Broadcast Comedies Excel as They Tackle the Many Miseries of 2020

That was advertising executive Dre Johnson played by Anthony Anderson pictured at top narrating the final sequence of a recent episode of the ABC comedy blackish He was referring to how he had mismanaged several personal and professional responsibilities in the early weeks of our prolonged pandemic Among them trying to convince his family that being a quotsenior advertising executivequot made him quotan essential workerquot because as he declared quotI make inspirational commercials that give people hopequot His loved ones didn39t buy itIn terms of finding a path through the pandemic Anderson as Dre could have been speaking about his show or his network amp8211 or for that matter all of television Now that some semblance of a traditional television season is finally underway one can39t help but be impressed with how the production community has adapted to the demands of our new abnormal From such live competition shows as ABC39s Dancing with the Stars and NBC39s The Voice to the shattering personal drama that electrified the twohour season premiere of NBC39s This Is Us the work on the screen and the reallife realities of production during what seemed as recently as April to be a universally impossible longterm situation reflects an industry that is capable of managing even the most daunting of challengesThis is also true of much programming on cable in particular the new Christmas movies already running on Hallmark Channel Hallmark Movies ampamp Mysteries Lifetime and UPtv Many were produced during the pandemic but you wouldn39t know it when watchingBut I39m talking about broadcast in this column and damn is it impressive these days from its scripted primetime programming and daytime dramas to its news and sports coverage to its reality fare live or on tape In terms of content it39s the situation comedies that are standing out at this dreadfully dark time somehow remaining funny and entertaining while taking on the multiple messes of 2020 about which there is nothing humorous at all The genre hasn39t been this rewarding since the early 3970s when it was largely defined by the progressively abrasive reality of All in the Family and other Norman Lear comedies and the remarkable cultural reflections in pretty much everything produced by MTM EnterprisesAlthough it has always excelled at addressing tough contemporary topics while keeping the comedy quotient high in every episode blackish has never been better than it is right now In fact two recent scenes with the Johnsons had the same impact as some of the more memorable moments in the Bunker household The first and most dramatic found Dr Rainbow Johnson played by Tracee Ellis Ross letting her son Junior have it when she returned home from a grueling shift at the hospital caring for COVID patients and learned that he had been violating quarantine by sneaking his girlfriend Olivia into their home Junior was predictably casual about it even lying at first Refreshingly Bow blew up and there was no sappy apology afterwardquotI went from COVID patient to COVID patient to COVID patientquot she said of her bad day one in an endless stream of same quotI intubated a woman who was my age She was awake She looked at me terrified She got COVID working at the supermarket She had to go to work She had no choice The same way I have no choice as a doctor Having Olivia over here is disrespecting everything I39m fighting forquotI39m afraid Junior I39m afraidquot she continued quotI39m doing everything I can to protect myself and my patients and my family and you39re jeopardizing all of it just to see your girlfriend It is so hard when people won39t do the simple thing for the greater good And it39s even harder when my own son won39t do his partquot I can39t even count the number of people I have run into since the pandemic began who deserve to hear exactly thatquotItamp8217s going to be okayquot Junior replied clearly not getting it quotWe39re gonna look back on this and say 39I can39t believe I was there39quotquotI39m not going to want to look back Juniorquot Bow said her voice a mix of disgust despair and defeatIn another sequence Dre lost it after taking delivery of a grocery order because the cookies in the bag weren39t right Indeed nothing was right Earlier he had lamented about missing Starbucks during his quotfivesecond COVID commutequot from the kitchen to the dining room table where his laptop was waiting He had ordered Oreos but received generic sandwich cookies and when this sunk in he lost his shit crying and smashing the offensive wannabe treatsquotI wish this was 2019 when I could just eat samples at the grocery storequot he cried That may be the best line in any comedy this yearBow later surmised of living in the pandemic quotThis is too much for anyonequot succinctly speaking for us allThe extreme opposite of the welloff Johnsons is the hardscrabble family at the center of ABC39s The Conners pictured above which has also been creatively galvanized by the pandemic and everything that has gone down since it began They39re wearing masks and shields sitting six feet apart when eating in their kitchen and losing their jobs because the economy has been so egregiously compromised In fact in the season premiere life had become so bleak that widower Dan received an eviction notice from the bank while daughters Becky and Darlene who once hoped to do better than their folks took jobs on the same assembly line where mom Roseanne once worked to help dad pay the billsIn an especially moving moment aspiring writer Darlene Sara Gilbert broke down when telling Becky that she had realized she will never fulfill her longtime dream of becoming a writer Basically life won39t let her go there It looked for a hot minute as though she might launch a successful smalltown online magazine but the virus killed thatLife was never easy for the Conner family The original Roseanne ran from 198897 a time of devastating recessions when the rich got richer and the working class hit bottom That seems so long ago but as The Conners continues to illustrate the more things change the more things stay the same or worsen In that regard it may be the most tunedin family sitcom of our timeMeanwhile NBC39s Superstorepictured above may be the most reliable workplace comedy of the day The storyline in the season six premiere began in March as various staffers began receiving alarming reports on their phones and in person The NBA has canceled its season Tom Hanks has the virus People are hoarding cases of toilet paper The cafamp233 in the store has been shut downAs time passes the anxieties continue to mount Plans are put in place to protect the store from looters News of murder hornets terrifies everyone Zoom meetings increasingly take over the life of manager Amy America Ferrera making it impossible for her to do her job as efficiently and effectively as before The parking lot becomes littered with hazardous used gloves and face masks Staffers leave work early to attend BLM protests Netflix39s Tiger King is dismissed as quotearly pandemicquotRemember what Bow Johnson said about the future I don39t want to look back either not even to April But I sure look forward to looking forward especially as life plays out on these and other shows The end of the pandemic may be farther off than any of us care to acknowledge but as these programs and others including CBS39 stable of smart issuedriven sitcoms especially Mom and The Neighborhood continue to explore the troubles of our times at least something will feel real if not all too familiarClick the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Broadcast Comedies Excel as They Tackle the Many Miseries of 2020

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Ed Martin

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Broadcast Comedies Excel as They Tackle the Many Miseries of 2020

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