I've always felt the popularity of Friends and Seinfeld (and the copycats) killed marriage.
TV always showed dating as something kids did. When you show adults dating forever it creates a mentality that its normal to be in your 30s+ and still having relationships and "trying to find the one". In every other generation that would be seen as hopelessly past marriageable age. Even Gen Xers got hitched quicker. TV created all the "rules" of dating that people think of, like "three dates and then you have sex" or all the shit of male/female friendships, going "on a break", etc.
TV does this for drama and entertainment of course, but people see it at absorb the message whether they realize it or not. One of the most conservative guys I knew was still a raging Friends addict who constantly talked about the show like the characters were real people, like they were his friends.
Hmm.
My wife still watches that show religiously and i think it's held up well. At the end of the show one couple does get permanently married. Ross does the real life Jew thing and gets married/divorced like 3 times. So that was realistic.
They kind of dunk on men acting gay or effeminate a few times. There's like one black person in the entire series. Chandler is humiliated by his crossdressing dad, and everyone gets instead of rainbow blasting him.
It still shows dating as something that goes on for over a decade and not a short step to starting your real life. And of course we get flagrant adoption propaganda and the end too.
I've always felt the popularity of Friends and Seinfeld (and the copycats) killed marriage.
TV always showed dating as something kids did. When you show adults dating forever it creates a mentality that its normal to be in your 30s+ and still having relationships and "trying to find the one". In every other generation that would be seen as hopelessly past marriageable age. Even Gen Xers got hitched quicker. TV created all the "rules" of dating that people think of, like "three dates and then you have sex" or all the shit of male/female friendships, going "on a break", etc.
TV does this for drama and entertainment of course, but people see it at absorb the message whether they realize it or not. One of the most conservative guys I knew was still a raging Friends addict who constantly talked about the show like the characters were real people, like they were his friends.
Hmm. My wife still watches that show religiously and i think it's held up well. At the end of the show one couple does get permanently married. Ross does the real life Jew thing and gets married/divorced like 3 times. So that was realistic.
They kind of dunk on men acting gay or effeminate a few times. There's like one black person in the entire series. Chandler is humiliated by his crossdressing dad, and everyone gets instead of rainbow blasting him.
It still shows dating as something that goes on for over a decade and not a short step to starting your real life. And of course we get flagrant adoption propaganda and the end too.