Your old Uncle Dan remembers when MTV, Music Television, actually played music videos on a regular basis.  I miss that.  You turn on MTV today and who knows what you might find.

A celebrity being treated at a psychiatric facility?  Maybe.

A group of people yelling at each other because they are paid to look like fools in hopes someone may tune in?  Maybe.

Some folks that can’t talk without having every seventh word “bleeped” out even though we know exactly what they are saying?  Maybe.

Hey, I’m no Puritan.  I grew up in a high school football locker room, my Dad was a football coach.   I know all those words.  I’ve used a few of them myself.

What you won’t find much of on MTV is…well…music.

Before I go further, let me say it is a total and complete shame that all this television technology such as HD and Super HD and 3D TV and 6D TV…none of which I have on a television in my house…had to come along when there is so very little for some of us to enjoy on television.

Truth be told, 83% of my television watching comes during football season.  If a football game is on, I am probably watching it.  It can be NFL or NCAA Division II.  I don’t care.  I will watch a football game.  In fact, I have really enjoyed tuning into ESPNSomething to watch a few Canadian Football League games that are already in full swing.  They have to start their season earlier because they want to get their playoffs in before all the football fields in Canada freeze.  They call their championship “The Grey Cup Game”.  This championship has been around a great deal longer than the Super Bowl.

Did you know that the Super Bowl was inspired by the late Kansas City Chief’s owner, Lamar Hunt?  The game was originally called the NFL-AFL Championship Game before the leagues merged in 1970.  Lamar Hunt, as the story goes, had a son playing with a “super ball” in the Hunt’s driveway.  Dink…light bulb over the head… and now we have the Super Bowl.  Pretty cool.

Oh how I miss television.  Things have changed so much in such a short time.

I remember it like it was yesterday.

Me, Jerry, and John K. were over at Mike’s house on a classic 5th grade “sleep-over”.  There we were, sitting in front of the TV watching “The Dukes of Hazzard” on CBS.  Dallas would follow.

I reiterate the fact that I am not a Puritan.  Jerry and Mike were not Puritans either.  Remember how I said I grew up in a football locker room?  Jerry’s brother Jim and Mike’s brother Dave were team captains for my Dad in 1975; enough said.

Still…if you can imagine…as the four of us boys were sitting watching the Dukes with Mike’s parents Leroy and Sarah, we were totally mortified when Boss Hogg called Roscoe a “jackass”.  We boys all froze in our tracks, knowing you just don’t say that in mixed company.  I couldn’t look at Mike’s Mom again for a week.  Am I overreacting?  I don’t think so.  That is the way it was.  Guess what?  I miss those times…those values…and I miss Boss Hogg calling Roscoe a jackass.  If that is as bad as it was gonna get during the 8 o’clock hour, well…we had it made.

Look…I am gainfully employed as a professional educator.  Do you have any idea….have you ever stopped to think…how difficult it is to compete with television these days?  I mean… think about it.  The school is one of the last public harbingers to promote goodness.  If a teacher talks like what the student and the parent heard last night on TV said teacher is in a spot. They should be.

Double Standard City.  That is the fine line that we are dealing with.  The school is still trying to promote values similar to what kids saw on television in the 1970s.  There are dos and don’ts that we all must adhere to in education.  Those same things are nothing but free-for-alls on television and what you will hear elementary school aged kids talk about during lunch may or may not startle you, depending on what is important to you.

What do I miss?

I miss The Midnight Special.  Wolfman Jack bringing us what the people looked like that were singing to us on the radio.  They sounded the same on TV, as they were lip-syncing.

I miss Newhart.  Recently I saw a rerun of an old Newhart where the town was trying to re-think “Ye Old Apple Days”.  Look it up on youtube.  You will laugh.

I miss Monday Night Football.  I still watch it.  But I miss it being SPECIAL.  The one game all of us in America would be watching.  I miss Howard Cosell, Frank Gifford, and Don Meredith.

I miss having just 3 networks.  We all came to school or work the next day talking about what had happened on M*A*S*H the night before.  We had a little more togetherness thanks to our limited choices that have since separated families with limitless choices.

I miss Hill Street Blues.  And I miss the Hill Street Snacks I made and devoured every Thursday as I watched what was happening on ” The Hill”.    I found “The Hill” a couple years ago.  In this picture, my dear wife, Carrie, is standing in front of the mythical Hill St. Station.  Don’t tell anyone…but it is really a police building for the University of Illinois-Chicago on southwest side of town.

Let’s be careful out there.

And while you’re at it…speak the rights.

Danny Johnson