I take comfort in reruns of The Andy Griffith Show from the first five seasons or so, where Opie is still a cute little towhead, Barney Fife is two-timing Thelma Lou with Juanita at the diner, The Darlings make cameos with their great bluegrass combo The Dillards, Ernest T. Bass comes down from the hills once and a while to throw rocks through the courthouse windows, and Andy is courting Ellie the druggist (I had a childhood crush on Eleanor Donahue).

They are such wholesome morality plays, yet they manage to be really funny without being crude or "transgressive" or political.