HBO is entering uncharted territory.
The network, known as the premier outlet for quality television, is going through an awkward transition phase. With the cancellation of “Sex and the City,” “Six Feet Under” and “Deadwood,” and the coming demise of “The Wire” and “The Sopranos,” all HBO really has left in terms of original programming is “Big Love” and “Entourage.” Naturally, when a network loses its top-tier shows, it’s willing to try out just about anything to fill its schedule ““ and sometimes, this means taking a chance on a wild concept.
The “wild concept” in question is a half-hour sitcom being developed by Jane Bussmann, a former “South Park” writer. The show follows a 30-something woman looking for love at work.
One problem: the main character is a NGO worker … in Africa. Meaning that “work” may involve famine, child soldiers, AIDS and war-torn settings.
This isn’t the first time a sitcom has tackled serious subject matters. And I’m not going to say that this can’t work, because in the right hands, it could be brilliant. I know this because sitcoms have tackled serious subjects before with varying success. Here are a few examples, which I’m going to rate on a scale of one to 10 Don Imuses: one Don Imus equals inoffensive, 10 Don Imuses equals … er … Don Imus.
“Hogan’s Heroes” ““ On paper, this is a recipe for disaster: a sitcom following Allied prisoners of war who are being held in a Nazi prison. This is the sort of sitcom that wouldn’t get made nowadays, mainly because it would be woefully un-PC. Yet consider this: The show had many Jewish actors and crew members, some of whom were actually in concentration camps themselves ““ and they didn’t have a problem with the show. Further, the Germans in the show were portrayed as incompetent buffoons and were never mentioned as being members of the Nazi party. Colonel Klink, the main antagonist, had never even read “Mein Kampf.” Also, Hogan’s second-in-command was actually a black man, which was rather progressive when this show aired (the late 1960s). This show managed to be funny by taking a serious situation and turning it into one of comic absurdity. Insensitivity Rating: three Don Imuses.
“All In The Family” ““ Archie Bunker was a racist curmudgeon, albeit a hilarious one. Bill Cosby recently said that he never found the show funny because Archie Bunker never apologized. That totally misses the point: Bunker never had to apologize because he was constantly made to look like an idiot. The show portrayed his behavior as out-of-touch and close-minded, and he was frequently the subject of ridicule by other characters. For example, Lionel used to play off of Archie’s bigotry by playing dumb in conversations and making Archie believe he was mentoring him, often talking in exaggerated, stereotypical black speech (“I’m gon’ be a ‘lectrical engine’er!”). Later in the show, Archie softened up, like the time he inadvertently found himself at a KKK rally and tried to stop a cross burning. The unfortunate side effect, however, was that not everyone saw through its social critique and some laughed with Archie instead of at him, to the horror of creator Norman Lear. Through no fault of its own, “All in the Family” gets an Insensitivity Rating of … six Don Imuses.
“The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer” ““ The mother lode of insensitivity, and probably one you’ve never heard of (for good reason). This show premiered on UPN and lasted less than a month before it received a well-deserved dirt nap. The show followed Desmond Pfeiffer, a black English nobleman who was mistakenly sent to America on a slave ship, where he ended up as a slave in the White House, which is filled with drunkards and sleazebags. The show made repeated jokes about picking cotton, black dialect, hangings and lynchings. Sample joke: In the pilot, Desmond rests his feet on a table, and a white character says, “Get your feet off the table, the slaves haven’t been emancipated yet.” Oy. Most of all, the show seemed to portray slavery as being something that wasn’t that bad. When the show aired, the president of UPN said he was “shocked” that black viewers found this offensive. Uh, really? How do these executives even get hired? Insensitivity Rating: 15 Don Imuses. Yep, it broke the scale.
In the end, it is possible to make controversial material funny, but only if you approach the material appropriately and with a talented writing staff. Without gifted writers, “All In The Family” could have been even worse than “Desmond Pfeiffer.” And as crazy as it sounds, with the correct writers and a more sensitive premise, “Desmond Pfeiffer” could have been a biting look at American history through the eyes of slaves.
The bottom line: HBO shouldn’t be afraid to tackle sensitive material head-on. Just so long as they’re using humor to inject humanity and social criticism ““ not to make a bunch of AIDS jokes at the expense of a suffering population.
Humphrey fondly remembers the “Simpsons” episode where Colonel Klink was Homer’s guardian angel. E-mail him at mhumphrey@media.ucla.edu.