“The View From the Phlipside” is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY. It can be heard Monday through Friday around 7:30 AM. The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program. Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moment’s notice. WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed. You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com. Copyright 2013-18 by Jay Phillippi. All Rights Reserved. You like what you see and hear? Drop me a line and we can talk.
Programs from the week of July 1, 2018
This Week’s Podcast
My name is Jay Phillippi and I’ve spent my life in and around the media. TV, radio, the movies and more. I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View from the Phlipside.
Little Furor On The Prairie
It is hard to imagine an author that the average reader would find less controversial that Laura Ingalls Wilder. Yet, the creator of the “Little House on the Prairie” books is to be found at the center of a furor over an award named in her honor.
Last week a division of the American Library Association, the Association for Library Service to Children, announced that it would remove Wilder’s name from the award. Formerly known as the “Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, it is given to writers or illustrators who have made significant contributions to children’s literature. The first winner was Wilder herself.
All of this is because the beloved books contain, quoting the organization’s web page now, “expressions of stereotypical attitudes inconsistent with ALSC’s core values…” Given the stature of the books in American literature the furor that followed is understandable.
But before we go roaring off into the rant-o-sphere, let’s make sure we keep a couple facts in mind.
While she accurately represents the thinking of that time, (the books take place shortly after the Civil War) they still contain statements like “the only good Indian is a dead Indian”, and “…there were no people. Only Indians lived there”.
While as adults we can say to ourselves, “That’s the way they thought then, we don’t think like that any more”, it is important to remember that these books are commonly introduced to children whose ages only require a single digit. And who assuredly do not have the background to place the statements in context.
The other fact I want to draw to everyone’s attention is that this is not an attempt to remove the books from library’s shelves or keep people from reading them. This move is only directed at the award, now renamed the Children’s Literature Legacy Award. In an interview with NPR, the library organization made clear that they do not believe the works should be banished from our reading.
In fact, I believe that there is a far greater benefit to be gained by continuing to read these books. It offers an important entrance to a vital conversation about race, history and those of us living in the 21st century. “Little House on the Prairie” isn’t the only piece of classic American literature that offers a challenge of this kind. Making sure that our children understand the historical context, even for fictionalized stories, is the greatest tribute that we can offer to the author and the characters that we so love.
R.I.P. Harlan Ellison
I started reading science fiction while I was still in elementary school. It began with the very white bread adventures of Tom Swift. I grew into Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov. But it was sometime in late high school that I ran across an author and visionary that would change my reading expectations forever.
That writer was Harlan Ellison, who passed away last week.
Now the first thing you have to understand about Ellison is that you have to decide which aspect of his personality you are going place foremost in your understanding of the man. Is it his brilliance as an author, or what is politely being described in most obituaries as his “irascibility”? What is hiding behind that polite word is that Ellison was a notorious jerk. If your attention is on the author then you can focus on his multiple Hugo, Nebula and Edgar awards, writing the original script for the greatest episode of the original Star Trek series (the version of which we are familiar with he hated), and many brilliant stories and essays.
But the jerk cannot be ignored. Ellison described himself as “…possibly the most contentious person on Earth”. His misbehavior, including groping a female author at an award’s ceremony, are both legion and legendary.
Much of my respect rests on two astounding collections that Ellison both contributed to and edited.
The books are “Dangergous Visions” and its sequel “Again, Dangerous Visions”. For me, this was my first introduction to the idea of “speculative fiction”. Ellison seemed to believe that the term “science fiction” was entirely worn out, cliché ridden, and generally lacking in any kind of vision, let alone a dangerous one. The books were very effective in blowing up the genre and releasing a vital new energy into it. Along the way, it utterly blew the mind of a naive teenager who was just starting to pop his head up into the “real world”. Like all of Ellison’s best work, these books (which included 20 authors who had or would win science fiction’s highest honors) were challenging, intelligent and iconoclastic. Ellison’s own “I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream” is one of the most terrifying stories I have read in any genre.
It’s strange to say that somehow the world is both better and worse with the passing of a person. In the end, I will contend that we lost much more than we gained with his death.
Harlan Jay Ellison was 84 years old.
Ch-ch-changes!
It is the outcome that some of us thought might be coming. It was hard to imagine that ABC was going to just walk away from a big hit, liked the re-launched “Roseanne”. At the same time, something had to change after the series star and namesake made her ill-considered online comments. The network fired her and officially canceled the series. But you had a feeling that this wasn’t the final decision.
And it wasn’t. ABC needs all the hits it can get. The network has been running in third place overall, tied with Fox. So a big hit is not something to be discarded so easily. That’s why in the fall a new show, without Roseann Barr, will debut, called “The Connors”. It will star all the rest of the cast. The fate of the Connor matriarch is still up in the air, though television tradition would indicate she will have an “unexpected” death.
It’s an interesting challenge, carrying forward a show without a major star, let alone one featured in the show’s title. Cast turnover is not at all unusual, especially for shows with long runs. But the big star? The track record for that kind of change isn’t encouraging.
There are shows that lost their stars. “The Office” lost Steve Carrell, “The X-Files” lost David Duchovney and “Spin City” lost Michael J. Fox. All three series lasted just two more seasons. But that’s slightly different from losing a title character.
“Laverne and Shirley” lost Cindy Williams who played Shirley. Result? Canceled after the next season. “Two and A Half Men” lost Charlie Sheen and did somewhat better. The show went four more seasons with Ashton Kutcher as one of the “men” in question.
That will be cold comfort for the producers of “The Connors”. If they want to hope then they need to look to the example of “Cheers”. While Ted Danson was there for the run, it was his co-star Shelley Long who left the show after five seasons. The stories revolved around Sam and Diane so it was a major loss. Long was replaced by Kirstie Alley and the dynamics between the two new stars were outstanding. “Cheers” would continue for another six seasons with a new star.
So history says that this is going to be a roll of the dice, at best. ABC was set to lose 100 million dollars in advertising over the cancellation of the program. That kind of money will incline you to take a gamble against history.
Call that the View From the Phlipside
Copyright Jay Phillippi, 2018
Theme music for “The View From the Phlipside” and “TVFTP – Podcast” is “Hustle”
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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