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Lauren's Review
of Blast from Your Past at Museum of Television and Radio

Kids these Days

With satellites, HBO, and Nick @Nite there isn't too much that you can't see in the comfort of your own living room. Still, the museum of television and radio remains up-and-running, offering the public access to sitcoms, documentaries, and even commercials from throughout the ages. The current "Blast from your Past" has little to offer, however.

The show is advertised as a sort of time warp for Gen-Xers, promising clips from everything from The Incredible Hulk and Charlie's Angels to Oscar Meyer commercials and School House Rock. The viewing room is perfectly air conditioned and completely carpeted-- a comfortable escape from the bustle of midtown Manhattan. It's smaller than your typical Loews, however, and they don't offer Raisenettes, though I did manage to "sneak a bottle of Diet Coke."

So I, with my coke and a pen and pad that remained virtually unused, sat through four has-been sitcoms of the seventies and eighties and struggled to maintain an open mind.

First off was an episode of Welcome Back, Kotter, John Travolta's "big break" where he plays an arrogant high school student who overcomes his cockiness and agrees to date a less-than-perfect looking girl whose sarcasm keeps him on his toes. Next up was Good Times, a show about an African American family living happily together in one tiny apartment. In this episode, a downstairs neighbor (Janet Jackson at age seven or eight) is discovered to have an abusive mother. Third was Silver Spoons, a show that most of you twenty and thirty-somethings likely forgot. Ricky Shroeder stars as a spoiled, childish, and irresponsible adult whose fantasy world is suddenly interrupted when his son suddenly appears at his front door in need of escape from military school. And lastly, Square Pegs, a show starring the unmistakable New Yorker, Sarah Jessica Parker, as an awkward teen who gets the chance to feel "cool" when her substitute teacher agrees asks for her hand in a make-believe marriage exercise.

These shows were not necessarily the ones that stood out in the minds of Gen-Xers, but they were entertaining. This particular show, was termed "Rising Stars" because of the casts of now-famous stars in break-through roles, but there was no commentary, no "then-and-now" comparison, just the shows. But we can watch old television shows anywhere; if we're going to make the trek from downtown up to midtown, we should get something more than we could've gotten from the TV at home. Granted, there were no commercials, and the theaters were absolutely comfortable, but there was nothing about the show to truly distinguish it from watching ordinary television. We simply watched four has-been sitcoms, that's all.

If you happen to be outside the theater at a time when "Blast from Your Past" is being screened, and you have the cash to blow on a ticket, go ahead, you wont be bored. But this show is nothing special; if you want to sit in a theater and watch a movie screen, check out the new "Hulk" or the new "Charlie's Angels"; if you want to reminisce on shows from your childhood, turn to Nick @ Nite, or check out TV Guide, because you will find your own television anything and everything that this museum has to offer.