I'm a 45-year-old mother ...
Question: I'm a 45-year-old mother concerned about today's programming. It seems all there is to watch is blood, murder and sex. Whatever happened to funny family shows? You cannot sit down as a family and watch TV anymore. I'm not sure whom the networks are trying to appeal to, but do they realize that there are still generations of families with kids watching TV at 8 pm? This is a sad state of affairs when I can't even let my 15-year-old sit down with me to watch TV. We're reduced to Nick at Nite! When there is a good show, the networks cancel it. Look at the history:
American Dreams,
Yes, Dear, all replaced with sex:
Two and a Half Men, the
CSIs,
Grey's Anatomy. And how many nights can they shove
Dancing with the Stars down our throats? I'm just disgusted that when I sit down to relax, there's nothing to watch anymore.
Answer: Unfortunately, I can't give you much hope. These days, the networks' idea of "family" programming takes the form of the more benign reality programs, like
Dancing with the Stars,
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and, of course,
American Idol. (I'd include
The Amazing Race to the list, because of its value as a thrilling travelogue.) The sad fact is that the family sitcom is a very endangered species, virtually invisible on the networks right now. And those few that still exist are awfully mediocre:
According to Jim,
George Lopez, etc. What TV really needs is the next
Cosby Show,
Home Improvement or
Roseanne, something of genuine quality with an original or at least relatable point of view that can be enjoyed across generations. The cable sitcoms geared toward kids are generally too simplistic to appeal to adults, and most of today's network sitcoms are geared toward the 18-to-34 audience, if not older, often leaning on sexual innuendo (not always a bad thing, though rarely kid-friendly) for its humor. We've already had the debate in this column about the suitability of
Friday Night Lights for families, though a 15-year-old would hardly be unfamiliar with the world it depicts. It's not bathed in nostalgia like
American Dreams, but still, there's great value there. Bottom line: this really is a tough time for anyone who wishes that TV could present a sanitized, rose-colored worldview to their children the way that it used to. Even tougher for anyone looking for good, smart, clean humor. When did everyone lose that knack?
