Turn on the sitcom that is the hottest television show in Russia, and it all seems so familiar. Moored to his living room couch is a shoe salesman who is more interested in watching sports than conjugal relations. His wife has shocking hair and an even more shocking mouth. A couple of ne’er-do-well teenagers round out this bawdy, bickering bunch.
In fact, the show is an authorized copy of the American sitcom “Married With Children,” with a Russian cast and dialogue but scripts that hew closely to those of the original. This knockoff is such a sensation, especially among younger viewers, that its actors have become household names, and advertisements for its new season are plastered around Moscow.
A drumbeat of anti-Americanism may be coming from the Kremlin these days, but across Russia people are embracing that quintessentially American genre, the television sitcom, not to mention one of its brassiest examples. And curiously enough, it is the Russian government that has effectively brought “Married With Children” to this land, which somehow made it through the latter half of the 20th century without the benefit of the laugh track.
The show’s success says something not only about changing tastes here but also about Russia’s standing. Sitcoms are typically grounded in middle-class life and poke fun at it. The popularity of Russian versions of “Married With Children” and other adaptations of American sitcoms suggests that Russia has gained enough stability and wealth in recent years that these jokes resonate with viewers.
I remember being in the 5th grade and having a teacher frown with furrowed brow at me when I mentioned that I’d watched “Married with Children.” This was at the same time “The Simpsons” were taking so much flack, and both were seen as derogatory and hateful to the family and virtue. But, even though one can’t look at “Married” and see a necessarily positive view of married life, I have to wonder today if the fact that they were [i]in fact still married[/i] was a positive thing. Of course it may have reinforced the desire of younger people to not get married, I don’t know… just a thought.
The triumph of the west, making the world safe for . . . [i]Married with Children[/i]? In the land of Chekhov, no less.
I haven’t felt this ambivalent for awhile.
the conservative case for “Married with Children”:
http://www.nationalreview.com/derbyshire/derbyshire022103.asp
America’s gift to world culture. @@
I liked Al Bundy.
Al Bundy–Ohio University’s finest.