This ran here on 6/19/02. I have a lot more examples now…
I have another theory. It's that many old TV shows have been secretly refilmed to make them cheap-looking and less entertaining. I formulated this notion a few years ago when I caught a couple of vintage reruns of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.. I just know this series didn't look that chintzy and wasn't as silly when it first aired. Using doubles of Robert Vaughn and David McCallum — or perhaps employing sophisticated computer imagery — someone has managed to drain the entertainment value of them.
I started thinking the same kind of monkeying had been done to David Frost's 1977 interviews with Richard Nixon. I watched them when they first aired and I watched the first two hours again the other night on the Discovery Civilization Channel. Something, one can't help but think, has changed. Maybe it's CGI animation or maybe they found David Frye and got him to redo Nixon's role…but I don't recall our 37th president being that rotten a liar. He's really terrible. My recollection is that while Frost landed some solid punches, Nixon held his own for much of it and made some solid points on his behalf with regard to Watergate and its allied scandals.
I could then understand how his supporters could have believed him…something I cannot fathom after the other night. He seems nakedly insincere and his tactic for diverting questions is in full view and utterly ineffective. I never liked or trusted the man but I thought he was a better fibber than this.
Perhaps the tapes (Frost's tapes, that is) have indeed been altered. The shows now airing have been recut to include material that was previously unused. Still, I find it hard to believe they cut out Nixon's better moments for this version, or that they omitted his worst, the first time around. I find it more credible to believe that in the quarter-century since, we've endured so many lying, weasely politicians up-close and personal on the cable channels, the art form of political misdirection has had to advance. They've had to improve on what Nixon did, and his skills of misdirection are no longer State of the Art. I wonder if people who once supported him watched these shows this week and said, "I can't believe I voted for this guy."