Teevee or Not Teevee

Many questions are raised and some answered in The Many Saints of Newark, the long awaited.... much, anticipated addition to the cannon of The Sopranos.

Perhaps the biggest question raised which will be answered in the next few weeks has to do with the future of movies as we once knew them. What will we learn from the box-office numbers?

Before the advent of teevee, attendance at movies was much, much higher per capita than it is today. It wasn't uncommon for movie goers to see two to three movies a week at their local theaters. Then teevee came along. Movies reacted with spectacle and cheese. Cinemascope lured viewers back into the theaters with productions like Ben Hur which was simply too big for the teevee screen. In addition, Hollywood was cashing in on the babyboom with movies about teenagers and monsters and monsters who were teenagers and teenagers who were monsters. 

The movies survived even as the studio system died while Brando, Newman, Clift, Beattie and Poitier were replacing Fonda, Stewart, Wayne, Bogart and Gable. Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and Susan Hayward were fading fast while Streep, McClain and Close were beginning to shine. Old school directors like Hawks, Huston, Wilder and Ford were disappearing and Speliberg, Scorcese, DePalma and Lucas were taking over.

With the back to back phenomena of Jaws and Star Wars, movies regained some of their footing. Fewer movies were made but those few earned more than the more plentiful movies of the past as we entered the age of the blockbuster. Why make  fifty thrifty Roger Corman movies that make 2 million dolars profit each when you can make one big budgeted George Lucas movie that makes 100 million dollars profit all by itself.

If a blockbuster release wasn't sequel worthy, it was a failure. If it was a failure, it was a failure because of poor marketing.

Studios were in pursuit of tentpoles, toys, tee shirts and fabulous franchises.

Marvel came along and its various tentpoles and franchises changed the viewing/spending habits of the ever evolving consumer market.

Meanwhile something was beginning to happen on teevee which had passed through a period of network harnessed, feckless mediocrity.

HBO began a series called The Sopranos.

Eventually it became obvious that the quality of teevee available rivaled and surpassed the quality of movies.

Now we come full circle.

The Sopranos becomes a movie but wait a minute, it's also gonna be released on HBO the same day that it's going to be released in theaters.

What happens next? Are you gonna stay at home and watch it on HBO which if you subscribe to the service means that you're watching it for free because you paid in advance or are you going to have a night out and bounce into a covid wounded miniplex, plunk down $20 whilesit in the darkness with a bunch of strangers who may or may not be contagious or armed and dangerous.

Lynn and I are both huge movie fans as well as Soprano fans. What would we do?

The answer was very simple and took hardly anytime to decide. We watched TMSofNJ in the comfort of our home at the same instant that it was making its premiere around the world. Even though TMSofNJ is a movie, to us it's a teevee episode, another episode of the Sopranos which needed to be viewed as such. 

I'm afraid this is the future. Not afraid really. More sad than afraid.

Our great grandchildren will never know the joy of Saturday matinees down town.

As far as Many Saints is concerned, it comes with a built in audience of millions of Soprano fans who will immediately begin arguing/analyzing as Lynn and I have already been doing all morning. As far as movies go, it's a tremendous television episode.

As far as great nights on the town, it's a great night on the couch