TV is changing. Can we keep up, and do we want to?

When my mom was in her late 80s and still living in her Dayton condo, I set her up with Netflix, right around the time “The Crown” was popular. As we watched the first episode, I paused the program to explain how streaming worked. Mom freaked out:  "How did you do that?  What's happening? Is it broken?"

Mom never used Netflix after that — unless we watched “Frankie and Grace” together when I visited. She has asked me several times since to explain streaming and "that pause thing." 

Television has changed dramatically in that last decade. Our family cut the cable cord recently and now get television through a Verizon internet box, which adds $25 a month to our smartphone bill. We get network and cable programs through a Hulu account. There are no TV cable boxes or wires in our house anymore. The DIRECTV dish atop our roof is rusting.

I am a first generation TV kid, growing up on “Dobie Gillis,” “Leave it to Beaver,” “Maverick,” and “The Ed Sullivan Show” — a Sunday family ritual in the 1950s, along with homemade pizza and A&W root beer. One exception was Sept. 9, 1956 — the first time Elvis appeared.  At age seven — the oldest of five — I  had never heard of Elvis Presley. We watched something else that night. 

As someone who studied popular culture, news and television for a living, I have come to resent the stranglehold ABC, CBS and NBC had on programming throughout television's Network Era.  My resentment partly stems from watching all the exceptional TV series today — mostly from other countries — now available through Netflix, Prime, Hulu, Apple TV and Max. My wife and I have even developed a code phrase when deciding to stop watching a series after an episode or two: "Too network-y."

In the 1950s, the networks produced as many as 39 episodes per show per year. Then videotape was invented in 1957, allowing networks to cut back to 22-24 episodes a year and run reruns during spring and summer.  The networks thought sitcom laugh tracks would help us know when to laugh.  “The Beverly Hillbillies” was the  most popular show in America in 1963 and 1964.

On a tight production schedule — often producing an episode a week — programming was formulaic, set up to deliver us to the next commercial interruption. After the networks moved their entertainment offices from New York to L.A. (for better weather and access to movie lots),  some 30 westerns appeared on the network schedule in the late 1950s. When that formula ran its course, cops replaced cowboys. 

When cable services like HBO and AMC started producing series with just 8-10 episodes a season, quality improved. Cable also had no powerful "standards and practices" (i.e., censorship) divisions, which ensured that network  audiences would never be offended or challenged. And when “The Sopranos” started winning the Sunday ratings battle against network shows (although HBO, a cable pay service, was available in fewer than one third of U.S. homes at the time), change was afoot.  

I admit to having favorite network shows over the years — “Columbo,” “Roots,” “Lonesome Dove,” “Northern Exposure,” “Seinfeld,” “Mary Tyler Moore,” “Carol Burnett,” “Cheers,” “SNL,”  “The Office,” to name some. There are many, many more quality shows available right now — including all those old network shows. During the Network Era, about 200 news shows a year premiered, and only about 10% lasted more than a season. In the streaming era, more than 500 new shows are produced in the U.S. alone, thanks to Netflix and Amazon, who spend billions of dollars a year on new programs and on buying programming from other countries.

Among my favorites today:  “Professor T” (Belgian version), “The Art of Crime” (French), “Seaside Hotel” (Danish), “Upstart Crow” (British – a sitcom starring Shakespeare), “The Bridge” (Danish-Swedish version), “Fargo” (U.S.), “The Bear” (U.S.), “Rake” (Australian), “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” (South Korean), “Fauda” (Israeli), “Trapped” (Icelandic), to name some.  No network shows among them.

Mom is 98 now and in long-term care. Like me, she no longer watches network TV. Her “go to” channel is cable’s AMC — American Movie Classics. We occasionally watch a movie when we play Scrabble. I much prefer TV to movies, but that’s a subject for another day.

Richard Campbell is a professor emeritus and founding chair of the Department of Media, Journalism & Film at Miami.