Whatever happened to the good old sitcom? The kind of show you could watch in a half an hour and leave behind the minute it was over.
Television is supposed to transport us to another world not make it ultra clear that the world we live in is too boring to bother with. Don’t get me wrong, I love books and movies, but there is something enticing about an escape that takes the guesswork, the “thinking,” out of the experience.
Just as the sitcom is dying, so is light and ease going out of my relationships. My life has been replaced with something I can only describe as Reality Life Programming. I go to the supermarket and look up into the television monitor as it records my every move, a clothing store posts a mysterious “Smile Your On Camera” sign (but where is it?) and as I return home with my purchases, I cruise through a yellow lighted intersection only to sense the flash as I’m digitally caught.
I walk in the door to my house and am greeted by an angry spouse with an unpaid parking ticket in hand. He asks why I’m smiling and I realize that my fear of filming has finally bled through. I have now entered my own Reality show. I wash some vegetables and find myself explaining to him why I’m using a grater instead of a peeler. He gives me a strange but comforting tilt of his head before moving away from the kitchen into his safe sports zone, the den (this area does not exist in my world.) So, I continue on with my meal. I pull the rotisserie chicken out of the grocery bag, all the while, making fun and interesting banter … with no one.
My three-year-old comes in and joins me. Our game continues until I go upstairs to change clothes, however, fear grips me – then, a wave of relief, as I realize cameras are not allowed in bathrooms, so I escape from my bedroom with my heart pounding. I sit quietly in my tan tiled bathroom trying to get a handle on my fear. Another pounding jolts me … “Mommy!” my daughter wants in.
I am not a religious person, but since reality is so complicated, why not consult an expert? I remember watching The Mary Tyler Moore Show throughout my childhood. Mary always seemed to have it together. As my daughter and I sit on the cool bathroom tile, I ask myself, What Would Mary Do? Since Reality and Tell-All shows are everywhere and news comes to us the minute it happens, could Mary still have the answer? We used to enjoy a scripted story of fictional decent. Nowadays, we watch a scripted story of fictionally real basis. No wonder I feel so uncomfortable.
Tricia Stewart Shiu is a Writer, Life Coach and Creator of Brilliance Cards and CD and can be found at HumanBeingCompany.com
I also miss the sitcoms that used to transport us to another world!! I can’t stomach the reality shows of our time with the constant whinning from wannabe’s who will soon become famous for doing nothing more than lying or being a bitch to win a million bucks and then defending their actions as part of “playing the game.” There is a pattern in these game shows… it’s always the strongest of the weak that win. Kind of why our world is in so much trouble today as the weak gang up and eliminate the strong, leaving them to rule by fear. A closing thought, maybe we should turn off our tvs and focus on creating a wonderful reality of our own.