This Coronavirus pandemic, Covid-19, has had some very unfortunate consequences. For instance, as of the first week in June, 27 percent of the U.S. labor force was out of work and had applied for unemployment insurance for the first time. We hear about all sorts of industries that have been hurt by the virtual shutting down of the economies of country after country because of the measures that had to be implemented to attempt to mitigate the effects of the virus. But the truth is that we usually speak of them in general terms. For instance, when reporting that restaurants had to close the news outlets focused, more often than not, on the owners of those establishments, wondering if they ever would be able to open again. Little mention was made of the disastrous effect those closings had on the employees of those restaurants who lived paycheck to paycheck and, in some cases, depended on tips. They are viewed as collateral damage.
One industry that did receive some mention but little in-depth reporting was the entertainment industry. That is because we continued to see many of the stars, many of them multi-millionaires, making donations or public service announcements urging folks to follow the advice of the health authorities in terms of washing your hands, wearing masks, staying at home and so forth. But there is an ancillary effect to all of this in terms of the entertainment industry. Production ceased on many movie and television projects. As a consequence, many TV networks began showing old shows, sit-coms, crime series and the like. It reminds one of the famous Peter Allen-Carole Bayer Sager song “Everything Old is New Again”.
But, truth be told, that concept had been in vogue for a while before the Coronavirus pandemic. There were a slew of old TV series that had been revived with new productions and new stars. Serious record collectors were hearkening back to vinyl because of a purer sound and the list goes on and on.
Of course, there is the real possibility that once all of this is over and Broadway, Hollywood and Nashville begin production again, they will move on to new projects and forget about the old. That is where local residents of the Mexican Caribbean can be winners. Because of GigNet, the ultra-high-speed broadband Internet service provider that has made its service available to individual residents at a very modest monthly fee, they can download all of those old shows and have them available for a “Nostalgia Night” whenever they want. Nowhere else in Mexico is that possible.
