Most American sitcoms are devoid of likeable characters

[Tamingstrange]

Has anyone noticed that most American sitcoms are completely devoid of likeable and moral characters? In fact, it seems damn near impossible to find any sitcoms with likeable characters. Some examples:

2 and a Half Men
Mom
Shameless
The Goldbergs
Everybody Loves Raymond
The King of Queens

And that just naming a few. This trend seems to go as far back as the late 80s. The show "Married With Children" is likely the show that kicked things off.

This is probably the main reason why I find it difficult to get any enjoyment out of most American sitcoms. The characters are often such mean spirited and horrible people, that it makes them difficult to sit through. Such behavior is often glorified on those shows and presented of being a good thing. It's also pretty obvious that such shows have a major impact on how society acts. People learn from what they watch on TV. Especially children and teens. They see this behavior, think it's cool and start acting it out in thier day to day like. The same can even be said for some American CommercialsI. It's media brainwashing at it's finest.

[Winston]

Are there any TV channels that have sitcoms from the 1980's? Those were good sitcoms with likable characters. For example:

- Different Strokes
- The Facts of Life
- Silver Spoons
- Three's Company
- Growing Pains
Etc.

The last sitcom I remember with funny likable characters was "Full House" with Bob Saget and those Olson twin girls. Do you remember that? At least that had love and family values.

[MarcosZeitola]

Has anyone noticed that most American sitcoms are completely devoid of likeable and moral characters? In fact, it seems damn near impossible to find any sitcoms with likeable characters. Some examples:

2 and a Half Men
Mom
Shameless
The Goldbergs
Everybody Loves Raymond
The King of Queens

And that just naming a few. This trend seems to go as far back as the late 80s. The show "Married With Children" is likely the show that kicked things off.

This is probably the main reason why I find it difficult to get any enjoyment out of most American sitcoms. The characters are often such mean spirited and horrible people, that it makes them difficult to sit through. Such behavior is often glorified on those shows and presented of being a good thing. It's also pretty obvious that such shows have a major impact on how society acts. People learn from what they watch on TV. Especially children and teens. They see this behavior, think it's cool and start acting it out in thier day to day like. The same can even be said for some American CommercialsI. It's media brainwashing at it's finest.

Why are you still here and why did you stop replying to comments on your other thread? A lot of people were trying to help you, man. Now you just ignore it and go blab about sitcoms? You raised some pretty major points, why not at least respond to folks, debate us, make your case, or concede if you agree to any of ours?

viewtopic.php?style=1&f=1&t=42908&p=345823#p345823

Go, answer us man. Lets get to the core of things. I don't care about Two And a Half Man, I want to try to get to the core of this instead and make this 'Tamingstrange' a whole man!

[Cornfed]

This trend seems to go as far back as the late 80s. The show "Married With Children" is likely the show that kicked things off.

But don't we kind of secretly like the characters from Married With Children? The show was a reaction against vomitsom goodie shows, but we liked the characters for that reason.

[yick]

You don't have to watch American comedies, you can comedies from anywhere in the world - Canada, Australia and even Spanish and Russian language comedies on Netflix... I am a fan of the Mexican comedian Carlos Ballarta - you don't have to watch American comedies.

Have you thought about learning a language instead, for your move abroad? A better use of your time.

[TruthSeeker]

The last sitcom I remember with funny likable characters was "Full House" with Bob Saget and those Olson twin girls. Do you remember that? At least that had love and family values.

He just recently died. One article speculates he was murdered with a baseball bat.

https://meaww.com/bob-saget-hit-on-head ... der-rumors

[Winston]

Has anyone noticed that in modern TV shows and movies, the characters are very bland and have no personality or distinctive looks anymore? In the 70s and 80s nearly everyone on TV and in the movies looked distinctive and stood out from the rest. Today the faces look cookie cutter and bland and so similar that I am not sure if the same guy is in two scenes or if they are different guys. lol. Any of you notice this too?

[MrMan]

Has anyone noticed that most American sitcoms are completely devoid of likeable and moral characters? In fact, it seems damn near impossible to find any sitcoms with likeable characters. Some examples:

2 and a Half Men
Mom
Shameless
The Goldbergs
Everybody Loves Raymond
The King of Queens

And that just naming a few. This trend seems to go as far back as the late 80s. The show "Married With Children" is likely the show that kicked things off.

This is probably the main reason why I find it difficult to get any enjoyment out of most American sitcoms. The characters are often such mean spirited and horrible people, that it makes them difficult to sit through. Such behavior is often glorified on those shows and presented of being a good thing. It's also pretty obvious that such shows have a major impact on how society acts. People learn from what they watch on TV. Especially children and teens. They see this behavior, think it's cool and start acting it out in thier day to day like. The same can even be said for some American CommercialsI. It's media brainwashing at it's finest.

This is a couple of years old, but weren't some of these sit-coms old back then? I didn't watch most of them. I don't even know what 'Mom' is about. I have heard of Shameless, but I cannot think of a face or scene or anything, so I probably haven't seen enough of an ad for it to know what it is.

Two-and-a-half men. I've seen part of it. You need a shower if you watch that. My theory is the Charlie Sheen character was half a man-- a drunk and a fornicator, not willing to take responsibility in his life and use his sexuality properly. They messed up the title, though. It should have been a man, a boy and half a man. The kid grows up to be a half a man, the character maybe not the actor who realized the show he was on was garbage at least eventually teaching bad stuff. The brother was kind of weasley and not masculine and a fornicator, too, but just not as good at being bad as his brother in some ways, and maybe worse in others. I saw bits and pieces of it.

Some of these others I don't really think of as sit-coms because they don't have the three cameras, bright set, and laughing studio audience or fake laugh track.

Everybody Loves Raymond, are the characters loveable-- hold on, are any sit-com characters loveable? Do we invest in them? Does that even fit the genre? I think this show has relatable characters. The mother-in-law probably resonates with a lot of people. You may not have an MIL like that, but you might have seen the dynamic somewhere with the daughter-in-law. The grumpy dad who thought he was tough masculine who probably used to be. The jealous brother. This is over the top and silly the way they do it, but probably relatable.

Aren't sit coms supposed to be like emotional laughing gas in the dentists office, not quite funny enough to laugh maybe, except on occasion, but enough to take the edge off of a tough day or getting poked with a needle? Did anyone get emotionally attached to leave it to Beaver, the Cleavers the Ceavers, the Keatons, the people at bars and Cheers, or any of those undeveloped saved by the bell characters? Would you cry if they suffered in their imaginary lives? Did you cry when Sam Malone broke up with the tall blond or when he couldn't the less-pretty-that-people-thought-was-pretty Christie Allie character to go out with him? Did you care? Or did you just want the one-liners and light fun a sit-com provides?

Maybe if they shot Alex in the head on Family Ties and there was a lot of blood and everyone screamed, the audience might feel something. If his character got cancer, would you have cared? If little Beaver died on the show after being bald from cancer, maybe someone might have shed a tear. I don't think I would have. It's not that kind of experience.