"I used to think that television could be potentially the most powerful medium for the dissemination of knowledge that the world has ever known, it could be a very rich and rewarding thing if handled properly and that the problem was in the execution. I've now come, after ten years in the business, five years of which was as a television critic, to taking the very extreme view point. I think television itself is bad. The idea of television, the act of watching television kills the imagination. It's not like radio, with radio you had to listen, had to make things, you had to build things in your mind. Movies do that. Television is something else again. Television lays it all out there in a very prescribed way and the bare minimum of imagination on the part of the viewer is needed and I really fear for all of us."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Harlan Ellison Interview in 1979, quoted in The Online Copywriter's Handbook (2002) by Robert W. Bly, p. 19
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Television
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Television
113 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Television →
Related Quotes
"Those who say they give the public what it wants begin by underestimating public taste, and end by debauching it."
"My personal theory, which I’ve never bothered to research academically, is that television is what straightens out th…"
"Television will enormously enlarge the eye's range, and, like radio, will advertise the Elsewhere. Together with the …"
"Thanks to TV and for the convenience of TV, you can only be one of two kinds of human beings, either a liberal or a c…"
"Interviewer: Frank Hunt asks: What were the most important lessons you took away (as a writer and producer) from your…"
"Hollywood, television and film is not my prime area of interest. Because I would never have any control, working in t…"
"Television may represent a threat to our culture analogous to the threat of atomic weapons to our civilization."
"On the Twilight Zone I knew I could get away with having Martians say things Republicans and Democrats couldn't."
"Dr. King ... felt it was important that children of all races see an African American female appearing on television …"
"I haven't had a TV in 10 years, and I really don't miss it. 'Cause it's always so much more fun to be with people tha…"