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TV BLAHS Is it just my imagination, or is television going right to the dogs, latenight TV, that is. | seldom, if ever, look at the tube during the so-called fins lina hours (7:00-11:00 PM) be- cause the junk served up in the guise of sit-coms or dumb cop and robber shows turned me away a long time ago. : But after 11:00 PM when the kids have gone to bed and the noise level in our house is fina ly low- ered, | find myself in the TV room for the news, "weather and sports. And being something of an insomniac, | often find myself clicking around the dial at mid-night try- ing to find something (anything) that will be remote- ly entertaining. Frankly, folks, from my perspective, late night TV has become even more tedious and down-right insulting than the prime time schlock. All week long, CITY-TV, for example, airs re- runs of Hill Street Blues, a depressingly stupid se- ries that manages to stereo-type everyone and everything, including the inside of the station- house. | mean, how much of the sleazy down-side of life in the big city can one take in an hour? Another station (CKVR, | think) has latched onto Perry Mason re-runs. This was a stupid oh-so predictable series when it first hit the air-waves when | was a teen-ager, and it hasn't changed. Talk shows? Good grief, the late night air is filled with the boring ramblings of Johnny Carson, Pat Sajak, Arsenio Hall and Dave Letterman and their equally boring guests. PORT PERRY STAR ~-- Tuesday, March 28, 1969 -- 7. Viewpoint by John B. McClelland Carson should have retired long ago; Hall tries to be psuedo-hip; Sajak looks like he's still looking for the Wheel of Fortune; and Letterman, who at one time at least made an effort to be refreshingly different, now is just plain irritating. The only good thing about these four is that they work better than a sleeping pill. How about Channel 11's nightly re-runs of Cagney and Lacey, a show that is so hopelessly dated and cliched that it really is an insult to any- one over the age of six. Ei ~ Jackie Gleason (also re-runs) is quaint for about three minutes if you can stand the scream- ing. Were peorle really like that in the 50's? Late night fare on the Toronto multi-culturalism channel is horrendous, even if you speak Italian, Korean or Slovakian, which | don't. This channel should have its licence revoked by the CRTC, and | + can't for the life of me figure why Compton Cable beams it into Port Perry and Uxbridge. French | can speak and understand, and | must admit that from time to time Channel 25 will air a decent movie from the Continent, but mostly it serves up dubbed westerns with John Wayne, or made in France crime flicks which are technicall terrible and just as full of tired cliches as their American counter-parts. Flicking down: (or up) the dial, you can tune in any number of save-the-starving-kids stuff; some bozo in a $50 suit hustling real estate courses; an- other bozo hustling hair-pieces; a preacher trying to save souls (and collect money) a cricket game from - Pakistan or rugby from Australia (who the heck cares) or some show that features "court-room dra- ma" from nice places like Dallas or South Miami. (spare me the gory details, please) : CITY-TV used to have a reputation for. airing movies that no other channel would touch with a ten-foot pole, but lately CITY has been serving up a steady diet of those incredibly juvenile Bert Re- ynolds flicks, the ones where old Bert plays either a renegade trucker in the deep south or a cop from the wrong side of the tracks. Don't lose your hair- piece in the swamp, Bent. = CFTO is so prudish it bleeps out the gosh- dams, and cuts to a comnietcial at the first sign of S-X (holding hands is rique in a film on CFTO) MuchMusic is just not my cup of tea at an time, and | don't subscribe t6 the move channel. But when First Choice did arrive on my tube gratis for a while this winter; | found the movies distress- ingly shallow, most of them of poor quality techni- cally speaking and starring "actors* 'who should have taken up some other vocation. I'm not sure just what | expect from late-night television. Maybe fare that is mildly entertaining, thought-provoking, or at least different. What one gets is a mish-mash of tired old re- runs, tired old (and fairly new) movies spliced with a langle of commercials, talk shows with boring hosts and guests who are full of themselves (my latest movie is in a theatre near you) but have nothing in- telligent to say, or hucksters heading everything from get-rich schemes to costume jewellry. - How do the stations get away with this? Where are the censors when you really need them? | [ + Remember en: 70 YEARS AGO Thursday, April 3, 1919 The Ontario Legislature is introducing an Act which will authorize the payment of a percentage of the cost of the erec- : tion of Community Halls in rural municipalities. The Bill provides that the Government shall pay 25 percent of cost of such halls up to $2000. These halls will hopefully fur- | nish a meeting place for the community for dances, social events and meetings. St. Andrews Presbyterian Church gave the returning soldiers in connection with the congregation, a royal welcome home. 45 YEARS AGO Thursday, April 6, 1944 There are six Port Perry boys serving overseas with Major Connie Smythe's Battery, and are known as '"The Scugog Kids." They are Gunner Len Colbear, Grant McDermott, Fred Colbear, Ken Hillier, Walter (Mike) Sheridan and Jack Sangster. The employement picture is changing all the time now. The young farrmers who have been working in the munition factories during the winter must return to the farm now. Farm sales are very much in style. Ted Jackson has been on the run all the time. 25 YEARS AGO Thursday, April 1, 1954 Without anything special to mark the occasion other than the of the first minutes by Warden Wilson, Ontario Coun- ty is now in its 100th year. Lloyd Wakeford noticed two whistling swans. This is the first time in many years that these birds have been reported in the area, The birds are quite large being about 5 feet from bill to tip of tail with a wing spread of approximately 7 feet. The Wednesday Night Ladies League came to an end. The first section was won by the Hurricanes with 64 points. The high single was won by Rebecca Bruton with 270 and Louise Carnegie won high triple with 619. 30 YEARS AGO Thursday, April 2, 1959 In1928 Port Perry built a new school - both public and high school. In 1929 approximately 100 students attended. In 1952 lic school section of the building was taken over by the high Pie and a new public school was opened. Now well over 300 students attend the high school. (Tun to page 8) Letters io ine editor View Lake "Rocky Road Blues" To the Editor: As a resident of View Lake, I would like to direct some com- plaints to the politicians of Durham Region and Scugog Township. Idrive from View Lake to Port Perry every day to work and have to take Highway 57 to the Nestleton Rd. This is approx. 6 miles of extremely rough road. If you drive more than 30 miles per hr. you stand a chance of losing Object to "factory farming" To the Editor: I strongly object to the expres- sion "factory farming" as it is us- ed in Rob Streich's article in the Star, Tuesday, March 21, par- ticularly if the writer, or Dr. Blackburn, is using the term to apply to most modern farms in this area. It is a negative term coined by extreme welfarists and animal rights activists. And the assumption that many - (if not all) farmers show lack of responsibility and respect for thelr animals by 'factory farm- ing" is do t insulting. Farmers treat their animals as humanely as possible and work with animals because they understand and like them. Farm animals have never been raised in a more humane and healthful manner than they are . today. Ted Jensen, control of your vehicle and caus- ing a bad accident. In many places it is necessary to drive on the wrong side of the road to miss really bad bumps. . One day I followed behind my children's school bus and through the back window all you could see were children bouncing uncon- trollably in their seats. This could. be a very dangerous situation. I sent petitions to politicians a ear ago and was promised road provements over the next four years. They did fix a small section of road which helped, but I can assure them that Durham Rd. 57 is not going to last another three years. If we have to suffer with it for three more years, I for one am going to send my repair bills for Jy ick and my chiropractor bills to the Region. There is no ex- Smile For The Day cuse for these road conditions. My neighbours and I pay a good dollar for taxes and we deserve some returns for these tax dollars. Port Perry is the only place that gets major im- provements in the Township without whining and I'm getting sick of it. I'know a lot of readers are go- ing to say if you don't like it, then move. While I've only lived here for two years, I was born in Port Perry and raised in Scugog Township and I'm not going to move to solve this problem. The only services we receive here are the garbage collection once a week which will likely tri- ple in cost once the dump closes. We do not even enjoy street lights (Turn to page 8) gS "WELL, DEAR....HOW DID YOU LIKE MY RED HOT RR. 5, Sunderland, |e CHILI SURPRISE?" |