You know you are fucking old when you start watching the old peoples channel. You know the one with the life insurance ads and the ads for the yogurt that makes you crap and stuff. Lately I have been DVRing a lot of show on ALN which is the American Life Network. It has cool stuff like the original Mission Impossible and Hill St Blues and St. Elsewhere and other old shit. But lately we have really been enjoying Rhoda.
You know Rhoda right? Mary Tyler Moore's Jewish friend. I say she is her Jewish friend because it is pretty amusing how much of it is about being Jewish. Now that's something you don't see a lot of anymore on TV. At least for white ethnics like the Irish, Italians, Polish or Jews. You get a lot of shows oriented towards African Americans and Latinos but nary a one that is recognizably about a white ethnic group. Ok I give the Soprano's but that's a special case. I don't know if "Big Love" counts since I don't know how to classify the Mormons. But you don't see a lot of shows that are explicitly ethnic in the way that "Rhoda" or "Bridget Loves Bernie" or "Angie" or numerous other sitcoms of the seventies. It's like those ethnic ties have loosened and people don't think of themselves as Irish or Italian or Jewish anymore. Which in my experience is not true in real life but seems to be true in television. Maybe living in New York I get a different feel than the rest of the country because there are still a lot of people who revel in being Italian or Irish or Jewish or Puerto Rican or Dominican or whatever.
What's one of the most popular shows on TV right now? "Jersey Shore." With stupid guidos acting like stupid guidos. You think someone would realize that there is a lot of money in exploiting offensive stereotypes for comedy thrills.
What's up with that?
