From the New Zealand TV Weekly. May 29 1967
by Barbara Cooper, Wellington.
How do you feel about watching TV in the afternoon? It’s all very well in the evening, to relax in front of the screen, comfortable in the knowledge that all the housework has been done, but in the afternoon? Do you ‘find yourself perched on the edge of the chair, saying: well, five minutes only. Forty minutes’ later you are still there but, by that time, your guilt complex is jumbo-sized.
Until the May holidays, I resolutely kept the set switched off in the day- time; since then, with a compulsive viewer in the house, I have watched almost every programme.
The fare has been varied but. somehow, the over-riding impression has been of a succession of American family comedies. In every one Mother is sauve, unharassed and with none of her vital statistics thrown out of kilter by the two, three or four children that are around. She is blonde, sweet and impeccably dressed. She throws me into a tizzy of frustration and envy. She is, I feel sure, as unlike the average American mother as she is unlike us.
Watching these programmes, one appreciates the distinction J. C. Reid made in this column, some time age, between comedy of situation and comedy of character. All these programmes are comedies of situation and the people themselves have no roots in reality. I can’t identify with any of these charming, unlined perfectly reasonable Mums.
So, after the holidays are over, I shall not worry overmuch about them. Like a lot of other women I have spoken to, I am waiting impatiently for the locally-produced women’s feature to begin. Perhaps we are anticipating it too eagerly: like other NZBC programmes, it may be over-exposed to excessive criticism. But there’s a lot of goodwill awaiting it. Let’s hope that it get off to a good start and quickly becomes the high spot of the afternoon’s viewing.
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