One
of TV's primary responsibilities
is to bring people together during a difficult time, and help healing.
Awhile
back I did an article on when sitcoms do "very special" episodes.
These are episodes where the series takes a serious turn and does a show
on a
social topic. They can be deadly serious like when Family Matters had
its famous gun episode. These issues can include drugs, alcohol, and any
number of things
really. The one subject I didn't touch on in that other article was when
sitcoms are affected by real
life tragedies, moments so jarring or controversial in the real world
they are touched on in the
fictional world of sitcoms. While these episodes will have the
occasional
laughter, usually they are mean to touch us and make us realize that we
are not
alone when thing happen.
Sometimes the writers will spin an
episode about an event, but will change details so they are not talking about
the actual event. For example, Murphy Brown's take on the O.J.Simpson mess was
to create a story about a fictional sports hero who had gotten into trouble.
The story and debate continued onto Love & War (It kills me I never taped
that! I would share a clip if I could find one because Murphy's final speech in
the episode is really good). Seinfeld did the same, but it was all for laughs.
Then there are shows that don't hide
it, they dive right in and deal with the event honestly and frankly. I wanted
to look at a few of these today.
By the way, all of these are on
YouTube so if the video’s I attach don’t work for some reason then please don’t
hesitate to follow the link to seek the clips out.
WKRP in Cincinnati/The Who Concert
Disaster-Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati on December 3, 1979. The performance
was marred by tragedy when eleven fans were killed and several injured in a
rush for seating at the opening of a sold-out concert. In the episode "In
Concert", WKRP had been promoting the event and giving away tickets. This
episode basically deals with the emotions after the tragedy. I would never know
this episode existed but caught it on a re-run once, and never forgot it. I
guess that is one reason why these shows exist, to remind people after time has
faded the story out of the collective conscience.
http://youtu.be/Ch92FIHx-Hs?t=13m49s
Punky Brewster/Challenger Disaster-The
shuttle challenger exploded on January 26, 1986 just 73 seconds after takeoff.
As most people my age were, I was very into this event because of the whole
teacher in space angle. I still remember watching a special on it the night
before. And will never forget when I first heard the news. It is well
established that Punky dreams of being an astronaut. In "Accidents
Happen”, after her class sees the shocking events unfold the problem becomes,
does she still want to become an astronaut? Punky has always dreamed of being
astronaut, and even though her friends think she is crazy, she still wants to
be one someday. Buzz Aldrin then appears and talks to Punky. For a silly show
Punky Brewster had moving episodes, this was one of them. As you will see in
the clip, the lesson is that as sad a tragedy as that was, if you want
something bad enough you shouldn't let anything stop you.
http://youtu.be/wN5U0EZU0qw
Full House/San Francisco
Earthquake-At 5:04 local time a 6.9 mag earthquake struck the bay area on
October 17, 1989. I was riveted by this story; I will never forget the pictures
on TV of the destruction. It was truly amazing. The quake killed 63 people and
delayed the World Series that year. Full House was set in San Francisco, so an
episode probably seemed logical. "Aftershocks" is about Stephanie,
who is scared to leave her father's side because it took him so long to get
home the night of the earthquake, and she was scared she would never see him
again. Of course, being Full House the solution comes easily, a therapist gets
to the root of the problem very fast and it is quickly solved. Still a decent
episode, especially the scene I am sharing below. Let me explain, at this point
in the series Stephanie was a pretty mature kid. She was smart, had lots of
self confidence, and usually led her group of friends. In this scene Danny
tries to leave for a business meeting, and she starts to have a meltdown. For
this character, this is way out of character and the scene is a bit jarring.
http://youtu.be/skgSKa0hLJs
Designing Women/Clarence Thomas
Hearings-In October 1991 When George Bush nominated Clarence Thomas to the
Supreme Court, the nomination hearings became a national circus after Anita
Hill accused Thomas of sexual harassment. The hearings became very detailed,
not to mention controversial, and this episode “The Strange Case of Clarence
and Anita” did a pretty decent job of summarizing both sides of the argument.
Of course being Designing Women the Anita Hill argument was discussed
intelligently while the Thomas side of the issue was just ridiculed, but that's
what this show did. Women were good and men bad. Nevertheless, this episode
dives right into the actual issue rather than trying to cleverly discuss it by
creating an “original” story based on it. Anyway, here is the clip.
A Different World/South Central LA
Riots-On April 29, 1992 a jury acquitted three white and one Hispanic Los
Angeles Police Department officers accused in the videotaped beating of black
motorist Rodney King following a high-speed pursuit. Thousands of people in the
Los Angeles area rioted over the six days following the verdict. The episode
"Honeymoon in LA" has Whitley and Dwayne reliving their experience of
being in LA during the riots. The show recounts the events and the debate
around them pretty thoroughly. Of course, hot racial related topics were the
norm for this show. This is one time they tackle a real life topic, just a few
months after the event actually took place.
http://youtu.be/gCfFtstoCfU
Becker/September 11th-I don't think
I need to explain what happened on September 11, 2001. A few dramas did touch
on the events, such as West Wing and Third Watch, however sitcoms stayed away.
Then came this episode of Becker called “A Subway Story”, which for most of it
was a very normal episode. Becker is trying to get somewhere but an old lady in
the subway keeps stalling his efforts. Finally, we find out what she is trying
to do. Turns out she is trying to get to ground zero, but can't bring herself
to go. See, she lost a son that day. The scene is very well done, nothing
specific but enough detail is given so more than get the idea. And I commend
the show for doing it.
http://youtu.be/OIQNOBtvd2g?t=7m1s
Unfortunately, it doesn’t need to be
a local or national tragedy to have these kinds of episodes. Very often sitcoms
have to deal with the personal loss of a member of the cast, and a tribute
episode about that person is shot. Shows which have had these kinds of episodes
include Barney Miller for Jack Soo, Night Court for Selma Diamond, Cheers for
Nicholas Colassanto, Gimmee A Break! for Dolph Sweet, and Cosby after the
amazing Madeline Khan lost her battle with cancer. The Royal Family was
supposed to be the vehicle for Redd Fox to make his return to TV, until he
suddenly collapsed on set and passed away.
Of course the two most tragic of
these was News Radio after Phil Hartman was unbelievably killed, and 8 Simple
Rules after John Ritter suddenly passed away, almost ten years ago. I will have
more to say about John Ritter later, in another article. Finally, Who's The
Boss? had a very moving episode after comedian and popular recurring character
James Coco suddenly passed away. He had appeared a few times playing Tony’s
father-in-law, and when he died unexpectedly the show put out a special episode
in his honor, shown in the link below as an example of these kinds of episodes.
I feel like I forgot a lot more examples of these,
if I did please let me know. As we can see, while sitcoms are meant to make us
laugh they can also make us very sad, and it is these episodes that these shows
seem more real to us than any others. I hope you enjoyed this look at when
sitcoms get real.
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