Page 115 - Sitcoms News Today

Layered portrayals. >> because, yes, we gravitate toward people who are like us, but they dont have to be exactly like us in order to create these really profound friendships and communities. i have one seat in first class and one in coach. >> oh. ill -- >> uh -- >> ill take the first class. >> class has always played a role in the history of sitcoms. >> bubbly, laney. >> class is fascinating to us as a culture. >> i never check my bags. i cant stand to wait in the baggage area. >> its good to...

>> well, youre damn straight im right. >> it was something that in 1990, so many people needed to hear, and "the golden girls" were able to deliver that message because of who they were. >> our media doesnt exist in a vacuum. so when we do see these moments in sitcoms, its because there have been activists trying to normalize and humanize folks who have been not humanized for so long. >> i mean, its fine if thats who you are. >> absolutely. >> i have many gay friends. >> my fathers gay. >> then ...

I was hit by a car and needed help. i called the barnes firm, that was the best call i couldve made. im rich barnes. its hard for people to know how much their accident case is worth. let our injury attorneys help you get the best result possible. ♪ the barnes firm injury attorneys ♪ ♪ call one eight hundred, eight million ♪ as long as there has been television, sitcoms always go in cycles. and the black television renaissance essentially got crippled. >> when president obama was in of...

>> yes, jim, but im not easy to manage. >> it was the biggest sitcom on nbc, and nbc was really sold on these quirky workplace sitcoms. ♪ >> with "30 rock" i wanted to see how far we could push a premise that you can trace back to "mary tyler moore." and the first version of it i pitched was set in a news environment. and nbc passed on it and said no, write more of what you know. >> we were there at "30 rock" we were there at "snl." we knew what went on in the office. >> lets get into the firs...

Reiner. >> carl reiner got his start on "your show of shows" with imogene coca and sid caesar. which was not a sitcom, it was a variety show. >> its supposed to be tent. >> the writers room abounded in talent. it just imbued carl with thats a place, thats a gold mine. a writers room is a gold mine. >> i remember talking to myself on the way home and i said what piece of ground do i stand on that nobody else stands on? so ill write about the life of a writer. >> writers are lazy. people write wha...

[ laughter ] >> some of the most memorable episodes of "i love lucy" are when she gets a job outside of the home but it always unravels. >> youre doing splendidly. speed it up! >> when sitcoms started, they were family sitcoms and for years, thats all there was. >> and then we move into the 1960s, we start to see more people working in an office than on a factory line. >> for the first time in the history of our nation, a majority of all workers are in white collar jobs. >> and you were spending...

Basketball player. >> bill, you mentioned the evolution of norman lear which wasnt entirely of his own doing. how ground-breaking was this story line? t. was ground breaking. you had formerly seen black families either maids or working class people like sanford & son, the junkyard. now a guy who san entrepreneur. jefferson was an entrepreneur. a string of dry cleaning stores. thats what was happening with some people in the black middle class. they were moving on up, but they still were represen...

Black households in their numbers. you wrn going to get sitcoms that showed their lives because they didnt care if you were watching or not. >> on father knows best, there wasnt one black person in the 03 shows. we had frank, the gardener. >> oh. [ speaking foreign language ] >> they had a housekeeper who was asian. >> if theres anything you need. >> were relatively invisible but were used as kind of like a condiment. ♪ ♪ >> in the tumultuous 60s. >> youre beginning to get a real pick-up on ...

>> but if you can make them laugh, then maybe well watch it again. ♪ ♪ anything and everything. lets get our sex talk on. >> oh, mom covered it all pretty good. >> yeah, maybe about the birds and the bees, but im your daddy, and im here to keep it 100. despite the fact that your mother thinks im uptight, cray-cray, right? >> sitcoms are a great place to talk about taboo, awkward subjects like sex because its disarming and people just want to laugh. >> i want to go home to my own room to sl...

You cant leave that out anymore. >> id like to begin with a fact, a simple yet shocking fact. it is this. homosexuals, lesbians, are threatening to pervert an entire generation of our american children. >> the history of lgbtq characters in sitcoms is actually very similar to the history of lgbtq people in america. they were always there. they just had to be hidden. >> theres the understatement of the century. >> with paul lynde on "bewitched," we had that cliche. >> dont you get it, dumb-dumb? ...