GAME SHOW GHOST: The Bob Newhart Show, Alex P. Keaton, and The Haunted Airwaves by M.G. Wood

"Can you think of anything that has gotten better?", Dick Cavett relays the question to Bob Edwards on THE BOB EDWARDS SHOW in reference to a conversation Mr. Cavett had with his favorite name to drop Woody Allen. Mr. Cavett was talking to the right guy, Bob Edwards (outsourced by NPR to XM) is one of the few remaining old school journalist/broadcasters. Dick Cavett made his name in the 1970's with his seemingly effortless talent for hobnobbing, brown-nosing, and general all-around star-fucking; St. Peter leading the cultural walking dead through the pearly gates: Hendrix, Hepburn, Orson Welles, Lennon, Groucho, and on and on.

In the 70's, American children fell off to their slumber with the echoing sounds of Johnny Carson coming from their parents room. And soon after Johnny's sign-off, the grown-ups would switch off THE TONIGHT SHOW, and the grown-ups gave way to the kids in America, running wild like Spielberg's fantasy episode in THE TWILIGHT ZONE movie.

A great many episodes of THE BOB NEWHART SHOW ended with Bob and Emily pulling up their avocado and orange comforter, kissing goodnight, switching off the light, before starting up with a little more conversation. THE BOB NEWHART SHOW (1972-1978) was a show about nothing: no action, no props, no slapstick, no one-liners. But then again, it was a show about something, adult conversation. The show gave the dead pan comic master Bob Newhart ample opportunity to simmer as a wide variety of characters entered his personal space. The dialogue is so beautifully written, using a classic writing technique of giving it's characters a destination, a conversational purpose. More than anything, THE BOB NEWHART SHOW was an urbane show of wit and sophistication.

While Bob and Emily lived in a dreamy high rise apartment in Chicago, urban decay was one of the big issues on American's minds, but America tuned in anyway to listen as much as watch an early incantation of the yuppie dream. And all these years later, the cities are still standing, but the state of American conversation is in critical condition. One can't help but think, how great it would be to have Bob walk through the door, so we can all say, "Hi, Bob!".

Alex P. Keaton is the absolute personification of why the 1980's was the 1980's. It's very easy to watch the 80's sitcom FAMILY TIES, and simply dismiss it as paper thin. But, what makes the show worth consideration is Alex P. Keaton. Michael J. Fox portrays a character that is not just a star turn ala "The Fonz" or "Kramer", not simply a vehicle to pop in and deliver the zingers, Mr. Fox's character was a cultural force of nature.

Consider the times: the early 1980's, the Reagan revolution, two years post-Lennon assassination, as Alex P. Keaton proclaims in the very first episode, "The Sixties are over". And Alex P. Keaton is a fresh, young, smart, and interesting character. Where as the rest of the cast, especially the Hippie parents, seem stale and obsolete, because by 1982, they were. Watching the show 25 years later, I can absolutely see the appeal of Alex P. Keaton, he's an intellectual where as the Hippie parents are all sentiment and emotion. It's entertaining in an odd way to watch FAMILY TIES as the writers are clearly attempting to place Alex P. Keaton in the ignorant Archie Bunker role. But where as Archie Bunker was an abrasive bigot raging against a righteous multi-cultural wave, Alex P. Keaton was not fighting against any waves, he was in fact riding the crest of a wave.

When every sense memory evokes a pop culture reference, an inane trivial connection, 6 degrees of separation between you and Frances Farmer, you know you are haunted by a whole new breed of ghost. Do you dare watch Bob Crane wink and grin at you, as he nuzzles the neck of the blonde bombshell dressed in full Nazi regalia? Do you look into the big blue eyes of the young waif Dana Plato, trapped forever in a sitcom madhouse, surrounded by the echoing laugh track of a long dead studio audience. Do we join our host Bert Convy already in progress as he announces, "What a beautiful day today, June__ 198_", we have a great show!", just a couple of years before he would die of brain cancer.

The days have passed when we could, through the right mix of religion, fear, and superstition, produce a spirit out of thin air. We now know more about complete strangers than we do our own families. We will never be haunted by dead relatives, there's too much static, too much interference. But, the ghosts that appear to us through the airwaves will never fade to black, they will always come through crystal clear and in living color, recorded live before a studio audience.

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