The advantages of using “The A-Team” to represent the U.S. are: it’s sexist, has token minorities, uses only stereotypical views of foreigners and minorities, makes fun of the mentally handicapped, and, while it starts off sounding like fun, gets very tiresome after only a couple of hours. America!
If America is 90% white (or less, depending on era), then you’d expect the typical show to have about 10% of the cast non-white, and about 10% of shows to have a nonwhite main character. Neither is true of the nominations in this thread. Doubtless part of the blame goes to the entertainment industry, but there have been some TV shows featuring nonwhite people. Where are the mentions of, say, Sandford and Sons, or 227, or The Cosby Show, or Diff’rent Strokes?
Somewhat ironically, two of those shows are adaptations of BBC shows, and while the situation comedy was certainly an American entertainment institution, the general concept was first developed by the British (Pinwright’s Progress).
I’m going to reiterate The Wire as my nomination for “Most American TV Show”; not just because it features a diverse cast, but because it very deliberately presents the trials and failings of American institutions (policing, employment, politics, education, journalism, and of course, “The War on Drugs” with its devastating effects on inner cities that no one has the wherewithal to address). Despite starring a number of British actors in leading roles it is a definitive study of 21st Century America with all of the complexities and contradictions in evidence, and it’s lesson isn’t that our problems are rooted in race or economics but rather the will to look issues and our failures as a society with brutal honesty and take the difficult steps to address them.
Stranger
In my experience, Americans of different races really don’t mix that much socially, even if they’re of the same socioeconomic status. So like it or not, for your typical suburban (or even urban) sitcom to feature, say, blacks and whites living next to each other in perfect harmony would be a distortion of reality, to put it mildly.
One place where they do mix and seem to get along well is at work, and the best example of this I can think of is Barney Miller. Everybody in that show had each other’s back, regardless of race, age, ethnicity, creed, and yes, even intellectual ability. If America could function like the 12th Precinct, many of its problems would be solved.
You wouldn’t though, not for the first half of the era. I mean, where would you shoehorn in ethnic people in “Leave it to Beaver”? And I suspect that all those Westerns may have had at least 10% Native Americans.
The segregation and overt racism of the day combined with the fact that televisions were quite expensive meant that the television audience was overwhelmingly white, so that’s what TV shows targeted.
As time went on, you did start to see more non-white characters and shows- you had Good Times, the Jeffersons, Chico and the Man, Welcome Back Kotter, Fat Albert, Mod Squad, I Spy, Bill Cosby Show, etc. all 40-50 years ago.
Perhaps the most iconic of all TV sitcoms depicted an interracial, or at least an interethnic couple (who procreated and created interethnic children they named after themselves). Nat Cole sold more records than the whole Rat Pack combined (and they were not the WASPiest guys around), and had his own TV show in the fifties. It wasn’t impossible to see him or the Count, or Sir Duke on variety shows way back before they could dine in the places where they entertained (or most places for that matter). As long as you were a famous, super talented entertainer – and didn’t rock the boat or expect equality with the white entertainers, there were opportunities to appear on TV if not recurring roles. (Desi Arnaz did end up running DesiLu Studios, so it was not impossible for people of color to be in positions of power – but it sure was rare.)
In light of this specific topic of race relations (and by extension I presume immigration issues) I suggest for most American TV Show to broadcast on a patriotic holiday: The Black Donnellys. Until the last couple of episodes where Paul Haggis decided to take out his frustration and anger with the studio and network on his characters—it is perhaps one of the best depictions of poor immigrants and their struggle to capture the ‘American Dream’ ever televised. Plus, you could *almost *run the entire series twice in a single day.
It does occur to me that while the entire show is built upon ethnic rivalry, it is also very, very white. I don’t recall a single Black, Hispanic, or Asian character in the whole series. (And having nothing to do with the OP or anything else, the cancellation of this show is even more infuriating to me than the cancellation of Firefly.)
The Simpsons, thirded.
I concur. I especially like the sentiment of the last sentence.
If you could run a marathon of Barney Miller shows with no laugh track, it would be a boon unto all humanity.
Also the first show I thought of, and I think it fits the request better than game shows or Star Trek.
Another vote for “Happy Days.” It’s not the most realistic one, but it’s the “USA” that so many Americans want to recreate.
If you want the most “real” USA for the largest number of Americans, then I’d say “Alice.”
Another suggestion: [The] American Experience.
America’s longest running TV show.
America’s best TV show.
America’s other best TV show.
The longest running scripted primetime show, anyway. At 29 seasons and counting, it’s still decades behind a number of news shows, talk shows, and soap operas.
Covering all of July:
The OJ trial, 24/7 for a week.
Followed by Oprah, 24/7 for the second week.
Third week: A real-time scroll of Donald Trump’s tweets, with continuous voiceover by four well-known ultra-liberal commentators. And by four well-known ultra-conservative commentators, at the same time. And they can all hear each other. If Trump goes 20 minutes without a tweet, all the commentators have to vote on what to talk about next.
Week 4: Monday Night Football for 6 minutes, The Shopping Channel for 6 minutes, televangelists for 22 minutes, America’s Top Conspiracy Theories for 26 minutes, back to football and repeat the cycle. (Note: football returns to the game 54 minutes later, doesn’t pick up where it left off.)
July 29-31: Live candid video following children arriving at the southern border and their subsequent experiences. Unedited, without commentary.
American Dad.
Baywatch certainly did.
And also America’s most bipartisan show! According to a 2016 survey, *Supernatural *is the most popular show among Republicans, and the third-most popular show among Democrats. I don’t think you can find a consensus like that on anything else in the United States.
I would have to go with Celebrity Apprentice.
Hákarl, probably. 