Is the VCR the reason why TV and movies have been increasingly

[Deja Q]

unintelligent if not just dumb?

Witness: "The VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston Strangler is to the woman alone."
Jack Valenti, MPAA

[Eric J in MN]

1. People used to be able to enjoy high-brow fare like "The Keystone Cops"

and "The Three Stooges" before the vcr lowered the art form.

[NWHarkness]

2. The real culprit:The internationalization of the audience

In order to sell tickets internationally, movies are increasingly stripped of any elements that do not appeal to the widest possible audience or are not easily translated across linguisitc and cultural barriers.

[KoKo]

3. I think the more "choices" you give to folks the more you "split" them

apart. So that while way back "everyone" watched the same thing and had a "commonality of reference" ...now it seems we all choose our own media. So what's really good..i.e. MORE CHOICES tends to segment us off into our "own media." So, we become more divided...

If you can understand what I'm saying. It's really hard for most of us now to decide on a "commonality" when the diversity of MEDIA is in the hundreds...

We Americans today...all are watching and listening to our OWN INDIVIDUAL MEDIA...because we have so many Great Choices. So, with diversity...one also has to pay a price of the loss of commonality.

Just my worthless 2 cents...but yes...thank God for my Combo VCR/DVD...I'd be in a straight jacket raving if I couldn't go "back in time" to a simpler time...where there was...what I,personally, view as quality MEDIA... Not that we don't have a few things of quality since Clinton...but I'm having big problems finding it since 1995... just me, though.

[Melynn]

4. My guess the culprit is the high cost of making movies and TV shows

So producers rely on tried and true formulas in order to make money.

[Deja Q]

6. Compared to inflation-adjusted costs, one would think that a

1960 TV show would cost much more to make than a 2000 TV show. Technology typically makes production easier, not harder.

I mean, home computers did not start with Apple's latest take on Xerox's GUI concept and work backwords to where CP/M and COBOL became the popular standard... nor did computers in 2005 cost $5000, only to decrease in price as time goes backwards so that the original IBM PC would cost $399. No. Prices go down as technology progresses. Not the other way around.

Today we have the means to easily re-wipe a tape and recycle the film if necessary. Producers merely want to dumb down everybody because it's simpler, costs less for them, and gives talentless hacks demand a larger salary from the network or studio... mindless pursuit of money. And we all suffer because of it. Costs may be up, but it's hardly for technical reasons, and technical reasons are the only rational ones.

[Salviati]

5. My opinion:

there was just as much dreck back in the day, it's just that no one bothers to remember it. We only remember the good stuff, and there are good movies that come out every year, damn good ones, you just can't expect every one to be good...

Oh, and Jack Valenti is a piece of crap, but that goes without saying...