Level Ground, 39 & 40. Politically Incorrect.

I ran across a post on Facebook asking which television show one used to watch with their parents as a child. I didn't answer, but it did bring up some memories.

All In the Family, The Jeffersons, Sanford and Son, Good Times, Three's Company. They are the ones that come to mind, first. These are the ones that stick in my memory over others like The Mary Tyler Moore Show, or Kojak, or The Waltons, or even MASH, Taxi, or Laverne and Shirley. They all set something off within me that made me empathize more with the characters than other shows. Archie Bunker resembled my father in his habit of sitting on the same sofa, in the same spot, with his beer and cigarette, while my mother had her chair, like Edith Bunker. I would feel the embarrassment of the Jefferson's white neighbor. Fred Sanford and Lamont's attempts to try to get a break in life made me cheer for the underdog. Florida and James in Good Times struggle in the day to day, with James having more than one job, like my father, who spent a period in which he worked all week, and then did odd jobs at weekends. Three's Company was simply funny, though I didn't understand the double entendres until a couple of years into the series.

Now, would shows like this even dare to attempt to be aired? Probably not. These shows set before us regular people like those to be found in every neighborhood, with all their faults and heroisms. Inclusivity in the 1970's was having an African-American actor and a white actor on the same show, or acknowledging that some people were gay. It was not about treating everyone with the respect due them as people, though some shows tried to make their viewers understand that everyone deserves respect, such as All in the Family, where Archie gets skewered just about every time he opens his bigoted mouth. 

Some, like Sanford and Son, used words that now would cause the show to be pulled off the air post-haste, and the banning of its writers from ever darkening the studios again. In Three's Company, stereotyping of blondes and homophobia would condemn it to the trash.

Political correctness is necessary to show that everyone, no matter what their aspect, sexuality, origin, or age, has the same worth and deserves the same respect. But it does make for boring television. Surely a sweet spot in the middle can be found for irreverance, even if disclaimers have to be posted at the beginning of every episode. 

Life continues. With uninteresting television.