Many thanks for sharing the link! I look forward to watching that. 

 

I feel like that is all very sound analysis, and consistent with general movements in film as well. American film shifts with culture, but also with censorship that is challenged, broken, and replaced (in a fashion) with the Ratings System in '68 and the tug-of-war with how to appropriately define/apply those ratings as boundaries are constantly pushed. 

 

I'm looking forward to your next data set when it's ready! I wish we had gotten a full season 14 to have a proper idea of the full breadth of story types being offered. It's a truncated picture otherwise. And I completely agree, despite not having seen Bucket Dog yet, that the title is dark as heck. 

I knew you'd have some insights on media shifts, @CareBear!   Re: The Bucket Dog, to be fair, it probably does have more light-hearted moments than the rest of Season 14 - but the fundamental premise still isn't a comedy.

7 hours ago, AC1830 said:

I following all these new comments I'll add my two cents to it. 

 

Since I grew up watching the second half of the series, I remember many evenings my parents commenting that certain episodes were way too dark. And they could almost be sure that Michael Landon wrote it if it was really that dark or violent. That observation tends to follow what's been discussed here that they got darker in the later years. Thankfully not every single episode. There are some very good comedy ones and general drama ones without dealing with mental imbalance or race and violence. 

 

I definitely think Mike wrote darker stories in the later years. Perhaps the networks had relaxed some of the rules or the trend of TV by the 70s was showing more 'realistic' violence. 

Not just in the later years. Ballad of the Ponderosa (ML's second episode) and The Wormwood Cup were both Season 8, To Die in Darkness was Season 9.  All three are murderous revenge stories and whilst the first two are perhaps not mentally ill, they are certainly unhinged.  Postley's anger in To Die in Darkness has definitely turned to madness.  Terror at 2.00 is Season 12 and The Hunter Season 14 and we're now in the realms of serious mental illness.  Arguably Season 9's A Dream to Dream also deals with this with Carter's descent into alcoholism and depression through guilt and grief; and Joe himself in Forever seems to have a breakdown.  So in ML's 20 episodes, 7 of them deal with some form of mental illness, spread pretty evenly from Season 8 onwards.  Of course, none of that negates the fact that it had become easier to deal more openly with difficult subjects.

7 hours ago, Tavia42 said:

Season 14, on the other hand, which I haven't gotten to yet this time but I remember well enough, has three Dark episodes (Forever Part 2, The Initiation, and The Hunter), out of only 16 episodes.  

 

Of course, another child dies in The Initiation as well! 

3 hours ago, Oxgirl said:

 

Of course, another child dies in The Initiation as well! 

 

"The Initiation" was shown on TV here a few days ago.  I've seen it before, and muted the TV and turned away after Jamie's initiation, knowing the second boy was going to die.  It was too hard to watch.  Otherwise, I thought it was a good story and a well done episode.  Ben mentions Hoss twice.  In one scene he said, "I know what it's like to lose a son" and later he said, "I just buried one of my boys."

 

1 hour ago, JaneYvanne said:

 

"The Initiation" was shown on TV here a few days ago.  I've seen it before, and muted the TV and turned away after Jamie's initiation, knowing the second boy was going to die.  It was too hard to watch.  Otherwise, I thought it was a good story and a well done episode.  Ben mentions Hoss twice.  In one scene he said, "I know what it's like to lose a son" and later he said, "I just buried one of my boys."

 

The Initiation is a tough one, because it’s a strong Jamie episode and excellent guest star turn for Ron Howard, but the incident at its center is so hard to deal with. Maybe it’s me, but I somehow found it even more disturbing that the boys just left their friend’s body in the cave to eventually be discovered. I really thought initially they’d at least find some way to get his body home, but no. That’s the kind of detail that makes it feel even darker somehow.

 

Re: the references to Hoss, I have so much trouble getting his death into my head that when Ben mentioned losing a son I literally had a moment of thinking, “Really? Who? Oh - right!”

58 minutes ago, Tavia42 said:

Re: the references to Hoss, I have so much trouble getting his death into my head that when Ben mentioned losing a son I literally had a moment of thinking, “Really? Who? Oh - right!”

 

Unbelievably, I had a similar reaction.  My first thought was "you mean Adam?".  Duh.  As for the boys leaving the body to be found, well, kids at that immature age make dumb decisions.  

 

 

1 hour ago, JaneYvanne said:

Unbelievably, I had a similar reaction.  My first thought was "you mean Adam?".  Duh.  As for the boys leaving the body to be found, well, kids at that immature age make dumb decisions.  

 

Panic set in, I guess.