The original post: /r/television by /u/AporiaParadox on 2024-08-04 12:48:54.
I was reading about how one of the reasons for the Rural Purge (when CBS and other networks cancelled most rural-themed shows and replaced them with more urban shows that would appeal to younger and more urban demographics that advertisers prioritized) was that rural shows of the 60s were very dettached from the realities of modern America. Watching those shows you don’t really learn anything about what society was like in the 60s since there’s no mention of the Civil Rights movement (mostly because there were almost no black people), the feminist movement, the hippie movement, the JFK assassination, the Vietnam War, student protests, or any of that stuff.
But some people actually liked that because they wanted escapist fiction so that they could just forget about all the crap going on in the world and laugh for 30 minutes. Since then, the trend has been for shows to reflect modern society, but there have still occasionally been escapist shows that are just fun stuff insulated from the real world. And many of those cancelled rural shows actually managed to endure for a long-time in re-runs, because there was still demand for them.
And of course, sometimes shows trying to deal with real-world issues doesn’t work out that well, especially when the writers clearly have no idea what they’re talking about or are way too heavy-handed. As seen in how many cop shows try to have characters deal with some topical “ripped from the headlines” or modern issue in a ham-fisted way that often gets many details incredibly wrong.
So how much do you think TV shows should reflect real-world issues of their time?