dillon, James Arness, a marshal in another old west town named, "Dodge City". Matt Dillon was another guy who shot the crap out of the bad guys. (He and Lucas should have teamed up together).
But, Television was a great "go-to" place to get away from our regular lives and live in a fantasy world for a few hours. We could be riding in a posse with the Cartwrights on Bonanza, we could be in the courtroom rootin' for Perry Mason, knowing he's going to win the case anyway. We could be assisting Dr. Marcus Welby in the operating room, We could be hangin' with the crowd at the bar on Cheers. There's nowhere we couldn't go for an evening. Hell! We could be exploring another planet with Capt. Kirk! We could be doing all this while sitting in a recliner with a Coke and plate of brownies. Now, that's life!
This blog is dedicated to all the actors in those early years of Television, or TV. People like Milton Burl, Red Skelton, Raymond Burr, Lucille Ball and Desi Arness, Joan Davis, Betty White, James Arness, Chuck Connors, Hugh O'Brian, Michael Landon, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Jerry Mathers, James Garner, Johnny Carson, Steve Allen, Bea Arthur, Carroll O'Connor, Ed Sullivan, George Reeve, Mary Tyler Moore, Dick Van Dyke, Andy Griffith and Don Knotts, Robert Conrad, Clint Eastwood, Dick Clark, Slim Pickins, Royal Dano, John Anderson, Harry Carey Jr., Clayton Moore, William Bendix, Brodrick Crawford, Alfred Hitchcock, Rod Serling, and so many more.
It's also dedicated to charactors by the names of Ben Cartwright, Matt Dillon, Lucas McCain, Bret Maverick, Cheyenee, Marcus Welby, Perry Mason, Andy Taylor and Barney Fife, Aunt Bee, Rob Petrie, Ward and June Cleaver, Charles Ingalls, Superman, (Clark Kent), Roudy Yates, Maude, James West, Lone Ranger and Tonto, Bronco, Topper, Peter Gunn and, like before, so many more.
And finally, it's dedicated to all those animal actors that made the human ones look so good. Such as Lassie, Rin Tin Tin, Mr. Ed, Benji, Morris the Cat, the Taco Bell Dog, And, yes, once again, so many more.
So, now let's look back over the many decades of TV. If your over 55, you may remember a lot of it. If your under 55, maybe you heard your dad talk about it. But ether way, it's fun to look back!
