These shows, we’re told by Hollywood, are “reality programs” reflecting “normal” families. They are, network executives would have us believe, more accurate depictions of the American family than fictional families of old: the Cleavers, the Bradys, the Huxtables, even the Simpsons. But when did any of our realities include buying a $9,000 grill like Denise Richards, or sitting down with our youngest daughter to watch a porn tape possibly starring our oldest child?
Completely missing from these shows is the one thing that keeps us tuning in, year after year, to reruns of Leave it to Beaver, The Brady Bunch and The Cosby Show, the same ingredient that has kept The Simpsons on the air longer than any other sitcom in the history of television. At the end of It’s Complicated or Living Lohan we are not left with the belief that a family, headed by a wise and loving parent, will somehow come through its struggles better off and stronger for having worked through them together. Rather, we are left shocked at the complete and utter absence of a true parental figure and certain that, somehow, any problems those families encounter are largely caused by the parents themselves. If watching these shows leaves us with that same warm, fuzzy and affirmed feeling that the sitcoms of old did, it’s simply because ”” by comparison ”” our realities look so much more sane than theirs.
What deluded person believes “Reality” TV is actually reality? I think its more contrived than any genre.
Strange. We have heard again and again that the Cleavers were utterly unrealistic. When I was young, in the 40’s, I lived in a little town in SE New Hampshire and went to high school in a neighboring town in Mass. Most of the families I knew, regardless of income or level of education or religion, were very much like the Cleavers. It’s that simple. Dad worked and Mum stayed home to raise the children. If they couldn’t afford that, Mum worked part time. And everyone sat down at the supper table together because both mother and father made it mandatory. Do you suppose that the absence of television sets had anything to do with it?
And it is true that the contemporary family is a pitiable affair – no, contemptible and unsavory. I know three sets of parents who smoke marijuana with their children. And I have watched, over the years in high school, the steady decay of adolescents into selfish, troubleprone, whining, drug-using, sex-busy idlers – save those who were driven like sheep by their parents to achieve, in ever bigger and bigger capitals. The kids are often clean and comfy and tidy and polite and do social service sorts of activities – but they do not hesitate to drink, use drugs, spread sex around, and cheat in school – and they do it without any sense of shame or wrongdoing.
My son graduated from Colby a year ago. He told me that he thought this would change because his generation looked at the parents they have seen again and again, and they have sworn that they will NEVER be like them. Larry
I have a few random comments on this article upon further reflection. First, I read in the paper a few days ago that the man who played “The Beaver” turned 60. Hard to believe.
Secondly, I think this article makes an interesting point about rerun value. If reality shows are, in fact, reality, then it would seem that they would have higher rerun value. In actuality, who wants to watch a rerun of reality TV? It’s bad enough the first time around. Since the rerun value is basically zero, I have to assume that its the one time shock or surprise value that makes people tune in, in which case it can’t be classified as reality because reality would seem to be predictable.
Thirdly, I grew up, not that long ago, in a more modern version of the Cleaver family. My mother worked part time, usually night shift at the hospital as she was a nurse. So, she was always home in the day times when I got home from school. We always sat down to dinner at 6. I don’t think we were all that much of an anomaly. Granted, we lived in the South, which was more prone than other places in the country to want to cling to the traditional family model at least in theory.
I did know kids from divorced families, single moms, etc., but it was fairly rare. In fact, I remember my best friend’s parents from my elementary days got a divorce when I was in 4th grade, which would have been in the mid-80s I guess. I remember being sort of shocked by it because I think that was the first person I knew whose parents divorced. Oddly enough my father’s parents divorced when he was really little, which was unheard of in the South in 1960 or so. He did not meet another person from a divorced home until he was in college in the 70s.
Why not families like the Taylor’s in “Home Improvement”? I’d add them to the list of good tv families any day.
Frankly, there hasn’t been a decent ‘family’ sit-com since HI went off the air. My kids still love the reruns!
Jim Elliott
I agree, the end of Home Improvement was the beginning of the end of any form of true family sitcom that had rerun value. That’s sad if you think about it.