Texas
February 19th, 2003, 08:35 PM
I'm a recovering addict so my Christian faith is very important to me.
It's interesting enough that Marshall frequently quoted Scripture in his introductions, postludes, and narrations. (I don't know what his own faith was, but seems like I recall his son, game show host Peter Marshall, was a religious man.) Many of the programs dealt with God, or the devil, or similar themes. I think one program title: "They shall stone them with stones" was Biblical in origin.
Still, religious themes or not, I'm still struck by the morality plays that some of these episodes were. It's not going to be unusual to find that, I suppose, in a program like this that essentially had a different plot and cast from one show to another. The old "Twilight Zone" was often like that, and there have been other shows.
I recently downloaded from KaZaa, however, an RMT show called "The Plastic Man". Featuring the vocal talents of Don Scardino among others this show featured an element of mystery (telepathy and mind control, clairvoyance, ghosts) and did not paint any of those in a favorable light, like many RMT episodes. However, set in southern California (surprise, surprise) this program also was not positive toward infidelity, materialism, sexual immorality, transcendental meditation or other such things that were becoming less and less unfavorable in the media of the time of the original broadcast. In addition, this program even seemed to paint those who would take revenge after being wronged by the aforementioned in a dark, negative light as well.
Looking at so many programs I see today reminds me why the RMT was so enjoyable to listen to. Don't know if it was Mr. Brown's ethics driving the content, but he did indeed create something memorable for a variety of reasons.
Sorry for the long post.
It's interesting enough that Marshall frequently quoted Scripture in his introductions, postludes, and narrations. (I don't know what his own faith was, but seems like I recall his son, game show host Peter Marshall, was a religious man.) Many of the programs dealt with God, or the devil, or similar themes. I think one program title: "They shall stone them with stones" was Biblical in origin.
Still, religious themes or not, I'm still struck by the morality plays that some of these episodes were. It's not going to be unusual to find that, I suppose, in a program like this that essentially had a different plot and cast from one show to another. The old "Twilight Zone" was often like that, and there have been other shows.
I recently downloaded from KaZaa, however, an RMT show called "The Plastic Man". Featuring the vocal talents of Don Scardino among others this show featured an element of mystery (telepathy and mind control, clairvoyance, ghosts) and did not paint any of those in a favorable light, like many RMT episodes. However, set in southern California (surprise, surprise) this program also was not positive toward infidelity, materialism, sexual immorality, transcendental meditation or other such things that were becoming less and less unfavorable in the media of the time of the original broadcast. In addition, this program even seemed to paint those who would take revenge after being wronged by the aforementioned in a dark, negative light as well.
Looking at so many programs I see today reminds me why the RMT was so enjoyable to listen to. Don't know if it was Mr. Brown's ethics driving the content, but he did indeed create something memorable for a variety of reasons.
Sorry for the long post.