I have just acquired a great respect for movie director Robert Altman. In your Oct. 6-7 edition of “Spotlight News” Altman said, “Movies set the pattern and people copy the move.” This statement rings true. Give me the old shows like “The Andy Griffith Show,” “I Love Lucy” and “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and you’re watching real TV comedy.

Almost any show made in the early ’80s or earlier is fit for mixed company or for children. You could laugh at slapstick humor and hear jokes with no foul language. You could watch a love story, and use your imagination and you wouldn’t have to see nudity or the actual sex act. You didn’t have to worry about your children entering the room and seeing or hearing anything bad. You could imagine a death scene in a movie without all the blood or eerie details being shown.

The prime-time channels like CBS, NBC and ABC are OK for game shows like “Jeopardy,” “Wheel of Fortune” or “Hollywood Squares,” but the majority of the shows are trash. So you wonder where people get ideas of mass destruction, exhibitionism, nudity and foul language. Just go to the movies or watch prime time TV.

Maybe it’s time the movie industry changed its format for movies and gave us some family shows; something you don’t have to be embarrassed about if your grandmother walks into the room.

Linda Oliver

Millinocket