Welcome to a new Wildcard Wednesday! This week, I’ve got a new Q&A entry, where I answer questions submitted by readers. Thanks to everyone who sent in something — if you don’t see your “Q” here, I just may “A” it next time. (And keep them coming — any related topic on which you want my opinion and/or a little research? Just let me know!)
Bob Richter asks… Jackson, Have you ever though about doing a wildcard Wednesday on the Doris Day show? Not so much for any comic value as that it’s one of the few longer running sitcoms that tried to be a chameleon in a quickly changing sitcom landscape.
I don’t have any plans to feature The Doris Day Show here in any capacity, as it’s not a great sitcom. That is, it’s not especially conducive to highlighting individual episodic samples worthy of critical attention. However, as you noted, the constant evolution of its situation makes it an interesting topic on which to share opinions. So, I may do that at some point — somewhere.
Amy B says… Hi Jackson, I know you’re reviewing sitcoms from the 2000s on now. And I also know you’re not fond of the 70’s sitcom “Alice”. But the spinoff, “Flo,” is now showing on Tubi, and I think it’s vastly superior to its parent show by leaps and bounds. Would you consider devoting a post to it?
I wouldn’t feel comfortable covering Flo here without having done a formal study of her years on Alice first, as a basic awareness of Alice is a shared experience that most viewers of Flo had then and would have now. So, I don’t think I’ll be giving any thought to Flo unless/until I change my mind about Alice. And that, by the way, is not planned… but also not impossible.
Christopher is curious… Hi Jackson, I recently read a couple of books about the difficult process of making TV in the 90’s (one about a single-season show, the other an unaired pilot). What are some of your favorite books about the sitcom?
There aren’t many great books about the sitcom genre as a whole because it’s not a subject that, humbly, I feel many scholars fully understand and/or respect. That is, most histories tend to only focus on the sitcom as a tool for social study, while most critical appraisals tend to judge the genre by other dramatic forms and not its own unique terms. That’s one of the reasons I was excited by the challenge of writing about the sitcom’s origins and starting to track its quality with some degree of narrative chronology. That said, there are a lot of wonderful books on individual subjects — and specifically, individual shows — that I consult regularly when thinking about those sitcoms. One of the best, in particular, is A.S. Berman’s look at Soap in Soap! the Inside Story of the Sitcom That Broke All the Rules. Every great show deserves a tome that’s as comprehensive as Berman’s. In general, I also appreciate oral histories — sort of like what I did with my Xena posts — especially when they dig into specific shows and episodes. The more granular the focus, the better. Those are the resources I most use!
Coll33n asks… Assuming that the 6th season of Xena wasn’t its last and didn’t end with her dying again, where would you have wanted the show to go in a hypothetical 7th season?
That’s tough because so much of Season Six was crafted with the full knowledge that the series was ending. Even before the controversial finale, there were entries like “To Helicon And Back” and “Last Of The Centaurs” that were designed to wind down the series by destroying its world. The Centaurs, Greek Amazons, and Olympian Gods were basically decimated, while so many of Xena’s friends had aged or died during the 25-year time jump. So, it’s hard to think about developing a seventh season without first redeveloping a lot of Six. However, to give you something of an answer, I think the show let itself down by not fully tracking Xena’s past up until the moment we met her on Hercules. It was a mistake to break the flashback episodes’ progressive chronology — we went from “Destiny” to “Past Imperfect” with a basic forward-moving timeline, and then all of Six’s Evil Xena entries were either vaguely placed (Norse trilogy) or ham-fistedly inserted between prior flashbacks. To keep the plot moving, we needed to see Xena start some kind of relationship with Ares (whether he personified himself to her or not) and receive from him the famous chakram, and we needed to see her leading an army around Greece that included her Herc henchmen, like Darphus. So, I would have used episodes in Six or Seven to expand our knowledge of Xena’s history with more of an eye to bringing things full circle. As for Gabrielle, I’m not sure there was much left to explore with her growth, but I’m always in favor of drawing contrasts between Xena and Gabrielle, even as Gabrielle progressively grew to become more like Xena (and vice versa). In that regard, I’d like more stories where Xena and Gabrielle disagree.”Last Of The Centaurs” tried to do this, but you’d want a full arc — three episodes or so — where they have tension. Also, I’m a Rome fan for what it represents to the characters, so more of them being inserted into the history of that empire and its politics would be fun. Let’s see Claudius and Nero. And Pompeii, of course, is on the table. As for other places to go, back to Britannia? How about the Parthian Empire? We’d need new villains. History and mythology remain rich resources for all of this.
Daniel Fouste writes in… Hi Jackson! Long(ish) time reader, first time commenter. My question is simply: have you ever thought about doing a list of your picks for the 100 greatest sitcom episodes of all time? I thought with your extensive knowledge on the subject, it would be fun to see if you could do a list to rival the ones that Tom Hill (2001, in his book “TV Land to Go”) and Robert David Sullivan (2012) have done. Keep up the great work!
I like that idea, especially as the premise for a book. But I’m not there yet. I would need to afford every decade the same spotlight I did the 1950s in my first book (see here) before I felt truly authoritative on the genre’s full history. Once decade-best lists are done, something all-encompassing and yet distilling makes a lot of sense. And you know I love a good list!
Have a question for me? Submit it at the “Ask Jackson (Q&A)” link.
Come back next week for another Wildcard! And stay tuned Tuesday for more sitcom fun!