My childhood happened during the later 1960s and through the 1970s, and today’s discussion of radio and TV (among other things) really resonated with me. I remember the TV set my family had when I was little – a very boxy black-and-white set. Already TV to me was magical, and although I didn’t perceive it at the time, it really was creating a sense of common culture and community within me as it was doing to countless others. I was still pretty young when we got a color TV, and that provided an even closer connection. I loved, loved, loved the classic TV sitcoms that were created during the 1960s, and some of the ones in the 1970s. Most of the 1960s shows I saw in reruns – my bedtime was too early in those days to allow me to watch the evening shows. I remember being so envious of my older brother because he got to stay up to see some show that I thought was called “Snow Tracks.” I could hear the opening music from my bedroom, and it sounded like an exciting show. Only later did I find out that it was called “Star Trek,” and I became quite a fan of those reruns too. Saturday nights were a big deal for my family. If we weren’t at a movie or some other kind of entertainment, we watched the wonderful Saturday night line-up of shows. We would have snacks galore, and would have such a wonderful time together, sharing our “TV community.” And friends and other family members shared it too – they would know exactly what happened on these shows because they were watching them too. It was a comforting kind of culture to be part of. As my own children grew up, and we were barraged by a ridiculous number of channels and an increasing number of electronic devices, I was very aware of that old connection breaking down. It has always made me feel a little sad and a little lonely for the past. I don’t mean to sound dramatic about it. There is plenty that we share nowadays as well. As a matter of fact, we have many, many more informative, hilarious, and touching film clips, photos, stories, whatever thanks to the internet. But the enormous variety is so great that it’s impossible to have a simple well-defined common culture or community that is a solid backdrop to our lives, the way it was in the past. One example of how tightly-knit this TV community was in the 1960s and 1970s can be found in the planning of the Mary Tyler Moore Show that started airing in 1970. The producers refused to let Mary’s character on the MTM show be a divorcee, because they believed that people would think that Laura and Rob Petrie from the Dick Van Dyke Show in the 1960s had gotten divorced, and that this would have a very negative impact on the MTM Show. This is how closely people identified with TV characters and lives during that time. Another example, which happened just this past week, illustrates how deeply ingrained this culture still is after decades. Florence Henderson, the beloved Brady Bunch mother, passed away at age 82. While there were many comments about how people felt like she was their mom, one especially caught my attention – “Great. Now 2016 has killed our mom.” People like me who lived through that time and have now lived through such tremendous technological and cultural changes are lucky in some ways, but not in others. I still feel the comfort of that TV community, and I believe many others do as well, since there seems to be a market still for reruns of the old shows, and they are certainly available on DVD. However, the loss of that community is felt as well, and it makes it a little harder to cope with the overwhelming nature of today’s culture. Professor O’Malley mentioned that his family hasn’t had a TV set in their house for over a decade, and I can well understand that. I don’t watch TV that much anymore. The news is intolerable after just a few headlines and stories. When I do want to watch something, I watch documentaries or science shows or history shows. And sometimes I can’t resist putting in an old movie or occasionally an old sitcom. I can’t help reaching back to my old TV community from time to time. It’s a connection that just can’t be recreated these days, at least not in the same way. TV certainly doesn’t rule my life and it never did. But it was an important piece of culture that had a solid and lasting impact.