TMC
08-07-2022, 10:12 PM
https://jacksonupperco.com/2022/08/03/short-lived-sitcom-potpourri-xii-norman-lear-edition/
Thoughts: As the conservative movement found new champions in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s via talk radio, Lear thought the time was right again — as it had been during the Nixon administration — for a show about the country’s political polarization, seen through the construct of a nuclear family. So, he turned back to All In The Family, using it even more directly for guidance than on Sunday Dinner, to craft this similar show about a family divided on both generational and ideological lines — only now, the family would be Black, and instead of the parents being more conservative than their younger counterparts, they would be the liberals. Okay… despite existing as a clear inverse of All In The Family, this isn’t a bad setup, for it has the capacity to work just as well as the aforementioned — as long as its characters are well-defined, and the ensemble relationships can help give motivated emotional weight to their political beefs. What’s more, with the generations switched, there’s the possibility for this show to actually be more nuanced with its topicality, for now the flawed, crotchety father will be embodying the show’s own viewpoint, complicating Lear’s more straightforward messaging… However, there are a few things that keep 704 Hauser (https://web.archive.org/web/20061031125314/http://www.jumptheshark.com/s/704hauser.htm) from rising to the occasion. For one, it’s there in the title — this show is set in a renovated version of the Bunkers’ old house, with the association between these two series meant to provide a thematic hook. And this forces comparisons that do this show — heck, it would do most shows — no favors, for not only are these characters less comedically distinct than the Bunkers (who had the benefit of their era’s more pronounced generation gap connecting the dots), their relationships are also not as strong.
Thoughts: As the conservative movement found new champions in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s via talk radio, Lear thought the time was right again — as it had been during the Nixon administration — for a show about the country’s political polarization, seen through the construct of a nuclear family. So, he turned back to All In The Family, using it even more directly for guidance than on Sunday Dinner, to craft this similar show about a family divided on both generational and ideological lines — only now, the family would be Black, and instead of the parents being more conservative than their younger counterparts, they would be the liberals. Okay… despite existing as a clear inverse of All In The Family, this isn’t a bad setup, for it has the capacity to work just as well as the aforementioned — as long as its characters are well-defined, and the ensemble relationships can help give motivated emotional weight to their political beefs. What’s more, with the generations switched, there’s the possibility for this show to actually be more nuanced with its topicality, for now the flawed, crotchety father will be embodying the show’s own viewpoint, complicating Lear’s more straightforward messaging… However, there are a few things that keep 704 Hauser (https://web.archive.org/web/20061031125314/http://www.jumptheshark.com/s/704hauser.htm) from rising to the occasion. For one, it’s there in the title — this show is set in a renovated version of the Bunkers’ old house, with the association between these two series meant to provide a thematic hook. And this forces comparisons that do this show — heck, it would do most shows — no favors, for not only are these characters less comedically distinct than the Bunkers (who had the benefit of their era’s more pronounced generation gap connecting the dots), their relationships are also not as strong.