Where have all the good sitcoms gone? It’s a question that plagues TV viewers when we are bombarded with shows like “Till Death�? and have to watch Brad Garrett lecture Finch from American Pie on how his life has ended now that he’s become a limp-wristed child thanks to the institution of marriage. Not quite the guy who f***ed Stifler’s mom.
I’ll tell you what’s wrong with sitcoms nowadays: emasculation of the American Male due to Political Correctness. Is there even one strong male character on TV nowadays? No. They’re all portrayed as weak-willed morons whose humorous schemes always fail and are always being lectured to by their wives or the significant female leads without even trying to stand up for themselves. Whatever happened to the days of Ralph Kramden telling Alice, “straight to the moon�? whenever she nagged him-and ladies he did not mean a vacation! Where is Archie Bunker being…Archie Bunker? These were strong men who were memorable characters. The problem with strong male characters like Archie and Ralph is that if they get put on the air the network gets labeled as sexist- and God forbid we put entertaining television over being politically correct.
The biggest problem with the PC crowd is they have no sense of humor and they’re so dumb that they can’t separate fact from fiction. When they watch sitcoms, they think they’re watching documentaries! It’s because of this situation that the only good programming on television can be found in cartoons like South Park and Family Guy, or anything on Adult Swim. These shows can get away with edgy humor because they’re cartoons and, therefore, aren’t considered as ‘influential’ as other programs you might see on NBC’s “Must See TV�? line up. This is too bad because a) South Park is perhaps the smartest show on TV right now due to something called subtlety and b) the sharp humor on these shows draws ratings. If anybody had any sense they’d be looking at what’s behind these programs to create a show that works instead of just copying them at face value.
So to those of you out in Hollywood looking to make a good sitcom here’s a winning formula: bring back the Archie Bunker’s and Ralph Kramden’s of old and give them the in-your-face plots found in the South Park’s and Family Guy’s of today, and you might have a hit on your hands. If not, we can always count on Homer Simpson to show us the way.
