From a "This American Life" segment on a 1968 movie called "What's So Bad About Feeling Good?" Transcript. Audio (recommended).
It's a rom com — with Mary Tyler Moore and George Peppard — about a toucan that spreads a virus in New York City. There's massive infection, everyone feels great, stops smoking and drinking, and the political authorities determine that's bad for the economy, so the immediately find a cure for the disease. George Peppard is cured and confronts the uncured Mary Tyler Moore:
Liz: No. Don't ask me to go back. Pete, remember what we had. Remember it. Cling to it.
Pete: You're kidding yourself. Hinklemeyer's right. You talk about goodness and kindness. Read the front page and try to find some.
Liz: Pete, I can't go back. I couldn't live that kind of life, ever again.
Pete: Okay, you drink your poison, and I'll drink mine.
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18 comments:
MTM was great. Loved her. She was a dead ringer for my Mom!
George Peppard? Useless in Breakfast at Tiffany's. Didn't hit his thespian stride until the A-Team (heh!).
Of all the shit that the woke have inflicted on our culture, I miss new rom coms. Crazy Rich Asians was a good one, that they only got away with making because they weren’t white. Maybe that’s the key, maybe they could focus all of the rom coms on black and Hispanic couples, since the stories are about values and not the color of the actors’ skin, they could get away with bringing them back. Do that without the woke politics, and I bet you could haul in a fair tonnage of coin.
Hallmark Channel movies are so formulaic, they don’t count.
This_Side_of_Paradise_(Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series)
As they leave orbit with the colonists aboard, Kirk asks Spock about his experiences on the planet. Spock replies that for the first time in his life, he was happy.
Maybe that’s the key, maybe they could focus all of the rom coms on black and Hispanic couples, since the stories are about values and not the color of the actors’ skin, they could get away with bringing them back. Do that without the woke politics, and I bet you could haul in a fair tonnage of coin.
Tyler Perry has been doing this for years.
Tune out, turn on, and drop out. I love MTM and Peppard but its silly to think NYC would stop a virus that made people happy just so they could collect the cigarette and alcohol tax! They'd save more in lower health costs.
tim in vermont said... Maybe that’s the key, maybe they could focus all of the rom coms on black and Hispanic couples, since the stories are about values and not the color of the actors’ skin,
Jane the Virgin immediately came to mind. I'm not a big fan of Rom Coms (which are usually neither funny nor romantic). Jane the Virgin was fun, though. Probably because the characters aren't white and so have a freer hand with the relationships.
rcocean said...Tune out, turn on, and drop out. I love MTM and Peppard but its silly to think NYC would stop a virus that made people happy just so they could collect the cigarette and alcohol tax! They'd save more in lower health costs.
That's the big lie of cigarette taxation--there are no societal costs to smoking, but the cigarette companies can't make the argument because the savings come from early deaths.
of course, the who was the hero in that film, the book inferno was more honest and they collaborated with a zpg zealot, zobrist, the film was more oblique,
Peppard. A wooden actor whose best role was as a stiff Kraut.
Narr
MTM. Meee-ooww!
There's a Connie Willis short story with a similar plot - Newsletter. It's in her Miracle short story compilation. One of her best.
If you like scifi and/or alternate history, Willis is amazing. To Say Nothing of the Dog, Blackout and All Clear are fantastic novels.
This is a pretty dated concept. Back then it was Madison Avenue teamed up with the big corporations that were the source of all evil.
Like, consumerism, man.
Besides, give up my cabernet? Not likely.
I love MTM and Peppard but its silly to think NYC would stop a virus that made people happy just so they could collect the cigarette and alcohol tax! They'd save more in lower health costs.
Mistaking governmental interests with the interests of people in and running the government. Everyone happy = insufficient opportunities for graft (to borrow from Instapundit).
Everyone it infects experiences unbridled happiness and elation. ...
It'd be real easy to take advantage of people like that.
Like 100% honesty, 100% happiness is not an environmentally stable strategy.
"Tyler Perry has been doing this for years.”
His movies are great, but ... well, maybe you have a point.
"Peppard. A wooden actor whose best role was as a stiff Kraut."
Bannacek was great. "Just because the cat has her kittens in the oven doesn't make them biscuits."
If I remember correctly, this is the movie that contains the Greatest Beat Poem of All Time:
Little Boy
With Your Face Pressed
To The Bakery Window
There Are No Donuts For Today
Only Death
If I remember correctly, this is the movie that contains the Greatest Beat Poem of All Time:
Little Boy
With Your Face Pressed
To The Bakery Window
There Are No Donuts For You Today
Only Death
its silly to think NYC would stop a virus that made people happy just so they could collect the cigarette and alcohol tax! They'd save more in lower health costs.
Seconding tommyesq's point about the difference between societal interests and the interests of those running things. Who cares if they would save money on health care? They want power over people's daily lives and decisions, not a healthier populace. Needy people give them that power; happier, satisfied people don't.
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