I liked this post at Medium from Oren Cass on the attitudes towards work and families in late 20th and early 21st century America. Here’s a snippet:
From 1992 to 2017, the Emmy went almost every year to a show about white-collar adults working in Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston, New York, or Washington, few of whom were raising children. The one exception is The Office, about paper salesmen in Scranton, but its primary vein of humor was the evidently miserable lives and meaningless jobs of its provincial subjects (none of whom seemed to have a family, either). In 2017, the seven nominations went to shows about an ad executive and his family in Los Angeles, professionals and their families in Los Angeles, an actor in New York, a young woman restarting her life as a nanny in New York, political operatives in New York and Washington, nerds in Silicon Valley, and rappers in Atlanta. Has a lineup starring characters male and female; gay and straight; black, white, and Hispanic, ever looked so little “like America�
The reality is that most people are in “dead end jobs” and most have families. “Looking like America” apparently has its limits on television.
My wife and I frequently play a game when watching TV: spot the discrepancy. Examples: palm and eucalyptus trees in what’s supposed to be Chicago or Washington, DC. Do television programs reflect America or are they actually all about Los Angeles? Another little exercise: tally up the iconic TV programs that are about working class or non-professional white collar families. The Honeymooners, All in the Family, Roseanne, and so on. Sure, you can find exceptions. Something has changed in attitudes and its contours really suggest it involves looking down on ordinary people.
Or is it the key demographic is young, rich, urbanites?
A game me and the wife play is to guess whether its acting skill, makeup or plastic surgery on various performers. Also a bit of schadenfreude when seeing how some have gotten more hmm rounded.
My cousin works in production on the TV show “Chicago Fire,” which I’ve never seen until I heard my uncle was going to have a guest spot at the end of an episode. I caught it VOD and fast-forwarded to the last scene, in which a large cast had gathered in a bar to unwind after a busy day.
These firefighters were the most beautiful firefighters I’ve ever seen in my life; they really should quit their jobs and move to Hollywood. The bar looked pretty much like a yuppie bar and they looked more as if they’d be more comfortable in a juice and smoothie bar. My uncle, with a noticeable beer belly, was in the background adding a touch of social realism.
(It’s filmed in Chicago inside some huge warehouse on the near South side I believe. My cousin isn’t involved in casting or set-design, and probably would respond, “duh, its a soap opera.”)
“These firefighters were the most beautiful firefighters I’ve ever seen in my life; they really should quit their jobs and move to Hollywood. The bar looked pretty much like a yuppie bar and they looked more as if they’d be more comfortable in a juice and smoothie bar.”
LOL There are so many hot babes on cop drama shows I was thinking about a second career in law enforcement……………..and then I saw an episode of ‘Cops.’
And how many people watch anyway?
Numbers of times stars hit the news and I’ve never heard of them before.
As I have mentioned before in my wife’s family firefighting is sort of the family business. Her uncles are retired firefighters, her brother is a retired firefighter, her nephew is a firefighter, one of her grandnephews is a firefighter. Her brother fits the category of “most beautiful firefighter” pretty neatly or at least he used to.
I remember reading about this a few years ago. I think part of it is Hollywood, but also demographics, viewing habits, and available alternatives.
As I recall, the younger you are, the less TV you watch – the over 50 demographic (primarily boomers) watch more TV than anyone else. And TV viewership is declining among younger cohorts.
I think much of middle America prefers reality TV. The growth in reality TV seems to mirror the decline in middle/lower-class sitcoms.
I also wonder about streaming and device usage rates.
I don’t believe that. I think that networks prefer producing them because they’re cheap.
Evidence: among most-watched shows in streaming services not one is a reality program. Sports, yes, but not reality.
I agree w/ Andy about nostalgia being a main driver of network sitcoms, but I think the age is probably closer to 40s and 50s.
The Goldbergs, mentioned in the linked piece, is a family comedy about a Jewish family living in suburban Phili in the 80s based upon the 42 year-old creator’s own life. “The Kids are Alright” is about an Irish-Catholic family raising seven sons in the 1970s. “Fresh Off the Boat” is about a Chinese immigrant family in Orlando in the 1990s.
Even if they are not set in the past, some of the family sitcoms derive plots from how the parents are raising the kids these days differently than when they were young, sometimes with the aid of grandparents on cast (Blackish; American Housewife). Parents are the focus though of today’s family sit-coms, kids would find them boring.
Also, the nostalgia factor of Will & Grace; Murphy Brown & the Connors, which I think two of the three would be Gen X sitcoms.
I dont think I would use the Emmy award as any kind of measure here. It is a beauty contest. Just go through the channels one at a time. There is Duck Dynasty, multiple religious channels, lots of reality cop shows and intervention programs, QVC and its clones, Swamp People, nostalgia channels, sci-fi, lots of cooking channels and a lot of that aimed at or for country folks. There is no lack of programming about and for working class folks.
Steve