WITH THEIR SPITTIN' AND THEIR ANTICS...

National Review's Tim Cavanaugh does an obit for Glen Larson, the TV producer who died recently. One of Larson's shows was "Quincy, M.E.," which gives Cavanaugh an opportunity to correct the record on a malign social influence from years past:

While Quincy has a claim to being the progenitor of the CSI shows, the tools at Klugman’s crime-solving disposal now appear medieval, and the show is today mostly remembered for “Next Stop Nowhere” a late-period episode in which Quincy saves a troubled teen from the clutches of L.A.’s then-thriving punk rock culture. Made long after social causes of the week and Klugman’s penchant for soppy lecturing had begun to capsize the series, the fabled punk rock episode serves as an ironic touchstone for aging hipsters keen to remember when they were all scary and hilarious. On a fresh viewing, however, “Next Stop Nowhere” paints a fully true picture of punk rockers as they really were: deceitful social predators who wouldn’t think twice about framing you for murder and forcing you into a codeine overdose.

Always fighting the last culture war, these guys. But where do they stand on beatniks?