Saturday, 31 March 2018

An Institute You Can’t Disparage

quote [ How an activist named Terry Rakolta tried—and failed—to convince Middle America to stop watching “Married … With Children.” She might have saved Fox. ]

The rap Al Bundy got the handicapped boner
[SFW] [tv & movies] [+2]
[by ScoobySnacks@2:04pmGMT]

Comments

thepublicone said @ 11:28pm GMT on 31st Mar [Score:5 Good]
For those of you without attention spans, the TL;DR- "Married"'s concepts and plots age very well, even if the jokes don't, and its existence paved the way for other cool Fox shows that were also WAY ahead of their times........

When you watch "Married..." now, it is still amazing how utterly progressive its material is. Many people don't realize that Amanda Bearse, who played Marcy, was in real-life a feminist lesbian, and she directed more than 30 "Married..." episodes, including the one where Marcy's sister shows up, and Bearse gets to essentially play her real-life self for an episode.

Watching "Married" today, much of the subject matter holds up surprisingly well, considering how offensive it was considered back then. Sure, the jokes are dated, and much of the script is- obviously- out of touch with modern tastes, but the concepts- the treatment of LGBT peoples, fat-shaming, women's rights, sexual harassment and how women are viewed by society (The "Bundy Bounce"/Allante car episode, and the episode where Kelly works as a model for a bank- "No, you cannot see my assets. Yes, there is a penalty for early withdrawal."- spring to mind immediately), and how the outright rude and disrespectful behaviour of men are tolerated in society (The entire recurring "NO MA'AM" arc)- are all still relevant today.

"Married" really is one of those shows that helped use comedy to pave the way for conversation about issues, the same way "All in the Family" did a decade or two before it for the issues of its time. What keeps it from achieving legendary show status is exactly what made it so damn good- it aired on Fox before Fox was FOX.

If you look at the shows that were on in that period before FOX became a dominant network, and, in becoming mainstream, put a leash on itself- From Married, In Living Colour and the Simpsons in the 90s to early Family Guy, Titus, and Bernie Mac at the turn of the century- all of those shows were WAY ahead of their time, tackling issues and concepts that no one else would touch. Much of what "In Living Color" did was insane by the standard of its time- do you think the "Men On..." skits would have worked, in that time, ANYWHERE else?- and Bernie Mac would have been perfect let off the leash on a uncensored network like Netflix, because every episode of his show basically screams for Mac to use "motherfucker" at least a dozen times in the 22 minute run-time of an episode- the show looks like it is written especially for his foul-mouthed rants, and you can see it on his face every time someone makes him grit his teeth and mumble to America (there is LOTS of 4th wall breaking in the show).

If you're not familiar with Titus- an extremely edgy comedy show that ran for two seasons, and tackled issues like alcoholism, spousal abuse (with both male and female victims), murder, mental illness, and terrorism, and that died because its creator (admittedly) let his ego get so big he tripped over it (the story- which the show's star and creator, Christopher Titus, talks about at length in one of his comedy specials- is that he basically turned down the $100 million dollar development contract that eventually went to Seth MacFarlane a few years later, and told Fox to go fuck itself out of pure hubris)- note that its last episode is about child molestation, and ends with an implied revenge beating with a baseball bat. And remember: Its a COMEDY, airing in prime time more than 15 years ago, on (IIRC) a Sunday night.
ubie said @ 5:01pm GMT on 31st Mar [Score:1 Underrated]
Jesus Christ that article format is atrocious.

I knew most of this already, bit a good reminder that political action and boycotts can ultimately backfire.
cb361 said @ 5:09pm GMT on 31st Mar
I looked the episode in question up. The laughter track was very offensive.
HoZay said @ 9:44pm GMT on 31st Mar
That show did suck pretty bad.

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