I finally got a chance to watch some of the many situation and family comedies out this week. I think we have a return of the sitcom like we did in the early 1980’s. Is this because of our economic situation? Are things so bad we no longer seek entertainment in hard-edged crime or dystopic futures? Or is it as simple as we just need to laugh, and mostly at ourselves. Have reached the point where we have found that through all of our differences we still are very much the same and it is our shared struggle that we find the companionship leads to humor.

It seems to me that when people talk about great sitcoms the sitcoms seem to come at a time when our nation is at its almost absolute worst. Hard hitting social and political upheaval gives us All in the Family. Bone crushing recession leads us to a torrent of comedies. The late seventies gave us huge unemployment; it also gave us an African-American family living life in government-run public housing, Good Times. An energy crisis makes us all question where we are going and how we are going to get there, POOF Taxi! Crime is on the rise and many still distrust the police, and government, after the crackdown on lawlessness of the hippy movement; now we watch Barney Miller. Looking at today’s job market throws not to government housing but the new, well new to Americans, concept of “Multigenerational” housing. How do we help one another to navigate this? Dads. Unemployed fathers, who retirement is not working for, aged out and not enough savings, forces them to live with their sons…and comedy ensues. Changes in how we define what it means to be a family has led us to Sean Saves the World.  A single father, tough and funny on its own, a gay father, opens the door to the new definition of family, and did I mention family unit, we all deal with that. At its core that is all this show is helping to show that family is, well, family no matter what the makeup is the definition is always the same. In a time when most Americans want to be left alone to live their life we now see a cop show that makes us laugh, why? Simple we have all, at one point or another, worked somewhere with people and at its heart this is what Brooklyn 99 is. It is a workplace comedy, just happens to be cops. If this show lasts I think we will all laugh hysterically at the stupid criminals stories we all love to hear.

Our television landscape is now filled with fantasy. No more hard-hitting crime dramas. Just a few years ago all that was on television was Law and Order in about four different shows.  CSI had three.  Criminal Minds had two shows.  Nine hours of edgy cop dramas on television this interspersed with game shows. What does this say about where were only a few years ago. Nothing but crime and handouts, how is it a game to pick a number on a briefcase?

It’s crazy out there. Things are not going well, but they have not been going well for so long that we truly are fatigued as a nation. Watch the news and you see it is all coming down so what do we do? Watch TV. Sounds like the best solution to me at this point. I mean really what else can the average citizen do? Just sit back and laugh.

I’m Just Saying.