Culture Notes

Cancelled...with gratitude

Three long-running sitcoms that have been milking laughs from America's family pathologies have at last been cancelled. Married... with Children has been slandering the nuclear family ever since the launching of the Fox network with its plans to push the boundaries of television fare. Its 10-year run made it the longest-lasting sitcom currently on the air. But now the obnoxious Al Bundy, his floozy wife, promiscuous daughter, and no-good son are Cancelled...with Gratitude. Many critics lauded the show as a satire of the ideal families of TV's golden age, but the program, besides being strangely unfunny, only demonstrated how far we have fallen since Leave It to Beaver. Roseanne has also copped her last attitude. In its beginning, the show was a rather refreshing depiction of a genuine, working-class family. But as the show grew ever more successful, its star Roseanne Barr/Arnold became more and more the kind of egoistical prima donna that real working-class families cannot stand. As Roseanne bought into the Hollywood mentality, she featured the network's first lesbian kiss, dumped her character's affable husband played by John Goodman, had plastic surgery to make herself look more glamorous, and finally-bringing the show to the exact opposite of its blue-collar beginnings-had Roseanne win the lottery and become a high roller. ABC has finally put her viewers out of their misery. Martin, another cutting-edge Fox sitcom featuring the black comedian Martin Lawrence, has also had its plug pulled after five seasons. Mr. Lawrence, who had been accused of the sexual harassment and battery of a co-star, can now go back full time to his R-rated, woman-hating, dirty-mouthed comedy routines. Like many rappers and other black entertainers who unaccountably buy into Hollywood's role for them, Mr. Lawrence is doing little more than trafficking in negative racial stereotypes. Despite the death of these series, some will probably all live on in Hollywood's version of eternal life: the syndication of re-runs.