To illustrate my point... on the 'Golden Age'

(... we are making a show called "The Future Is Awesome!"(... tv show... website... podcast... etc.).I am blogging about the process... also, as we make the transition to our spankin' new title, and 'official' site, I'm gonna be posting in parallel at The Future Is Awesome!... Don't wanna lose anyone. :)

I was trying to illustrate a point with my last post; A Comprehensive Recipe For Becoming An Anti-Social Shut-In.

Something about our living through the best, most ambitious and most creative period in the history of television; 'the Golden Age'... plus, my list and links make for a nice little tv time capsule.

That's right, I said;

We Are Living Through Television's Golden Age.

... don't take my word for it. JJ Abrams(... one of tv's current golden boys; "Alias", "Lost", "Fringe") said exactly that on this super-entertaining episode of "This American Life"; What I Learned From Television.

Though it might warrant noting; if everybody's telling you, you're 'King Shit Of Fuck Mountain'... you'll probably spend some of your time talking up how awesome Fuck Mountain actually is. A way of giving yourself a sneakily self-aggrandizing, reach around.

Truth is.... myself, J.J. Abrams, and a whole host of others, are absolutely right.

(Right about the 'reach around' for starters. They are fantastic. Especially, when they're sneaky and surprising. 'The Stranger', anyone..?)

As television becomes less and less important... it's becoming more and more interesting.

They're forecasting the coming decade as 'the one where we stay home'.... from there, we stay in our own little hamster balls, like the Virtusphere... then, in our heads. As we progressively climb further up inside our own assholes. "Race you to the bowels!"

So, I made a list(.. a long list), highlighting what makes this the 'golden age'.

Shows... a list of some of the brilliant, innovative, ground-breaking and awesome shows of our era.

Everything that was missing from that list of what I most love and appreciate about my oldest and most reliable friend, television(... a profoundly sad realization but, probably true)... everything I left out, I did by design.

See, I wanted to sketch something out further... to illustrate a point.

The Best, Smartest and Most Amibitious Television Of Recent Years Has Been Animated.

Does it make you mad, when somebody says; "cartoons are for kids."... or, like me, does it just make you sad for them?

Sad, that grampity old 'Gramps' cannot... will not.. ever open himself up to the crazy, colorfully veiled genius of The Venture Bros.

Sad, that the brilliant Harvey Birdman would have completely passed them by.

So sad, that those same sad sacks rightfully raged and ragged on the new Star Wars prequel trilogy... when all the while, under their noses, a far superior [dare I say, almost satisfying] pre-prequel, animated series called Clone Wars, lay waiting to be discovered. (forget the movie version with the cloying, whiney, dark lord jedi-vagina... in this series, Anakin Skywalker is terse, tough and kind of a B.A. That's short for 'bad ass', like Mr. T from "The A- Team".)

Sad... that they'd sneer at HBO's fantastic anti-hero Spawn, or... Ben Edlund's under-appreciatedThe Tick, or... 90's cop and private eye homage Stroker and Hoop, or... perversely, delightfully insane Frisky Dingo, or... the horrifyingly believable Metalocalypse, or... the perticularly delightful, when you're stoned Aqua Teen Hunger Force (seriously ;), or... the simple, sweet and snide Home Movies.

I'd be sad as shit.... if I'd deprived myself of Futurama, King of the Hill, Robot Chicken, Justice League Unlimited or Dr. Katz Professional Therapist.

These cartoons are definitely not for kids.... they have, in fact, ushered many of us into our own unique, if somewhat stunted, brand of manhood.

I'd be a sad, miserable person, if I hadn't come of age in those Conan O'Brien and George Meyer halcyon years of The Simpsons.

The primacy of writing in television(... the reason for it's 'golden age') can't be more perfectly demonstrated than in those groundbreaking shows.

The care and thought taken in crafting brilliant cartoon satire puts most other tv in its place. Animated television put most other television on its ass.

But..... it's only truly culturally transcendent because it evolved.

This family... to this one... to this......

And, canonical and fantastic though "The Simpsons" was...

The Best Television Show Of Our Generation is... "South Park".

I would likely be less the person I am today(.. not half as hyperbolic as you may think)... if I hadn't grown up with South Park.

I have grown with "South Park", and neither of us are the same as in our youth.

"South Park" has uniquely aged it's characters... made subtle voice changes, moved up through elementary school grades... expanded its universe... and, pushed at it's boundaries...

"South Park" has practically, tackled and hog-tied every sacred cow... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...... ...... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... you get the idea.

Like "The Simpsons", "South Park" has aged, evolved and improved in ways only animated television truly can... and we, of a certain generation, bore witness.

One of the first 'viral videos' was this animated christmas card made by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, called The Spirit of Christmas: Jesus vs. Santa.

Now, in our endless on-line media landscape no other show is as available, if not ubiquitous, as "South Park"; every episode free, fast, easy to find and consume on the net.

And, though they're surely too modest to say... the awesome peaks and valleys (and plateaus) that plague all long running television have not been an issue for "South Park".

From humble cut, paste and profanity-laced beginnings.... "South Park" has gotten sharper, smarter, more dynamic, more ambitious, every passing year.

"The Simpsons" aren't making episodic television like The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers, Le Petit Tourette or World of Warcraft. They're just not anymore.

Particularly for my generation and those who've come after, everything is re-adjusted for post "South Park" television.

Comedy, as it was in a post "Python" era... is re-jigged for a post "South Park" one.

Saying goes... 'if someone's pushed the envelope, then you just have to pick up from where they've pushed it to'..... I think...?(.. never had a great handle on that 'pushing the envelope' expression... that might not be an actual saying.)

"South Park" geniuses Trey and Matt figured out they could push, prod and outright provoke.... they could do and say almost any damn thing behind a rough, unrealistic animation style and the naughtily naive and wonderfully unaware guise of four school children and their home town of South Park, Colorado, U.S.A.

They were absolutely right.

"South Park" gets away with murder ... at least once an episode.

"South Park" is the best, most consistent, most creative, most ambitious and nuanced series for television that I have seen.(.. and, I've been looking.)

I made one of our 'hosts' for "The Future Is Awesome!" into a cartoon avatar ( see; "Dance, Monkey, Dance".... the break down) because of the lessons I've learned from the "South Park" model.(.. behind a mask, I can say and do more.)

"South Park" demonstrates how you can to be 'of your time'(.. lack of polish, episodes written and created in a three-day turnaround lets commentary be relevant and timely).... and still be absolutely 'timeless'(... these guys have written and voiced every episode to assure quality never wanes).

[.. want to know why Matt Stone and Trey Parker are my tv heroes..? Listen to them wax poetical on South Park's evolution and South Park's fight for freedom of speech... and, do yourself the favor of watching all 5 and 3 parts, respectively, of the interviews.]

Mostly..... to not use animation for a new show speaking to a young demographic, and to not wring out all its unique strengths and freedoms is to deny that these guys have already set the table for the next incarnations of tv.

Many years from now, as I become the grampitiest 'Gramps' that ever did gramp (no idea what that means).... as I move into my own golden years and aggressively bore my niece or grand-niece with stories of my 'golden age of television'........ I will force feed that child South Park.

Damp it down her little throat with a chimney brush.(.. she'll thank me, eventually.)

In the interim, I will aspire to build my show on the shoulders of these giants... these foul mouthed, four year-old, construction paper cut-out kings of cartoon comedy.

If "South Park" is any indication of the future of comedy, the future can't help but be awesome.

Until then.... I can only aspire to a future that tries like hell to get there.

Still don't think we're living through the 'Golden Age Of Television'...?

Try not to look directly into the gleaming brilliance of these animated shows... I'm pretty sure they illustrate my point.