Also, Hollywood's "Golden Age," roughly 1934 to 1954, was golden in part because public morality, led by Catholics, had reacted against the vulgarity of Hollywood in the enforcement of the Production Code, which like the Law, made no one holy, but which restrained the industry's worst impulses and forced creators to find artistic, rather than prurient ways to tells their stories.  The studio executives enforced an ideological balance between Left and Right, to avoid losing audiences.  Some were conservative (MGM's Louis B. Mayer) some FDR Democrats (The Warner Brothers) but all saw the wisdom of balance and reflecting public morality. 

But in the postwar years, the Hollywood Blacklist and more permissive public morality indicated that times were changing.  Legal decisions undermined the Production Code, which was actually the last effective, if reactionary, gasp of Judeo-Christian society.  As Hollywood's audiences were lost to television and the old Hollywood moguls died off, a new generation rose in the 60s, much more openly liberal and you know the rest of the story of the now intrenched progressive culture.  Which means today it's far harder to seek the balance and alternatives the NRO article calls for.

Jim_K, if no one else adds anything, your last sentence would be a fitting conclusion--however, since I started this, I'll add a few more thoughts--

The pure quantity of liberals in Hollywood and New York mean that conservatives will always be working uphill.  If conservatism is rooted in a true understanding of the noble but fallen nature of mankind, it will always be harder to work against the zietgeist that tells people to live for personal happiness rather than the common good, to defer gratification, to sacrifice for others, to seek no utopian society rooted in the state, to consider the unborn life as important as one's own, the observe what C.S. Lewis, in The Abolition of Man, called, the Tao, or the Way, the traditional morality common to all major cultures and faiths, the law written on the heart, which modernity seeks to erode. ( I wonder if some of the reactions against Les Miserables is due in part to embarrassment at such a blatant display of, let's be clear, Christian values.)  The conservatism I speak of is substantially rooted in these values.

In what sense do you mean destroyed?  How and by whom?  Institutions, such as education, religion, entertainment and journalism rise, thrive, decline and change for various reasons.  Do you mean destroyed from the outside?

At the risk of sounding...ummm...nonpolitical: the autobiographical books of Yorkshire vet James Herriot. The first is All Creatures Great and Small.  Characters are memorable,  honestly depicted and situations range from hilarious to poignant.

For history buffs: The Heaven Tree  trilogy by Edith Pargeter  (Ellis Peters) and  almost anything else by this author such as the Brother Cadfael mysteries. In all of her work  love of fallen people and grace are keynotes.

Posted by Judith: Alex is innocent

There is hope however in comedy, and I think a lot of us are missing what is happening in comedy today

Thanks for your numerous great insights, Franco.  I think of Judd Apatow's films, particularly The 40-year old Virgin, and Knocked Up.  Crude and profane but deeply conservative in its call for mooks to grow up and be mensches.  And Rachel L., Franco is correct that I object to the overt messaging laid onto the content itself, as in the Dr. Who example from my article.  That's the easier kind to catch.

And to Dudley's remark, I would say the primary goal of those shows would be entertaining drama, rather than sermonizing, but, as Jesus said, "out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks," and talented creators will naturally dramatize their ideological beliefs.  The problem is that conservatives largely avoid working in the media or lack the standing to express themselves as the liberal establishment has done.

I checked the article and it is about physical activity and fitness. What astonishes me is singling out TV: how many people are trapped at a desk all day at work? How about those packed-in-a sardine can airline flights? Commuting by car?  Sitting in class? Fishing in a boat? And as several members have said: sitting in front of a computer or reading a book...is still sitting!

My spouse often watches TV while cooking in the kitchen or on the treadmill. So he is actually getting younger!

We re-subscribed early! We just can't do without Ricochet!

Perhaps membership rates could be tied to one's Bubble Quiz score (Ala Dr Murray)?

WOW! The parental units thank everyone for the wealth of suggestions here!

The cross on the coronation orb: maybe they can cover it with a burka?

Alex: 50 and Judith 60.  Upper middle class upbringing with boosts from missionary work and a love of pop culture. All those JAG and NCIS episodes finally paid off! (at least for Judith). And being a nurse helps.

This reminds Judith of a clip from a reality TV show where a woman had never heard of Walmart. Say what?!?

We saw it last week, and liked it, and noted that change.  In Hollywood jargon, it's called giving the lead a "character arc," an inner journey to match his physical one.  Audiences since at least, yes, Casablanca, have responded to the reluctant hero who needs to make some spiritual progress to increase the story's deeper drama.  I too, read the Burrough's books as a boy and it's told in the first in episodes to fit it's pulp magazine release schedule and Carter required no arc--he was our proxy for vicarious adventure on the first planetary romance.  It's also the prototype of the "white-messiah" story (including Flash Gordon, Adam Strange, and others, up to Avatar) where the white male stranger in a strange land is the only one who can unify the warring races against a greater foe.