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S U N D AY, F E B R U A RY 2 5 , 2 0 0 7I Complain Because I LoveIn a NYTimes DVD review of "Family Ties: Season One" (a perfectlyreasonable review that says the universal jokes are better than thehippie parent jokes and that Michael J. Fox is really talented), there'san odd claim:“Family Ties” was one of the first contemporary family sitcoms,preceding both “The Cosby Show” and “Growing Pains.”I don't know whether to say I disagree or simply that I don'tunderstand.What could they possibly mean by saying "Family Ties" was one of thefirst contemporary family sitcoms? Seriously, what could theyPOSSIBLY mean? Obviously, family sitcoms (parents and kids, so wewon't really include "The Honeymooners" or "I Love Lucy" despiteLittle Ricky) have been a constant staple of television from the verybeginning. Not a single week has ever gone by since TV's earliest dayswithout a family comedy being on the air. Not a single one, startingwith "Mama" (a spin-off from the movie "I Remember Mama") in 1950and "The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet" (which ran from 1952 to 1966,the year I was born) right up to today.Without even counting workplace families like "The Mary Tyler MooreShow," the family comedy has been more of a staple than the western,the primetime soap or just about any other genre except the eveningnews. And even the evening news will end before the family comedy.Just to name obvious, popular shows, "Ozzie & Harriet" ended in 1966,when "The Andy Griffith Show" was on the air. "Andy Griffith"overlapped with "Family Affair," which overlapped with "My ThreeSons" which overlapped with "All in the Family" which overlapped with"Happy Days" which overlapped with "One Day At A Time" whichoverlapped with "Family Ties" which overlapped with "The CosbyShow" which overlapped with "Roseanne" which overlapped with"Home Improvement" which overlapped with "Everybody LovesRaymond" which overlapped with "The King Of Queens" whichoverlapped with "The Simpsons" which apparently will be runninguntil the end of time. I could easily make a similar list with entirelydifferent shows, of course. But what exactly did this writer have inNext Blog»sal1mineo@hotmail.comSEARCH BLOG FLAG BLOGFOLLOW BLOGP O P S U R F I N G . C O MS U R F I N G T H E WAV E S O F P O P U L A R C U LT U R EB Y M I C H A E L G I LT Z & F R I E N D SPOPSURFING.COM: I Complain Because I Lovehttp://popsurfing.blogspot.com/2007/02/i-complain-because-i-lo...
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POPSURFING.COM: I Complain Because I Lovehttp://popsurfing.blogspot.com/2007/02/i-complain-because-i-lo...
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