When shows get too preachy

Dr. Who.

 

Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders

 

I grew up in a fundamental Christian evangelical church whose primary mission was to evangelize the entire world to save them from a literal eternal damnation. Having survived that.....I’m okay with the kind of “preachy” being complained about here.

Turn the tv off and spin a record.

 

Ah similar to cultural Marxism.

I concur on the record spinning.

 

You don’t live in my neighborhood.....obviously. There has only been one way to change the hearts and minds of people. (Prohibited forum talk deleted)

 

I'm not sure that show is very preachy. I have a friend who is very liberal and she enjoys it as well. Tim Allen may be conservative, but remember that 2 of Mike's daughters lean liberal, as does Ryan. I think it's pretty well balanced, and does a pretty good job of imitating actual real-life political discussions that take place within many families today.

 

Most folks in the entertainment biz are on the liberal side, and you can expect a certain amount of groupthink--but I don't mind bias if the end product is worthwhile. For instance, The West Wing was a liberal fantasy--oh, if only we could find a real-life Jed Bartlett!!! --but it was quite tolerable because the writing and acting were superb. The scene where Bartlett curses God in the cathedral--in Latin, no less--was magnificent.



Similarly, Tim Allen's Last Man Standing has him spouting off some conservative stuff, but it's balanced by other characters. But it's funny, and that makes all the difference in how it's tolerated.

On the other hand, Murphy Brown was tedious on its first iteration and execrable on its revival. Someone drive a wooden stake through it.

 

Our local newspaper is the only media outlet that could be accused of being preachy. It’s owned by a liberal minded conglomerate and run by a liberal minded editor. Meanwhile the local population is mostly sighting in their deer rifles and watching football or hallmark television depending on their interest. TV shows are mostly posturing for Hollywood types so they can demonstrate the appropriate concern for the issues of the day. And I’m okay with that.

 

I would say they're not so much "crying about it" as they are "walking away from it".

 

Well, I can't say I was an attentive viewer back then...still, was the bias overt? Seems to me it would have been likely that bias would have been soft-pedaled, in order to get it through. Like the anti-war bias that seeped into some Monkees episodes. I saw a writer say that the reason they could get away with it was because network execs didn't understand the subtle ways the bias was being communicated, unlike the upfront ways that got The Smothers Brothers in trouble and ultimately cancelled.

 

A friend would announce over and over that he did not watch King of the Hill because it was too preachy. Then he would recite Simpsons quotes for ages.

 

A bit of both I expect.

 

Subtle bias expressed, yes.

 

Everyone cries about the other, as well as claiming to be above it.

 

Fixed! Back to the ad hominem debate

 

Thank you, highly appreciated. Much better now!

However, that “Yo mama so fat” stuff right below your name … ;-)

 

Someone was bemoaning that tv shows have in recent years 'become politically biased'. The fact is that tv shows have always been politically biased in some way.

You want to go back to a more "innocent" time, say the 1950's? Many tv shows back then were morality plays showing the superiority of the white Christian culture vs the savage 'Indians'.

How about the 1960's? Sexism and patriarchal stereotypes. Male dominated workplaces, straight white culture, anything to do with minorities showed crime, drugs, unemployment.

1970's? Racist tropes dominated the decade, mainly thanks to "All In The Family", "Chico and The Man", "The Jeffersons", "Good Times".

If we're honest about it, there never was a more "innocent" time in this country.

 

Maybe some but not that many if you look at the box office. Record year last year. Either people are posturing about walking away and not really doing it, or there really aren't as many of these 'non liberal' types upset about Hollywood as some would lead us to believe. One or the other.

 

Then why watch them? Some people like "preachy" shows, some don't. It all depends on what the topic is. If I watch "Highway To heaven" I know what i'm getting. Even if I watch "The Brady Bunch" I know what i'm getting.

 

Not necessarily. You might end up with Cousin Oliver.

 

My gawd you are right. That is some awful TV.

Full disclosure -- I live abroad, gave away my last TV in 2013 (and didn't watch much then), haven't paid for multi-channel access in many years...so I'm definitely not a representative commentator here.

Still, that bunch of Supergirl clips is a gag fest of bad, choked-with-agenda-mongering scriptwriting to the point it had me flat amazed. It's so bad it ruins the effectiveness of any message the backers might have hoped to make. It's like one big, long, embarrassing infomercial aimed at adolescents. Sheesh, what in the hell are Americans thinking these days? Let me short circuit the dip fest my post could conceivably spark -- I'm no sexist. I worked for a woman for 7 years and had zero problem with it then and would have none now -- or even in decades long past for that matter. My female boss was smart, hard-working, competent -- she was better qualified and deserving of the position than I'd ever be.

Sheesh. We are devo -- with a huge gravy-boat dollop of bonehead slathered on top.

 

There's plenty of right-wing propaganda out there that one can read to 'entertain' themselves if all that progressive inclusion and equality is too distressing.

 

At the end of most shows the character Mike Brady and/or Carol Brady always presented a moral lesson. That was by design, especially with Robert Reed.

 

Plenty!!!!!

 

Right on!!!