Tim Allen answers: 'Why are men douchebags in sitcoms?'

Submitted by anthony on Tue, 2011-08-09 21:03

Article here. Excerpt:

'So the critics didn’t waste much time. “Tim, why are men always portrayed as douchebags on sitcoms?” one asked.

“Well, that was the working title, actually,” Allen replied, drawing laughs. “Somebody’s already got it. Fox already got it.”

But seriously folks: “It’s the lowest common denominator, ” Allen said. “The great showrunner we have, Jack Burditt, called it, one day, Sitcom 101. When you don’t have material, you go to the lowest common denominator. I still do a lot of scatological humor, but I’ve risen it to a high art. [This gets another laugh]. Every guy on TV has a flannel shirt and a gray T‑shirt underneath, and he likes beer, and he’s got a much better‑looking wife than he deserves. It’s buffoonery. I’m going to go out on a limb and say we’re not going to do that on this show. The tide keeps it that way, but we’re not going to do that.”

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Comments

I'll throw out there I've said multiple times that Home Improvement is the last show I personally recall where the dad was respectable. Sure he was constantly messing things up but plenty of times he knocked things out of the park. There were still times when his family needed him and he came through for them, and he did it while being an imperfect character. Contrast this to newer shows like Everybody Loves Raymond or King of Queens.

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Submitted by ItsDan on Tue, 2011-08-09 23:15