Rant #1,584: Bits and Pieces

Today, my random thoughts on a couple of topics ...

New Baseball Hall of Famers Named: No surprise here, really.

Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza will be going into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, and can anyone really argue about this?

Griffey was one of the game's best players during his heyday with the Seattle Mariners, amassing more than 600 homeruns during his career. If he hadn't been injured as much as he was, he would have probably broken Bobby Bonds' homerun record.

Piazza is undoubtedly the greatest offensive catcher in baseball history, breaking just about all of Yogi Berra's long-standing records during his career, which reached its height with the New York Mets, who seem to be on a roll the past few months.

So what is the problem here?

Nobody had anything on Griffey, and we still don't really know if anyone had anything on Piazza, but with the catcher, the PED rumor mill snatched him, and there were lots of rumors about what he supposedly took or supposedly did not take during his career.

I think that his voting into the Hall of Fame shows that the old guard reporter has passed on, and the new young stud reporters are now ruling the roost. While certainly not whitewashing the PED era--Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds did not get voted in--they are more likely to have an open mind than their predecessors.

I mean, these were the guys that they rooted for when they were kids, so why bar their heroes from the Hall of Fame?

It is not right, nor is it wrong. In Piazza's case, it was nothing but rumors, anyway, no hard facts, so why should his career be torn apart by nothing but innuendo?

Gas Falls Below $2 a Gallon On Long Island: This is really something to talk about.

New Yorkers are taxed a ridiculous amount on their gas purchases, and gas over here is rarely what you can call affordable.

Well, just this past week, with gas prices falling across the nation, prices fell to an astounding level in some gas stations on Long Island: to $1.99 a gallon, the first time I can remember paying this little for gas in years and years.

Do we credit President Obama, do we applaud those producing the gas for keeping the prices low per barrel, or do we praise ourselves for driving less, making the demand less?

I would go for the last one, although me, myself, I seem to be driving more, so I am actually benefiting because my brethren are watching their driving.

But let me ask you, if gas is so low, why is this not translating to other areas?

Why is the cost of food so high, why are plane fares rising ... they both originally rose a few years back when gas was nearing $5 a gallon, and that was the reason given for the rise in services, that transportation costs had risen so much.

So why, with gas prices so far down, have these areas not followed suit, and lessened their prices?

Do we blame President Obama for this, do we blame those producing the oil for keeping the prices just high enough where the companies can still complain that fuel costs are high, or do we blame the consumer, who is going to buy these products anyway, regardless of the cost?

Hmmm ...

Four TV Series Reach 50th Anniversaries: Oh, there are many more that will reach their 50th anniversary since their original premiere in 1966 as we move through 2016, but four series in particular left their marks on the Baby Boomers and pop culture, and will be celebrating this historic anniversary this year.

"Star Trek" tops the list, as its cast, storylines and atmosphere changed the landscape for TV science fiction forever, probably more so than "Star Wars" changed the movie landscape for sci-fi.

Without "Star Trek," there certainly is no "Star Wars."

Gene Roddenberry's vision of the future was not a ratings winner with the public when it was originally on, but once going into reruns, people of all ages discovered the show, and it has become perhaps TV's greatest pop classic, spawning movies, merchandise, spinoffs, and discussion that sees no ebb.

It is a phenomena that keeps on giving.

Its sister show on the NBC network at the time was "The Monkees," which took the Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night" format and brought it to network TV.

Cast with then-virtually unknown actors/musicians, it also was not a ratings winner when it was originally on the air, but it really set the pace for how music was handled in the future of 1966, what with MTV--with that concept actually created by Monkee Michael Nesmith--and the marketing of pop idols, which was honed with this project.

And the music ... well, that music, produced by the likes of Harry Nilsson, Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, John Stewart and the Monkees themselves--Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork and Nesmith--has prospered from generation to generation, and lives on strongly today.

We move onto a different network now, ABC, which was the true "third network" back then, willing to try everything and anything to garner viewership.

The first of two pop TV projects that we will talk about here is "Batman," a mix of pop art, action and comedy unlike anything that has been seen on network TV before or since.

Starring Adam West as Bruce Wayne/Batman and Burt Ward as Dick Grayson/Robin, the show was made for the then burgeoning color-TV era, with deep hues that even this color blind kid could see, weird camera angles, and dialogue and situations that sprung out of "The Perils of Pauline" and that ilk.

Sure, there have been Batmans before and since, but like George Reeves is with Superman, is there really anybody who has been better in this role than West?

And then we have "Dark Shadows," which began life as a sort of moody, dark, hard to figure out soap opera and with the inclusion of one single character, became a pop phenomena that has ebbed and flowed in popularity during the past 50 years.

Once Jonathan Frid's character was added to the cast--a vampire, Barnabas Collins, that had such problems with love that you really cared for him--the show took off. It was probably the first soap opera to have a large teenage audience of both males and females--most shows of this type were geared to stay at home moms--and its marketing often rivaled that of "Star Trek," "Batman," and "The Monkees."

Its legion of fans have grown over the years, and even with the movie bomb of a few years ago with Johnny Depp--and two good movies that preceded it that were produced with the original cast in the late 1960s and early 1970s--the show has lived on in the hearts of its fans for the past 50 years.

Looking back at these shows, you can see that each one was created in a time where creativity was king, not like today, where ideas are basically rehashes of things done over and over and over.

Shows like this, I truly believe, could not exist today, because nobody would have thought of them in this anti-creativity climate we live in.

But just stay tuned--you will hear about celebrations of each of these shows during 2016. Their rich histories almost demand that they be looked at once again, and rediscovered.

Anyway, that is it for today. Let me rediscover myself and I will speak to you tomorrow.