Those were the days
“TV today is inhospitable to series like ’All in the Family.’ This is only partly due to TV’s splintering from a handful of channels into hundreds. An equal or larger part of the blame can be laid at the feet of broadcast network executives and their marketers, who figured out (sometime in the late ’80s) that they could make more ad money by junking the ’Big Tent’ model and appealing to white college graduates with loads of disposable income — a description that rules out anyone who looks or sounds like a character from ’All in the Family’ (even Mike or Gloria).
“Except for certain corners of cable — specifically channels that thrive on shows about violent crime and/or revolve around working-class or poor characters — you dont hear people talking about race, class, religion or politics unless the dialogue is jocular and sarcastic and ’just kidding’ (like the banter on ’Glee’ and ’Community’) or the earnest centerpiece of a Very Special Episode.
“And can you remember the last time a broadcast network built a sitcom around fiftysomething, pear-shaped, working-class married people — of any color? Pretty much every modern sitcom lead is under 40 (or trying hard to look it) and fashionably thin or buff.”
— Matt Zoller Seitz, writing on “Why ’All in the Family’ still matters,” on Jan. 12 at Salon
The status quo
“Why is Sarah Palin speaking on this? Why does she have to speak about this?
“Well, because, of course, the Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) have put her in the position of the Son of Sam’s dog, delivering Satanic commands into the jug-ears of bug-eyed freak [Jared] Loughner. They did this on the basis of zero evidence, and, as I keep saying, quite a welter of evidence against the thesis, but they did it just the same, because they can. They don’t have the power to control the Narrative anymore, but they damn sure have the power to push it.
“So here we have the spectacle of someone not the Sheriff of Pima County having to explain her purported negligence in the shooting while the actual Sheriff of Pima County has not been asked a single question about his own. That’s where we are. That’s the country we live in.”
— Blogger Ace of Spades, writing on “Sarah Palin Speaks On Tucson Murders; And The Loughner Left Has Gone Full ’Conscience [sic] Dreaming’” on Jan. 12 at his self-titled site
On Broadway …
“The strict adherence to the gay left dogma can be seen in the product put forth on Broadways stages as well. Last years ’Next Fall’ about a gay couple comprised of a Christian and an atheist portrayed Christian Southerners as backward, hypocritical dolts while the atheist, liberal New Yorker is enlightened and full of wit. It was produced by no less than Elton John and it received nearly unanimous raves from New Yorks liberal theater critics. Of course, ’Next Fall’ was rewarded with a Tony nomination for Best Play. The Broadway audience was not as kind to ’Next Fall’ and it closed after only 132 performances.
“Meanwhile, one is hard pressed to find any play on Broadway in the past two decades that deals with any contrary viewpoint of left-wing gay politics with anything but derision. Characters expressing any opposing position are depicted as stupid at best, evil at worst. From Tony Kushner to Terrance McNally to Eve Ensler, playwrights who promote the extreme gay political position are celebrated, even when their behavior is repulsive (like when Ensler asked a six-year-old girl what her vagina smelled like as part of her ’research’ for 10th anniversary edition of ’The Vagina Monologues’).
“The closest thing one can find to a gay-themed play that features a Republican in a positive role is an Off-Broadway disaster called ’Abraham Lincolns Big, Gay Dance Party’ which ’celebrates’ the founder of the GOP as a bisexual.”
— Larry O’Connor, writing on “Broadway Less Tolerant of Gay Diversity Than GOP,” on Jan. 9 at Big Hollywood
Please read our comment policy before commenting.