The ‘70s was a golden era of TV comedy. With groundbreaking shows like ALL IN THE FAMILY, MASH, THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW, and THE BOB NEWHART SHOW, American sitcoms were elevated from mindless madcap fare to sophisticated entertainment that explored social and political issues. They didn’t insult the audience’s intelligence; they celebrated it. Not every plot on every show was about “
hooking up.” And they were extremely FUNNY.
CNN premiers a new documentary series tonight at 9:00 (unless another plane disappears or there’s a freak snowstorm in New York requiring the Blizzard Mobile to reappear) called THE SEVENTIES. It’s produced by the same team that did THE SIXTIES documentary series last year for CNN, which was truly exceptional.
Tonight’s debut installment is on television. Not only did we have remarkable sitcoms, but SNL came out of that era, as did the insane “Family Hour,” SESAME STREET, Watergate and actual “news” reporting, the heyday of late night talk shows, the last gasp of variety shows, hot bad ass women like CHARLIES ANGELS and POLICE WOMAN, hard hitting dramas that today look ridiculous (like KOJAK), and for you Marvel fans, THE INCREDIBLE HULK.
I was interviewed for tonight's show and am told I made the cut. We’ll see. So far I saw a promo and I was on it for a couple of seconds but they listed me as “
Ken Levine – writer of THE JEFFERSONS.” Gee, of all my credits, that’s hardly the one I would have singled out (I also wrote for JOE & SONS y'know). I talked a lot about MASH so maybe that’s in the show with me tied to that series. One can only hope.
Actually, I was a little miffed. When they told me the program was THE SEVENTIES and they wanted to interview me as “an expert” I just naturally assumed it was for the Sexual Revolution chapter.
But me aside, it figures to be a compelling series. Students of television and aspiring comedy writers need to familiarize yourselves with the ‘70s. This is a great way of doing it. See you again in THE EIGHTIES (where hopefully I’ll be tagged for CHEERS and not AfterMASH).