Victory At Sea

I've been spending quite a bit of time on YouTube of late... watching old episodes of "Victory at Sea," which is in the public domain these days. Watching is a little harder than it sounds, given that all the episodes aren't in one place and the quality of some uploads sucks, to be frank. Nonetheless it's worth the effort to chase up the episodes, both for the historical content and most especially the MUSIC. The piece above introduced every installment of "Victory," and still raises goosebumps on my arms when I hear it. I'm funny like that. Me and Richard Nixon.

I was too young to watch the series when it was first-run fare... that and the fact my parents and I were on our way overseas for a five year sojourn as the series wound up. But I was 13 when we returned to the US of A in 1958, and "Victory" was in re-runs... on Sunday mornings, if I recall correctly. I would park myself on the floor in front of the teevee in my quiet Sunday morning house... me usually being the only soul awake at that time... and watch two back-to-back episodes in awe and wonder. It was "can't miss teevee" for me, and I watched every single episode, many of 'em more than once, too.

A couple of things come to mind here. First... can you imagine NBC producing such a series today? And running it in prime-time without commercial interruption? Second... can you imagine the American public (beyond 13-year old boys) having enough interest to watch all 26 episodes?

Me neither.