Visual Muzak

You can, after all, reduce the reasons for watching TV to but two: to be lulled, and to be stimulated.  Some people do one sometimes, the other sometimes.  Some people do all of one or all of the other.  (Am I going to be arrested here for stating the obvious?)

Fred Allen called TV chewing gum for the eyes.  Although many people write me after a show and thank me for educating and stimulating them, my guess is that a larger number of people want TV to be a visual Muzak, a mind deadener.  More of the masses are in search of an opiate than in search of a stimulant.

-- Richard Alva Cavett (born 19 November 1936) is a television talk show host known for his conversational style of in-depth discussion on often serious issues, Cavett, co-authored with Christopher Porterfield (1974), excerpted in New York magazine 22 July 1974