Saturday, December 14, 2013

Christmas Decorating with Edward Gorey


This Edward Gorey illustration appeared in the New York Times in December 1984. While the father works on lighting the Christmas tree, his helpers are glued to the television set trying to decide what program to watch. It should be remembered that there were far fewer channels in 1984 than there are on television today. Of course, if Mr. Gorey were illustrating this scene today, the kids would be looking at iPads or Smartphones!

I particularly like the piles of VHS tapes stacked up around the television (no DVD or Blue Ray in 1984). Mr. Gorey was an inveterate taper of TV programs and two of the programs (To The Manor Born & Fawlty Towers) are particular favorites of mine.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Almost all the others are titles of Dr Who episodes. There's a 1980 interview in which it's mentioned that he was a fan of Dr Who.
Still, it's a very PBS list of programmes.

- matthew davis

ampootozote said...

Thanks...I thought the titles were a bit odd for regular 1980's television programing! I am not a regular follower of Dr. Who, so the other program titles were unfamiliar to me.