Rant #2,975: Don't Look Back In Anger

TV Guide recently ranked the worst shows ever made for American television but they did it from a 2022 PC/Woke angle, and it is my belief that you can never ever look at things like this through a modern eye, in particular when you are talking about a show that was created more than 50 years ago.
 
The show in question is “Rango,” which I watched as a kid for as long as it was on—not too long—and I laughed at it heartedly because as a 10-uear old at the time, I got it—and critics of today who are way older than I was simply refuse to get it and refuse to give it a break 55 years later.
 
The show starred Tim Conway and Guy Marks as sort of a low-if Lone Ranger and Tonto, and the show followed the same pattern set before it by the much, much better “F Troop,” where satire was used with the relationship between that show’s Fort Courage and the neighboring American Indian tribe, the Hakawis.
 
Yes, "F Troop" was satire, and so was “Rango”—the American Indians on the shows were as American Indian as I am, portrayed by Jewish and Italian actors.
 
Now, in today’s world, we look down at blackface, because its use in movies and TV shows generally showed a negative portrayal of blacks as much as an actual black man, Steppin’ Fetchit, showed a negative portrayal of blacks on the screen.
 
But there is a difference between negative portrayals and satire, and the portrayal of American Indians on both “F Troop” and “Rango” was satirical, making them both as good and as bad—and as full of schemes and other human peccadillos—as any white character could be.
 
Yes, this is a slippery slope, and the days of Ed Ames—the nice Jewish boy singer—portraying American Indians is way past us.
 
But today, everyone has a very thin skin, and satire like this is thought to be way below us.
 
Here is the TV Guide review by a current crop of critics who probably weren’t even around when “Rango” was on, and are obviously basing their view of the show entirely on a picture that accompanied the review (see above):
 
“Well, one look at the image above can speak a bit to why Rango may have been a bit of a bust. Though we must account for the time when this show was created (1967), it’s never a good idea to have a Caucasian person portraying an individual of another race — especially when utilizing skin color-altering paint (the actor portraying the Native American man was actually Italian-American). The show utilized a bunch of overplayed stereotypes, and would likely never be accepted in today’s climate.”
 
But that is just it—it wasn’t made for “today’s climate,” it was made for the climate of 1967, so how can you judge a show from 55 years ago against today’s standards, where you can’t have actors in such roles, but using the “N” word in popular culture—including rap music—is acceptable?
 
“Rango” died on its own merits. It was a ratings disaster for ABC, which was trying to place Tim Conway—fresh off his success on “McHale’s Navy” and a rising young talent at the time—in just the right vehicle.
 
Guy Marks was an Italian-American comic who was already well known for his numerous appearances on just about every variety and late-night talk show of the day, and his talent of mimicry certainly made him a natural for this role.
 
The show only lasted a few episodes—was I the only person in the country who actually watched this show?”--and it died a really quick death.
 
Of course, both Conway and Marks went on to bigger and better things, with Conway being a TV regular for roughly the next 30 years or so, particularly with his hilarious guest shots on “The Carol Burnett Show.” Marks continued his career comedic path, and even had one of the great novelty hit records of all time with “Your Love Is Driving Me Bananas” right after the show went off the air in 1968.
 
But again, “Rango” died a quick death because of its own lack of merits, and that the show simply probably read better on paper than in actual execution.
 
It had nothing to do with Marks playing an American Indian or a Native American or an Indigenous Person or however you wanted to characterize it.
 
The failure of the show had nothing to do with that at all, and I doubt very much that the critics including the show on its worst shows list even viewed on episode of this show—they based their panning of it simply on the photo they had of the show, as is quite evident by the review of it that I posted above.
 
Using the standards of today—which are pretty much idiotic to begin with, as I also pointed out above—to rate an entity from more than a half century ago is clearly ridiculous.
 
Sure, “Rango” wasn’t a very good program, but clearly state that, and why—don’t use today’s supposed standards to knock a show that you probably never saw one episode of.
 
That’s like saying you don’t like broccoli, but you have never, ever even tried it, but state that since it looks funny to you, it is one of the worst vegetables available on the market.
 
And you wonder why TV Guide hiss pretty much fallen off the face of the earth during the past 30 years as our country’s television bible … ?