My Least Favorite Sitcom Plot – And the Lesson it Teaches

 

Lately I’ve been getting reacquainted with The Doris Day Show, and early in that journey I watched an episode entitled “The Matchmakers.” Billy and Toby, the two kids of the widowed Doris Martin, attend a father-son event with their granddad (Denver Pyle, wonderful as always) – and lose every race. So they decide they need to get mom married by next year – preferably to someone younger and more athletic.

 

And in my mind I thought, yep, here it comes – the story that every classic situation comedy tells at least once, and the one I find the least appealing.

 

Sure enough, the kids stop by the sheriff’s office and convince Deputy Ubbie Puckum (Noam Pitlik) that Doris wants to get to know him better. And with a name like Ubbie Puckum, you know he’s not going to be Doris’s dream date. He’s not an awful person – no one is truly awful in Doris’s world – but he is shallow and vain, and tries to get Doris into a drive-in movie where he can put the moves on America’s sweetheart. 

 

 

How many times have we seen variations on this plot? We look forward to spending time in the familiar and comfortable world inhabited by the characters on a beloved comedy series, only to watch their lives disrupted by someone new and unwelcome. It could be a blind date with an obnoxious suitor, or a houseguest that takes over the house, a pushy new neighbor, or an old school classmate that never grew up.

 

Of course I understand that storytelling requires some conflict to be explored and resolved. But I always prefer when those challenges emerge internally, because they are less heavy-handed. When a character we already know and like faces a moral dilemma or begins to drift off the path of the righteous, it piques my interest far more than when some outsider arrives and makes everyone miserable.

 

Do I even need to cite examples? It’s such a common trope that you’re probably already ahead of me.

 

There was Tank Gates (Denny Miller) on The Brady Bunch, acting like a bull in a china shop as he relives his high school football glory days in the Brady living room (“Quarterback Sneak”). 

 

 

Or perhaps you prefer Neil Schenk (Jack Carter), an old acquaintance of Rob’s on The Dick Van Dyke Show (“Stretch Petrie vs. Kid Schenk”). He did Rob a favor decades earlier, and returns every so often to try to collect on it again. And how many episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show were built around the uncomfortable dates endured by Mary or Rhoda?

 

 

The one I bristled at the most was Harvey Henshaw (Warren Berlinger, an actor that specialized in annoying characters) on The Courtship of Eddie’s Father. In “Any Friend of Dad’s” Harvey displays the brash and overbearing qualities shared by most of these types, but dials them up to 11. Tom Corbett (Bill Bixby) is as kind and gentle and understanding as TV dads get. But when Harvey shows up at the widowed Tom’s apartment with two floozies ready to party, I wanted to reach through the screen and throttle him.

 

The common trait that runs through all of these characters is a supreme self-confidence in their demeanor that could not be more misplaced. They believe everyone sees them as they see themselves, oblivious to the true feelings of those they inflict their manner upon. These shows are never as funny to me as they were intended to be, probably for the same reason I alluded to in my recent tribute to Bob Newhart. The loudest people in a room (and that’s who these guys always are) are the people I can’t get away from fast enough, so I sympathize with those trapped in these situations.

 

However, I do acknowledge that while many sitcom stories of a bygone era are dismissed now as unrealistic (I disagree, but that’s another discussion), the situations in these episodes are and remain relatable. And that is their saving grace.

 

Those of us who write about television, especially classic television, often acknowledge the lessons embedded in even the simplest stories (sometimes especially in the simplest stories). What I watch for in these episodes is how a virtuous character navigates these circumstances. Rarely do they call the person out on their behavior – the reaction of someone like Al Bundy would be satisfying in the moment, but not advisable upon reflection. Instead, they adopt a more mature response, one that requires calm, patience, and diplomacy.

 

Yes, I know about “Love thy neighbor.” But I think the Apostle Paul got closer to appropriate guidance when he said  “If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody.” (Romans 12:18). The John Maxwell translation goes like this: “Do the best you can to get along with everyone. Yet realize that once in a while you are going to have a relationship with a difficult person that may fall short of the ideal.”

 

We will all either face these situations from time to time, or we’re the person that other people have to endure with grace (let’s hope that is not the case!). When we do, remember the examples set by your favorite classic TV characters and hope that, like Doris Day, your troubles will pass in less than 30 minutes.