| In the '30s and '40s, during the heyday of radio | | | | were happening in the world. His perplexity |
| and long before television, comedy was king. | | | | reflected the country's own confusion at the time. |
| People were sick of the realities of the Great | | | | But whether he liked it or not, the world was |
| Depression and wanted to laugh. Jack Benny, Fred | | | | changing.Diversity was becoming a social and |
| Allen, Burns and Allen, and Amos and Andy were | | | | economic force. Happy Days and the Jeffersons |
| some of the big stars. What Americans wanted in | | | | were joined by Sanford and Son. An interstellar |
| entertainment was obvious and it didin't take a | | | | couple even made an appearance in Mork and |
| great deal of psychoanalyzing to understand | | | | Mindy and Three's Company dealt with unmarried |
| why.Then came the fifties and television became | | | | men and women living together. Not surprisingly, |
| the popular media. Fans followed their favorite | | | | Good Times and Luverne and Shirley looked back |
| comedians to the screen and comedy stars, | | | | to the simpler days of the 'fifties and family |
| especially Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Jack Benny | | | | values shone through in the Brady Bunch and the |
| were the household words. It was a return to the | | | | Partridge Family. But in the end, the most |
| days of Vaudeville. But a new form of comedy | | | | memorable series of all would be a reflection on |
| appeared, the Sitcom. America was blessed with I | | | | Viet Nam. Though set in the Korean War, M.A.S.H. |
| Love Lucy, probably the greatest series ever to | | | | reflected on the insanity of war and quietly |
| appear, and the nearly as good, The | | | | reminded us that we had lost for the first time |
| Honeymooners. Desi and Lucy, the Cramdens and | | | | since 1812.Archie Bunker's confusion carried on |
| the Norrises were real people. But with comedy, | | | | into the 1980s and America seemed to share his |
| another type of show, the western, began to | | | | obsession about crime. Hill Street Blues, was about |
| dominate air time. Gunsmoke was a popular radio | | | | murders and drug trafficking and the very real |
| show and moved easily onto camera with James | | | | people who had to deal with it. Americans |
| Arness replacing William Conrad as Matt Dillon.Soon | | | | watched gritty shows like NYPD Blue and Miami |
| came Richard Boone as Palladin in Have Gun Will | | | | Vice and the slightly less violent Cagney and |
| Travel, Clint Eastwood and Rawhide and | | | | Lacey and Hunter. With Ronald Reagan president, |
| numerous other shows set in the old west. Fans | | | | family values now clearly predominated. Family |
| clearly liked the genre, but the question is why. | | | | Ties had a young neocon as its hero, but |
| The most common reason given is that | | | | Different Strokes, with its mixed race family, |
| Americans were sick of the restrictions and | | | | showed that blacks were now clearly included in |
| rationing imposed during the Second World War | | | | the American consensus. The importantce of |
| and the storied freedom of the west was the | | | | family even extended to Aliens, with Alf, and to |
| type of catharsis they needed. Yes there were | | | | the local bar with the close ties between the |
| bad guys, just as there were in the real world, | | | | characters on Cheers. Reagan's economic bubble |
| but the cowboy hero would step in to straighten | | | | burst in October of 1987 and the Wonder Years |
| things out, then ride off into the sunset. I believe | | | | reflected back to the joys of an earlier and |
| that many people knew America was needed in | | | | perhaps simpler age.A subdued America elected |
| the world, but hoped it could clean up the mess | | | | the senior Bush to replace Reagan and sitcoms |
| and leave.The 'sixties had myriad detective shows. | | | | ruled as America entered the 'Nineties. With the |
| Something clearly was wrong in the world at the | | | | election of Bill Clinton the focus seemed to shift |
| time. The Soviets were ahead of us in scientific | | | | away from family values, though they were still |
| technology, launching the first satellites. Our | | | | clearly there in a slightly different format in shows |
| foreign policy didn't seem to be working. | | | | like Rosanne and Friends. The most important |
| Long-time friendly regimes were being | | | | new show starred the Jewish comedian Jerry |
| overthrown, civil wars in Africa, and we had | | | | Seinfeld. The realism of the cop shows of the 80s |
| communism at our southern border that refused | | | | reappeared in force with Law and Order. |
| to go away when we tried to force them out. | | | | Concerns about the end of Millenium and the |
| The Bay of Pigs was an enormous blow to our | | | | possible end of the world came to focus in |
| national pride. We would take more with the Viet | | | | Milennium and the cult-favorite, the X-Files.Law and |
| Nam War, the unrest of the Civil Rights | | | | Order continued into the new milennium and has |
| Movement, the Kennedy Assassination(s), the | | | | spawned two sequels. The most important new |
| Assassination of Martin Luther King and the Long | | | | development was the rise of the Crime Scene |
| Hot Summers.Someone or something was to | | | | Investigator shows which began with CSI in 2000. |
| blame and we needed detectives to figure things | | | | After 9/11, three more CSI shows have come to |
| out. Nearly everyone who watched TV at the | | | | the small screen. Why? Perhaps people are still |
| time can remember "Book 'im, Dano," from | | | | wondering about how 9/11 could have happened. |
| Hawaii-Five-O and Peter Gunn's racy sports car. | | | | Just as important, who was behind it and how can |
| Two of my personal favorites were Mannix and | | | | they be tracked down and brought to justice. The |
| Mission Impossible. With the bloodshed and the | | | | nitty-gritty of Forensics might just be the way |
| uncovering of clues, Sitcoms carried on the | | | | the case will ultimately be solved.In conclusion, our |
| tradition of real people with the Andy Griffith | | | | entertainment has always reflected the things we |
| Show and Leave it to Beaver.Sitcoms came on | | | | most needed to deal with. At times, it can provide |
| even stronger in the 'seventies when the country | | | | an escape. At others, it may even have pointed |
| reacted to the social activism of the 'sixties and | | | | out the way to a solution. Either way, it has |
| the country made a sharp turn to the right. Mary | | | | always been one of our most important forms of |
| Tyler Moore was the farm girl who came to | | | | dealing with issues.Raymond John loves mysteries |
| Minneapolis to make good at a television station. | | | | and forensics and they play an important role in |
| All in the Family became the most famous sitcom | | | | his novel, The Cellini Masterpiece, written under |
| of all times with a harried average-guy hero who | | | | the pen-name of Raymond John. |
| couldn't seem to put a handle on all the things that | | | | |