My sixtysomething parents adamantly refuse to sign up for cable TV. They still believe television should be free. Through the years, they have politely rebuffed all my offers to foot the bills and give them more than five channels.
Last week, after a five-day visit to their rural Missouri home–with no CNN, no C-SPAN, no Nickelodeon–I tried again to sell them on cable. No go. “They don’t know what they’re missing,” said my brother, a devotee of the Discovery Channel and A&E Network. My aunt extolled the wonders of a satellite minidish, but Mom was unimpressed. The cost was still too high.
Would you settle for the broadcast networks and PBS these days?
More and more older viewers won’t. Ignored by the youth-obsessed broadcast networks, they’re turning to cable for documentaries, news and movies.
For viewers of all ages in 64 percent of U.S. TV households, the wide world of basic cable can be quite inviting on rerun-heavy summer nights. The premium channels–HBO, Showtime, Disney, Cinemax–increase the options (and the cable bills) in 29 percent of U.S. TV homes.
Politicians and viewer advocates have attacked cable for sleazy movies and violent programs, but there’s the other side to the story: Cable can be counted on for news, for variety, for risk-taking programming.
HBO has pushed sitcoms to new satirical boldness with “The Larry Sanders Show,” which stars Garry Shandling as a fictional late-night TV host. The series offers new episodes starting July 19.
“Absolutely Fabulous,” a broadly played British sitcom about two trend-crazy women, has become a cult favorite on Comedy Central. The series is offering six new episodes–the final of 18 in all–this summer.
The Discovery Channel, one of TV’s great undiscovered treasures, marked 10 years last week with a two-hour retrospective. Discovery has given us top-notch documentaries on Watergate and the Holocaust. Coming Tuesday: Walter Cronkite looks at the drug war in “The Drug Dilemma: War or Peace?”
A&E’s “Biography,” TV’s top offering on many nights, has profiled everyone from Alfred Hitchcock to Attila the Hun to Jesus Christ. This week “Biography” looks at musicians from Elvis to Mozart to Louis Armstrong. In July, “Biography” will focus on Paul Revere, Leona Helmsley and John Candy.
History usually receives short shrift on the broadcast networks. But cable can’t get enough of archival footage or vintage movies. The Disney Channel has offered “Anne Frank Remembered,” an excellent documentary on the Holocaust victim. TBS has looked at America’s love affair with cars in the diverting “Driving Passion.”
Turner Classic Movies celebrates top-flight actresses (Susan Hayward, Katharine Hepburn, Barbara Stanwyck, Greta Garbo) with a summerlong film series. American Movie Classics has saluted film composers with “The Hollywood Soundtrack Story” and honored James Stewart on Sunday by airing some of his finest films. HBO is presenting “The First 100 Years,” a fast-moving tribute to a century of American filmmaking.
Addicts of TV nostalgia know that Nickelodeon is nirvana, with its reruns of “I Love Lucy,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and other vintage series.
Cable has increased America’s desire to channel-surf for a reason: You don’t have to settle for ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox anymore. Come this fall, when those networks unload more and more sitcoms, cable will be a refuge for gag-weary viewers.
Do without cable like my parents? No way.
