When Are The Networks Gonna' Cool It With All This Violent Crime-Drama Junk? - Herbie J Pilato

By Media Biz Bloggers Archives
Cover image for  article: When Are The Networks Gonna' Cool It With All This Violent Crime-Drama Junk? - Herbie J Pilato

According to The Hollywood Reporter, HBO has partnered with Guillermo del Toro to adapt Corinne May Botz's Nutshell Studies, a Hitchcock-like drama about a 1950s small-town housewife who becomes obsessed with solving brutal crimes.

I'm so friggin' tired of all these overtly-violent crime dramas that are polluting the airwaves.

Look – I love mysteries and adventure shows. And I also enjoy a good police detective story, just as much as the next guy.

But come on, man…enough is enough with the offensive and abusive images that are presented on the new crime shows of today.

Columbo, McMillan and Wife, McCloud, Barnaby Jones, and yes – Murder, She Wrote…not to mention the short-lived Ellery Queen, and even shows like Magnum PI, and so many more wonderful police-detective shows from the past, all did it so much better than then the junk that invades the contemporary airwaves.

And again, it all comes back to storytelling and character development with class, distinction and TALENT.

Violent, blood-soaked scenes are easy ways out and, apparently, great stories and good characters are too much of a challenge to create, produce and present.

And how many times are we going to see the same exact interrogation scene that we've already seen a bazillion times on any number of the Law & Order shows, Person of Interest, the CSIshows, and even Blue Bloods, which like, the aforementioned Magnum PI, stars Tom Selleck, but this time as the head of a family of policeman. Bloods (beyond its dreadful title) had so much potential. But now it's become just as violent and brutal as the other new crime drama shows.

It's disgusting is what it is.

Just tired of it all, and the lack of true elegance in detective and police programming of yore is just apparently gone forever.

Thank heavens for networks like ME-TV and Antenna TV, both of which run plenty of first-rate, top –notch crime shows from the past, like Cannon, Kojak and It Takes A Thief, among several others.

And just as the slogan/motto goes for ME-TV in particular, "That's the way ME likes it!"

Herbie J Pilato is an actor/writer/producer/executive who has worked for Syfy, A&E, TLC, Bravo, The Discovery Channel, Universal, Warner Bros. and Sony. The author of a number of acclaimed classic TV tie-in books (The BionicBook, LifeStory - The Book of Life Goes On, The Bewitched Book,BewitchedForever, TheKung Fu Book of Caine,The Kung Fu Book of Wisdom, and NBC & ME: My Life As A Page In A Book), Herbie J is also the Founder and Executive Director for The Classic TV Preservation Society (a nonprofit organization dedicated to closing the gap between positive TV shows and education; www.ClassicTVPS.blogspot.com); the Creative Director for Erie Street Entertainment (a TV production company that is geared toward sci-fi/fantasy, and family-oriented material; www.ErieStreetEntertainment.blogspot.com); and the President of Pop-Culture Consultants (an entertainment consulting firm, www.Pop-CultureConsultants.blogspot.com). He appears frequently on TV in shows, like the TV Guide Channel's new series, 100 Moments That Changed TV and Entertainment Tonight. He has performed on daytime soaps like General Hospital and The Bold and The Beautiful, as well as classic TV shows like The Golden Girls and Highway to Heaven. Herbie J’s new book, TWITCH UPON A STAR: THE BEWITCHED LIFE AND CAREER OF ELIZABETEH MONTGOMERY, will be published in November by Taylor Trade Publishing. To pre-order the book, click on this link https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781589797499 and/or for more information, please email hjpilato@yahoo.com.

Read all Herbie J's MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Herbie J's Classic TV Corner.

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