*** Ed Sullivan and Gunsmoke.**
Back in the olden days of the early 1950s a local town here had quite a night life on Saturday night. The cafes stayed open, barber shops open till midnight, and the theater, all to escape the murderous heat of summer.
It all came to an end when the locals got TV and decided to stay home on Saturday night and patrol the streets of Dodge with Matt Dillon at 9:00 PM.
The town began to slowly die. The barber shop closed at night, so did all the other stores, and the theater closed permanently.
The only thing open was an ice cream and burger drive-in and it closed in winter.
What you describe was a better America (even without the AC). Simpler, friendlier, more neighborly times-wish we could move “back to the future.”
I’m glad you happened to mention all that. Although I’m a fan of a lot of early-tv fare and the americana represented within it, there were also certain cultural implications and a fragmenting of the immediate social fabric that came with the introduction of television. Something I don’t think gets referenced very often.