The Unforgettable 90s - Part III (TV Serials)

So, I recently came across a petition being signed on a site requesting to release the episodes of one the most revered sci-fi TV program of the 90s - Yes!! you guessed it right. Its Captain Vyom.

Courtesy: Wow Teens

Kids, teenagers and youngsters - all became fans of this program. There were many such programs encompassing a wide spectrum of genres like music, drama, thriller, horror, comedy, fictional, superheroes, religious, magic shows, detectives etc. To name a few - among dramas we had serials like Shanti, Kora Kagaz and others aired on DD Metro's 9 Gold. Rib tickling comedy shows like "Mere Samne wali khidki", "Office Office", "Meri Mrs Chanchala", "Tu tu mai mai", "Nukkad", "Shriman Shrimati" made us burst into laughter until our belly started hurting.

We had a couple of superheroes to save our day - "Shaktimaan", "Captain Vyom", "Junior G" etc. However, such shows had a negative impact on the kids then. Such shows were the talk of the town and many of the kids lost their lives imitating superheroes like Shaktiman. But then, Shaktimaan also emerged as the saviour with his - Choti Choti magar moti baatein (small but useful tips). And then........... there were serials like "Aahat" which scared the hell out of us. Musical shows like "Surabhi", "Chitrahaar", "Antakshari" combined music & entertainment in a unique way.

Among thrillers and detective shows, "Tehkikat", "Byomkesh Bakshi" and "Raja aur Rancho" were two of the famous shows. And who can forget those all time favorite fictional shows like "Alif Laila", "Betal Pachisi", "Chandrakanta" etc. Among the religious shows - "Jai Hanuman", "Om namah Shivaay", "Mahabharat" became an integral part of the religious lives of the people so much so that when these shows were aired people used to pray in front of their TV sets with Puja plates in their hands and believe me at the time these shows were broadcast the streets lay deserted. 

However, times have changed since late 2000s. With the flooding of TV shows and the coming up of the concept of TRPs TV serials have lost their originality and have become repetitive in the bid to give it a tinge of suspense. Characters respawn in a bid to stretch the story. Adding more spice to the story making it more fictional than realistic to garner more TRPs led to deterioration in the quality of episodes. However, the best thing about the TV shows of 2000s was that they mostly revolved around the concept of social evils with most of them giving women the central role. Such drama shows focused on social evils like child marriage, female foeticide, poverty etc.

Comedy shows stooped down to a level where vulgarity became common in the jokes of the comedians. Sci-fi shows became almost non existent and fictional shows in their new avatar could not recreate the glory of the older ones and hence faced failures. Even mythological shows tried to recreate the same aura as the older ones but in vain. The younger generation born during the 2000s have lost interest in such shows which during our times kids used to watch with exorbitant zeal. Today reality shows are the talk of the town. But with so many reality shows being aired on so many TV channels, the winners seldom gain much popularity. 

This is not to say that today channels do not air quality TV programs but that the quality has degraded for sure. Though interests have changed but most of them have been moulded because of the lesser "variety" of options available with the people. Earlier a single channel had a complete spectrum of program running 24X7. Today, channels have resorted to niche shows. With too much of advertising the experience has also degraded. All these reasons have led youngsters to quit watching TV and spend more time watching web series on the internet.

We are heading towards a time where saturation seems to be evident. The new trend that is emerging is oriented more towards the internet. In such a scenario TV channels must learn from the programs of 90s which with more originality were more entertaining.