Asking me if I have a favorite TV oldie is like asking me if I have a favorite book. There are simply too many for me to pick a favorite. Some of the older shows I really like are Three's Company, Home Improvement, and Married.. With Children. I know they are oldies because my parents enjoyed them but, that being said, they're not super innocent. Three's Company is about three young adults who live together and there are constant references to sex, tons of implied sexuality, and a load of physical humor. Even though this is very different than Home Improvement they share a couple of things. One of the main things that they share is references to sex. There is a good balance in Home Improvement between family values and adult references so that it is a good show for the whole family. Married.. With Children is not a good show for the whole family. It paints humanity in a terrible light as it shows the life of Al Bundy, women's shoe salesman, his kind of whorish wife with her cheetah print, and the two kids they had together. It is raunchy and cheap and hilarious to me and many other fans. So it is nothing other than the fact that I like the shows that I like that makes me enjoy these classic TV oldies.
It's a little scary that Home Improvement and Married are now classics. Not quite as scary as hearing The White Stripes on the classic rock station--that might even be scary for you--but still. Nonetheless, you make a good choice. Not everything classic is necessarily innocent of course. I watched Married before I was 10--parenting was a bit more lax back then, really--and that might explain some things about me. Is there a way that Married has to be a classic to be funny today? In a way, does the label "classic" let things not only get away with being innocent, but being too raunchy? You use the word (makes me cringe a bit) "whorish," but I'm not sure that's inaccurate in terms of how the show depicts Peggy. Could a show get away with a character like her today?
ReplyDeleteMarried is the kind of show that is funnier because it is old but if it came out now it could still get a couple of seasons. It's got a good mix of reality and obscure fantasy elements. Shows get away with characters like Peggy all the time. In fact, many famous women now (Kim K) get away with being far more (word) than Peggy ever was.
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