“What’s a Rerun?” dusts classic TV episodes off the shelf at random and aims to examine, through art and analysis, why we continue to watch and re-watch. Do these stories still have value in a relentlessly modern world of visual ephemera, or are some better left in the vault? (email us at whatsarerun [at] gmail dot com)
SMALL WONDER - “Vicki’s Homecoming”
(art by Aireen Arellano - to view larger version, click here)
——
SHOW: Small Wonder
EPISODE: “Vicki’s Homecoming”
FIRST AIRED: Sept. 07, 1985
Delving into the history of syndicated television is like bargain hunting in a shady thrift store that smells like week-old meat, but offers shelves of tchotchkes that hum with novelty and history. Syndicated programming, which thrives in the off-hours of daytime and late night, has served as company to countless insomniacs, waiting room wanderers, stay-at-home parents, nursing home denizens, kids home with the flu, and dorm room loafers.
It’s the exact opposite of appointment television because it’s not designed to be talked about or, in some cases, even watched. While some of these shows, sold to local TV stations on an individual basis as opposed to broadcast networks, have been cultural touchstones – Baywatch, Wheel of Fortune, and Jeopardy! tops among the examples - most are produced just to provide content, to fill the hours, and, simply put, to be there.
Small Wonder was a gross and freaky syndication mainstay from 1985 to 1989. Many viewers alive during that time can probably remember watching some Small Wonder episode sometime somewhere, as hazy as the specifics might be. Revisiting the show in the harsh light of modern day, the best and worst of the show come back into sharp focus. Vicki the Robot was a cute oddity, the sloppy and weird character dynamics made for some strange implications, and the terrible jokes burned right through the bottom of the sitcom barrel. The biggest tragedy of the show is that, had the creators assumed that intelligent beings were actually watching and following the show, it could have been much more than the sum of its microchips here and there.
THE GOLDEN GIRLS - “My Brother, My Father”
(art by Aireen Arellano - to view larger version, click here)
——
SHOW: Golden Girls
EPISODE: “My Brother, My Father”
FIRST AIRED: Feb. 06, 1988
The Golden Girls has gained a new level of respect by a modern audience that did not necessarily watch the show when it first aired. The passing of venerable actresses Estelle Getty, Bea Arthur, and Rue McLanahan and the career renaissance of Betty White have cast a new light on this sitcom, which before may have been looked at as hokey nostalgia. While this might be a show you watched in the ‘80s while you were over at your grandma’s house because she loved it, it deserves a reexamination.
The Golden Girls is that, but it’s also more. Particularly in a television culture perpetually obsessed with youth, can you imagine a show where all the characters are women over 50 (or barely over 40, if you believe Blanche); a show that deals with “women’s issues” like menopause, or that devotes episodes to elder abuse, the difficulties in being divorced or widowed, living on a fixed income; a show that depicts these characters and their real concerns AND doesn’t cover up the fact that not only the young and beautiful are concerned about their sex lives? 50+ year-old women with dignity and sex drives? The Golden Girls had two decades on It’s Complicated. The show was ahead of its time.
Season Three’s “My Brother, Father” is about identity and masquerading: the characters are all deceiving someone. We all know the canonical reading of the girls: Rose (White) is the dumb one from St. Olaf, Blanche (McLanahan) is the oversexed one, Sophia (Getty) is the quintessentially feisty 80-year-old, and Dorothy (Arthur) is the sensible one who keeps the girls together. In “My Brother, My Father,” all of these familiar elements are turned upside down by deceit.
TAXI - “On the Job”
(art by Aireen Arellano - to view larger version, click here)
——
SHOW: Taxi
EPISODE: “On the Job” parts 1 & 2
FIRST AIRED: May 07 & 14, 1981
Sadness. Despair. Dashed hopes. Broken dreams. Jokes about suicide. Welcome to the nonstop party room that is Taxi!
All sitcoms necessarily operate under the same mission statement: make them laugh, the end. Comedy writers deploy an array of tools at their disposal to get the job done. Pratfalls, double entendres, acidic insults, sight gags, sex, horrifying social situations, and bad behavior are the usual order of the day. And then there’s Taxi, the rare sitcom to have its feet planted firmly in melancholy.
Musings on regret, failure, and hardship are one of the richest wellsprings for laughter, yet not many studio sitcoms have really bothered to have their characters stare deep into the void of their own lives. Sure, most modern sitcoms have come to embrace the intertwining of comedy and tragedy with such fervor that the beloved term ‘dramedy’ has stayed in vogue for the past couple of decades. But unlike The Office or Weeds, Taxi’s brand of everyday bleakness was shot in front of a live studio audience. Weekly, the writers had enough honest chutzpah to take grounded and downright bummer situations and move a whole live audience to laughter.
Season Three’s “On the Job” gives our fearless crew of forlorn cabbies a new reason to laugh in the dark: they no longer have jobs.
