Love and Marriage
Your reader Forrest Mims (Correspondence, TAS,
January 1996) seems to chide Ben Stein for appearing on Fox TV's "Married
With Children." This is not the first time I have seen MWC disparaged in the
conservative press. Why is this? I am, I believe, as conservative as a
person can be, and I think MWC the funniest show on TV.
I think people who know MWC only from hearsay imagine it to be
"anti-family." This is nonsense. The premises of the show's comedy are that
marriage, child-raising, and work are irksome chores –
usually thankless, frequently degrading, and occasionally disgusting. This
is not the whole truth about family life, of course; but it is a part of the
truth for all of us some of the time (and for some of us, perhaps, all the
time) and deserves a hearing. MWC is in the same genre as the comic
postcards of Donald McGill, about which George Orwell wrote a famous essay.
Like those postcards, it is subversive yet harmless, providing comedic
release for universally felt frustrations and fantasies.
And just compare the competition. The only other truly white-trash sitcom,
"Roseanne," can never be funny for ten seconds without leaking sap
– without, that is, pausing to deliver a PC sermonette about homosexuality, feminism, or abortion. For all their faults,
Peg and Al Bundy at least waited until they were married before having
children, unlike Murphy Brown. And while it is true that Al's daughter Kelly
is sexually promiscuous, she is also a moron; the people in "Seinfeld" are
just as sluttish, but are supposed to be chic and educated. Which portrayal
is more subversive of the general morality?
The Bundys got married and stayed married, long after romance had wilted and
passion slid into habit. Al has a job he hates, which pays a pittance, but
he slogs away gamely at it to support his family. The kids are witless and
irresponsible, but ultimately always loyal to their parents. Are these not
conservative values? It is true that nobody in MWC goes to church (who on TV
does?), but nobody is on welfare, either.
And Ben Stein is right: MWC is funny. I defy anyone to sit with a
straight face through the famous "Godfather" episode; or the saga of Al
sweating an image of Elvis onto his T-shirt; or the dead-dog sketch in which
Mr. Stein himself appears; or Kelly, struck with sudden insight, crying out
"Urethra!" Ed O'Neill, who plays Al, is one of the great masters of TV
comedy, up there with Phil Silvers and Jackie Gleason. The whole team, in
fact, is perfectly matched, playing off each other like trapeze artists.
Watch the precise timing of Bud in the dead-dog episode, when the fake
preacher tells Kelly she must share herself with other people more. The
camera pans to Bud, who we know is not going to let that go by without
comment: "If she shares herself any more, she'll be traded on the New York
Stock Exchange." MWC is great TV To be sure, that is not saying much: but it
is saying something. |