Page 69 - Sitcoms News Today

To make fun of the rich, sort of, you know, expose them for everyone to see. >> luce, that coat costs more than your house. oh, thats how we joke. she doesnt even have a house. >> because a lot of really wealthy people have gotten in their positions by stepping on working-class people. >> im sorry, we cant afford to live lavishly anymore. drink your milk. >> its lumpy. >> then chew it. >> by the 21st century, americas shaky economy begins to shrink the middle class, and we see that represented i...

Sitcom was probably "dinosaurs." >> not the momma. >> it was bonkers. >> everything that jim henson company does is escapist. >> hey, frozen dinner, oh, thats great. >> the original idea was all really generated in the year that my father, jim henson, passed away in 1990. and he just liked the idea of dinosaurs who lived so irresponsibly that they will inevitably go extinct. >> in an operation of this magnitude, theres bound to be some unforeseen casualties. >> for my dad, what hed loved about s...

>> in our neighborhoods where you had to be such a tough guy when youre outside your house, this was the character that you get to be when youre with family members and friends, and you can be your goofy self and dance around. >> steve urkel made the statement that we can be whatever we want. i played bruce lee. i played elvis, albert einstein. >> the evolution of the nerd in sitcoms is an interesting one to watch, cause we went from urkel and screech, that are like the joke character on their r...

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Commute, huh? >> we have class. we have race. we have gender. all of its here, because we are a nation of people who came from somewhere else. >> i went for a run. >> at night? >> at night? >> you cannot run in los angeles at night, this is the city of charles manson and harvey weinstein! >> where every week, no matter what show youre watching, there are these little pressure release valves that go off. and you see that play out throughout the history of the sitcom. >> at first thought, you may ...

I suppose, to the outsider, we might seem a little unorthodox, but what does this "outsider" know anyway? who is he to judge us? >> the whole notion of the outsider. i mean, its a strand that goes through most sitcoms, i think. >> you took tongue right out of my mouth. >> outsiders help us relate as an audience. >> what are you some kind of nerd? >> im not some kind of nerd, i am the king of nerds. [ laughs ] >> theyre seeing everything with fresh eyes. >> you rang? >> that dynamic is pretty awe...

>> damn it. why is this happening to me? i mean, this isnt supposed to happen to people like me. you must have gone to bed with hundreds of men. >> and blanche says a line that i think america needed to hear, which is -- >> aids is not a bad persons disease, rose. it is not god punishing people for their sins. >> youre right, blanche. >> 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 be...

>> we saw american audiences losing interest in the socially relevant sitcoms, and really the sitcom started to die away. >> dramas had really taken over. those soaps were so big. "dynasty, "dallas," "magnum p.i." >> and so you saw the family sitcom really strive to find a new identity. >> i cant believe you guys can watch this, you look ridiculous. >> "family ties" has one of the great premises in sitcom history. >> half a million people trying to stop a senseless war. you find that ridiculous?...

Isnt that right? >> no, no. >> in the 90s, we saw a lot of sitcoms geared towards whole family viewing, and they shied away from the more political nature of the 1970s. >> every item here was carefully selected, this lamp by korbo, the chair by eames. >> but because social class is a part of someones identity that everyone can relate to, its one of the ways that sitcoms can reach the broadest audience >> delivery for martin crane. >> oh, in here! >> the idea of class structure in "frasier"... >>...

>> when the aids outbreak started, i was terrified of people finding out that im gay. there was no way i could be openly gay at that time. it would have been career suicide. >> i think being gay was admitting to someone that you could have aids. >> ultimately, we didnt see very many lgbtq characters in sitcoms in the 80s. for most lgbtq communities, it was a very dark time. >> seems you had a transfusion while you were there. the hospital thinks the blood may have contained hiv antibodies. >> hi...