Wild Card Post: Live Television

This evening I participated in viewing a television event that is rare these days: a live studio broadcast. The Fox Network had been advertising its live performance of Grease for several weeks and even as a "macho" guy I had to admit the idea of a live production of a musical that I had grown up on intrigued me. I was instantly flooded with flashbacks of my mother singing the musical's hit song Summer Nights while she cleaned the house. I had to watch it.

It was an excellent performance that went off without a hitch. The production team really went all out and even managed to acquire quite a few surprise celebrity appearances to bolster the intrigue throughout the show. There was a repressed giddy school girl trait that escaped from me every time a celebrity popped up unannounced.

And then it hit me, everything I was feeling while watching the show was one of the purest moments of nostalgia I had ever experienced in my entire life. The combination of a live television broadcast  mixed with a musical that harkened back to the time of chrome diners and white wall tires screamed vintage Americana. I couldn't help but yearn for a return to a time that I had never even personally experienced.

I took to twitter at the shows conclusion and not surprising to me #GreaseLive was the top trending hashtag on the social media network. The hashtag had amassed 991 thousand tweets at the time of writing this entry, seemingly all in support. Celebrities and everyday citizens alike were flocking (shameless twitter allusion) to applaud the backbreaking production.

The broadcast included shots of the actors in between scenes rushing from set to set on the 10 acre studio plot which really lent itself to how much work went into the production. Even the most casual of TV viewers had to appreciate the effort. It is because of this that I am officially calling for a return to the Golden Age of Television. Well it's broadcasting methods anyways. Sure we have Saturday Night Live and well that's it. The major networks don't even broadcast their individual late night shows live anymore. NBC's live broadcasts of The Sound of Music and The Wiz in late 2015 couldn't compete with the panache Grease: Live accomplished tonight. NBC and ABC have possible live broadcasts of Hairspray and Dirty Dancing in the works but the bar was set pretty high tonight on Fox.  Hopefully they follow suit and don't take any shortcuts with their telecasts.

I wasn't the only one immune to the nostalgia bug this evening and I think it The TV industry would be wise to jump on this nostalgic jet plane-- a Pan Am jet plane of course.