FILMS TO WATCH
Hollywood and television often relegate seniors to stereotyped roles, or worse — to invisibility. Sometimes, however, films celebrate the vitality, experience and sense of humor that many who have passed the five-decade mark possess. The videos and TV shows below portray seniors in many situations and stages of life, and some were big hits at the box office and in the Nielsen’s, despite the industries’ fixation on the 18-49 demographic.
Cocoon (1985): Florida retirees discover the fountain of youth in a swimming pool, which actually is an alien incubator. Heartwarming film stars veterans Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, Wilford Brimley, Gwen Verdon and Don Ameche, who does a mean jitterbug.
Grumpy Old Men (1993): Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau portray guys who were boyhood friends but who now are feuding neighbors unable to remember why they’re at odds. They torment each other with petty pranks every chance they get until a younger woman (Ann-Margret) moves into the neighborhood and gives them youthful ideas.
Driving Miss Daisy (1989): This film delves into the long-time friendship between an aging Southern Jewish woman who loses her driving privileges, and the black man hired to chauffeur her around town. It also explores the effects of racial prejudice in the South. Jessica Tandy, who won an Oscar, and Morgan Freeman, star.
Going In Style (1979) Three bored elderly men (George Burns, Art Carney, Lee Strasberg) rob a bank to spice up their lives.
Oh, God! (1977): God (George Burns) recruits John Denver as an aide in his plan to save the world. Two sequels followed.
Television shows:
Diagnosis Murder (8 p.m. Thursdays on CBS-Ch. 2) was consistently in the top 25 this season and has been renewed for next. White-haired Dick Van Dyke stars as a doctor who can’t resist solving crimes.
Cosby (7 p.m. Mondays, CBS-Ch. 2): The inimitable Bill Cosby stars in this sitcom as a retiree who has too much energy and time on his hands, which leads him into trouble. Renewed for ’98-’99.
Off the air after years of popularity:
Murder, She Wrote: One of the few series in TV history in which the lead was an older woman, the show consistently placed in the Top 10 until it was canceled at the end of the ’96-’97 season.
Golden Girls: This sitcom about four “mature” women living together in Miami debuted as the most popular sitcom of the ’85-’86 season and finished in the Top 10 in each of its first five (of seven) seasons. With Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan, Estelle Getty.
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