TV's Second Season: Did It Fall, or Were You Pushed?

TV is like everything else in the world, from Nigel Olsson records to those malformed, ground-rice French fries guaranteed to cause early oven death. Either you suck it up indiscriminately like a hungry rogue celery in a plantfood factory, or you wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot Mandingo and spend the rest of your life reading a book. I don't ever believe that latter crowd though || they're like those characters who claim they never listen to AM radio but still go around humming "Island Girl" all the time. Shout it out loud: I'm hooked and I'm proud.

The so-called "viewer's revolt," which is what professional TV critics (all of whom would rather watch 24hour Cronkite) called the slight drop in ratings at the beginning of the '75-'76 season, ended as soon as Big Eddie and Beacon Hill were melted down into more sitcoms.

As a revolt, it was about as effective as a Koolaid strike afcthe kindergarten anyway, and now we're all happily crouched too close to the screen again, clawing at popcorn and slurping up something full of #2 red.