Yesterday on Twitter I made one of those jokes that is bound to become a reality at some point: I proposed developing a “Great Television Shows of the Western Tradition” sequence similar to a “Great Books” curriculum. . . Let’s assume from the outset that you have one 13-week semester to give a decent overview of the sitcom, and let’s limit it to the American sitcom just to make it more manageable (we can do British shows as an elective or something). Some shows seem non-negotiable — I Love Lucy, Dick van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore, Golden Girls, The Cosby Show, Seinfeld.
And this will be the moment when I retire and find a job in sales. It will be more rewarding to sell any kind of junk than to witness the endless navel-gazing of the most stupid and infantile among us.
Clarissa's Blog 
Sounds like pop culture studies. We do sort of have that in sociology, though I never took a class that was focused that narrowly on one form of mass media.
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Well, sociology. . . 🙂 They’ve got to find something to talk about.
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For what it’s worth, i’m sure there are uni coures on sit coms (an important form of popular culture transmission in the US). As a person who finds the fringes more interesting than the mainstream (my favorite film directors include Eric Rohmer and Doris Wishman) it’s not necessarily for me, but an academically rigorous study of the genre is very possible.
On the other hand, the post in question seems like the course (like the comments) would quickly devolve into “Remember that time Lucy got drunk during the commercial” or “Why didn’t they just kill Gilligan and get it over with?” or impromptu sing alongs of ‘thank you for being a friend” or “where everybody knows your name”.
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If at least good, significant shows were chosen but this list contains nothing but the most banal, dime-a-dozen, trivial crap imaginable.
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Well “significant” and “good” are independent variables in American TV, lots of culturally significant shows were basically…. crap (Happy Days) and lots of others were just bland (Cosby show). But they found audiences for a reason and that’s worth exploring. I’ve got a half baked theory or two but I’m not sure if they hold water.
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I watched a lot of those shows, either as a kid or in syndication, but I can’t see them as individual works that will bear much analysis, especially not in structural terms.
Whither the laugh track? What kind of propaganda is softly fed through characters, who, for the most part, never change? What kind of existential dread is this anesthesia for? I mean, you turn to questions of set design, lighting, musical cues, and commercials packaged with the sitcom, and historical context, more than the actual script or the actors themselves.
Of course that would just terrify and annoy undergraduates. “Cosby was just promoting emotional eating while wearing terrible sweaters and pretending like all those kids could make on just two salaries? You’ve ruined my childhood!”
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what giveth us ultimate insight into the yankee doodle dandee?
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“I can’t see them as individual works that will bear much analysis, especially not in structural terms.”
Well….. my theory is about how successful sitcoms (up through about 1990 when I lost track) were largely about fantasy fulfillment and alleviating anxiety. (I’m sure ohers have come up with this before since it’s so blindingly obvious but I just now started thinking about it because of this thread).
Happy Days – Longing for a more benevolently partriarchal society (and the ability to pacify and incorporate potentially dangerous fringe elements).
Cosby Show – A fantasy of how US whites really wished US blacks would behave (instead of how they actually do behave).
Golden Girls – Fantasy of an old age free of weakness, illness, financial concerns or loneliness.
Cheers – Friendly faces in the anonymous urban environment
I could go on, but probably shouldn’t.
“Of course that would just terrify and annoy undergraduates”
BINGO! That’s the problem, I’m sure you could draw in tons of undergraduates with a course on sitcoms but they would balk and rebel at actually looking at them very closely.
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