The one thing about the earlier sitcom worlds that makes it better than here is that nothing truly bad ever happens. It always works out.
Then there are other things that would be problems in the real world but not in sitcom land. Sure, wearing a dress can be cold, but it’s never going to be cold enough to be a problem (unless you’re trapped in a freezer, and then you’ll get out.) Rape is not a problem, either. Abuse isn’t a problem. And people who are act “abnormal” are usually decent people.
I do admit the lack of diversity is a problem, even if you aren’t a minority yourself. But I already live in whitesville USA, so I personally don’t seem much difference. I do know that, if any person of color shows up, anyone who treats them badly will be treated badly, and racism will be solved in 30 minutes.
My point is, the idealization actually does have advantages that make it work. The rosy past really is that rosy in the sitcom world.
Also, no one ever legitimately had anxiety disorders, either, so that would be a plus. All they had was noticing something strange about others and people thinking they are crazy. But I’m genre savvy, so that won’t be a problem. Why would I want to even try to upset the order of things?
I do agree that you have to avoid the “it’s okay to treat your wife like crap” era, and you have to avoid the intentional “dysfunctional family” shows, but the rest would work out pretty well, I think.
Perfect! I always loved that show – there was something about the atmosphere of Newhart’s little Vermont inn that was as idyllic as its opening theme music.
Father Knows Best wouldn’t work because some of the 50s values it extolls would drive me crazy. It is inconceivable that Margaret could ever be anything other than a slavishly devoted housewife and baby factory in a household in which Jim is the lord and master. Minorities are either non-existent or, like the Mexican gardener who makes an appearance in one or two episodes, prove their worth by meekly trying to figuratively whiten and Anglify themselves and thus become “real” Americans, though forever inferior to the authentic ones like the Andersons. There is an amazing episode called “Betty the Engineer” in which Betty tries to become some sort of surveyor, and the show demonstrates how inappropriate this is by having all the male engineers ridicule her – but it all ends well when one of the males brings her a pretty dress and asks her out on a date, and Betty finally learns that a young woman’s true calling is to be a devoted housewife just like her mom.
Andy Griffith is just too rural for me as a place to live. And the Mary Tyler Moore show is somehow vaguely depressing for reasons I can’t quite put my finger on. Mary (and also most of her friends, like Rhoda) is striving to make it in the world, but seems stuck in a sort of permanent limbo. She seems unable to form long-term relationships (which would ruin the show’s premise), she is renting a sort of bachelor pad, her whole existence seems a bit fragile and lonely, surrounded by superficial friends. Her most intimate relationship seems to be an implausibly close bond with a father-figure boss.
Andy Griffith is actually more urban than where I live. (And where I live is still too populated for my tastes–I’d rather have a location more like where the Darlings live, assuming that it had internet access.) Basically, if I can see or even hear a neighbor, the neighbors are too close.
My sitcom theory is that many '60s sitcoms exist together in what I call the Wacky Hijinks Universe. It starts with My Favorite Martian, Bewitched, and I Dream of Genie: the continual use of supernatural power has weakened the fabric of reality, allowing absurdly impossible things to occur. Thus the events pictured in Gilligan’s Island, Green Acres, and The Beverly Hillbillies to name just a few.
Nothing against Robert Young the actor, but Jim was actually kind of a dolt, and virtually every little crisis was resolved regardless of the “advice” he dispensed. I always got the feeling that Margaret was just humoring him, and the household ran on a combination of her management and sheer inertia.
By the end of FKB, Kitten was 15 but they still had her clothes and hairdo that of a pre-teen. Total misfire. Lauren Chapin had gotten all teenage “tits and lipstick” but they didnt want to let Kitten grow up.
That’s the thing. We know that in reality, the world depicted in those sitcoms didn’t exist - the women were frustrated by how limited their options were, African Americans were excluded from almost everything, etc. etc. BUT in the TV sitcom versions, all was well.
Of course I would never want to live in the “real” version of the sitcom world, since we know it was racist, sexist, and ignorant in so many ways. But if the idealized version were really true, and no one was being harmed and everyone was actually happy? At this stage in my life, where I am retired, slightly lazy, and perfectly happy to divide my time between housewifey things and reading, I’d probably love it.
The cast of Arrested Development is similar to my extended family but more normal.
If they ever made a sitcom of this classic family* I will have found my element.
*featuring awesome Dude Robert-like question: “Dad, why is Rhodesia called Rhodesia?”
I could see myself fitting in also with this family, minus the gratuitous laugh-track, which would probably drive me crazy IRL.
However, that gift the parents give me as motivation to “get ahead”…priceless.
Me and the Chimp - They could maybe write an episode where I move in as the “grumpy border” and have to put up that goddamn monkey stealing food off my plate, among other headaches.
Interesting question. I had a good childhood and can’t think of any classic-era sitcoms I’d want to live in, although as a white guy and a lawyer I’d be in pretty good shape in Fifties TV society. Later on, being pals with the characters on Friends, Roseanne, Seinfeld or Frasier might be fun for awhile.
Something similar happens in Ken Grimwood’s excellent live-your-life-over-again novel Replay.
Ugh, no. If I ended up stuck in Cicely, Alaska, I’d probably kill Dr. Fleischman’s infuriatingly passive-aggressive secretary within a week.
Well said, and seconded (except for the “housewifey” part).
In one of his travelogue series, Michael Palin was in Rhodesia, and explained that it was named for Cecil Rhodes. I assume he did so as a deliberate callback.
TBH, if we were suddenly put back in our childhood selves, we would seem to our parents, teachers, social circle etc to have undergone a SUDDEN and MASSIVE personality change. Also, neither my primary or high school allowed female students to wear the trousers version of the school uniform until years after i had left them so that would s u c k right off the bat.
Wouldn’t like to live in Columbo. I’d soon get mighty sick of the trench-coated lackwit always saying “just one more thing” and squinting with his fake eye!
no, but its a tv show i still wouldn’t like to live in.
As for a sitcom, I’d enter Family Ties with a magic wand and change Brian Bonsall’s character to a little girl who might be much more tolerable to live with.
Provided you didn’t live in Los Angeles, murder anyone, or especially if you weren’t Robert Culp, I don’t think you’d ever come to Columbo’s attention.
And anyway it’s not “his” universe; he shares a reality with several other notable persons including M.E. Quincy and Deputy Marshal McCloud:
