Yesterday on TVWW’s Best TV Tomorrow YouTube video short, I recommended this particular double feature as the evening’s best bet. It was partly, I admit, for the self-conscious irony of being on TV (okay, on YouTube), recommending myself on TV (okay, on CNN), as one of the on-camera interviewees talking about television in two different decades. All of CNN’s “Decades” documentary series to date, which span from
The Sixties to the
2000s, begin with a scene-setting episode devoted to television. I’d recommend them even without my participation in them, and have decided to recommend them despite it. Tonight, CNN presents a double feature of two of the earlier entries. At 11:30 p.m. ET, there’s the “Television Gets Real” installment of
The Seventies, which brings us the birth of cable TV and the rise of the television miniseries. Then, at 12:30 a.m. ET, there’s the “Raised on Television” episode of
The Eighties, a decade that includes, among other things, the hugely popular finale of CBS's
M*A*S*H. Oh, and by the way, when I recommended myself on
Best TV Tomorrow, I was wrong. Maybe not about recommending myself on TV, but certainly about which decades were being covered. The ones I just described are the correct ones being shown tonight by CNN (unless, of course, breaking news wipes them off the rerun schedule). In the video, I identify the decades of TV being covered as
The Eighties and
The Nineties. Well, I was half right. That's what I get for not looking down at my note pad, which is just out of frame on my left leg. That's two mistakes this month on
Best TV Tomorrow, and they're both my fault. Will I complete a hat trick before November runs out? I hope not. But the smart money bets in the other direction...