“All in the Family” and “South Park”
It is clear that good things have come and gone on T.V. over the years. There are successes, many missed opportunities and failures as well. There are good seasons of shows, and bad seasons of the exact same show. Writers change (or strike!). Maybe you thought “That New Show” really hit the mark and was funny or entertaining and then it got canceled. Sometimes things become watered down, or co-opted by forces that you cannot see, turning into a grim analog of the original. Wholly intact on the surface but somehow empty in its exposition of story. Very rarely, it seems, we the viewer get thrown a bone or two, and something so special comes to light that impacts the general consciousness forever. One particular instance is the creation of the show “All in the Family” by Norman Lear. It’s new style of comedy, which highlighted moral and political conflict between characters was instrumental in making the show a massive success.
Prior to Norman Lear’s groundbreaking show “All in the Family”, network television programming lacked a genuine cultural substance. Shows were predominately whitewashed, devoid of any conflict or relevant social commentary. The common ideology was to produce a “Universal television that played to everyone and offended no one”(Ozerdky p.64). All in the family, although not looking to offend its viewers, was the antithesis of the previous statement. That is precisely why it was such a hit at the time. Unlike all of its formulaic sitcom predecessors, it used conflict as a driving force behind its comedy and story telling and drew from relevant social issues to fuel that conflict. Its success demonstrated that you could unite a politically fragmented audience through comedy and produce entertainment that was marketable to a wider demographic. This represented a sort of ideological shift in programming. Because of the taboos “All in the Family” addressed, producers, writers, and executives learned that entertainment of a more transgressive nature could be highly marketable to the American public.
All in the Family’s conflict stemmed from the bigoted viewpoints of the shows main character, Archie Bunker, and his family’s reactions to them. This formula is crystallized within the first episode as Archie’s one-dimensional counterparts react to his bigotry and insults. His liberal son-in-law, Mike, clashes with him openly. His daughter, Gloria, pouted or rolled her eyes. The show’s black character, Lionel Jefferson, constantly patronized Archie, even though Archie never realized it. Edith, Archie’s long-suffering wife, typically one-up’d him with her naivety, relieving the building tension with quick one-liners. Archie frequently used racial slurs, constantly insulted his wife, and was excessively cruel to his daughter’s liberal minded husband. Surprisingly, Archie’s character was appealing to a liberal audience as well as the very conservatives that, through him, were being made the butt of jokes night after night on the show.
The fact that Archie is consistently proven wrong throughout episodes but remains unfaltering in his views and opinions was a source of great iconic power to the American viewing public. It prompted the reiteration of Archie’s catchphrases by t-shirts, bumper stickers and the population en masse. It is clear to the audience, characters in the program, his wife, everyone but Archie himself that he is a fossil, a product of a patriarchal era. His views were narrow minded but still represented the opinions of millions of the “silent majority” that were very much a reality outside of the program..
Feeding off current trends in the economy and politics the show stayed up to date for the first several years of its run, The most impressive being a four episode run at the start of the 5th season that featured the financial woes of the Bunkers as they were forced to deal with the recession and the inflation of the mid seventies. As the show experienced season after season of successful ratings the show relied less on topical references.
The show did stir up some controversy because of the inflammatory language and racial epithets’ uttered by Archie Bunker. In a New York Times article published soon after the shows premier Laura Z. Hobson criticized Norman Lear for creating, a “loveable bigot” who would surely encourage the use of racial slurs and make bigotry appealing to millions of television viewers. She stated that Hebe and spade were themselves euphemisms for kike and nigger, and if he were to use those terms we would be far less sympathetic as viewers. A week later her claims were rebuked by an article written by Lear himself, who stated that Hobson was an elitist who had a bias against the uneducated and that because he was Jewish and experienced racism himself, he had the necessary credentials to air a bigot on television.
It was a potential gamble that paid off, as “All in the Family” made it to the #1 spot in the Neilson ratings during it’s first season run and held the spot for the next five years, a feat not since duplicated. Encouraged by the series success CBS canceled many of its stale mainstay sitcoms from the sixties. The Beverly hillbillies, Green Acres, Hee Haw and Mayberry R.F.D. were all disposed of. Even The Ed Sullivan show was cancelled in the wake of “All in the family”, significant because a guest slot on his show represented the apex of mainstream success for many of televisions early years. “All in the Family” and it’s innovations in relating to the viewer was the catalyst that changed the face of prime time television.
In the wake of “All in the Families” success writers and producers of television came to find that the transgressive humor featured in the show could be emulated and exploited. Writers began using racially specific humor more freely in their scripts in the years following all in the family. This could have led to the decision by the National Association of Broadcasters In 1975 to adopt the “Prime Time Family Hour”. The rule stated that during the hours of 7 and 8 pm no “programming unsuitable for a general audience” would be aired on any network. Many producers, including Lear were being forced to tone down content of the shows that they were in control of. Lear, instead of submitting to the censorship imposed by the NAB, chose to move it to Thursday nights at 9pm to retain his artistic choices in writing. He then went on to successfully sue the NAB for violating first amendment rights. By the time the verdict was in the damage had already been done and shows of more escapist nature began to dominate prime time once again. The fact that Lear was so amendment about his first amendment rights really says something about his personal character and the intentionality behind the show. He knew that it was important for “All in the Family” to remain the way it was. This was Not simply because it made a lot of money. It was because a genuine reflection of a culture is necessary for the culture to expand, develop and ultimately change. Norman Lear saw the absence of this reflection on prime time, and felt it necessary to provide relief to the viewing masses by ensuring that “All in the Family” remained intact.
Much of the shows staying power had to do with the strict creative control that Lear had over the show. Writing and producing every episode of the series allowed the show to remain current and up to date with the topics that he thought were relevant to his characters and the viewing audience. It also allowed Lear to develop and change the characters throughout the seasons, something that was almost never done in the sitcom prior to AITF. It gave Lear control over the shows transgressive nature and allowed him to craft episodes specifically to the “Politically Fragmented” audiences that tuned in night after night.
Years later in 1997, on a little known cable station called Comedy Central a show called “South Park” debuted. The structure of the show focuses on four children and the town in which they live. Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman are very much normal boys in an extraordinary town. The show has a wide array of characters that has consistently grown during its many seasons: A seemingly schizophrenic teacher, a impossibly dense police officer, a mayor who is more concerned with her personal agenda, rather than that of the town, a overly liberal PTA lead by Sheila Broflovski (Kyles mother) parents that have grown increasingly more reactionary and irrational throughout the shows 15 seasons, Jesus, Satan, Saddam Hussein and a drug addicted towel all have made regular appearances.
Just like “All in the Family” gave CBS the necessary boost to reformat their prime time programming, “South Park” turned Comedy Central from a little known cable network into a television staple within a few years. After word of mouth spread about the show cable providers were flooded with requests for them to carry “Comedy Central. The success of “South Park” was also instrumental in showing producers and animators that, not only can you have a successful cartoon show that is intended for a primarily adult audience, you don’t even have to make it LOOK that good. It paved the way for shows like “Family Guy”, “Futurama” and cartoon networks late night block of shows “Adult Swim” all of which have gone on to become very successful through the years. “All in the Family” broke the mold for situational comedies and “South Park” rebooted our definition of the cartoon show.
Much like “All in the Family” got noticed for its conflict ridden screenplays, “South Parks” debuted garnered much attention for its over the top profanity, and focus on toilet humor and tasteless gags. The shows raunchiness is somewhat downplayed by the trademark animation style that began as crude but became more sophisticated throughout the shows run. Even though the show appears to be tasteless and extremely racist the shows creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, describe themselves as “Equal opportunity offenders” and the show frequently lampoons both sides of a topic that they are dealing with in a particular episode. The show also demonstrates a remarkable cultural reflexivity as it frequently references celebrities and parodies popular movies as well as other television shows. Over it’s many seasons the show has become more and more topical which has allowed its to remain a reliable source of satire for the average viewer.
Although most of the show centers on the opinions and views of Stan and Kyle (based loosely on creators Trey and Matt) a driving force of the show is the fat, foul mouthed, Eric Cartman. Eric is greedy, self centered, and pretty much hates everybody. Not surprisingly, Trey Parker has himself admitted basing the character of Eric Cartman on Archie Bunker. When you look at how Eric is used in the show, it is no surprise. Just as with Mr. Bunker, Eric never learns a lesson at the end of the show, or if there is a lesson to be learned, Eric has twisted it to serve his own ends. His ignorance truly knows no bounds, but he charges forward in every instance, oblivious to how fool hearty or misguided his notions of the world are. His bullheaded nature is showcased in the very first episode where,despite having a “80 ft. satellite dish coming out of his ass” he refuses to believe his friends as they try to convince him that he had been abducted by aliens the night before. So Eric Cartman is exactly like Archie Bunker, in the sense that he a foul mouthed bigot and is supremely bull headed. The only difference is that Eric is an eight-year-old boy.
One episode that comes to mind is from November of 2001, two months after the attacks on September 11th entitled “Osama Bin Laden has Farty Pants”(S5E9). The show opens with a sequence reminiscent of Archie Bunkers more blatantly racist outbursts. For a school project the children are all asked to send a dollar to the kids in Afghanistan.
Cartman: I’m not giving a dollar to those towel heads!
Ms. Choksondik: Eric, The afghan people need our help.
Cartman: Oh I’m sorry! I thought we were at war with these people!
Wendy: We’re at war with terrorists, not with Afghanistan! And the only reason you care is because you don’t want to give up a dollar.
Cartman: That dollar buys ME a chocolate-milk for lunch. What do want me to just get regular milk for ten cents? Now look, It isn’t our fault the terrorists hate us, we’re just kids. We’re not the ones bombing them now. We’re just kids. There’s a lot of crazy stuff going on in the world, but we’re just caught in the middle, it’s not our fault.
Wendy: The Afghan children are caught in the middle too!
Cartman: Yes but they’re sand monkeys!
Just like in all in the family, Political discourse is highlighted through conflicts between characters. This discourse is especially potent if one of the opposing viewpoints is extreme, as is the case with Eric and Archie. At the time of it’s airing, conversations like this were common place all across America, with many Americans arguing for and against the efficacy of fighting terrorism home and abroad. It was a topic that was all over the news, radio and newspaper headlines. The whole country was talking about 9/11, but it was nowhere to be seen in the cultural sphere of entertainment save for “South Park”.
Both shows were unique aesthetically, and were emulated by many other programs. All in the family was one of the first hit shows on prime time to claim “Video Taped in front of a live studio audience”. That means that it was first show to have the deep focus effect of video cameras at the time. Because of it, objects in the background were as clear as the characters in the foreground and it gave the show a more intimate feel. One could argue that this was more appropriate for the content of the show, considering the various social topics it brought into focus through it’s storytelling.
“South Park” used a minimalist style of animation, which began as paper cutouts assembled with glue and that style was later emulated on computer animating programs. The show has implemented more sophisticated techniques in animating their episodes, but the original paper-cut-out aesthetic remains. Many other animated programs followed that had a similar “lo-fi” style of animation: “Dr. Katz”, “Home Movies”, and many of the shows on cartoon networks “Adult Swim” shared in a cult success.
Another area where the shows intersect is on the subject of transgressive comedy. “All in the Family” broke the mold of the traditional sitcom formula by breaking taboos and fighting censorship. This was significant because it disrupted the ideological hegemony surrounding television programming at the time. Before “All in the Family” it was feared that if a particular program offended someone (through language or representation of a character or gender) it would surely mean a failure of the program, which then lead to a massive financial loss for the networks. The result of this was years of the same programming, the same episodic plot contrivances and the same lack of “realism” that was relevant to the lives of millions of television viewers. Watching television on a typical evening in 1969 one would think that there are no conflicts, black people don’t exist and there was no Vietnam. Norman Lear broke through the fear of offending people that paralyzed network programming for years. The success of a show like “All in the Family” reminded viewers and producers that television is a constantly changing medium and the realities that they portray don’t need to be “perfect”.The audience expectations shifted, and the understanding of audience expectation from television executive and producers changed as well.
South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone based the character Eric Cartman on Archie Bunker. I also know through listening to DVD Commentary that Norman Lear himself attended a south park writers retreat and sat in on several writing session during the seventh season. Based on what I know about the two shows I am lead to believe that Trey Parker and Matt Stone used aspects of AITF’s productions that were key to it’s success and crafted their show around them. They turned down many offers before settling on the one that provided the most creative control. “All in the Family” demonstrated that programming was better when left to an individual writer and they wanted to ensure their creative freedoms. They saw how the transgressive comedy first brought to light through “AITF” had such a huge impact on the popularity of the show and made sure that their writing was just as edgy and taboo (The first words spoken on the show are “God Dammit!”). They learned an important lesson from Norman Lears use of the character Archie Bunker: Simply put a character in a show can be as offensive or morally questionable as you want to make them, you just need to have the other characters disagree with them. Once that formula is established you do, say, and address any topic imaginable, no matter how taboo. “South Park” has used this strategy throughout the years, retaining it’s transgressive nature and topical significance with surprising ease.