Rooster to Beef: The hit US TV shows making fun of the generation clash |
Rooster to Beef: The TV shows making fun of the generation clash
The feud between the generations was a popular TV theme in the 1970s, and now the interactions and frictions between Gen Z, Gen X, millennials and boomers are all over our screens once again. Why does the generation gap continue to make us laugh – and can the laughter help to heal the rift?
More than 50 years ago, television producer Norman Lear did something radical: he created a sitcom that held up a mirror to the US's yawning generation gap, All in the Family.
This groundbreaking 1971 show tackled bitterly contentious issues of the day – racism, women's rights, and the Vietnam War – in a manner that was both humorous and relatable. For five years, All in the Family was the most-watched programme on television.
Every week, more than 40 million viewers tuned in to watch a bigoted blue-collar Greatest Generation veteran, Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor), wrangle over questions of right and wrong with his shaggy-haired son-in-law, Michael "Meathead" Stivic (Rob Reiner), a baby boomer.
Today, when the intergenerational divide is arguably wider and deeper than during the 1970s, TV producers appear eager to emulate Lear, and meet the moment with shows illuminating the clash between the old and the young. And what better setting than a college campus, a place where the generations naturally face off?
Look no further than Rooster, which debuted on HBO Max in March, for solid proof. The show so rapidly gained viewers during its first weeks on air, it became the broadcaster's most popular comedy debut in more than a decade. Just five episodes in, HBO re-commissioned it for a second 10-episode season.
Roosterspans three generations. Steve Carell, plays Gen Xer Greg Russo, a divorced novelist who is persuaded to take a job teaching creative writing at fictional Ludlow College in order to be near his daughter, Katie (Charly Clive). An art history professor at the New England college, Katie and her husband, Archie (Phil Dunster), both Millennials, have recently split after Archie had an affair with a graduate student, and got her pregnant.
This scandal is the talk of Ludlow. The undergraduates, in stereotypical Gen-Z fashion, keep a censorious eye on their elders, all the better to call them out on attitudes and behaviour they term "problematic".
Carell is funny as the well-meaning but clueless Russo, who stumbles around campus trying to adjust to modern mores. He learns to say "unhoused” rather than "homeless". When he does an awkward little dance in the college canteen, the only thing worse than having to explain an outdated pop-culture reference to the Bangles' 1986 hit Walk Like an Egyptian is enduring withering looks for his cultural appropriation.
Katie's bond with her father is the show's central relationship, and a demonstration that disagreement is possible without sacrificing affection and respect. Indeed, beyond Carell's numerous pratfalls, the appeal of Rooster is the warmth and acceptance underlying the humour. The show doesn't force the audience to choose a side in the student-versus-faculty contest, as........