TMC
12-07-2022, 04:30 AM
https://jacksonupperco.com/2022/12/06/the-ten-best-living-single-episodes-of-season-one/
Over the years, this blog has covered both Seinfeld and Friends, two of the 1990s’ most beloved “hangout” sitcoms, launching a spate of similar network comedies about “Singles in the City,” whose personal pursuits inside ensembles of mostly unmarried pals informed their series’ storytelling. These shows were a growing trend in the early ‘90s, as the industry started catering to a Gen X demographic that was waiting a little longer to marry and spending more of their twenties single, living away from home and with friends. (Martin is our most recent example.) Accordingly, while I think hits obviously dictate programming waves and therefore the more popular a show, the more apt it is to be influential (which is why Seinfeld and Friends often get credit), I don’t look to any sitcom from this era as having a proprietary hold on this low-concept premise (not even the über-successful Seinfeld); it’s simply too generic to be hailed as an original thought — “hangout” comedies, though less popular, have been in existence in some form since the ‘60s. I point this out here because the conversation surrounding Living Single — which has typically been underrated in comparison to other, more mainstream entries — too often argues its merits on the basis of it being more seminal.
Over the years, this blog has covered both Seinfeld and Friends, two of the 1990s’ most beloved “hangout” sitcoms, launching a spate of similar network comedies about “Singles in the City,” whose personal pursuits inside ensembles of mostly unmarried pals informed their series’ storytelling. These shows were a growing trend in the early ‘90s, as the industry started catering to a Gen X demographic that was waiting a little longer to marry and spending more of their twenties single, living away from home and with friends. (Martin is our most recent example.) Accordingly, while I think hits obviously dictate programming waves and therefore the more popular a show, the more apt it is to be influential (which is why Seinfeld and Friends often get credit), I don’t look to any sitcom from this era as having a proprietary hold on this low-concept premise (not even the über-successful Seinfeld); it’s simply too generic to be hailed as an original thought — “hangout” comedies, though less popular, have been in existence in some form since the ‘60s. I point this out here because the conversation surrounding Living Single — which has typically been underrated in comparison to other, more mainstream entries — too often argues its merits on the basis of it being more seminal.