LORI: So you've just come from two hours of playing Wii video games with your grandsons. How did it go?
GARRY: I need a Fudgsicle and then a nap.
LORI: Seriously. Was it fun or grueling?
GARRY: Grueling if it was with someone else's grandkids, but fun because they're mine.
LORI: Learn anything?
GARRY: First of all, I was struck by how different their childhoods are from mine. I spent my days as a kid riding my bike around the Grand Concourse in the Bronx and playing stickball and punchball. They spend their days driving cars around a virtual track and crashing into each other.
LORI: Is one better than the other?
GARRY: One thing is for sure: Those boys definitely have better hand-eye coordination than I could ever hope for.
LORI: I don't know, Dad. It seems to me that today's kids are becoming less physically active because of technology.
GARRY: You sound very old-fashioned. In between panty raids in college and joining the PTA, you've become Old Mother Hubbard.
LORI: I'm not old-fashioned at all. I played beer pong and I have been on many Wii sprees.
GARRY: Do you Twitter?
LORI: No. I don't even know what Twitter is. Do you?
GARRY: No. But I'm open to it because I think the world is a better place than when I was growing up and I think we have to give technology a lot of that credit.
LORI: But what about violence?
GARRY: Sure. I admit it. I beat up a guy named Freaky Freddie when I was growing up. I smacked him over the head with my calculus book.
LORI: Not your violence! The violence in the video games. Did you see a lot of it today?
GARRY: Sam, Ethan, and I blew up a lot of cars and drove some off the cliffs. But they were virtual cars. No one got hurt in real life.
LORI: But what is it teaching the boys? That it's okay to blow up cars and drive them off cliffs?
GARRY: It was a game, not a one-way ticket to San Quentin.
LORI: But doesn't it speak to the fact that they would be better off doing something else? Running? Jumping? Skipping?
GARRY: I don't think video games lead to beating people up. It's entertainment. Like you had board games, Sam and Ethan have video games and it teaches them all kind of things. You played Monopoly but you didn't end up becoming a real estate mogul.
LORI: What could they possibly learn from videos?
GARRY: Baseball. Tennis. And even bowling. Ethan beat me and I tied Sam twice. And I wasn't bad at sword-fighting either.
LORI: Sword-fighting?
GARRY: Don't knock it until you try it. Maybe you're a sword-fighter in the rough. And we don't even face each other when we swordfight. We face the TV and stab at the air. Stabbing air is not violent.
LORI: So you think I should stop worrying that we're raising a generation of physically unfit kids who just sit around all day playing video games?
GARRY: Yes. Stop worrying. Now I have to go and Skype Siena.
LORI: Siena, your granddaughter, who's only seven months old?
GARRY: She already Skypes like a pro. I think she's done it in four states so far. Maybe Europe, too.
LORI: I guess maybe I am old-fashioned.
GARRY: There is one great thing about video games that you'd appreciate.
LORI: What?
GARRY: It tires the kids out. Just like playing a real sport, they come away feeling exhausted. It's a great way to get the kids to take a nap so you can rest, too.
LORI: I'm exhausted just having this conversation.
GARRY: If you need energy, you should try Wii Rock Band. I play a mean virtual drums.
LORI: Sign me up. After my nap.
The debate continues, when Garry and Lori talk about reading newspapers online vs. in print.
Garry and Lori Marshall
Garry Marshall is a veteran producer, director, and writer of film, television, and theater. After graduating from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, he created, wrote, and produced some of television's most beloved sitcoms: Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Mork & Mindy, and The Odd Couple. He has directed 17 movies, including Pretty Woman, Beaches,The Princess Diaries 1 & 2 and most recently, Valentine's Day. Garry with his oldest daughter, Lori, wrote his autobiography, Wake Me When It's Funny (Newmarket Press, 1997). Lori, who also graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, is a journalist and children's playwright who has written ten produced fairy tales. She is the mom of twin daughters, age 15 going on 40.
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