By today’s standards, yeah. At the time, too, but the ultimate message was groundbreaking and progressive. Archie was written as a bigot for the purpose of creating conflict and addressing difficult social issues. The actor who played him, Carroll O’Connor, was liberal in his personal politics, as was the producer, Norman Lear.
I appreciate the show for what it was attempting, not because I worship Archie Bunker.
Did you know he was the inspiration for Cartman on South Park? The creators were fans of all in the family and thought it was too bad that you couldn’t write character like Archie anymore. But then they realized if they made it a cartoon kid they could.
It’s weird with Big Bang Theory, when it first started me and my friend circle loved it, thought it was brilliant but yes it did lose something after a few seasons.
But online everyone just seemed to hate it - could it be because we’re British and it just landed better with us…?
Their depiction of “nerds” was also offensive and shitty in many of the same ways. But because that’s what the writers told you is nerd behavior and culture, it seemed more acceptable somehow.
to be honest, i felt like that general view of culture fueled its way into the real world. i have people at work thinking the IT department is just some bastion of antisocial hermits that you can just talk to anyhow, or know automatically what exact issue you have when you say “my computer is not working”.
Also, I found the depiction of the Indian guy funny at first but it quickly got racist and never got better, they just kept piling on the racism
Interesting. I didn’t like it for a very similar reason. Their depiction of nerds or geniuses or whatever you want to call them was pretty offensive. I could never get into it.
Edit: to be clear, I’m not saying that I’m a genius or even particularly intelligent. I’m not. But the barrage of stupid nerd stereotypes was just obnoxious and offensive.
To me it wasn’t that they were making fun of them because they were smart, it’s because they weren’t neurotypical. Several of them would be considered to have ASD if they lived in the real world and that’s treated as the butt of a joke. It disgusts me.
Nah I shit on it because it was shit, for something that was supposed to be a comedy it wasn’t funny at all, it is subjective of course, I’m sure people did find it funny
Anything with a laugh track immediately turns me off, watch some of the clips with the laugh track deleted and that’s the humour you are left with.
It’s unfair to remove the laughs, fuck up the whole flow and call it bad. If the show had been written to be without a laugh track it wouldn’t come out that way
The newer characters they introduced were just not likeable. Bernadette and the other female lead just dragged the show down. Stuart was shit too. They should have centralised the show on the main characters from the start and actually built on their stories a bit more. Instead they all became flanderised
British TV is, as a friend said to me once, dire. So it would make sense that it landed better there. I mean, clearly lots of Americans watched it, and I know a few that loved it. I just think less of them. 😁
Hahaha. I won’t argue, but I never watched inbetweeners and I thought British office was hard to watch. But I suspect British office culture is different to US.
Oh God, so terrible. For some reason I seem to remember that either critics or the show promoters sort of hinted that you had to be smart to watch the show.
I’m on the flip side with that one. I absolutely loved Big Bang Theory, but honestly I can’t stand Young Sheldon. I mean sure the show has its funny moments, but still, why oh why won’t they just let the show die?
Any show that needs a laugh track to tell you when it’s trying to be funny isn’t going to be funny. I actually heard a perfect description of why BBT wasn’t good (to me) a couple weeks ago from the Venture Bros creators. BBT was a show created by people outside nerd culture trying to tell nerds what nerd culture is. And IMO it entirely missed the mark.
Laugh tracks are an immediate turn off - literally. I remember being curious about a show, and then switching it off after about 30 seconds when the canned laughter kicked in. It told me immediately that the humor would be broad instead of clever.
This doesn’t apply to older shows, though. All in the Family is still one of the best sitcoms ever, laugh track or not.
Edit: I forgot - they never used a laugh track. That was a live studio audience. Sorry!
Wow, you’re right. I’m surprised I forgot that distinction. They even say “All in the Family was taped before a live studio audience” at the beginning of every episode. Whoops!
Laugh track is about stupid, I’ll give you that. But still, I grew up watching Married With Children and despite the laugh track (I dunno, maybe it really was a live studio audience), I found the show rather hilarious.
I actually really enjoy both… which I guess is unpopular here.
I like how the show is basically a telling of the life of Sheldon Cooper. The two shows combined if you were to put them in order show a lot of character development.
Big bang theory. It was absolute garbage.
I think I’d like to point out that they shouldn’t have had even one season. It’s so fucking offensive.
Haha! These people aren’t neurotypicals! It’s so funny!
By today’s standards, yeah. At the time, too, but the ultimate message was groundbreaking and progressive. Archie was written as a bigot for the purpose of creating conflict and addressing difficult social issues. The actor who played him, Carroll O’Connor, was liberal in his personal politics, as was the producer, Norman Lear.
I appreciate the show for what it was attempting, not because I worship Archie Bunker.
I think you’re thinking of All In The Family? OPs comment was regarding Big Bang Theory…
Got sidelined into a conversation about laugh tracks
Did you know he was the inspiration for Cartman on South Park? The creators were fans of all in the family and thought it was too bad that you couldn’t write character like Archie anymore. But then they realized if they made it a cartoon kid they could.
It’s weird with Big Bang Theory, when it first started me and my friend circle loved it, thought it was brilliant but yes it did lose something after a few seasons.
But online everyone just seemed to hate it - could it be because we’re British and it just landed better with us…?
It was good the first few seasons, people shit on it because they shit on everything popular, but it WAS a good sitcom, it just never grew up.
Also, I found the depiction of the Indian guy funny at first but it quickly got racist and never got better, they just kept piling on the racism
Their depiction of “nerds” was also offensive and shitty in many of the same ways. But because that’s what the writers told you is nerd behavior and culture, it seemed more acceptable somehow.
my sentiments exactly…
to be honest, i felt like that general view of culture fueled its way into the real world. i have people at work thinking the IT department is just some bastion of antisocial hermits that you can just talk to anyhow, or know automatically what exact issue you have when you say “my computer is not working”.
Interesting. I didn’t like it for a very similar reason. Their depiction of nerds or geniuses or whatever you want to call them was pretty offensive. I could never get into it.
Edit: to be clear, I’m not saying that I’m a genius or even particularly intelligent. I’m not. But the barrage of stupid nerd stereotypes was just obnoxious and offensive.
To me it wasn’t that they were making fun of them because they were smart, it’s because they weren’t neurotypical. Several of them would be considered to have ASD if they lived in the real world and that’s treated as the butt of a joke. It disgusts me.
Nah I shit on it because it was shit, for something that was supposed to be a comedy it wasn’t funny at all, it is subjective of course, I’m sure people did find it funny
Anything with a laugh track immediately turns me off, watch some of the clips with the laugh track deleted and that’s the humour you are left with.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jKS3MGriZcs
It’s unfair to remove the laughs, fuck up the whole flow and call it bad. If the show had been written to be without a laugh track it wouldn’t come out that way
Nope, I’m British and I hated it.
The newer characters they introduced were just not likeable. Bernadette and the other female lead just dragged the show down. Stuart was shit too. They should have centralised the show on the main characters from the start and actually built on their stories a bit more. Instead they all became flanderised
On the pilot, Leonard even implies that Sheldon masturbates a lot. A few episodes later and that accusation is unthinkable for the character.
British TV is, as a friend said to me once, dire. So it would make sense that it landed better there. I mean, clearly lots of Americans watched it, and I know a few that loved it. I just think less of them. 😁
If British TV is so dire, why does American TV keep trying to copy it? And badly, at that. I will never forgive what you did to the Inbetweeners.
Hahaha. I won’t argue, but I never watched inbetweeners and I thought British office was hard to watch. But I suspect British office culture is different to US.
It’s not all bad. All in the Family was great.
Oh God, so terrible. For some reason I seem to remember that either critics or the show promoters sort of hinted that you had to be smart to watch the show.
It’s true, a picture really is worth a thousand words.
I’m on the flip side with that one. I absolutely loved Big Bang Theory, but honestly I can’t stand Young Sheldon. I mean sure the show has its funny moments, but still, why oh why won’t they just let the show die?
Any show that needs a laugh track to tell you when it’s trying to be funny isn’t going to be funny. I actually heard a perfect description of why BBT wasn’t good (to me) a couple weeks ago from the Venture Bros creators. BBT was a show created by people outside nerd culture trying to tell nerds what nerd culture is. And IMO it entirely missed the mark.
It’s a live audience though, not a laugh track
Laugh tracks are an immediate turn off - literally. I remember being curious about a show, and then switching it off after about 30 seconds when the canned laughter kicked in. It told me immediately that the humor would be broad instead of clever.
This doesn’t apply to older shows, though. All in the Family is still one of the best sitcoms ever, laugh track or not.
Edit: I forgot - they never used a laugh track. That was a live studio audience. Sorry!
Live studio audience is a lot different than canned laughter.
Wow, you’re right. I’m surprised I forgot that distinction. They even say “All in the Family was taped before a live studio audience” at the beginning of every episode. Whoops!
Big Bang Theory also used a live audience instead of a laugh track
Laugh track is about stupid, I’ll give you that. But still, I grew up watching Married With Children and despite the laugh track (I dunno, maybe it really was a live studio audience), I found the show rather hilarious.
Married With Children had a live studio audience rather than a laugh track. Your dignity is intact my friend!
So did Big Bang Theory
Then the audience sucked too, I guess
I actually really enjoy both… which I guess is unpopular here.
I like how the show is basically a telling of the life of Sheldon Cooper. The two shows combined if you were to put them in order show a lot of character development.
Zabinka.
Why? Did the last season suck? Or did the show run out of ideas along the way?
Note: I am not very well known with the show.
IMO the show was garbage from the first second of the first episode. I didn’t watch more than one or two over the whole span of its production.