Do Comic Books Make us Smarter?

[Klar Ken T5477]

Jeopardy is a fraud in some ways, the reason is because whenever they have a topic that I am familar with, the answers (questions) are actually very easy. So it is not really as hard as it appears.

True but what about the subjects/topics you're not familiar with - say Tree Sloths of South America?  Or Indigenous Rocks? Or  'Metamorpho' rocks?

Well, we all know Metamorpho rocks! 

[TELLE]

the shows that really built intelligence in viewers were the old anthology shows like Twilight Zone, Climax or Playhouse 90.  There was some great writing on those shows, and without the "crutch" of continuing characters and ongoing subplots.

I'm glad you put quotes around crutch --I'd think that writing intelligent stories with continuing characters is much harder than doing it only once. 

[MatterEaterLad]

Getting a coherent and yet memorable story into an hour (with commercials) is a difficult proposition, just like an 8 page comic story.

I have huge admiration for the writers of one hour TV dramas, more than the meanderings of the never-ending serial...