Day 3
Monday! The morning after Superbowl, we shook off our hangovers with a ginormous American coffee and bagel for brekky then shot out onto the subway to meet the gang at Paley Centre for Media for today’s activity. We had to swing via the ridiculous Lego retail space in Rockafella Plaza. As a childhood lego enthusiast, this was a nostalgia trip for me.
When we arrived at the Paley centre we were treated to an introduction to their deep archive of shows from the 70s. We were shown how TV shows were influenced by the Vietnam war with series like All in the family . The episode we watched included a pretty tense argument over war and what it meant to different generations in America at the time. Our host introduced us to Norman Leer and the The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The episode we saw was one where Mary was struggling not to laugh at a funeral. There was a massive difference in the group between people who didn’t understand the gag. I was cracking up, and the Belgian and Polish students didn’t really get the jokes. We also checked out the original series of Charlie's Angels.
The Paley Center has a seriously deep archive of tv shows and I watched a classic, which I knew nothing of, The Jeffersons. The theme of the show talked about race differences, and in the protests surrounding George Floyd killing, the episodes feel as relevant today as they did nearly 50 years ago. We also saw some clips from Saturday Night Live, an asian stereotype dig at Samurais in the samurai hotel gag on Saturday Night Live. I was treated to my first stand up comedy session by Richard Pryor, that was a discovery I can’t wait to find more of his stuff online.
I had a short visit to the post office and encountered an amazing self service counter where you enter your information and weigh the parcel yourself. Then you stick on a printing label and send it off, all from the self service machine. Maybe this wasn’t entertainment, but it was definitely entertaining compared to the old way of doing things.
We roamed over to find the underground food court which hosted the highly recommended Roberta’s pizzas within the bustling indoor food market at Urbanspace. After some hearty NY pizzas we hit the open skies on the Roosevelt Island sky tram to the once closed to the public Roosevelt Island. Once back on Manhattan we swung by The Jeffery Small bar for a quick brew before the highlight of the day.
Ala and I watch The Daily Show with Trevor Noah all the time in between work and travel. So getting to see him live was such a dense experience. This is the episode we were there for the filming of. Drinks at Mexican Cantina rooftop then a greasy feed for dinner at Luckys famous burgers.