Everything I Know I Learned From TV?

Everything that we know we learned from somewhere or someone.  As we get older we sometimes forget from where or who we learned everything we know, but usually the biggest lessons in life or the most valuable things that shape our character we tend to never forget from who or where they came.  I recently came across an article entitled “Everything I know, I learned from Andy Griffith” that gave an insight into some of the lessons that the writer had learned from the Andy Griffith Show.   Now this article was not saying that the author learned everything in life from a television sit com, and neither am I by writing this myself, but it did point out that there were some valuable life lessons that could be found between the colorful characters and the humor and that some of those lessons we remember all our life.  Reading the article made me really ponder where I learned some of the things that shaped me as a person and has guided me along my path in life.

Let me preface this by saying that I don’t believe any parent should intentionally plop their kids down in front of the television and leave them to learn everything important in life from a group of paid writers who are only out to make money and get higher ratings.  Not everything on TV has value beyond entertainment or selling a product.  As children we learn from what we see and what we are exposed to and as parents it is our duty to make sure that what our children are watching on TV has some value.  The television can’t replace the touch of a caring hand or the spoken words given at just the right time, but it can open up a learning mind to things you yourself might not ever imagine.   I didn’t grow up entirely in front of a TV, but there were times when the television was my babysitter and as such I can attribute some of my lessons learned from the shows I watched in the 70’s. 

I learned the importance of friendship from Captain Kangaroo.  He taught me that friends didn’t all have to look the same or believe the same things and being different was an important part of who we were.  He also taught me that even when friends did things to annoy you, like dropping a bucket load of ping pong balls on your head, you just laughed it off and loved them all the same even knowing they would do it again sometime down the road.  Though I preferred to find adventure in the real world and didn’t like to burry my head in a book, he did teach me that when you couldn’t get outside you could find adventure in a book.  Most of what I learned about animals and how to care for them I learned from the Captains good friend Mr. Green Jeans.  He was always bringing in a new animal to add to his zoo and he explained things about them in ways that little children could understand.  What most people don’t know about both the Capt. (Bob Keeshan) and Green Jeans (Frank Brannum) is before they were both television stars they were both Marines.

Gilligan’s Island taught me that even if you’re only going on a three hour tour, make sure your prepared and bring along things for the unexpected.  A steamer trunk full of money won’t help you much in the middle of nowhere, but a suitcase full of encyclopedias and scientific journals can help you figure out what is safe to eat and how to ward off savage headhunters.  Through their unbelievable misadventures and personal interactions the castaways taught me that whether we live on a deserted island in the middle of the Pacific or a penthouse on Wall Street, we all live on a big blue marble floating in the universe, and we are all in this thing together.  No matter who we are or where we are at, what we do affects everyone around us in some way.  It takes all of us working together to make sure that we have what we need to survive.  I learned that necessity is the mother of invention and you can build anything from nothing, although until I was an adult I never figured out why they could build pedal cars, washing machines, musical instruments and put on productions of Shakespeare but they couldn’t patch a few holes in an old wooden boat.   Living on a deserted island with no sign of rescue was stressful and sometimes when we lose things or don’t seem to have control in our lives you tend to throw yourself into projects to cope.  We sometimes feel like we need to be doing something, even if what we are doing doesn’t help the situation it makes us feel productive.

Batman, the original 60’s TV series, taught me that heroes didn’t need far-fetched super powers to save the world.  When someone throws up the Batsignal, calls you on the Batphone or screams from the dark abyss, don’t hesitate to jump right in and help them out.  Never forget though to be vigilant and help those who don’t quite know how to ask you for it but need your help.  Bruce Wayne was a very successful business man and a philanthropist who was always raising money for the Wayne Foundation that gave to many charitable causes.   Sometimes there is more to being a hero than just fighting crime.  You don’t need to be wealthy, wear armor plated suits with cool gadgets on a belt, or drive a superfast car with a rocket engine in it to make a difference in the world; you just have to do the best with what you have and share it with others.  Batman also taught me the importance of having a “Plan B”.  The best laid plans can always be thwarted by a prickly bush, a devious thug or some poisonous lipstick so be prepared with a backup plan. “BIFF, BOOM, POW!”

Albert Einstein said; “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”   Einstein died in 1955 and never got a chance to see Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, which first aired in 1968, but I can only imagine that if he had seen it he would have approved of the message that Fred Rogers was sending to children.  Mr. Rogers taught me that imagination was the key that held everything together.   Without imagination you only see the world in black and white and miss all the other colors of the rainbow.  He showed me how whole new worlds could open up to you just by jumping on a trolley and going through a hole in the wall.  How something as lifeless as a picture on the wall could magically transport you to destinations unknown and frontiers unimagined.  He also taught me that no dream was too small and small dreams can turn into big things. Imagination is the way you bring dreams to reality.   After all if we can dream it then we can do it!  Mr. Rogers taught me to be honest with myself and others.   He said it was ok to be who I was and to be the best I could be.  There was no one like me before me and there will be no one like me after I am gone.  Fred Rogers had an impact on everyone around him and his message was simple; “If only you could sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.”  Mr. Rogers taught me that you don’t measure your success in life by the big job you have, the huge house you live in, the fancy clothes you wear, the fast car you drive or the huge roll of money you flaunt around.  You measure the success you have in life by the impact you have on people around you.  Just one more reason that I think ole Einstein would have loved Fred Rogers after all wasn’t it Einstein that said “Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile”?

When I was a little boy sitting in front of the TV watching all these shows and the dozens of others like them, I only saw them as entertainment, not thinking they were teaching me lessons I would remember throughout my life.  My parents and grandparents probably never realized when they let me sit there for hours watching those shows that they would ever do anything but keep me entertained while they cooked meals, cleaned house or did the multitude of other things they had to do to provide for our family and my well-being.   They also probably never knew that the lessons that I learn from those shows went hand in hand with the most valuable lessons and gifts of learning in life that they themselves gave me, but that is a story for another day.