DAILY DIRT: A tip o’ the hat to ‘Dallas,’ ‘M*A*S*H’ and ‘Charlie’s Angels’

For the record, my favorite Charlie’s Angel was always Kate Jackson … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 317 of The Daily Dirt.

1. We often talk here about the best and worst of whatever, but today we introduce a new topic: “The Most Influential.”

And for today, we’re talking about the most influential TV shows of the 1970s. See if you agree with our reasoning:

1. “Dallas” (CBS): Not only did this program prove a prime-time adult soap opera could be successful, it introduced the value of the cliffhanger. Remember the “Who Shot J.R.?” buzz? What you might not remember is that the episode the answer was revealed drew an astounding 90 million U.S. television sets.

2. “M*A*S*H (CBS): Nathan Sharp of screenrant.com once wrote about why this program was so popular, how its producers were so successful in “beautifully blending elements of wacky and absurd comedy with grounded realism and hard-hitting personal drama”. That same formula can be seen in many of today’s high-profile TV success stories.

3. “Charlie’s Angels” (ABC): This is the program that introduced what, at the time, was labeled “Jiggle TV”. The TV world as we know it, was never the same. We will forever be grateful to Farrah Fawcett, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith.

2. The Great Plate search continues.

The top three in our year-long pursuit of the best license plates in West-Central Illinois and Northeast Missouri remains unchanged, but we have five more weekly winners:

2022 Medal-Winners To Date

Gold medal: LUV YADI. More than four months atop the rankings.

Silver Medal: GOL D LOX.

Bronze medal: TAXED.

This Week’s Top 5

1. WETZ GO: Very good. Very, very good.

2. CRDNALS: I wonder how many license plates you could find outside and near Busch Stadium on game day with some sort of Cardinals reference?

3. DAM BAM 5: I have no idea what this might signify, I just love saying it.

4. 3 MR. BIZ: Once again, no clue here, but it’s one sharp license plate.

5. CUBS 230: The way this year is going for the Cubbies, this might be their team batting average by the end of the season. (PUBLISHER’S NOTE: ‘CUBS 420’ would be the only way to enjoy that team. JRG)

3. Today is the first day of summer. Here are some thoughts on that topic from people far smarter than me:

Gold medal: “Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability.” —Sam Keen, author and philosopher.

Silver medal: “Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August.” — Jenny Han, author.

Bronze medal: “’Cause a little bit of summer is what the whole year is all about.” — John Mayer, singer and songwriter. 

Steve Thought O’ The Day — For those who like to plan ahead, the last day of summer is Sept. 22.

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. Obviously, a gratuitous picture of the Angels was going to be included here.