In addition to Jimmy Stewart innocently spying on the lovely, late Grace Kelly in Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window", Scandal Sheets, 900 numbers, etc.; there is now a surplus of tabloid tv. Geraldo, not too long ago, was on five days a week, with two or three different shows. Geraldo, Jerry Springer and Maury Povich, among others, succeed in part because they are experts at finding and coming up with sleazy ideas from the least likely places. Their mottos ought to be: "If it's not tawdry, decadent, lurid, sordid, vile, sleazy or titillating, then you haven't seen it here." As if these guys aren't enough, there is such shows as "A Current Affair", "Hard Copy", "Inside Edition", etc. Not only that, but millions of people watch Oprah, Dr. Phil, once watched Morton Downey Jr. and Sally Jessie Raphael and their ilk every day; especially when they have sleazy topics like: "Risque Women Who Love Risky Men Who Hate Risque Women". Another recent addition to the Voyeuristic Garbage Heap are the "Real Crime Killer Cards", sure to be a big hit at a Correctional Facility near you. Perhaps just as bad, there is a novel entitled "Vox", with the plot and dialogue having to do exclusively with so-called 'phone-sex' conversations. The very existence of 'phone-sex' to me is a pretty pathetic commentary on our society. (to be cont'd)
[The original version of this essay first appeared in Eastern Connecticut State University's Campus Lantern student newspaper in the early '90s and as part of my unpublished manuscript "In Mediocrity We Trust... In Debt We Die" And Other Essays.]
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