Media: Death of the sitcom and/or death of the Democratic Party?

The Death of The Sitcom.  Even before we started doing reviews here, 20 years ago, that was a media trope.  At its height, in 1983, there were successful sitcoms like GIMMIE A BREAK, THE FACTS OF LIFE and DIFF'RENT STROKES, THE JEFFERSONS, THREE'S COMPANY and other airing.  But 1984 would be (wrongly) credited as the rebirth of the sitome.  In more recent years, The Death Of The Sitcom trope has been trotted out by media members who don't like sitcoms.  

 

 

 

 

 

No problem with not liking a sitcom.  We don't like medical dramas.  To each their own.  But the problem with the anti-humor crowd was that they tried to force networks to alter the sitcom to please them -- people who don't like sitcoms.  That resulted in half-assed attempts to rip off the filmography of Christopher Guest.  They never featured the life and zaniness of a Christopher Guest film (A MIGHT WIND, FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION, BEST IN SHOW, etc).  But they did make what they called a sitcom on the cheap.  And they were often critical hits but the actual audiences just didn't exist for these single cam nightmares.  

 

Back in the '00s and '10s, network suits were still stupid enough to think that looking cool was more important than actually delivering an audience.  They've learned the hard way that is not the case.  When the assault on the sitcom started, EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND was a hit with new episodes.  It has gone on to be a hit in syndication.  Others have included TWO AND A HALF MEN, THE BIG BANG THEORY, TWO BROKE GIRLS, THE NEIGHBORHOOD, etc.  And the shows that struggled bringing in viewers for new episodes while they were in production?  They couldn't find a life in syndication.  30 ROCK being only one example of an economic failure.

Why does syndication matter?

No, not so TV can live forever.  But many shows run at a loss while in production.  Syndication can be where a lot of money gets made.

And a lot of money has not been made on single camera 'sitcoms.'  You know the 'amusing' and 'whimsical' shows that aren't actually funny so they're not taped in front of the non-laughing audience.

 

These money losers are the reason why networks now feature NIGHT COURT, HAPPY'S PLACE, THE CONNORS, SHIFTING GEARS and POPPA's HOUSE. 

At the end of the day, networks have slowly learned (and only partially learned), it's about making money, not looking cool. Only partially?  NBC has renewed ST. DENIS MEDICAL in spite of the ratings crash where episodes were being watched by approximately two million people for the last 13 episodes after a 'high' season debut of 3.75 million viewers. 

People have seen the show.  They just don't like the show.

People saw Sunday another disappointment.

Olayemi Olurin is a YOUTUBE personality and an attorney.  She's different in that she makes interesting and informative content.  

OLAY AND CHILL is her new show -- the second episode posted Sunday.

 

 

 

 

 

And we've got a problem.

Olay brought on two men.  Two White men -- Lance, host of THE SERF TIMES and Libertarian Billy Binion from REASON MAGAZINE.

This was supposed to be an extensive discussion -- and it did go on for over an hour and five minutes -- but the topics were not addressed.  The topic was in the title and explained by Olay at the start of the episode, "Russell Brand Charged, The Bernie Bro to MAGA Pipeline."  Two minutes in, she even states, "I think we're constantly overlooking this, like, Bernie Bros, like, to right-wing pipeline."

We would agree.  And we looked forward to this needed conversation.

It did not take place.

We think it would have on her YOUTUBE program OLAY & FRIENDS.  On that show, she teams up with multiple voices of color.

But here she was with two White men -- Lance a Socialist for Bernie and Billy a professional idiot.  

Billy immediately dismissed it saying confessional narratives are always popular (such as "I have been saved!"). Yes, they are, Billy.  And that generic answer could have been made this year about anyone moving left to right or right to left, or it could have been made last year, or the year before, or ten years before, or twenty or . . .

It was as useless as everything else that comes out of Billy's mouth.  

Lance started with "I didn't know what we'd be talking about today."  And, no surprise, said not a word about Bernie. 

He'd be a heretic in White leftist media as well as on LEFTIST MEDIA -- where he and Olay both hail from, if had spoken honestly to the topic.

Knowing who butters his bread, he avoided the topic of Bernie completely.

There are Black Socialists.  

We need to note that.  

They are not a big part of the Black population in general or the Black left specifically.  (Socialists also not a big part of the White population or the White left specifically but they are much smaller in the Black population.)

Olay, as a Black woman, brought up an important issue that the Black community talks about but that the White community pretends does not exist.

Extreme Bernie Bros bought into The Politics of Destruction.

AOC is who the Socialists want to run for president in 2024 -- well, the DSA Socialists.  If they want to have any luck with that, they should really pay attention to this piece.

Jimmy Dore,  Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian, Tulsi Gabbard, Bri-Bri Joy-less Gray, Jackson Hinkle, Lee Camp and many others are examples of Bernie Bros who've 'gone to the other side' (nod to Tori Amos).  Some people have expressed shock but it's not at all shocking.  These people were always about The Politics Of Destruction.  Always.

White Bernie Bros (and White identifying Bernie Bros with Black skin) often share that desire with MAGA which is why it's so easy for them to flip.

 

It's not so easy for Black people -- but then it never is, right?  Black people aren't The Politics of Destruction.

 

For every radical (fool?) like Symone D. Sanders Townsend or Nina Turner snorting and mainlining The Politics of Destruction, there are 100,000 Blacks saying no way.

And that's why Symone and Nina do not, and never will, read Black.

To White people they do.  But they don't need to convince White people.  They exist to reassure White people.  'Hey,' they say, 'you're not really racists and we're with you comrade.'

Black people caught on to those human comforters long ago and tossed them off the beds so that they could be used exclusively by White people.

Keith Edwards is a White man.  He's one we trusted and liked based on his YOUTUBE program.  Which is why it was so shocking to see him -- a White man, but also a gay man -- suddenly do an attack on so-called 'identity politics' in a SUBSTACK column.

"Identity politics" is used by Socialists all the time.  They have this insane idea that the only problem is economics and that, if we all just focused on economics exclusively, all the world's problems would end.

You can tell yourself that if you're Anglo White.  A lotto win for an Anglo White in poverty is a huge thing.  Suddenly, the boards are leveled. 

A lotto win for a person of color or an LGBTQ+ person?  Doesn't change everything.

A Black person may be able to, for example, pay more for health care as a result of the lotto win; however, they still face the same racial discrimination that is built into the healthcare system.

That discrimination is built into the entire system.

And that's why the Socialist zealots can't understand the Black community's refusal to rush over to Socialism.

They think it's an education issue, that Black brains just can't do the needed thought processing.

No, it's not a processing issue.  It's a reality issue.

Socialists -- like MAGA -- want to tear down the system.

That would be the system that Black people -- and other minority groups -- have had to battle for decades and centuries to get to what now passes for equality.

You destroy that system?

What are you going to build?  And how the hell are you going to ensure that everyone starts on equal footing?

 

When Socialists attack so-called 'identity politics,' they don't really reassure minority populations that the new system they're going to build will be fair and equal.  No, the more likely fear is it will be very similar to what MAGA is attempting to build now -- a country of exclusion. 

 

It's a real shame that Olay's topic wasn't discussed because Olay 'reads' Black.  She is of the Black community.  She is a voice of the community.  And this is a serious topic.

It's one that may grow even more important in 2028.

White people on the left didn't just fail to turn out for Kamala Harris in large numbers, they also worked hard to defeat her.

DSAers, you do realize that the reverse play could be executed in 2028 on AOC, right?

It doesn't help you to have a Socialist candidate when you're unable to address racism and other evils of society.  

Or do you not grasp that?

Vote like a Black woman -- the slogan White leftists have popularized could be a problem in 2028 if Black women decide to sit it out.

That would be funny.

No what else is funny?  How AOC groupies are blinded to the reality that Socialists (non-DSA ones, for the most part) are already tearing her apart.  

Earlier this month saw WSWS (WORLD SOCIALIST WEB SITE) published an article about AOC and Bernie's publicity tour.  Only it wasn't the rah-rah that MSNBC and other outlets are providing.  No, Marc Wells, Kimie Saito and Jacob Crosse wrote:

A crowd estimated at 36,000 rallied Saturday in downtown Los Angeles, California in the latest iteration of the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour headlined by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Democratic Socialists of America Democrat, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.

One week after the April 5 nationwide protests—when millions demonstrated against Trump’s anti-immigrant dragnet, fascist repressive measures, attacks on federal workers and social programs, and tariff war—tens of thousands showed up again in Los Angeles.

The mood was militant and angry. Students, immigrants, workers and entire families participated. Their opposition was fueled by the failure of all official institutions—Congress, the courts, the Democratic Party and the trade union bureaucracy—to oppose Trump’s erection of a dictatorship.

The event was heavily promoted by the Los Angeles chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). In addition to these two headliners, numerous Democratic politicians and trade union bureaucrats were afforded speaking slots. Over half a dozen musical acts performed, including Joan Baez, Maggie Philips and Neil Young.

[. . .]

Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez are being heavily promoted by the corporate press. Following the massive April 5 protests, which the media largely ignored, the senator was afforded a prime-time, hour-long “town hall” with CNN’s Anderson Cooper this past Wednesday.

The organizers of Saturday’s event issued guidelines barring homemade protest signs.

Countless attendees brought signs anyway, many of them condemning not only Trump, but the Democratic Party as well. Others bore slogans of solidarity with immigrant students being punished for speaking out against US policies, particularly Washington’s support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The scale of the April 5 protests struck fear not only in the Trump administration, but also in the Democratic Party, which is terrified that opposition from below will spill out of its control.

While the desire to fight within the crowd was palpable, the political perspective offered by the official speakers was a recipe for disaster. Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez and the others advanced the dead-end strategy of voting for Democrats or pro-Democratic “independents.” This was coupled with the promotion of the bureaucratized unions such as the UAW, whose president, Shawn Fain, is stumping for Trump’s tariffs and drive to World War III with China.

[. . .]

Sanders began his remarks by thanking the trade union bureaucrats and musicians who participated. He said the numerous musical interludes were there:

Not just to entertain you. It is more than that. We are going to make our revolution with joy. We are going to sing and dance our way to victory against hatred and divisiveness.

In his remarks, Sanders failed to name any of the immigrants or students who have been abducted or hounded by the immigration Gestapo in the last three months, including Mohmoud Khalil, Momodou Taal, Rumeysa Ozturk and Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

This is not an oversight. Sanders, an economic nationalist who supports tariffs against “enemies” such as China, and the nationalist trade union bureaucracies, in line with Trump’s “America First” agenda, oppose open borders and seek to line up workers behind their “own” capitalist rulers in the global war for markets, natural resources and sources of cheap labor.

As at previous “Fighting Oligarchy” rallies, Sanders advanced a false history in which America was a democratic garden of Eden before the serpent Trump slithered his way to the top.

He declared:

For the first time in our 250-year history, we have a president who is aligning himself with dictatorship abroad. No, Mr. Trump, Ukraine did not start the war, Putin and Russia did. We must lead the world in supporting democracies, not supporting Putin and dictatorship.

Getting concerned yet, AOC-for-2028 supporters? 

You should be.  You joined in the attacks on Kamala.  Now you're going to have to deal with the fact that flip-the-script means AOC can be taken out the same way -- and, most likely, that would happen during the primaries. 

Your Dreamgirl's not a such a sure thing.  

Right now, is where you need to be making inroads with people of color.  But that would require you apologizing for what you did to suppress turnout for Kamala.  Again, that's a trick that we can flip the script on for your Dreamgirl.  

People of color are not stupid.  And that was especially driven home in this YOUTUBE video to David Hogg.

 

 

 

Who is David Hogg talking about replacing?  People of color especially are concerned when a White man starts talking about replacing members of Congress -- and for good reason.  

David needs to be having a conversation but it's been days since his announcement and he's still not eager for a conversation that reaches beyond the White world.  DSAers want AOC to be the next president but they've yet to make any efforts to atone for what they did to the country and the Black community in 2024.  The sitcom's just fine and not going anywhere.  But maybe the media should hit hard on their other beloved trope: The Death Of The Democratic Party?  If certain self-proclaimed players are unable to listen to minority populations, the party's going to do even worse in 2028.