Rachel Reads & Reviews

Jim Colucci is a freelance writer and commentator on today’s and yesterdays entertainment offerings, especially sitcoms. Writing for such outlets as TV Guide, The Advocate, and his blog, Must Hear TV, Colucci has also written comprehensive companion guides to such hits as Will and Grace, All the Family and of course, The Golden Girls. Colucci graciously took the time to answer my questions on the impact of sitcoms, writing companion guides, the Girls’ LGTBQ fandom, and of course, favorite Golden Girls episode.

1. You’ve been a mainstay in the entertainment business, what were your tv influences?

I was always influenced by sitcoms more than dramas, perhaps because sitcom problems are usually neatly wrapped up within 23 or so minutes.  The shows have almost always been aspirational, showing us the ideal of who we could be, rather than who we are. (If I wanted to see who we are, I certainly could find examples both good and bad in real life in suburban New Jersey.  I didn’t need the TV for that!) 

Growing up, on some level knowing I was gay, with somewhat conservative parents, in a household rightfully dominated by the needs of a disabled sibling, brought with it a great deal of pressure to achieve. All those factors also just made me “different” – which would turn out to be a good thing later on life, but which would also make me stand out in the way that kids don’t want to among their peers. Television was both the perfect escape for me and the perfect tutor.  My parents planted me and my disabled brother in front of “Sesame Street” several times each day, hoping that it would spur him to talk and read.  It didn’t work for him, but as a result, I read before age 2.

My first TV loves were “The Electric Company” and a local New York children’s show, “The Magic Garden.” Soon after, shows like “The Jeffersons” and “Good Times” showed me people I wouldn’t regularly have encountered in my mostly white suburb. “All in the Family” and “Maude” taught me about politics. “The Golden Girls” and “Designing Women” brought me into a world of hilarious wit but also activism, bringing perspectives on social issues more progressive than what I would have encountered at home. 

“Moonlighting” became appointment viewing for me and my whole high school friend group, who would gather together every Tuesday for a new episode, and quote the lines throughout the week. “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “The Bob Newhart Show” and “Newhart” were well-constructed and starred actors with impeccable comic timing. 

And I did watch quite a few hour-long shows/dramas; “Dynasty” and “Falcon Crest” brought high fashion and high camp. “Charlie’s Angels” and “Wonder Woman” were just ridiculous fun. My dad, who didn’t usually pay much attention to scripted TV, always reminded me when it was time to watch “Wonder Woman.” I was glad that he was taking interest in one of my shows. Now of course I get that the appeal was Lynda Carter in her costume.

Later on, TV helped me deal with being gay and come out.  I can thank “thirtysomething” for being a pioneer in depicting two men together. And I loved that on Showtime’s sitcom “Brothers,” one of the titular characters, who was gay, was presented with dignity, and made it seem possible to be out (and he was Italian-American to boot!)  By the late 1990s, as I was making the coming-out journey myself, “Will & Grace” inspired me.

I lived for the clever parody and expert comic bits contained in the “Get Smart” reruns I watched after school – and when the show was then moved into the wee hours of the morning on Channel 5 in New York, I would try my hardest to stay up until 2AM to see it. Unfortunately, I often fell asleep. 

But nothing beat “I Love Lucy,” which ran both at 9AM and in an after-school timeslot, and was of course the font of all kinds of comedy, from physical to character-based to joke writing, the show that invented it all. I remember one night in junior high, miserable from having gotten my braces tightened that afternoon, the only things that could cheer me up and make me laugh were “Lucy” after school, and then the brand new episode of “Laverne & Shirley” that night at 8:30 on my local ABC station; it was the one where they get hired as extras in a Troy Donahue film, playing cavewomen clumsily swinging on vines.  Who wouldn’t laugh at that?

It’s really hard to discern which shows shaped my sense of humor and what I think makes for good television in terms of form and structure, and which ones shaped my character and sense of self.  I guess the answer is that the best of the shows I mentioned did both.

(more…)