I Wanna Be Inundated? (not really)

I've been loving the ESPN mini series The Bronx is Burning.

(Although I was kind of upset that the program doesn't show any actual burning of any parts of the city that has been crammed down our collective throats by the establishment media as the greatest, most interesting place evar! for decades...Case in point: Phil Rizutto. Great ballplayer, won, what, seven World Series? Great. But ESPN was acting like the entire country had some special love for this man when it's really more of a Baby Boomer New York thing--I mean, how did this affect Billy Crystal?)

So, while the BIB has been quite good there is one glaring problem--the music. For reasons of hipness and musical correctness, the makers of this series have decided to use all Ramones songs. Talk about a band that has been crammed down our collective throats by critics and understanders of what is "important" in entertainment! They killed bloated classic rock man! They brought the DIY ethos to making Genuine Music! Yes, we know. We've been told this for a long time now.

What bothers me about the inclusion of the Ramones music is not simply the fact that I personally cannot stomach the crap (with all the affected, fake English-accent singing--OY!). What's worse is the fact that only a relatively small number of people living in New York were actually listening to the Ramones in 1977--while the rest of the series works hard to make every other detail period-correct.

It strikes me as more than a little precious that the producers decided to make a hipnoscenti band representative of What Was Happening in New York at the time when most people in the city were listening to Donna Summer, the Eagles or Earth, Wind and Fire.

SP ADDS: Bill Simmons cited The Bronx Is Burning as one of the few sports highlights this summer, in particular this separated at birth:

... the enjoyable moments have been few and far between. Basically, it's been Joey Chestnut's toppling Kobayashi, Stephon Marbury's surreal Mike'd Up appearance and the actor who played Reggie Jackson in The Bronx Is Burning's inadvertently looking like C. Thomas Howell in Soul Man.

THE ELDER CHIMES: TBIB is not only the best sports drama on television and the best thing ESPN has ever done (although I did enjoy "Playmakers" too), it's the best drama on television right now period. Yes, better than "24", "CSI Shreveport", "House", "Lost", and the other overrated dreck that people waste their time on. And no, I don't have premium cable so don't e-mail and tell me that _____ on HBO is the apex of television history.