Well, strictly speaking I may have seen an episode of Loveboat or two, but never a single episode of any other show he ever produced. Not even part of one. I'm not highbrow, or anything. I've watched plenty of I Love Lucy, Gilligan's Island, and I Dream of Jeannie, but Spelling's shows had such a whiff of spoilage and decay that, in most cases, I avoided them without even knowing he was responsible. They were just signals to turn the channel. Still, to this day, I don't know who shot J.R., nor do I give a rip.
And I'm not going to wax preachy about how Spelling helped destroy the medium, either. I had no trouble avoiding what he produced, so have to assume that if consumers chose it they got what they wanted. But I'd just like to register that the fellow wasn't a great man merely because he's now pushing up the daisies. Had he never lived the world wouldn't be any the worse for it. There are lots of people like that. And as part of my tendancy to pick on the dead let me also compare the gushy tributes to Spelling with the near silence from the media at James Coleman's death a few years ago. Had Coleman not lived the world would have almost certainly been a worse place, and the dysfunctional way we grieve (or fail to) is but another clue to how our mainstream media may be distorting, and even perverting, our society. But better to grieve something together, than nothing, I guess.
Well, we get what we want... which isn't necessarily a condemnation so much as a promise.
I'm not going to say you're a total sleaze, and that this post (like your last) reaks of decay because- not to speculate(!)- that might get me banned or something.
SAO:
Irony without even a pretense to responsibility or argumentative conviction, and yet you're convinced of your moral superiority. I'd be envious, were it not for the fact that at least I can spell "wreaks" (or "reeks" if you prefer).
Don't you mean "reeks"? "Wreaks" doesn't fit the context.
Unbeliever:
On second thought I think "reeks" is what he meant. As usual that occurred to me after I'd posted...
But the larger point is that I don't feel the slightest twinge about a retrospective on Spelling, especially since the passing of such a person allows the rest of us to reflect on how we either liked or didn't like what he produced. I don't see even a hint of "decay" in that. In fact, since we're in a culture and a society making the dead off limits seems rather perverse. We'd be condemned to wait until another exploiter came along who knew how to wring it out of us the way Spelling did.
Come to think of it, Quinton Tarantino wreaks enough havoc on the culture to make up for Spelling. Or should I wait until he's dead to criticize him?
De mortuis nil nisi bene--"Speak not ill of the dead" (if memory serves). However, since I share the opinion of the TV shows, herewith an anecdote:
Around 1980 or anyway during the time when 'Dallas' was a big hit, I was invited to give a lecture at the medical school in St. John's, Newfoundland. At the time, I had heard of the show by name only but knew nothing of the plot, characters, or anything at all except that it was supposedly in Dallas.
The night I arrived my host had a dinner at his home for me and another lecturer plus several of his friends, married couples. When they learned I was from Texas (this is Newfoundland remember) two or three of them said, virtually simultaneously: "Who shot J. R.?"
They were astounded when I sat there with this blank look on my face so that they had to explain everything behind the question. I in turn was flabbergasted that, 'way out there, they were big fans of this TV show that I knew nothing about.
Finally they did explain to me that, the offerings of the Canadian networks being what they were, they preferred to watch TV that was beamed up from Maine.
Gordon:
Come to think of it I haven't ever watched an episode of Twin Peaks either, though I have nothing against the show. I tried to watch it once, but couldn't figure out what was going on. I did like Northern Exposure, sleazy old hippy dude that I am. Well, Janine Lindemulder anyway.
The guy produce a little over 200 TV productions. I have a hard time believing you havn't watched one of them. If you watched anything on ABC in the 70's, you were watching an Aaron Spelling production. He worked on something like 82 different shows just from 70-80.
And honestly, if you've never seen an episode of Starsky and Hutch, Fantasy Island, or Charlies Angels, you're a hurting unit.
Some of us have better things to do with our time, Gabriel.
No "S.W.A.T.?"
I remember two Aaron Spelling artifacts from my childhood: Starsky and Hutch, and a made for TV movie called "Crowhaven Farm".
The movie was about a family who moves into a New England farm and gets attacked by witches/puritans/ghosts. I can only remember one or two scenes and it was probably a piece of trash, but I liked it. At one point, the woman finds out that her best friend is actually a pilgrim. AAAGH!
Looking over his obits, I see he also made "The House That Would Not Die". That was another good one.
Not a bad assortment of 70s kitsch, compared to what some other people were doing.
If he helped to destroy the medium, as you say, good for him. That medium is what feeds Network So-called News (NSN). It's like their Death Star.
The Much Esteemed Gilligan's Island was produced by Sherwood Schwartz (1916-1998), who was also the co-writer of The Fabulous Epic, Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip... May the blessings of Peace be upon him.
I'm not too sure about the Spelling fellow.
Disagree completely.
Spelling was one of the last broad-audience guys.
Charlie's Angels, 90210, etc were broad audience shows. Now the emphasis is on shock for shock, see the fury over Rescue Me (which aims in the words of the creator to take Firefighters in NYC post 9/11 down a peg or three). Or the Shield, Sopranos, where characters are not just amoral but actively evil.
Fantasy Island (the original) or Love Boat were charming and inoffensive 70's shows.
I've seen many, and I acknowledge his name inmediately (but not his face) though I am not American.
From here, the new guy in town seems to be Jerry Bruckheimer.
"Superior?" surely not. But why bother with something as burdensome as "responsibility" when the original post contained neither arguement nor any sort conviction in the first place?
That's the whole point of making arguements by not making them, isn't it?
I'd love to hear what you really think about Spelling, TV, and our declining social capital. I'm guessing (this being WoC, your name containing "sophist") that it would lie somewhere between Coleman and another U. Chicago giant, who knows?
The only Spelling show that I ever watched was Charlie's Angels (and that was rarely, and always with the sound turned down).
Age shows here ... no one as yet has mentioned the Mod Squad. That wasn't too bad a series IIRC, but I haven't seen it since it originally aired.
Never have. I might have watched part of a Charlies Angels episode once, but only to be courteous to a host who was having me over for dinner. And I've never seen much more than the intro to Fantasy Island or Starsky and Hutch. But I might have watched a show that Spelling was involved in, because as you say there were a lot of them. None of his signature productions, though. And again, at the time I wasn't avoiding him per se. The stuff just didn't appeal to me. At the time I didn't even pay attention to who produced it.
OK, I've seen a few episodes of Mod Squad as well. And I thought Peggy Lipton was pretty hot at the time. I'm not proud of it, but there yah go...
What would "lie somewhere between Coleman and another U. Chicago giant"?? Who and what are you talking about, and what were their opinions about said topic, you classy devil?
Spelling may be no Coleman, but there was an episode of 90210 on bussing.
"Donna hatches a plan with Kelly to make David jealous when a student from South Central comes to West Bev."
I grew up with Fantasy Island and the Love Boat (don’t remember watching Charlie’s Angels or Starsky and Hutch at all though) and was pretty much addicted to Melrose Place in college. To this day Dallas and Falcon Crest (neither were Spelling productions) are still guilty pleasures but I never really got into Dynasty. I did watch TJ Hooker (hey I was a Trekkie so sue me) and Hart to Hart and to this day, I consider it a profound injustice that Buffy and Angel were canceled while Charmed was renewed for another season.
RIP Aaron Spelling, you made the world a much more interesting place while you were here.
James who?
I have to admit, I had to look up the list of Spelling's shows, and I'm in the same rank as you, Demosophist. I might have seen the occasional show, but never got hooked on a series. "Starsky and Hutch"? egad!
However, I can say, by looking at a few links, the man had an eye for talent (both the visual and the actual). For example, he seems to have given Robert Urich his start & boosted the career of Michelle Pfeiffer from nowhere, as well as made regular use of core performers like Don Stroud & Valerie Landsburg.
Not that any of those is necessarily a good thing... But Urich did go on to make the brilliant, frustratingly truncated suspense series, "The Lazarus Man", so Spelling's eye can't have been all bad.
Our society lets people decide for themselves what to watch. Doesn't always match our preferences. There are worse producers than Spelling out there. And certes, there are better too.
Spelling gets recognition and makes news because a lot of people will recognize his work, hence it's more likely to be personally meaningful. Same is not true for James Coleman.