I’ve recently found myself reminiscing about television shows I grew up with. It started a few weeks ago when ABC aired a two-hour Happy Days reunion. Happy Days was one of my favorite shows in the late ’70s and early ’80s and I daresay I’ve seen just about every episode at least once.
Shouldn't Family Shows Be Meant for Families?
But one scene on the reunion special really jumped out at me. It was from an episode where Fonzie was teaching his friends how to unhook a woman's bra. I distinctly remember seeing that episode when I was younger and I also distinctly remember thinking it was funny. But when I saw that scene a couple weeks ago, it made me angry. I felt as though I had been tricked, and I don't like being tricked. I feel like, even twenty years ago, television was sneakily teaching me evil things in innocent packages.
After all, Happy Days was a show about the innocence of the 1950s. It was a family show. But it was also a show where the cool guy was the one who was the antithesis of monogamy. And this show, when I wasn't even a teenager, taught me that if I wanted to be cool, I should be able to unhook a bra like the Fonz. It just infuriates me that a show of supposed innocence and family values spoiled itself and its viewers in such a way. Even worse, though, was the fact that it spoiled me and I wasn't even aware until years too late.
Another show I watched quite regularly was Three's Company, in which a man platonically shared an apartment with two women. After John Ritter died in 2003, I saw a retrospective on that series, and realized the indoctrination machine in place during those episodes, as well. And I remembered that when Three's Company went off the air, it spun off into a new show called Three's A Crowd. On the night of that show's premiere back in the fall of 1984, I couldn't wait to see it. The premise of the first episode? John Ritter's character finally moved in with his girlfriend and they nervously made their way to their non-wedding bed.
Boxed In
Recently there's been an onslaught of old television shows being collected into DVD boxed collections. At first, I thought this was a great idea, but after the past couple weeks, I've started approaching with much suspicion the DVD sets of supposedly innocent programs that I remember with much nostalgia.
One such set (and I'm embarrassed to admit I own it) are the two 1980s science fiction mini-series called V. When I'm working out in the morning, I like to watch movies and mini-series over the course of a couple weeks. It helps me to forget I'm exercising. Last week I watched the second V miniseries and once again, my fond memories of watching that show as a kid have been spoiled as I see through adult eyes the ideologies of abortion and lack of respect for Roman Catholic clergy being forced on viewers. Where I once looked at that series as a campy romp through a B-grade science fiction film, now it's spoiled for the sake of a handful of scenes where the filmmakers couldn't resist the need to force their views on a built-in audience.
Restraining the Media Monster
I'm not quite sure how my interest in the entertainment industry first began, but to this day I still struggle to curb the amount of time I spend watching television. Fortunately we have EWTN, so even when I just want the set on, I can put on EWTN without worrying about being offended by something. On top of that, my wife and I have started consulting the movie reviews available on the website of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (www.usccb.org/movies/index.htm) before watching any movies. As a matter of fact, a few years ago we went through our own movie collection and compared it to the opinions of the bishops. Any films we owned that the bishops considered morally offensive in any way, we threw in the trash, and we have been better off for having done so.
Fortunately, by the goodness of God, I can see a benefit to the struggles that I now realized were caused in my life by the television shows and movies I allowed myself to watch while growing up. Now I can identify, most of the time, the sneaky ways that the entertainment industry tries to gain a grip on all of us, children included. And I know now that the most troublesome things come in the most attractive packages.
With God's help, perhaps I can steer my children clear of such troubles in their lives. My wife and I have already worked hard to keep them from seeing many commercials or mainstream media by limiting their television viewing to pre-recorded videos or DVDs. But even still, I find myself looking at the choices we've made for them, and I pray that the television doesn't silently and stealthily surround them with evil as it once did me, and I thank God for the clarity to daily fight against the bonds of the media monster.
© Copyright 2005 Catholic Exchange
Greg Willits is the executive director and co-founder of Rosary Army, a non-profit Catholic apostolate dedicated to making, praying, and giving away all-twine knotted rosaries, and encouraging others to do the same. To purchase a copy of the Rosary Army Virtual Workshop DVD, receive a free all-twine knotted Rosary, or learn how to make your own, please visit Rosary Army’s website or contact Greg at greg@rosaryarmy.com.
