There's a fun first-person essay in the Boston Globe Sunday magazine about the local Me-TV affiliate, and a family connecting over some really old TV shows.
Neil Swidey says his youngest daughter was acting a bit lippy, and came to believe it was due in part to shows she was watching on Disney Channel and Nickelodeon. So they started turning on Me-TV instead, watching reruns of The Bady Bunch. His daughter, who is 8, dug it, as did his other two girls. They also had some interesting observations about TV plotlines and gender roles back in the '60s and '70s.
Swidey notes that "two of the more familiar faces from Boston TV when I was a kid," former husband and wife anchor team Bob Lobel and Susan Wornick, are reunited on the local Me-TV, which airs on a WCVB multicast.
He writes:
Their job is to banter in between the old sitcoms airing on the channel. Its general manager said the idea was to attract the boomers and Gen Xers who remember watching Wornick and Lobel deliver the news and sports. That crowd also happens to be the channel’s target audience for reruns of The Beverly Hillbillies, The Brady Bunch, and Happy Days.
I always liked Lobel and Wornick. But as one of those target Gen Xers, I have another suggestion for the station: Forget us and try to attract our kids. Maybe dust off a pair of personalities that the younger crowd would recognize.
Going full circle, Swidey suggests some youthful personalities from the Disney Channel to pitch in with hosting.
