http://tucsoncitizen.com/retroflections/2012/10/08/the-changing-face-of-sitcoms/ Go down memory lane with Retroflections Thu, 30 May 2013 05:07:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 http://tucsoncitizen.com/retroflections/2012/10/08/the-changing-face-of-sitcoms/#comment-9216 Ado Egbdf Thu, 11 Oct 2012 18:08:00 +0000 http://tucsoncitizen.com/retroflections/?p=779#comment-9216 You must have missed “The Life of Riley” on TV. Riley(William Bendix) worked in an aircraft plant in California and left home carrying his lunch pail. The Life of Riley actually started as a radio program in the 1940′s. It was very “middle class”.

]]> http://tucsoncitizen.com/retroflections/2012/10/08/the-changing-face-of-sitcoms/#comment-9215 Ado Egbdf Thu, 11 Oct 2012 14:15:00 +0000 http://tucsoncitizen.com/retroflections/?p=779#comment-9215 Personally, I have no great love of any T.V. show that needs canned laughter as a regular part of it’s soundtrack in order to be successful at selling humor to it’s viewers. I suppose those erudite gay writers and directors in Tinseltown found the need to clue in all the country bumpkins comprising their fan base as to what is actually funny so they could “get” the joke. I always resented their canned laughter in a soundtrack because I know I’m smart enough to know what is funny and what isn’t and the difference between the two. Apparently, those guys in Hollywood figured the rest of the world really needed to be clued in to their kind of “funny”. On the other hand, that may be the only kind of laughter many of their perverse jokes will get. That may well be why I have seldom watched sitcoms since my childhood days of watching Ricky & Lucy and the Beaver. There is something very irritating about letting Hollywood types define for me what is humor, as if I the viewer just wasn’t clued in enough to get it. Well, judging from the intelligence level of their average audience, perhaps they were on to something. However, if I was a sitcom fan, I wouldn’t advertise the fact that I needed a little prompting to understand corny jokes. The fact that today’s sitcoms have degraded to the point where homosexuals are shown toting babies around is no great cause for joy either, IMO. At least Lucy and Ricky were never telling perverse off color jokes. That the American public has allowed Hollywood to stretch the envelope of what is acceptable behavior is no great cause to celebrate. It only shows the intelligence level and the gullibility of a viewing public that allows themselves to be force fed material having little or no redeeming social value. Hollywood lifestyles are not the norm, have never been the norm, and will not become the norm in the foreseeable future, in spite of Hollywood writer’s best attempts to redefine normal.

]]> http://tucsoncitizen.com/retroflections/2012/10/08/the-changing-face-of-sitcoms/#comment-9214 Fraser007 Wed, 10 Oct 2012 01:44:00 +0000 http://tucsoncitizen.com/retroflections/?p=779#comment-9214 A 1990′s episode of “law and Order” still beats 80% of shows that are on TV. Same for The Outer Limits or the Twilight Zone.

]]> http://tucsoncitizen.com/retroflections/2012/10/08/the-changing-face-of-sitcoms/#comment-9213 Karyn_Zoldan Tue, 09 Oct 2012 21:01:00 +0000 http://tucsoncitizen.com/retroflections/?p=779#comment-9213 I grew up in the time that you did. I used to think that there was something wrong with my family because my father didn’t don a suit and go out in the world with a briefcase and my mother didn’t wear pearls to mop the floor. I thought the whole world was different because of what we watched on TV. Television was so white bread and we just weren’t.

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