It’s been interesting to see everyone getting nostalgic for the younger David Letterman. In the wake of his latest
Palin idiocy, a lot of conservatives have to admit they used to enjoy his show. They couldn’t have enjoyed it for long, though. Thanks to PBS specials, many young people already knew that Letterman was ripping off Ernie Kovacs when
Late Night first debuted. The show always seemed like another thing that high school and college students had to outgrow.
Things have only been more painful since Letterman moved to CBS. The comedy is dull, and the celebrity interviews are awful. There are precious few guests who can keep Letterman from simply blurting, “Do you have a story about [whatever subject you discussed in the pre-show interview that will hopefully kill all the remaining time in this miserable segment]?”
At least Letterman was never particularly conservative. It’s sadder to think about
Family Guy—now marking ten years in prime time (after a few cancellations). A look on a search engine suggests that nobody remembers when the popular cartoon had plenty of conservative moments. It hasn’t for years, but
Family Guy was genuinely daring for its first two seasons. An early episode was about titular character Peter Griffin becoming a welfare cheat at $150,000 a week. The second season had Peter’s house seceding from America and getting a sympathetic visit from Susan Sarandon. (“…you may know me as Tim Robbins’ mother…”) Bill Clinton was occasionally seen as an amiable idiot manipulating an admiring press—but he was willing to have sex with Hillary if the world was ending and nobody else was around. The Y2K episode ended with a nice endorsement of gun ownership.
Family Guy was never the best show on television.
MAD TV (another surprisingly funny show for its first few seasons) managed a better Randy Newman parody, and that whole episode about Peter’s secession recycled plenty of jokes from elsewhere.
Family Guy was still comfortable with goofing on evil empires—real ones, like Iraq—while telling the story. Also, the show’s regular trick with running certain jokes into the ground was really effective for a while.
Of course, creator Seth MacFarlane soon caved to the Hollywood social network, and the
Family Guy of the past several years has been reliably Leftist and direly predictable. The good news is that you can buy
the first two seasons as a cheap box set. It’d be something fun to watch if you’re just now giving up on Letterman.
