Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 16, 1976, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press Friday january 16, 1976 11 Archie Bunker peering at his watch has become one of North America s most beloved to characters through his role in All in the family a perennial top 10 rated show. Current situation comedies bring biting social satire by Arthur Unger Christian science Monitor news service second of three articles new Yoke in the average North american television owning Home the set is on 50 hours a week according to Neilynn ratings. With that seven hour a Day viewing habit chances Are there is a lot of unnecessary unpleasant and even in w h o 1 e s o m e to on most schedules. However anybody who is willing to take the time and Effort to scan television programming guides and keep up with the daily previews should be Able to cull at least 10 hours of Fine television viewing a week from the vast number of choices. So it is incumbent upon those who protest against violence sex profanity and superficiality on television to be careful not to throw out the baby and to is still a Mere infant with the Bath water. One thing to avoid when deciding what to watch is what one television theorist has called the l.o.p., syn drome a group decision to watch the least objection Able program. When a family tunes its to to the program that suits it Best As a group the show May not completely suit any one member. This syndrome also tends to occur within the television Industry As programmers try to plan sched Ules to suit the largest Audi ence possible within an age group specified by a sponsor. The year 1975 May go Down in to annals As the year of retrenchment. Only 11 out of 26 new commercial network series survived the premiere season. Audiences and critics alike grumble that 1975jias proven to be one of to s worst programming seasons Ever with schedules full of imitative throwback series and routine specials almost totally Lack ing in the kind of innovative programming. But All this is not to say that commercial television offers nothing of value just As Veteran to viewers look Back on the 1950s As the Golden age of to drama with its studio one playhouse 90, and Kraft theater so i am convinced will the present generation look Back at the Early 1970s As the Golden age of situation comedy. The spate of Norman Lear and Mary Tyler Moore series have upped the in level of television series by at least 20 Points introducing biting social satire into the Frame work of what heretofore has reflected Insi idly simplified relationships. In addition these skilfully written acted and directed shows manage to emphasize social values in sometimes ironic but almost always constructive ways. The Best examples of these shows Are All in the family the Mary Tyler Moore show the Bob Newbart show Good the Jeff croons Khoda and to some extent Maude lbs and Phyllis All of these shows significantly Are regularly rated in the top 10. And equally significantly All Are on lbs most often the top rated not work. Also introduced in the past few years have been a whole squad of cops and detectives with individualized personalities rather than the routine whodunit types which audiences used to accept. There Are Kojak Cannon and Columbo with Barney Miller Abc and Bare la Abc coming on Strong although Baretta often seems to incorporate excessive warm family dramas have also become an integral part of balanced network programming such programs As the Waltons lbs and Little House on the Prairie Abc with the disaster prone Swiss family Robinson Abc newly arrived. Lbs is adding still another family hour hear Wariner with Sarah a Frontier school marm debuting in february. Magazine format news programming has finally come into its own wit i 60 minutes lbs now featuring Dan rather As we As Mike Wal lace and Morley safer in sunday prime time. In the area of news documentaries there Are the Abc closeups now unfortunately Cut Back to less than half their former number but still Down to Earth and consumer oriented lbs reports and the occasional Abc news specials. So far this year aside from the disappointing array of new sitcoms dramatic specials have been flabby and disappointing. Instead of Strong specials of previous seasons such As the autobiography of miss Jane Pitt Man and love among the have had Many an overextended two hour show stretched to fit the longer formal. In addition the pattern of making entertainment from Case histories involving Terra i n a 1 illness is unfortunately continuing. The family viewing time Experiment has not received a fair trial. Most networks have simply tried to clean up late hour shows and then place Vliem in the earlier time Slot. Fay Phyllis and Barney Miller Are examples of this tendency. Many observers have interpreted the ratings failure of almost All the specially prepared family View ing time shows to mean that the Public has rejected the concept. Writers guilds and Many Independent producers have instigated court action against the concept. However a recent to guide Survey revealed that 82 per cent favors family viewing time with 71 per cent believing there is too much violence and 54 per cent finding too much emphasis on sex on to. And then there is pcs for Many viewers the saving Grace is the whole television spectrum. In the past pcs pioneered the min series with such successes As the Forsythe Saga and the Peter Wimsey series. It has brought us such non fiction delights As civilisation and the ascent of Man. This we have had shoulder to shoulder Jennie notorious woman and Clas sic theatre. In addition to local in dependent stations that often concentrate of series reruns and old movies Many communities now can turn to Cable to for special programming. . Bird watchers flock to sight siberian sew Newport Rhode Island the Vanguard of what is expected to be thousands of avid Bird watchers has begun descending upon this Grace Ful resort1 City to see the sew a handsome1 Black and w it i 16 siberian waterfowl which migrated nearly half the Earth s circumference in the wrong direction. However a few of the bin ocular towing curious already have left the bitterly cold windswept Marshland complaining about the weather and wondering if the sew is the Only strange Duck around Here. I should have taken up said Ivan witty a retired Engineer from n o r t h b o r o Massachusetts As he packed up tripod and 30-Power Tele scope and headed Home from Many Bird watchers Label As the sight of a life time. The sew a Duck related to the Large Merganser Spe cies was sighted at Green end Pond Here. Ornithologists have concluded it migrated from Siberia or Ern Finland because of the severe Winter weather this year on the european Conti nent. It is the first sighting Ever of a. Sew on the Atlantic coast and Only tie fourth North american sighting in Audubon society history. The near Zero degree weather was Only partly to blame for the frustrations Felt by or. Witty and the other Bird watchers who sought the closeup look at the sew. Even More disconcerting was the Bird s seemingly contemptuous Dis Dain his followers As they attempted to creep within viewing Range. A chorus of groans occasionally accompanied by blasphemies was heard As the Bird repeatedly took Wing and flew indifferently away from ins pursuers. This is one of tie warmest Birds i be said Peter Polshik 18, a new yorker who drove More than three hours and got lost twice on his Way to see the sew. The Hunt for the sew began Early one morning at Green end Pond an idyllic setting protected from the biting wind by stands of Pine Trees and close enough to the Road to observe from the warmth of a car. The Pond also turned out to be the habitat for nothing More exciting than a few mallards two White Domestic ducks an d a flock of Coots a species of water fowl so com Mon that most self respect ing Bird watchers won t even put them on their life list of sighted Birds. As in All endeavours the weak gave up the Vigil Early. By noon the shrinking con Tingent of Bird watchers had turned their attention away from the warmth of the Small Pond to the vast Frozen Panorama of Easton Pond. I think i see announced or. James mans Field a retired physician from Lincoln Massachusetts swinging Liis binocular toward a causeway separating the big Pond from the icy Grey Ocean. Or. Mansfield said he his wife and a Friend Elizabeth Hower had heard about the sew on the Audubon society s tape recorded daily Bird Alert and had abandoned plans for another vacation trip to drive hurriedly to Newport. The abandoned trip was to have been to Salisbury Beach new Hampshire where an Ivory Gull an arc tic Bird next rarest to the much sought after Ross Gull had been sighted. The Ross Gull which ornithologists say is As desirable As a sew was spotted in Newbury port Massachusetts. The mansfields and mrs. Hower also had seen the Ross Gull or else mrs. Hower said. We never would have been Able to bold our Heads in a motorcade the Bird watchers then drove around Easton Pond in Pursuit of or. Mansfield s sighting and began a foot numbing trek across an ankle deep spill Way and a 500-Yard Dike stretching into the Centre of did t seem extraordinary the Pond. To or. Polshik the Effort As he explained he had driven All night to Delaware to sight a while winged Black Tern had travelled to South America for birding and had stood hours in the cold at Newbury port the Day after christinas for a glimpse of the now famous Ross Gull. Bird watchers w h o Call he selvers birders compile life lists of Birds or. Pol she k explained and the longer the life list becomes the More challenging the sport. Or As or. Witty explained it i be been birding for 25 years and this Bird the sew gives me 431 Birds on my life list. They re hard to come by when you get Over 400." when the Pursuit begins to Wear thin the birders seemingly driven by their Ephe Meral Quarry go abroad compiling european lists african lists or South Ameri can lists. How can i explain Why we do it All i can say that once you begin you can t or. Witly said. He conceded he is not As crazy As the Young kids a generation of col lege aged birders who seem As fervent in their cause As the generation of Campus protesters that preceded them. They race around listing Birds like there weren t going to be any left. They re crazier than i Ever or. Witty said. The birders Young and old kept up their Pursuit Here however As the sew led them from the Windy Dike around the big Pond across a shaky Plank Over a canal Back around the Pond and through Waist High bulrushes behind a service Lalion. Each Lime Alliey came with in several Hundred Yards of the elusive Bird it took Wing with a flourish and a Spray of water and returned approximately to the place where it had just left. You be got to have the patience of Job for this. It happens every said one birder explaining he had travelled hundreds of Miles to new Hampshire to see one rare Bird Only to learn it flew away 20 minutes before he arrived. Lee Gardner a Newport Bird watcher said 200 people came to the Pond to see the sew and he expected hundreds possibly thousands More. They be called All the Way from Chicago saying they Are coming said or. Gardner one of the first to spot the sew and spread Hie word to Bird watching clubs and Audubon societies across tile United states. Or. Gardner and Oiler Bird watchers said the sew been feeding heavily in the Pond diving for fish frequently. It also spends a lot of its time with a flock of american mergansers in the few Unfrozen parts of the Pond. Ornithologists Are con Vinced the sew migrated from Siberia possibly by Way of the Arctic or perhaps by stopping off. In Greenland. They determined the Bird is genuinely wild by the Abs Cencic of any bands or identification markings that would indicate prior Captivity. They said the sew Proba Bly will Winter Here As Long As the Pond in t completely Frozen and will Likely Migrate North again in the sum Mer. Birds have a tendency to wander and they Are very unpredictable in their habits. No one can Tell what s going to become of this said James Baird a biologist or the Massachusetts Audubon society. Death rate of 7.4 per unchanged Ottawa up a total of deaths of residents were registered in Canada during 1974, an increase of from 1973, but the death rate remained steady at 7.4 deaths per population Mary Tyler Moore flashes her famous smile for her friends Rhoda and Joe in a scene from the highly successful situation comedy series Rhoda an off shoot of the Mary Tyler Moora show. Statistics Canada has reported. Heart diseases continued to be the leading cause. Of de Atli accounting for deaths or 34.9 per cent of the total. Tin s was up from 34.5 per cent of the total in 1973. Cancer was the second leading cause accounting for deaths or 20.2 per cent of the total the same percen Tage As 1973. Accidents continued to be the third leading cause but decreased its share of the total. In 1974, there were accidental deaths or per cent of the total Down from or eight per cent in 1973. The Agency attributed most of the drop to a decline in traffic Fatali ties. Price cuts up to on marked item on marked items showroom hours Charcey . 9am-9pm saturday 9aiv1-6pm Home lighting Centre 2583 888-0135 ;