11–20 of 138 posts
I don't know if blue-collaredness is looked down upon, but it feels like writers go out of their way to let it be known that the characters we are supposed to like, are extraordinary.
Overall though, I do agree with the article. It does seem like everyone has it really easy on American TV.
I remember growing up as a lower-middle class midwestern kid, Roseanne was a show I loved, because I identified with it so much. Dan and Roseanne were my parents, and my friends were just like Darlene and Becky. Another similar show from that era is "Grace Under Fire". As a 35-yo upper-middle class guy still in the midwest, I look at what's on TV (both broadcast and Netflix/Amazon/etc.) and see none of that represent…
Basically they were a rich family like the Cosby show but they loved to LARP that they were poor. A cheap cut-and-paste job where Bill isn't an OB/GYN or whatever he was, but cut and paste him as a retail show salesman without changing anything.
There's a good analogy with how soft sci fi is made, aka the bad stuff. Take a story from another genre and have a computer mechanically cut and paste it into "sci fi" without changing any aspect of the story beyond the crude cut and paste. Superficially shiny and signally, but the slightest attention shows it makes no sense.
From memory the pull the show had was crude language and motivations, in a non comedic manner. It was an appeal to the 80-90 IQ cohort, roughly. Its appeal wasn't the socioeconomic class they lived in, it was appealing to the fart joke demographic, and the producers figured they'd have to bolt on a shoe salesman job instead of OB/GYN because OB/GYNs don't talk like high school dropouts.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Huh? There wasn't anything remotely middle class about Dan and Roseanne in my memory. They were proudly working class. To me middle class means university educated, professional, two foreign holidays a year.
This is a difference between British and American English. In the UK, "middle class" basically means rich. In the US, it means that maybe you own a house.
I remember growing up as a lower-middle class midwestern kid, Roseanne was a show I loved, because I identified with it so much. Dan and Roseanne were my parents, and my friends were just like Darlene and Becky. Another similar show from that era is "Grace Under Fire". As a 35-yo upper-middle class guy still in the midwest, I look at what's on TV (both broadcast and Netflix/Amazon/etc.) and see none of that represent…
And the expectations of comedy today are far bigger than the 80's. So something had to give.
I think television just reflects the career-obsessed nature with society today. Characters are not just competent employees, they tend to be excellent at their jobs (top of their field, seemingly) while spending very little time doing their job. I don't know if blue-collaredness is looked down upon, but it feels like writers go out of their way to let it be known that the characters we are supposed to like, are extra…
I remember growing up as a lower-middle class midwestern kid, Roseanne was a show I loved, because I identified with it so much. Dan and Roseanne were my parents, and my friends were just like Darlene and Becky. Another similar show from that era is "Grace Under Fire". As a 35-yo upper-middle class guy still in the midwest, I look at what's on TV (both broadcast and Netflix/Amazon/etc.) and see none of that represent…
Isn't it simple ? most working class jobs are boring. But law, police, medicine, a tv show(rock 30), or just changing jobs and random situation puts you in a lot of variety and that makes comedy easier. And the expectations of comedy today are far bigger than the 80's. So something had to give.
I remember growing up as a lower-middle class midwestern kid, Roseanne was a show I loved, because I identified with it so much. Dan and Roseanne were my parents, and my friends were just like Darlene and Becky. Another similar show from that era is "Grace Under Fire". As a 35-yo upper-middle class guy still in the midwest, I look at what's on TV (both broadcast and Netflix/Amazon/etc.) and see none of that represent…
Isn't it simple ? most working class jobs are boring. But law, police, medicine, a tv show(rock 30), or just changing jobs and random situation puts you in a lot of variety and that makes comedy easier. And the expectations of comedy today are far bigger than the 80's. So something had to give.
I think television just reflects the career-obsessed nature with society today. Characters are not just competent employees, they tend to be excellent at their jobs (top of their field, seemingly) while spending very little time doing their job. I don't know if blue-collaredness is looked down upon, but it feels like writers go out of their way to let it be known that the characters we are supposed to like, are extra…
In literature its quite a bit different. "Class" by Paul Fussell goes over the cultural differences while glossing over mere employment. I enjoyed that book, it was fun reading it and seeing how accurately he called out various class behavior I observed growing up, he's pretty accurate top to bottom, from what I've observed. The book is about 25 years old and it would be interesting to see a more modern book. Seen in a Fussell point of view from 25 years ago, the whole social media fad sounds extremely middle class by his definitions of pathological desire for signalling and likes, for example, and has no appeal to what Fussell would describe as the extremes, although where I live twitter users seem exclusively the absolute lowest classes, which is strange. From a Fussell point of view TV has gone from mostly middle class culturally in terms of interests and attitudes in the 70s to exclusively prole feed. Its very unusual now to see anything on TV that isn't prole in attitudes and desires and outlook and values as defined by Fussell.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Huh? There wasn't anything remotely middle class about Dan and Roseanne in my memory. They were proudly working class. To me middle class means university educated, professional, two foreign holidays a year.
This is a difference between British and American English. In the UK, "middle class" basically means rich. In the US, it means that maybe you own a house.