Depth involvement encourages everyone to take himself 
much more seriously than before. As TV cooled off the 
American audience, giving it new preferences and new 
orientation of sight and sound and touch and taste, Al Capp’s 
wonderful brew also had to be toned down. There was no more 
need to kid Dick Tracy or the suspense routines. As MAD  
magazine discovered, the new audience found the scenes and 
themes of ordinary life as funny as anything in remote 
Dogpatch. MAD  magazine simply transferred the world of ads 
into the world of the comic book, and it did this just when the 
TV image was beginning to eliminate the comic book by direct 
rivalry. At the same time, the TV image rendered the sharp and 
clear photographic image as blur and blear. TV cooled off the 
ad audience until the continuing vehemence of the ads and 
entertainment suited the program of the MAD  magazine world 
very well. TV, in fact, turned the previous hot media of photo,