Rickerism

Apparently PBS has made documentary entitled “Pioneers of Television.” There were multiple articles about it in the local paper. I only just found out about it because I only read the headlines of the local paper while I am wadding them up to make a fire. (It is quite cold today.)

The documentary is about the actors. PBS calls them pioneers, as if they did something brave and new, as if they risked something. Our forefathers were pioneers. They left the comforts of civilization and went into the wilderness to make something new. They faced the dangers of starving, freezing to death and slaughter by savages. They built an empire of wealth from bare land.

There certainly were pioneers in television in the 1950s, but it was not the actors. The actors did the same thing in the television studio as they did on stage. The actors did what actors have done for 3,000 years. And what did the actors risk?

The pioneers were the men who invented television, who built the television manufacturing plants, who built the television broadcasting companies, who built the new business models, who invented the new techniques in advertising. These men risked their fortunes and made something new. Does PBS talk about these men? It is as if they did not exist.