YOUR AD HERE »

A few pop culture icons, still current (and expensive)

KEELY BROWN
Special to the Daily
Summit County, CO
Keely Brown
ALL |

Is anyone else out there watching DVDs of old TV shows nearly every night?

When I say “old” TV shows, I don’t mean ’90s stuff like “Friends,” a show I never could stomach. No, I mean shows from the 1960s and 1970s, such as the Norman Lear sitcoms that came out during those turbulent times.

The reason I’m asking is, a few months ago I purchased a set of DVDS of the first six seasons of the sitcom “All in the Family.” I initially bought it for Tim, since it’s his all-time favorite show, but since we started watching it, it’s fast becoming one of my favorites as well.



I can remember when these shows first came out ” heaven help me, I even remember seeing the premiere of “All in the Family” one January evening in 1971. It was a television debut much hyped by CBS, so while my parents were off doing something somewhere else in the house ” arguing, I believe ” I sat and watched it by myself. I was only 10 years old, so I wasn’t sure quite what to make of it, but I knew two things:

1) It was actually pretty funny, even if I didn’t understand all of it, and



2) The rest of my family would hate it.

I was right on both counts. When my family eventually got around to seeing an episode, they loathed it, which is why I didn’t see the show very often when I was a kid ” and why I’m now watching many of the episodes for the very first time.

Out of the 134 episodes in our set, we’ve gotten through about 80, I believe. And the thing that strikes me most about watching “All in the Family” is how remarkably current the show is today. None of the issues ” often torn to shreds between Mike and Archie ” are the slightest bit dated or obsolete. The show’s regular topics, addressed either directly or indirectly in every episode, include unemployment, energy shortages, a poor economy, racism and bigotry, and war.

Sound familiar?

In the meantime, if you need to reach me or Tim in the evening hours during these hot summer months, you’ll have to leave a message. We’re glued to our TV set, watching Mike and Gloria (and, occasionally, Edith) score off Archie.

I just got an e-mail informing me that in 2003 The Eagles got booked to sing “Hotel California” at a chic Manhattan dinner party. They only sang the one song ” but they charged their hosts a cool $6 million. As my sources at the website “Pocket Change” inform me, this equates to being paid just under a million bucks per minute of song.

Want more? Well, back in 2002, Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones sang at a 60th birthday party for a Texas tycoon. They asked for ” and received ” $7 million for a one-hour set.

Not to be left out, Celine Dion gets $6.5 million for private concerts, while Elton John, ever a survivor, gets $4 million to sing at private parties.

As a musician, I’m not quite sure what I think of all this ” after all, I just got the e-mail a few minutes ago ” but I’ve decided to be big about it and do the right thing: Tim and I aren’t going to raise our rates this season for performing at Summit County parties.

Unless, of course, we’re asked to sing “Hotel California.” That one’s gonna cost ya.


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

As a Summit Daily News reader, you make our work possible.

Summit Daily is embarking on a multiyear project to digitize its archives going back to 1989 and make them available to the public in partnership with the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. The full project is expected to cost about $165,000. All donations made in 2023 will go directly toward this project.

Every contribution, no matter the size, will make a difference.