Reality Check: Old TV Shows + Just Joey Un-Shackles Social Media

When is the last time you watched old-fashioned TV, the broadcast kind that doesn’t use cable or internet streaming? Brace yourself. My husband and I watch either DVDs from the library or — drumroll — antennae channels on a basic TV. We do watch free YouTube-type videos on our devices, but our old TV is too cumbersome to bother connecting to a laptop or desktop computer. Given that we both work mostly from home (click here for info on my soon-to-be-published books), the soundtrack of our household amounts to time-warp style shows, the sorts replete with commercials for pharmaceuticals, wrinkle creams, and pleas for donations.

During work breaks when we actually sit and watch, I often pull out my phone to check what IMDB has to report on “what happened to so-and-so actor,“ and whether the show was taped at a nearby Los Angeles location.

Watching episodes shot before today’s exaggerated filters and plastic surgery as IMDB shows me how real — er actors mature provides a double-dose antidote to today’s unreal definition of beauty. Pre-1990s actors looked human. Teeth could be a little crooked and somewhat faded. Men’s hairlines receded, their chests and arms were hairy, and their bodies were moderately toned. Women…