In honour of the news that Matt Houston is being prepared for a DVD release, I did a YouTube search and found this clip, where the first 20 seconds sum up all that is early ’80s TV (especially when Aaron Spelling was the producer).

One thing I find interesting, comparing Aaron Spelling’s shows to today’s shows, is that his stuff placed an emphasis on glamorous, rich living — on a TV budget, of course — that you don’t usually find in TV now. That is, I don’t think we are particularly interested in seeing shows about rich playboy detectives who have all the money and girls in the world when they’re not busy solving mysteries. Most of today’s mystery-solvers lead relatively frugal, unglamorous private lives. If the hero of a TV mystery lived in a mansion and drove expensive cars, we’d probably consider him an obnoxious twit (and we wouldn’t be wrong).

CORNFED: When I graduated from college with a degree in sidekick sciences, I could have made a lifetime commitment to you or Matt Houston. And frankly, Lee Horsley always gave me the creeps.

DUCKMAN: Yeah, he was like the poor man’s Tom Selleck.

CORNFED: Isn’t that redundant?

– Duckman