tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1378668930164538623.post4644536443285199623..comments2023-02-14T10:01:18.003-06:00Comments on Zeppo Marxism: TV Comedy died forever in 1982Anthony Strandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15170406011301084809noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1378668930164538623.post-44016213837447021342008-06-29T21:36:00.000-05:002008-06-29T21:36:00.000-05:00I do remember that article. 1982 was kind of a blo...I do remember that article. 1982 was kind of a bloodbath year for sitcoms; another critic wrote an article around the same time lamenting that ABC had canceled <I>Police Squad!</I> and <I>Bosom Buddies</I>, their only comedies apart from <I>Taxi</I> that tried to do something a little different. <I>Soap</I> had gone the year before. <I>Mork and Mindy</I> seems like a weird choice for inclusion with those other shows, but it makes sense if we think of it as a comedy with something you didn't usually see on sitcoms (namely Robin Williams, and also, I guess, Jonathan Winters), and the networks were canceling every sitcom that was even a little different or even a little bit more interesting than average. It's a bit like today, of course, in that the sitcom was being pronounced dead, but back then it almost seemed like the networks were trying to kill the form off (I don't think this is true, but that's how it looked). <BR/><BR/> But I suspect that yes, critics really did have a certain affection for <I>Mork</I>, because Williams was kind of a critics' darling at the time.Jaime J. Weinmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15128500411119962998noreply@blogger.com