For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for February 11, 2021

“I must say I find television very educational. The minute somebody turns it on, I go to the library and read a good book.” – Groucho Marx. ;D

So jaded at 15.

and speaking of The Sound of Music, fellow Canadian of Lynn Johnston actor therefrom Christopher Plummer dies forty-ish years later after this strip’s original publiushing

Dad should have replied “Son, have you ever seen the original ‘Night of the Living Dead’ ? Move over….”

I loved Red Skelton!

“I dood it!”—The Mean Widdle Kid

February 4 to 11. Halfway through Mike’s grounding for 2 weeks for wrecking mom’s new car. Well if I were being punished, watching movies with sex and violence is the way I’d choose to spend my grounded time as well! I approve of their parenting.

The Sound of Music never gets old. I watch it every time it’s on….and own the DVD. And have been to Salzburg!

Ma said the teaching in high school when she was a student was superior than what anyone receives in college today. Children received awards for high marks in calculus. Nowadays they learn to hate this country and themselves.

Just sit down and watch it with him! It’s amazing how much discomfort a parent. can produce by just being there.

Meanwhile, Gordon’s at home getting beaten up by his so-called father..

I love that my girls are now at an age where I can watch all kinds of movies with them…not just “family fare”. My older daughter & I are going to watch “All That Jazz” tomorrow.

A lot of Dad’s like movies with sex and violence.

I’m always worried about seeing the word “flick” in caps in a cartoon. The “L” and the “I” tend to run together.

Ever since I discovered Audio Books I sort of lost my tolerance for TV. …not sorry.

So what happened with Gordon?

Good Lord, I bet only a minority of readers remember who Red Skelton is!

No, it’s not, Dr. Patterson……

Surprised dad is letting Mike watch what he has on TV, Mike is still a kid.For us evening programming is just entertainment. I still have my books to read not for education but for places I will never go to in story form.

There are a number of confusing things here:

1. Michael says, “Sound of Music’s” on at 7, which I assume means 7 pm. This implies that Michael is watching a movie before 7 pm that is full of sex and violence. Canadian Broadcast Standards Council specifies that programming intended for older viewers cannot air before the watershed (9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.) Lynn is trying to make some kind of point here about the earliness of the hour for “sex an’ violence.”

2. Old Red Skelton flick? Red Skelton did make some movies between the years of 1938 to 1952, most of which would have been before John was born. When I was younger I saw the latter years of the Red Skelton show, which ended in 1971. I have never seen or heard of (until I researched it) his movies. This is 1992, 21 years later. Red Skelton has not been on the air since well before Michael was born. How does Michael know Red Skelton?

3. The Sound of Music. The first American television transmission of The Sound of Music was on February 29, 1976 on ABC, for a one-time only broadcast. The movie was not shown again until NBC acquired the broadcast rights in June 1977 for 20 showings over 22 years and telecast the film on February 11, 1979. In 1992, Michael is talking about one of those annual broadcasts, and yet Michael describes it as just another movie that is on.

All things considered, Michael is giving his “parental guidance” as if he were not only John’s father, but also John’s father’s age.

Dad’s a pushover. Probably because it’s his SON and not his daughter. It’s the manly thing to do. Watch and learn, Grasshopper.

As my ol’ Dad would say, “It has an off switch!”

My kids got to watch sex and violence if they wanted to… after they grew up and left home.

This strip is, or would be, particularly dated, not for me, but for my grandchildren. My daughter said, that outside of local news, they never watch TV as it is transmitted by networks nowadays. They subscribe to three different companies. This way, their kids never have to watch advertizing. Times have certainly changed, that’s for sure.

We are still oldfashioned because we watch network TV, although we did succumb last year and finally started a subscription to Netfix.

That’s the problem today. Too much Saxon violins.

Red Skelton? That’s so old my dad wouldn’t watch it, and he’s 89.

I can’t find the exact quote now, but I liked something Cher said. She was asked how she felt about her ultra-sexy video “If I Could Turn Back Time”, being only shown at night so that children couldn’t watch it. She replied something like, “That’s fine with me, I didn’t make it for children!”

The parent controls on the TV and the wifi now does not filter any explicits.