Great Caesar's Ghost. And I mean Sid Caesar of course. With the proliferation of channels, television is more haunted than ever by the past. Where is that MGM line now you wonder. Where are all those people who were laughing, screaming, jokes and tweaking each other's noses in black and white. As the time between the early days and the middle age of television stretch out further and further, the television programs of the past turn into black and white ghosts haunting our monitors and TV screens.
It wasn't always that way but the passage of time has kept the past alive as a faint shadow of itself, mocked by the latest generation of Plasma TV screens, HDTV crispness and Blu Ray technology. The past seems positively unreal compared to the latest rollout of computer generated special effects in the latest forgettable big box office summer spectacular. But in some ways the past is much more alive, much more vivid and vital, despite not being widescreened or having the right resolution, or being equipped with computer generated special effects that determine to make everything seem impossibly larger than life.
Maybe that is because vitality doesn't come from a computerized army of ghosts and shadows but from life itself. If the past haunts our TV screens, if there is an entire cable channel dedicated to reruns of classic television shows, and more channels still dedicated to classic movies, that is because the past holds a special place out of more than just sentimentality toward past ages and past experiences, but because in the absence of lazy vulgar shortcuts and easy computer rendered tricks, the past had to do it the hard way. The pioneer way. Great Caesar's Ghost. Some days the past seems more alive than ever.
It wasn't always that way but the passage of time has kept the past alive as a faint shadow of itself, mocked by the latest generation of Plasma TV screens, HDTV crispness and Blu Ray technology. The past seems positively unreal compared to the latest rollout of computer generated special effects in the latest forgettable big box office summer spectacular. But in some ways the past is much more alive, much more vivid and vital, despite not being widescreened or having the right resolution, or being equipped with computer generated special effects that determine to make everything seem impossibly larger than life.
Maybe that is because vitality doesn't come from a computerized army of ghosts and shadows but from life itself. If the past haunts our TV screens, if there is an entire cable channel dedicated to reruns of classic television shows, and more channels still dedicated to classic movies, that is because the past holds a special place out of more than just sentimentality toward past ages and past experiences, but because in the absence of lazy vulgar shortcuts and easy computer rendered tricks, the past had to do it the hard way. The pioneer way. Great Caesar's Ghost. Some days the past seems more alive than ever.
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