First published on Technorati as Hollywood Could Educate the White House at http://technorati.com/politics/article/hollywood-could-educate-the-white-house
Remember the days of the classic television show? Remember when people would only watch ABC, NBC or CBS? How spoiled are we now?
I was reading an article about Steven Bochco and David Milch reuniting to develop another series. These are the Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue guys. If you want to see what they are currently working on, click here. It sounds interesting.
After reading this article I started remembering the days of L.A. Law with its closing trunk, Crime Story with the Vegas scenery and Magnum P.I. with the beautiful Hawaii scenery and the Ferrari (click on the links to watch the openings of these shows). That got me thinking of where we are today. There are fantastic shows on so many different networks that weren’t even conceptualized in those days. You can watch Breaking Bad on AMC or Sons of Anarchy on F/X. Those were the days when HBO was all about movies. Before The Wire, Entourage and Boardwalk Empire. These are the days when we get to watch the life of a serial killer who we can’t help but cheer for in Showtime’s Dexter.
What a turn from watching the Big Three as they were. FOX came on board to make it four and now look where we are. In this capitalist market and economic crisis, you cannot deny that competition breeds innovation and determination. Go on your satellite of cable provider and just look at the channels they offer. It is incredible where we are today.
In the early days you would hate to miss your show on Thursdays at 10pm. Now there aren’t enough hours in the day to watch all the programs recommended to you by friends or co-workers. I can think of 7 televisions series offhand that have been recommended to me and I am curious about but just do not have the time to watch.
What does all this mean? Maybe the government should stop fighting with each other and look to Hollywood on how to improve the economy through innovation and competition. Build a focus more towards supporting thinkers who want to develop unconventional ideas that are not being done or business models taking a different path towards success. Hollywood is still flourishing.
Art imitates life. Maybe life should take a page from Arts book and start thinking outside the box.
