I don’t know about you, but when I watch TV shows, I don’t
just sit there vegging out not looking to be taught something new, or be
challenged to think. I look for what message the writer’s are attempting to
send us, and what lessons they want us to learn from the stories they are
creating. That being said, I do enjoy a good situation comedy, and there has
been a plethora of choices for those that enjoy half hour stories that focus on
making us laugh. Therefore I thought it
would be fun to examine five sitcoms that are popular among people in my age
demographic (18-40). Three of them are more current programs and two of them
are 90’s classics of which at least one of the two are still very popular
depending on who you ask.
“Seinfeld.”
The show that famously was ‘about nothing’ redefined the
situational comedy back when it debuted in 1989. Here was a program that simply
had no real running plot or story and simply took Jerry Seinfeld’s stand-up
comedy routines in which he used a large amount of observational humor and
channeled it into a television show. However, if one pays closer attention, it
is easy to realize that deep down, this show teaches us to find humor in the
small and often annoying things that happen to us on a daily basis. I can
honestly say that since I began watching this series back in college, I have
learned to laugh a little more at things that frustrate me, and not get as
stressed as I used to whenever things don’t quite go my way. I still have a
long way to go in this area, but I first realized how valuable laughter at
small daily frustrations could be, from Jerry, George, Kramer and Elaine.
“Friends.”
The other 90’s sitcom that is still greatly popular among my
age groups is this show that like “Seinfeld” also took place in the Big Apple.
The show lasted an incredible 10 seasons between 1994-2004, and it followed the
lives of six friends, three guys and three gals as they navigated
relationships, job challenges and many other obstacles all over New York City.
The subtle thesis message of this program though, is a rather question that
they gave a resoundingly affirmative answer to by series end. That question is:
“can men and women truly be close friends with each other and remain friends
even if awkward scenarios arise like one person desiring to be more than
friends while the other does not?” Over their ten years of being on the air,
the writers showed us that their answer to this question was that they most
certainly can, if, both people are willing to work through and weather those
challenges. Sometimes as they showed us between a couple of the main
characters, a friendship can develop into a beautiful romance, other times, not
so much, but no matter what, if friends are committed to staying friends no
matter what happens, the reward is great.
“The Office”
Here is a program that attempts to give a snarky look into
what it is like to work in a white-collar office of a paper supply company. The
beauty of this program is that it creates a hodgepodge of characters that
personify the different personality types we all have run across in life, be it
at work, at a party, and yes even at Church. We have bosses who lack strong
leadership skills but deep down love their employees to death. We have salesmen
who are driven to do their very best everyday, no matter the cost. We have
pranksters, an HR man that no one likes, and some fun spirited receptionists.
The basic running theme to this program if you pay close attention is that for
some people, the office is truly a community where all must work together to do
a job that appears ordinary, but can become extraordinary because of the
different people who give that community its identity. Speaking as Christian of course, I garner my
sense of community and belonging from my church family, but a show like this is
a reminder to me that non-Christians desire community just as much, and
sometimes there place of work becomes that. Whether or not it is healthy or not
is another topic. For this “Office” though, in the end, I think we can say it was
a healthy place.
“Parks And Recreation”
Similar to “The Office” In both filming style and storyline
plot, “Parks And Rec” took us on a seven-season journey into the lives of
Pawnee, Indiana’s Parks and Recreation department. In some ways this show is also
about the importance of community, but I feel ‘Parks And Rec” focused a bit
more on individual character development, and because of that, teaches us more
about, to apply a Christian message, how we all have gifts given to us by God
to help us work with other people with different gifts to accomplish a united
goal. Throughout the series, the main characters often had to work together to
help get things done in the Pawnee community. They also would rally together to
support each other for individual character’s projects, both work related and
personal. In the Church, God often gives people gifts that are very diverse,
but complement each other very well, and it “Parks And Rec” we saw how this can
play out in not only work, but marriage and family as well.
“The Big Bang Theory”
This show has a great premise as it is. Follow a group of
four nerds who work at a Southern California College in the Science and
research department and spend all of their free time hanging out together
playing strategy games, eating take out, and trying to understand girls. Then
throw in a couple of girls into the mix and watch what happens. All a recipe
for great comedy, with plenty of intelligent nuances thrown in for good
measure, yet I see even more to the story of Sheldon, Raj, Leonard and Howard.
This is a story about how a person can be brilliant from an academic
standpoint, and clueless on how normal people function standpoint. It is about
a main character in Sheldon who deep down desires to understand matters of the
heart and struggles mightily to understand things we all have understood for
years, or at least been good enough at understanding to fake like we do. It is
a show that can conversely bring out all of our inner nerd, and pick our
curiosity to learn more about what is going on in the world of physics and
biology. It also requires you to pay close attention for just how funny it
truly is, and at the same time how serious it actually may be. “The Big Bang
Theory” is currently in its eight season, and has been renewed to last at least
a full decade, which will probably make it one of the defining comedies of my
generation for years to come.
Have you seen some of these things as well? If not, have I
inspired you to pay closer attention to sitcoms in the future? I hope so, as I
find that I have enjoyed these five programs a lot more because I paid attention,
and hope to see more series that teach us great life lessons in the future!
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