By JB Lester
Being retired and working from home part-time has offered me the opportunity to reconnect with many of the shows I grew up watching. I have to admit that MeTV has grown on me. I enjoy the old westerns like Gunsmoke, Bonanza, The Rifleman and Wagon Train. I also like to watch Raymond Burr as Perry Mason. Perry is such a great sleuth not to mention an incredible lawyer. We should be so lucky to be represented by Perry Mason and his private investigator buddy Paul Drake. Many of these stories are based in the 50s when everyone smoked cigarettes and drank martinis for lunch. Now, I certainly don’t advocate either of those vices, but it just seemed to be a sign of the times for these campy black and white tv shows. It was somehow an easier time. The 50s were known as the “Era of Good Feeling” following the years of war in the 40s. The men always wore suits and fedora hats. The women were becoming more and more involved in the workplace like Perry Mason’s legal secretary Della Street played by Barbara Hale. There is no bad language or nudity, but many episodes are quite provocative. The women are sexy with their clothes on and the men are bravado without scenes of blood and guts.
Don’t get me wrong, people die in these mysteries. The westerns also find many people shot with six shooters. But justice always seems to prevail. The bad guys lose, and the good guys win. There are no monsters or slashers running around. A good knuckle to knuckle fist fight might be as violent as an episode offers. Of course, the American Indians are portrayed poorly in some of these shows and often played by white men with painted faces. History has been hard on the indigenous people who were here long before any of the rest of us who can all consider ourselves immigrants. I do also enjoy an episode or two of Matlock, starring Andy Griffith from Mayberry fame. These mysteries came a bit later and often were in color. Matlock, like Perry Mason, is a lawyer and detective. He is a bit more bumbling than Mason but in the end, Matlock finds a way to make the viewer root for the elderly lawyer/sleuth and once again justice prevails.
Truth is, these programs help me escape from the realities of the modern world. We live in trying times and a return to the Ponderosa, Dodge City or Perry Mason’s courtroom is sometimes just what the doctor ordered. Hoss, Little Joe, Adam and Pa Cartwright always find a way to make us root for truth and justice. The Rifleman only uses his weapon for good and as a single parent Lucas McCain teaches his son Mark the yin and yang of growing up in the old west.
I suggest you escape when you can. MeTV offers a variety of shows that can bring you back to a time when life was much more black and white. And the good guys always win!