Paul Richardson: One of my favorites, but have I seen it before?

Paul Richardson's column, The Horse I Rode In On, is published weekly in the Neosho Daily News, Seneca News-Dispatch and on the Turner Report.)

As of late, I have developed an adverse attitude about a lot of the television programming. Not only is the content becoming so controversial, even the shows that I might like to watch are lacking.

Case in point. Many years ago, our household became a consistent follower of the CBS Television news program “60 Minutes”. We liked the reporters, their methods and persistence, although we would probably not like to be the subject. We liked the content, the presentation and the development of the stories.

My favorite part of the show became the closing comments by Andy Rooney. He at times seemed to be a grouchy, whiny old cuss but so much the better. I liked him so much that I also followed his written columns of which I am certain were carried in the Neosho Daily News. 

In fact, I carried one of his columns in my wallet for several years. The subject of that column was the value of education and especially the value of having a live instructor immediately in front of you and at your disposal. 

I was prepared for specific arguments from the kids. In the event of these particular arguments, my plan was to present the column, request that they read it before any discussion continued. It was used a few times but some of these were with people other than my own children.

Anyway, you get my point. We like “60 Minutes” and there are other shows, but let’s just begin with this one. 

Shows such as dramas, sitcoms and the like, run in a seasonal mode. I always believed that this was an annual season and then an off-season break would occur, followed by a new set of programming. 

During the last few years it appears to me that there may be a couple “programming seasons” within a calendar year. Those seasons in turn seem to have an aggregate time span of less than that of the one long season of past years. 

Many of these shows don’t actually go into reruns but are actually replaced by another show until their new season with new fresh episodes resumes. Then there are the ones like “60 Minutes” where the information about the programming indicates that it is a “New” episode, but the content is comprised of a “new mix” of re-runs from earlier shows. 

Sure, the episode may be new in the fact that that particular combination has never been aired before, but there is nothing or very little new information included.

The good wife likes to watch the CBS Sunday Morning news programming, currently hosted by Jane Pauley. It is now apparent that the practice used by “60 Minutes” has now moved on to include additional shows on CBS, especially those bearing news content. 

The July 28th edition was the biggest hint to date. The entire program was a rerun of the same episode from 2018 with the exception of a mention of a recent event regarding the death of the child on a cruise ship. Well, maybe the little serene clip at the closing where they “leave you with”, that may have been new.

I don’t know if CBS believes that the due to the age of their viewing audience for these programs that they just get by with this kind of shoddy work. 

Are they thinking, “They are so old that they won’t care and will watch it anyway?” Do they see us as just sitting there drooling on ourselves, with a blank stare? Well, I can remember and on top of that I have a DVR. I could record these and do an in-depth investigative study of their work. Would they be bothered if they heard that I was on their doorstep wanting to talk to them?







I may be the grouchy, whiny old cuss now, but give me a break. I am hoeing in the short rows now and I don’t want to spend the remainder of my time thinking I am losing my mind because of déjà vu. 

If it is not “New” don’t show it as such in the information area. I don’t automatically reject the concept of a re-mix of reruns, but at the very least I don’t want to sit there thinking I either have some type of predictive superpower or am constantly experiencing déjà vu. 

I have my own plans for playing mind tricks on myself, like hanging a Batman uniform in my closet to mess with my head when I get old.

I miss Andy Rooney. He was one of my favorites. Do you think he would find this distasteful as well?