The Way I See It - TV Land Top 10
The Way I See It
By Doug Dickerson
Staff Writer
December 13, 2006
I never knew how much I was loved and appreciated around here until my column (200 thousand words and counting) was published last week. In my column, I cited scientific research validating the notion that women really do talk more than men. My commentary provoked some reactions from some of my kind, charming, wonderful (no groveling here) co-workers that I can’t write about in this column.
Thankful to have lived long enough to write another column, I thought I would share with you the findings of the new TV Land Top 100 catchphrases covering 60 years of American television shows, cartoons and commercials and quotes from news programs.
Larry W. Jones, the president of TV Land said, “We have found that television is such a huge part of baby boomers’ DNA that it makes sense that much of America’s pop culture jargon comes from TV.”
The Top 10 greatest TV quotes and catchphrases chosen by TV Land are:
1. Heeeere’s Johnny! (Ed McMahon, The Tonight Show)
2. One small step for man…(Neil Armstrong)
3. You’re fired! (Donald Trump, The Apprentice)
4. Baby, you’re the greatest. (Ralph Kramden, The Honeymooners)
5. Ask not what your country can do for you…(John F. Kennedy)
6. D’oh! (Homer Simpson, The Simpsons)
7. Where’s the beef? (Wendy’s)
8. Whatchoo talkin’ bout, Willis? (Arnold Drummond, Different Strokes)
9. Yabba dabba do! (Fred Flintstone, The Flintstones)
10. I am not a crook (Richard Nixon)
The Top 100 List of quotes will be featured in a five-night TV Land special airing December 11 to 15. Many of the quotes bring back memories of a time and era far removed from us now. Yet, the long-term effects of TV upon society have significantly changed us.
See if you can guess when this paragraph was written: “Despite such network fears, some stronger form of program censorship may yet prevail. One possible way to bring it about: pressure on individual stations. In the (National Association of Broadcasters), individual stations outnumber and outvote the …networks. And in recent months, TV station owners have become increasingly jittery over the activities of suddenly rambunctious Federal Communication Commission.” If you guessed that it was written after the “wardrobe malfunction” at the 2004 Super Bowl with Janet Jackson, or any other modern event, think again.
The gist of the article that the paragraph came from is that the federal government, led by some members of Congress, wanted television to clean up its act. It comes from a 1969 edition of Time magazine. The story centered on that year’s broadcasters’ convention and on Rhode Island Senator John O. Pastore’s campaign to clean up television. Specifically, he was upset over a commercial starring the “Noxzema Girl” who told people to “Take it off. Take it all off.” How far we’ve come!
A recent poll commissioned by Zogby International found that Americans know a lot more about pop culture than they do about almost anything else, including their own government. The poll discovered, for instance, that 77 percent of those surveyed could identify two of the seven dwarfs, while only 24 percent could name two of the nine Supreme Court justices; 73 percent could name all three of the Three Stooges, but only 42 percent could list the three branches of government. The survey found that 60 percent of the people could identify Krypton as Superman’s home planet, but only 37 percent could identify the closest planet to the sun, Mercury.
The intent of the Zogby poll was not to show how stupid Americans are, according to a news release, but it shows “how powerful popular culture is in terms of communicating information, especially in comparison to government, schools and the media.”
The 1969 article ends with network executives being “content to argue that no method has reliably demonstrated what television actually does to people.” It concludes, “Critics urging censorship by seeking piecemeal suppression of scenes and words before studying the larger, long-term effects may be straining at gnats while swallowing camels.” Zogby, it would seem, has put that issue to rest.
So, the next time you experience that “dumbed-down” feeling of watching too much TV, grab the remote and tune in for another popular catchphrase, “This is jeopardy!” If all else fails, turn it off and find a good book!
©Summerville Journal-Scene 2006
By Doug Dickerson
Staff Writer
December 13, 2006
I never knew how much I was loved and appreciated around here until my column (200 thousand words and counting) was published last week. In my column, I cited scientific research validating the notion that women really do talk more than men. My commentary provoked some reactions from some of my kind, charming, wonderful (no groveling here) co-workers that I can’t write about in this column.
Thankful to have lived long enough to write another column, I thought I would share with you the findings of the new TV Land Top 100 catchphrases covering 60 years of American television shows, cartoons and commercials and quotes from news programs.
Larry W. Jones, the president of TV Land said, “We have found that television is such a huge part of baby boomers’ DNA that it makes sense that much of America’s pop culture jargon comes from TV.”
The Top 10 greatest TV quotes and catchphrases chosen by TV Land are:
1. Heeeere’s Johnny! (Ed McMahon, The Tonight Show)
2. One small step for man…(Neil Armstrong)
3. You’re fired! (Donald Trump, The Apprentice)
4. Baby, you’re the greatest. (Ralph Kramden, The Honeymooners)
5. Ask not what your country can do for you…(John F. Kennedy)
6. D’oh! (Homer Simpson, The Simpsons)
7. Where’s the beef? (Wendy’s)
8. Whatchoo talkin’ bout, Willis? (Arnold Drummond, Different Strokes)
9. Yabba dabba do! (Fred Flintstone, The Flintstones)
10. I am not a crook (Richard Nixon)
The Top 100 List of quotes will be featured in a five-night TV Land special airing December 11 to 15. Many of the quotes bring back memories of a time and era far removed from us now. Yet, the long-term effects of TV upon society have significantly changed us.
See if you can guess when this paragraph was written: “Despite such network fears, some stronger form of program censorship may yet prevail. One possible way to bring it about: pressure on individual stations. In the (National Association of Broadcasters), individual stations outnumber and outvote the …networks. And in recent months, TV station owners have become increasingly jittery over the activities of suddenly rambunctious Federal Communication Commission.” If you guessed that it was written after the “wardrobe malfunction” at the 2004 Super Bowl with Janet Jackson, or any other modern event, think again.
The gist of the article that the paragraph came from is that the federal government, led by some members of Congress, wanted television to clean up its act. It comes from a 1969 edition of Time magazine. The story centered on that year’s broadcasters’ convention and on Rhode Island Senator John O. Pastore’s campaign to clean up television. Specifically, he was upset over a commercial starring the “Noxzema Girl” who told people to “Take it off. Take it all off.” How far we’ve come!
A recent poll commissioned by Zogby International found that Americans know a lot more about pop culture than they do about almost anything else, including their own government. The poll discovered, for instance, that 77 percent of those surveyed could identify two of the seven dwarfs, while only 24 percent could name two of the nine Supreme Court justices; 73 percent could name all three of the Three Stooges, but only 42 percent could list the three branches of government. The survey found that 60 percent of the people could identify Krypton as Superman’s home planet, but only 37 percent could identify the closest planet to the sun, Mercury.
The intent of the Zogby poll was not to show how stupid Americans are, according to a news release, but it shows “how powerful popular culture is in terms of communicating information, especially in comparison to government, schools and the media.”
The 1969 article ends with network executives being “content to argue that no method has reliably demonstrated what television actually does to people.” It concludes, “Critics urging censorship by seeking piecemeal suppression of scenes and words before studying the larger, long-term effects may be straining at gnats while swallowing camels.” Zogby, it would seem, has put that issue to rest.
So, the next time you experience that “dumbed-down” feeling of watching too much TV, grab the remote and tune in for another popular catchphrase, “This is jeopardy!” If all else fails, turn it off and find a good book!
©Summerville Journal-Scene 2006
posted by Doug Dickerson | 7:43 AM
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