Why Couldn’t It Break Away From The Big Screen?

        
(Go to 7:00)

I had forgotten about it until the other day.  Turns out, I’m not the only one who did.

I’ve been watching Paul Van Scott’s YouTube series on TV shows that lasted one season or less. Some shows, I must admit, I’d never heard of.  Others, however, I’d seen, if only for one or two episodes.

His segment about the short-lived series from 1980-81 included Breaking Away. It might sound familiar even if you never saw it: It was based on the previous year’s movie of the same name. That picture enjoyed both critical and commercial success; the TV show would only experience one. Why?

No one could answer the question. After all, it had all of the elements that made the movie so successful:  The relatively unknown actors fleshed out well-written roles in a coming-of-age story that just happened to be about a young man who dreams of being a professional bicycle racer.  The story also had an “underdog” element, as the young man was an American in the Midwest, and his heroes, whom he is trying to emulate, are Italian.

If the movie’s success surprised anyone, it was because relatively few Americans were interested in bicycle racing.  Remember, this was before Greg Le Mond’s Tour de France victories. And while almost nobody thought the movie turned the Unites States into a nation of cycling fans, almost everyone involved with the project believed that what made the story so appealing on the big screen would translate to the small screen.

Some argue that it did. And that is why no one could explain why its ratings were low enough that it was canceled after only eight episodes. The other shows that aired at the same time were decent but hardly ratings juggernauts. Steve Teisch wrote and Peter Yates directed both the movie and series. Some actors reprised their roles. One notable exception was Dennis Christopher, whom Shaun Cassidy replaced in the David Stohler role. While nobody ever watched Cassidy for his acting chops, I don’t think he would have turned off TV audiences.

Here is my two-bit theory as to why the TV series didn’t make it through a aeason. People who didn’t care about bicycle racing (e.g., most Americans in 1979) were willing to watch it for the sake of the story in a single movie of less than two hours . On the other hand, I think that if they still weren’t interested in pacelines and pelotons a year later, they weren’t willing to watch them every week, even if the series had the same “feel good” story as the movie and they thought Shaun Cassidy was cute.

Do They Think Pedaled Bikes Are For Midlife—Or Later?

 

This news item from Philadelphia echoes a lament I’ve heard from other parts of the US:  Fewer kids are riding bicycles.

That may seem counterintuitive (as much as I hate that term), given that Philly, like other cities, has been building bike lanes and investing in other forms of cycling infrastructure—and that cycling for transportation and recreation, especially among Generation X and Millennials, had been on the rise, at least through the pandemic. The report I’ve linked mentions several possible reasons: Kids are spending more time on screens and are riding e-bikes or scooters. Their parents are concerned about traffic and other dangers.

It also hinted at a socio-economic phenomenon: families and communities are “under-resourced.” That is a fancy way of saying some families can’t afford to buy their kids bikes and even the giveaway programs can’t provide nearly enough. Even if parents can afford bikes, they may not have the time to ride with their kids—which brings us back to their safety concerns.

It’s an unfortunate fact that while cycling can provide relatively inexpensive transportation and exercise, its benefits are far from equally shared. As I mentioned in an earlier post, my friend “Sam” observed that the cyclists we saw on traditional bikes were older than e-bike riders.  I would also add that on any given day, e-bike riders I see trend poorer—and darker—than those of us on pedaled bikes.

About the previous sentence: If my observations reflect broader realities, it may be because  a disproportionate number of e-bikers, at least here in New York City, are delivery workers, nearly all of whom are immigrants from Africa, the Caribbean and Central America. But even among those who aren’t bringing pizza or tacos -to people who just got home from work, most of the e-bike riders I see are people of color. Those who aren’t are usually tourists.

Could it be that kids who don’t have bikes see their parents, older siblings or other adults a generation older than themselves riding e-bikes and think “That’s what I want”? Kids, consciously or not, aspire to be like the adults in their lives.  They can envision themselves to be like them, and not the older adults—who are riding traditional bicycles.

It’s rather ironic that piloting e-bikes, and other motorized vehicles (including cars) is seen as a sign of “growing up” while pedaling is a symptom, if you will, of middle or old age!

How Many, Again?

 I know I’ve posted images like this in previous “Sunday Funnies “ posts. Yesterday’s “How Many Bikes” reminded me of it.