Chewing Gum for the Mind: Dr. Larry Burriss on Why We Should Bring Back Mindless Entertainment

OLD ENTERTAINMENT
07/27/2026

It’s time for a little stroll down amnesia, or perhaps that should be “nostalgia” lane.
I was watching an old episode of “The Man from Uncle” the other day with my granddaughters, and they were almost rolling on the floor laughing so hard about the unreality of the plot, characters and dialog.
In one particular scene, the hero had been captured and put on a small, two-engine plane in England. In the next scene, the plane was flying over the Amazon basin, having made the flight from Europe non-stop.

Now, I can remember watching “The Man from Uncle” when I was just a kid, and I don’t remember ever dissecting the program to analyze the reality, or unreality, of what was going on.
But you know, I think perhaps we’ve lost something in our super-sophisticated, computer-generated, special effected television programs and movies.
Just for fun, I watched the movie “Rodan” a few weeks ago. And that flying reptile really did look like a paper-mache pterodactyl. And I had to chuckle as I watched him sweep away a formation of what were obviously model tanks.

But back when I first saw “Rodan,” I knew it looked fake, but I, and my friends, didn’t care. We were watching the movie for fun, not for social commentary, political awareness or interpersonal growth. It was simply mindless entertainment. Chewing gum for the mind. And it was great.

About a year after the first “Star Wars” movie came out, I was in a bookstore, and there was a rack full of books proving “Star Wars” promoted Christian values. And right beside it was a rack full of books proving “Star Wars” was satanic. Personally I thought “Star Wars,” which by that time I had seen in theaters some 30 times, was simply a movie that provided a good story and great special effects.

Sometimes I think we take ourselves, and out entertainment, too seriously. So lighten up. Don’t worry about how Doc Savage manages to dodge all those bullets, just enjoy the movie. And maybe we can recapture some of the magic of simpler times and places.
I’m Larry Burriss