mts43

As TV series progress over years, it is normal for the script quality to decline. The longer the series has been on, the worse the scripts become. Sometimes, but not always, the writers change over the years and, in the best cases, the scripts improve, but the decline always returned. This is the case with JAG. There were two different occasion during the series when script quality rebounded. However, by the mid point of Season 9, it declined again. The best solution would have been to end the series with Chegwidden's retirement, and certainly not try to resolve the "Harm-Mac Thing", which had become increasingly silly over time. By Season 10, the number of men that Mac had slept was laughable rather than believable.

What was an entertaining 1950's film about the Corporate World as it then existed is now too outdated, and has no relevance to current American "corporate ethics" (definitely an oxymoron). "Nowadays", Shaw's comments that greed is good is the common corporate goal. A person with the idealistic views of the William Holden character would never even be considered for a Board of Directors position, much less the CEO position. The one Board Member in the film who is the most like today's counterpart is the Louis Calhern character, with the major difference that in the present era, he would have succeeded -- and been hailed as a financial genius.

By 1950, Hollywood studios were already suffering from the advent of television and the Supreme Court ruling that no longer allowed studios to own movie theaters. At long last MGM had booted the unimaginative tyrant Louis B. Mayer as the studio boss. If he'd still been in control, he would have never approved of filming "King Solomon's Mines", which was one of the earlier big budget movies filmed on location -- in this case, Africa. The location shooting is one of the primary reasons that it was the highest grossing film of 1950. It was an exciting adventure film with scenes of African wildlife that would be impossible to replicate now. It also featured authentic Africans, including the impressive Watusi. It was a favorite film of mine when I was a kid, and I still enjoy it even now.