Does ageism on sitcoms matter?

[george ho]

Watching I Love Lucy again, I could not bear its stale (or grating) stories and jokes anymore. Same goes for the rest of pre-'70s shows. Some exceptions are Bachelor Father, a show of a widowed father and his daughter with a Chinese butler. Unfortunately, I no longer get to it anymore. Also, some episodes of Gilligan's Island, I Dream of Jeannie, and Gidget are still solid, but I don't have to watch them again. Syndication tends to treat escapism as its top priority, but I don't feel entertained. I feel annoyed that issues are omitted and over-the-top jokes are all over place. If there are issues, they are treated as jokes, especially in military sitcoms.

Why should today's viewers run away from issues of the past and look forward to something so degrading? Murphy Brown is cited as awfully dated because... well, titular character is self-indulgent, arrogant, obnoxious, whiny, and downright vindictive; humor is repetitive, like secretaries; issues may not be related to today's people anymore, and references are inadequately defined or understood. Community and 30 Rock seem to be more dated than Murphy Brown because... they must have rehashed "Murphy Brown" and split it into "community college" and "NBC-Universal Studio", yet they do not have main characters as newsanchors. To me, Murphy Brown was groundbreaking at its prime before cable news networks took away integrity and respect of journalism in favor of viewership and "lowest common denominator" demos.

In one scene of an episode, some newsanchor was investigating the homeless, but he would be disappointed that viewers would rather watch a tabloid-trash show than his hard-working piece an investigated issue. He admitted this to his pal Murphy Brown at the restaurant. Even today, newspieces wouldn't save homelessness; rather they are investigated by journalists. Nothing was more poignant than this.

Two and a Half Men and 2000s NBC sitcoms wouldn't reach the poignancy of Murphy Brown today, yet everybody called Murphy Brown awfully dated.

[MacLeaper]

I'm not sure if I understand the question. Are you asking if it matters how old the sitcom is when someone is watching (like watching the 1950s show "I Love Lucy" in 2013)? That is what I think you were trying to get at- at first I thought you were asking about prejudices against certain ages in TV sitcoms (typically against either old people or young people- or perhaps both.)

[george ho]

Originally Posted by MacLeaper

I'm not sure if I understand the question. Are you asking if it matters how old the sitcom is when someone is watching (like watching the 1950s show "I Love Lucy" in 2013)? That is what I think you were trying to get at- at first I thought you were asking about prejudices against certain ages in TV sitcoms (typically against either old people or young people- or perhaps both.)

In a sense, yeah. However, I couldn't come up with a better title. I'll edit the title if there is a good alternative.

[Ant-Lox]

Murphy Brown isn't dated, IMO. It's not popular with syndication because it alienates a large portion of people, and you would need to constantly google the people they bring up. I watched the show while it aired, and I was in on the current events, so they are fine to me.

Many shows don't age well, I have not seen an episode of 30 Rock, but I bet it has a ton of references to current events, and current tech. Shows like Seinfeld are able to be somewhat timeless because of the broad approach to humor. Seinfeld himself jokes about everyday subjects, which cross all platforms from rich to poor, black to white, it's why the show still works.

I think you are talking about shows glossing over touchy subjects, The 70's had some of the most honest sitcoms to date.