The Death of the Sitcom?

With both Fraiser and Friends having ended their run, I have been reading that the sitcom is dying, if not already dead. I don't believe it for a minute. After all, this is something I have heard before.

I will admit, that the new crop of sitcoms debuting this season do not seem very promising to me. I do not have high hopes for Joey, the spin off from Friends. While I do believe that actor Matt LeBlanc has talent, the character of Joey is not one that will allow him to display it. For me Joey was always the most boring character on Friends. He seemed to be the token fool on the cast, with not a lot of depth or complexity. On an emsemble cast such as Friends, Joey could be quite funny, but only because he had other people to play off of. I'm not sure that as a lead character he will be able to anchor a show. The rest of the characters are going to have to both be very interesting and they are going to have to be able to act as straight men for Joey. Of course, beyond my concerns over whether Joey could hold his own on a show, there is the fact that the writing team being Friends is the same one behind Joey. Given the fact that I think the quality of Friends declined significantly in its last several years, I don't have high hopes for the quality of scripts on Joey.

As to other sitcoms debuting this season, some of them boast big names, but none of them seem very interesting. Center of the Universe features John Goodman, Ed Asner, Olympia Dukakis, and Jean Smart. Unfortunately, the show does not seem particularly original. Unfortunately, the concept does not seem very original. It concerns a couple (Goodman and Smart) who have problems because of their off the wall family (Goodman's parents Asner and Dukakis). Despite the collective talent of the cast, I don't think the series hold much promise. Listen Up features Jason Alexander as a sportswriter/TV host. A lot of the series centres on his homelife. The series is based on Tony Kornheiser's Washington Post columns, which I have heard are very funny (I've never read them myself). And Jason Alexander is very talented; he was by far the best actor on Seinfeld. Unfortunately, the concept behind the series, despite being based on Kornheiser's columns, reminds me a lot of Everybody Loves Raymond and Dave's World. In other words, it doesn't sound particularly original. ABC has re-arranged their TGIF line up, adding Complete Savages. The show centres on Keith Carradine as the father of five sons. Now I do have to give it marks for centring on a single father, something we have not seen in some time on television. The problem is that the show is on ABC, the network that has given us Hope and Faith and My Wife and Kids. I have to seriously wonder about the quality of the show.

As to returning sitcoms, the only one I really like is Scrubs, although it can be inconsistent at times. I do think Everybody Loves Raymond, The King of Queens, and The George Lopez Show are quality shows, although they aren't really my cup of tea. As to the rest, I am still a bit puzzled as to how most of ABC's sitcoms and most of CBS's sitcoms have managed to survive. Indeed, Still Standing seems to me to simply be The King of Queens with kids.

The outlook for sitcoms is then not exactly cheery this season from my point of view. But that does not mean the format is dying or dead as many in the media would have us believe. In the early Eighties many thought the sitcom was dead. It was at that point that Cheers and The Cosby Show revitalised the format. After both The Cosby Show and Cheers left the air, many thought the sitcom would go the way of the dinosaur. It was then that Friends and Frasier debuted, while Seinfeld finally got the recognition it deserved. Even if there are no breakout hits this season, I suspect there will be next season or the season after that. The sitcom format has been around for a combined total of 75 years on both radio and television. At no point in that 75 years have there been no sitcoms on the air. For better or worse, the sitcom will survive.

The Vanguard of Mars Part Two

On October 30, 1938 many people were convinced that Martians were invading Earth all because of a radio broadcast. The Mercury Theatre of the Air debuted on CBS in July of that year. The series brought John Houseman and Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre to radio. The concept behind the series was simple--to bring classic material to radio, performed by the Mercury troupe. The Mercury Theatre of the Air debuted with a performance of Dracula and in the following weeks adapted Treasure Island, A Tale of Two Cities, The Count of Monte Cristo, and other classic works to the radio medium. For their Hallowe'en episode, the Mercury Theatre decided to adapt H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds. Howard Koch's script updated the classic novella to 1938 and moved the action to America. In fact, the Martians would land in Grover Mills, New Jersey.

The script was also positively revolutionary in that it would play out as a series of newscasts reporting the invasion of Earth by Martian tripods. Throughout "The Invasion From Mars" disclaimers were broadcast making it clear that this was a fictional radio drama. Unfortunately, many apparently missed those disclaimers. CBS's switchboards were jammed with callers concerned about the invasion. The New York Times alone received 832 phone calls. While the mass hysteria subsequently reported in the media was false--there were no suicides, no people fleeing their homes, no heart attacks--there were a large number of people who were convinced for a short time that Earth was being invaded. The Mercury Theatre of the Air's peformance of "The Invasion from Mars" perhaps proved two things. First, that people can be easily misled by a convincing radio broadcast. Second, that many people may well hold deep seated fears about invasions from Mars.

Those fears would be fed by the movies in the next several decades. Indeed, one needed to look no further than Warner Brothers cartoons for the threat of a Martian invasion. The 1948 Bugs Bunny cartoon "Haredevil Hare" marked the first appearance of Marvin the Martian. Marvin was simply referred to as "Commander x-23" in that first cartoon--in fact, he wouldn't receive the name "Marvin" until 1979--but that didn't keep the little Martian intent on invading or destroying Earth from appearing in four more Warner Brothers cartoons from 1952 to 1963.

Marvin the Martian was played more for humour than horror, but other Hollywood Martians were not nearly so funny. Nineteen fifty three saw the release of the classic movie adaptation of H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds, produced by George Pal and directed by Byron Haskin. Like the Mercury Theatre's "Invasion from Mars," the story was updated, in this case to the 1950s. And like the Mercury Theatre's "Invasion from Mars," the story was also moved to America, in this case a small southwestern town. Another major change was that the Martians no longer attacked in tripods, this time using small flying ships. George Pal's War of the Worlds was a landmark in science fiction cinema and remains a classic to this day. Another classic dealing with Martians, released the same year, was Invaders from Mars. Directed by film pioneer William Cameron Menzies, Invaders from Mars is an atmospheric chiller in which a young boy comes to realise that the adults around him are slowly but surely falling under the control of invading Martians. Before Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Invaders from Mars was the ultimate expression of Cold War paranoia.

While both War of the Worlds and Invaders from Mars are unabashed classics, Martians usually didn't fare so well on film. The Angry Red Planet, released in 1960, is much more typical of most movies about Martians. In The Angry Red Planet, the first mission to Mars goes awry and it soon becomes apparent that the Martians don't want us anywhere near their planet. Far worse than The Angry Red Planet is Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. Released in 1964, it is often counted among the worst movies of all time. In the movie Santa Claus is abducted by Martians, who want the jolly fellow to bring some cheer to their dreary world. Not nearly so bad, though hardly good by any means, is Mars Needs Women. Released in 1967 and starring future Batgirl Yvonne Craig, Mars Needs Women features clean cut Martians who come to Earth for women because males on Mars outnumber the fairer sex by 100 to 1.

Of course, movies were not the only medium to feature Martians. Martians appeared frequently in the sci-fi comics of the Forties and Fifties, in titles such as Planet Comics and Mystery in Space. Bucking the trend of hostile aliens in the movies was a comic book character who first appeared in Detective Comics #225, November 1955. J'onn J'ozz was a Martian who was accidentally transported to Earth by Prof. Mark Erdel. Erdel died of a heart attack upon seeing the green skinned Martian and as a result J'onn was stranded on our world. J'onn, then, did the logical thing--he became a superhero, using his Martian powers (such as incredible strength and shape changing) to fight crime! Of course, not all comic book Martians were as friendly as J'onn. An underground comic book (admittedly played for humour) published from 1973 to 1980 was Commies from Mars, the Red Planet!

Amazingly, Martians have generally been a rarity on television. I can only guess at two reasons for this. The first is that for much of television's history science fiction series have not done particularly well. The second is that by the time that the networks began regular broadcasts in 1946, scientists were fairly certain that there was no intelligent life on Mars. Martians figured on many of the juvenile sci-fi shows aired in the late Forties and early Fifties, such as Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, Captain Video, and Space Patrol. They also found their way onto Alfred Hitchcock Presents. While Alfred Hitchcock Presents usually dealt with crime, two of its more chilling episodes dealt with the possibility of a invasion from Mars. In "The Human Interest Story," an escaped Martian tries to convince a reporter of an impending invasion from his home planet. In "Special Delivery," a father suspects that the mushrooms his son is raising are being used by Martians as a means of mind control. As a fantasy show The Twilight Zone featured Martians a bit more often. In "Mr. Dingle the Strong," the title character receives his strength from two Martians. "Will the Real Martians Please Stand Up" features a busload of people standed at a diner, trying to figure out who among them might be Martians.

Of course, the most famous Martian to emerge on television is perhaps Uncle Martin from My Favorite Martian. Airing from 1963 to 1966 on CBS, My Favorite Martian centred on reporter Tim O'Hara (Bill Bixby), who takes in the Martian of the title (Ray Walston). Tim passed the Martian off as his "Uncle Martin." In addition to advanced Martian technology, Martin possessed telekinetic abilities and could make himself invisible. Quite naturally, this created no end of problems for Tim. The series was fairly successful in its first season, sparking a cycle of ordinary people living with individuals with extraordinary abilites (Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, among others). It also inspired a Saturday morning cartoon in the Seventies and a 1999 movie based on the series. Aside from My Favourite Martian, probably the biggest exposure Martians had on televison was in the syndicated series War of the Worlds, which ran from 1988 to 1990. The series was a sequel to the George Pal movie, with the Martians returning in the Eighties to invade Earth once more.

While Uncle Martin was fairly benign, other Martians could still be downright vicious. In 1962, a year before Martin crash landed to Earth, Topps released what may well be the most controversial series of bubblegum cards of all time, Mars Attacks. In a series of 54 cards, Mars Attacks depicted an invasion of the planet Earth in graphic detail. Among the gorier cards in the set were "Burning Flesh," depicting a man being incinerated by Martians, "Destroying a Dog," in which an innocent boy watches as a Martian blasts his dog, and "Human Torch," featuring a soldier on fire. The graphic nature of the Mars Attacks set of cards attracted the ire of concerned parents. While still popular, the series was swiftly pulled from store shelves. In 1988 Mars Attacks would provide the inspiration for a series of minature comic books. In 1994 Topps re-released the orignal series as well as 55 new cards. That same year Topps released their own 5 part comic books series. And, in 1996, Mars Attacks became the first bubble gum card set to inspire a major motion picture!

Mars continues to fascinate people even in the 21st century. The years 2000 and 2001 saw two movies about Mars released--Red Planet and Ghosts of Mars respectively. Already in the planning stages is Stephen Spielberg's adaptation of War of the Worlds. It's hard for me to gauge why Martians have gripped our imagination for over a century. Perhaps they represent the fears of any given time. H. G. Wells' Martians attacked Earth just as the Colonial Era was coming to an end; if Europe dared to colonise the rest of the world, why couldn't Martians do the same? Orson Welles' Martians attacked New Jersey just as the world was entering another world war. William Cameron Menzies' Martians invaded the minds of Earthlings just as Americans worried about Communism infiltrating American society. It seems possible to me that Martians could simply be a projection of whatever people fear the most at any given time. Of course, it could be that the average person realises something in his or her heart that the scientists don't seem to realise--perhaps there really are Martians and we have every reason to be afraid... Is that a tripod I hear?

The Vanguard of Mars Part One

"Ladies and gentlemen, I have a grave announcement to make. Incredible as it may seem, strange beings who landed in New Jersey tonight are the vanguard of an invading army from Mars.." {Howard Koch (writer) and Orson Welles (narrator), from the episode "The Invasion From Mars" of The Mercury Theater of the Air, based on the novella War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells, first aired October 30, 1938}

In the annals of literature and film, more extraterrestrials have probably called Mars home than any other planet. Invasions from Mars have been thwarted again and again in books, movies, and TV series. Earthmen have visited the Red Planet and encountered the inhabitants there. A few Martians have even come to Earth and befriended mankind. Even today, when we are fairly certain that Mars bears no intelligent life, the average child is familiar with the idea of life on Mars.

In some respects the fact that people siezed upon Mars as the source of both friends and foes of the planet Earth seems odd to me. First, it must be considered that the planet Mars was rarely mentioned in literature prior to the 18th century. In fact, Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift, published in 1726, is one of the earliest references to the planet in the English language. It seems strange, then, that a planet that was rarely mentioned prior to the 18th century should become the planet that may well be mentioned the most in literature besides our own. Second, the prospect of intelligent life on Mars was squashed in the 1940s when spectral analysis of the planet showed that there is almost no oxygen in its atmosphere. In 1965 the Mariner probe proved beyond a doubt that there were no Martians to be found on Mars. Still, from the Forties to the Sixties, stories, books, and films continued to be produced in which there was intelligent life on the Red Planet. It seems even science could not stop the invaders from Mars.

As early as 1865 a work appeared which postulated that there was life on Mars. In Un Habitant de la Planète Mars by Francois-Henri Peudefer de Parville, the body of a Martian is carried by a comet from Mars to Earth, only to be uncovered in the United States. It was in the year 1877 that something would happen that would secure Mars' place as the home of alien invaders in literature and film. That year Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli thought he had seen "canals" on Mars through his telescope. Of course, if there were canals on Mars, then there had to be someone to build the canals. In other words, there had to be Martians. Naturally, it was not long before Earthmen were encountering Martians in fiction. In Les Aventures Extraordinaires d'un Savant Russe by Henry de Graffigny and Georges Le Faure, scientists explored the solar system, including Mars. It was on the Red Planet that the encountered winged humanoids. Of course, the French weren't the only ones voyaging to the Red Planet. In Across the Zodiac by Percy Gregg, pubilshed in 1880, a group of adventurers explored the solar system, including Mars, a utopia where the Martians possessed both advanced technology and telepathy.

While it was Schiaparelli who initially fired interest in Mars with his report of "canals (later proven to be an optical illusion)," it was American astronomer Percival Lowell who secured its place in literary and cinematic history. He published three books on the Red Planet, Mars in 1895, Mars and Its Canals in 1906, and Mars As the Abode of Life in 1908. In his observations of the Mars, he saw what he thought were deserts, seas, and vegetation. He theorised that the "canals" had been build by a long dead (or dying) Martian civilisation. Lowell's books fired the imagination of many writers.

In fact, the first book inspired H. G. Wells to write what may be the most famous work about Martians or, for that matter, an invasion from another world. In War of the Worlds, published in 1898, the Martians invaded Earth because their planet was dying. War of the Worlds would in turn inspire the notorious Mercury Theatre of the Air radioplay and the classic George Pal movie of the same name. Of course, Earthmen would have their revenge against the Martians who invaded our world in Wells' classic novella. In 1898 Edison's Conquest of Mars by Garrett P. Serviss was serialised in The New York Evening Journal. An unauthorised sequel of sorts to War of the Worlds, Edison's Conquest of Mars had Edison travelling to Mars to fight the Martians on their own ground. Although largely forgotten now, Edison's Conquest of Mars was the first work in science fiction to feature both spacesuits and ray guns!

While many writers saw Mars as a source of interplanetary invasion, others saw Mars as a source of riproaring adventure. In 1912 All-Story Magazine published Under the Moons of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It was Burroughs' first sale and the first story in a series about John Carter, an ex-Confederate Army officer who finds himself transported to Mars. Burroughs' Mars (known as Barsoom by the natives) was a world of kingdoms constantly at war, where Carter had ample opportunity to prove his courage. Burroughs' Martians came in a vareity of colours, including green, red, yellow, and white; in fact, Burroughs may have been the first author to portray Martians as green. His Martians also came in a variety of shapes and sizes; indeed, his green Martians were not "little green men," but rather large creatures with six arms. Burrough's adventures of John Carter on Mars proved very successful, eventually producing 12 novels.

The John Carter series naturally fuelled interest in Mars and writers in the sci-fi pulp magazines of the mid-Twentieth Century naturally gravitated towards the Red Planet. Some followed Burroughs' lead in making Mars a place of adventure. A notable example of this is C. L. Moore's series of stories centred around Northwest Smith. Smith was an adventurer who frequently found trouble on the back streets of the cities of the dying Martian civilisation. Moore's Mars was a lot like the Old West or the cities portrayed in film noir, lawless and rather dangerous. For his part Smith was not unlike any number of Humphrey Bogart's characters, tough as nails and not always honest. Others saw Mars as a place of exploration. Stanley Weinbaum in the short story "A Martian Odyssey" realistically portrays the developing frienship between a lost Earthman and an avian Martian. In one of John Wyndham's early novels, Planet Plane (later known as Stowaway to Mars), explorers arrive in Mars to find a dying Martian civilisation. Naturally, there were also stories in which the Martians were intent on invading Earth as well.

Following the Second World War, tales about Mars and Martians became more sophisticated. Martian invaders appeared less frequently and more often than not Martians were not even humanoid. Among the most sophistictaed treatments of Mars was The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, published in 1950. While often called a novel, The Martian Chronicles might better be described as a series of interconnected short stories (many of which were published well before the book came out). Bradbury's Martians are an ancient, gentle, and wise civilisation, a far cry from Wells' invaders in War of the Worlds. Unfortunately, Martian civilisation is destroyed by a simple germ from Earth. No Martians appear in Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, published in 1961, but their existence is felt none the less. The sole survivor of Earth's first mission to the planet was infant Valentine Michael Smith. The Martians raised the child and as a result he not only has a Martian outlook, but many of their abilities as well. Viewing the world with a Martian philosophy of love and understanding, Smith finds himself at the mercy of a society he often finds difficult to comprehend.

While kinder and gentler Martians started appearing in science fiction stories and novels in the Forties and Fifties, they remained imperialists intent on invading Earth in other media. Indeed, H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds would give rise to the most famous radio play of all time. In 1938, on October 30, Orson Welles and The Mercury Theater of the Air would frighten radio listeners with an all too realistic sounding invasion from Mars.

On to Part Two

The Month of September

As a child, I was not particularly fond of September. While the temperatures would cool down in September, it was also a full month of school with the exception of Labour Day. We would not have another break until Columbus Day in October. In my later years in school, we would not have another break until Veteran's Day. And nothing much went on in September. After the Randolph County Old Settler's Fall Fair, there were no events that would interest a child for the rest of a month. As an adult I enjoy September much more than I did as a child. Of course, as a child September struck me as an odd month and it still strikes me as such as an adult. Indeed, in some ways it seems like the beginnng of a whole new year.

Today most schools begin their year in late August, although a few schools do start in early September. My parents told me that at one time this was the norm. The majority of schools started the day after Labour Day. The reason for this was quite simple. Children formed a large part of the labour force on farms, so that they needed to be available for work for nearly the whole summer. Indeed, growing up on a farm I was expected to do my fair share of the work. Anyhow, the shape of the school year was largely a product of the agricultural year.

The television season also begins in September. The networks roll out more new shows than at any time of the year and they debut new episodes of old shows. From what I remember from my broadcasting classes in college, the fall TV season has its roots all the way back to the days of radio. There have been attempts to change the fall TV season. In 1966 ABC tried to introduce what it called "the Second Season" in January. Ultimately all they accomplished was cementing the tradition of mid-season replacements. I believe I have read where Fox is trying to do away with the TV season entirely. From the performance of many of the shows they have debuted of late, it does not look like they are succeeding. As to why radio and then television began their season in the fall, I can't say for sure. I suspect the reason is that in the summer the audience for radio and television would drop off. After all, people would be preoccupied with other things in the summer. Vacations, picnics, fairs, farm work, all of these would take people away from their radios or TVs. It would then seem reasonable to debut new shows and new episodes of old shows in the fall when the audience would once again rise.

The automotive industry also introduces new car models in September. I noticed this as a child and it always puzzled me. I can understand why school starts in September, as children were needed for farm work. I can understand why the TV season starts in September, as the audience would be small in summer. But I have always wondered why new car models are introduced in the fall. After all, it seems to me that new car models could be introduced any time of year. Maybe the auto industry just felt that after a summer of wear and tear on the old jalopy, people would be ready for a new car!

Anyhow, it seems to me that more things begin again in September than they do in January, the official beginning of the year. And while no one welcomes September with the sort of celebrations seen on New Year's Eve, it does seem to me that it is the start of a whole new time. Of course, I rather doubt anyone will ever advocate moving New Year's Day to September 1...