"Ohhhh, Dick Van Dyke!"

I have recently gotten back together with Dick Van Dyke. As a child, I was a Nick at Nite junkie. Something me friends gave me a lot of grief for, as I seldom knew MTV or any other pop culture references. I did come to enjoy this contemporary programming more, and eventually stopped watching the oldies. A few weeks ago I turned on the Dick Van Dyke show, and enjoyed it even more than I had as a kid. The show is a classic and is still completely relevant. I was amused not only by the show, but how I had managed a media 360 back to the old favorite. There was something about Laura Petri’s (Mary Tyler Moore) “Ohhhh Robbbbbb!” that I enjoyed as familiar. The Dick Van Dyke show boasts creative plot lines that even in this age of imitation, I have yet to see emulated. I’m not giving up my addictions to The Hills (even though I just learned it’s staged), Ugly Betty, etc. However, I’m not always in the mood for what this generation of TV finds innovative and shocking, which often times is little more than cheap thrills and the obvious sale of all things sexual. Maybe it’s a result of watching way too much TV, but I’m finding most of it has become too predictable.