I was looking out the window the other day—the same window that I have looked out for years: my office window. I have seen a lot out this window. I’ve watched parades, pretty girls shopping, bike messengers fist-fighting with cabbies in the middle of Fifth Avenue, and, most recently, a couple of buildings burn and collapse.
As I stood there talking to a client on the phone, listening to a concern of some sort, I realized, "Shit, do I need a vacation." I was trying to act interested, but I was in some kind of "conference call coma"—you know, the one where you are hearing the voice on the other end of the receiver and it sounds like Charlie Brown’s teacher, and thoughts enter your mind like, "How come I never had a mini-bike …" Not a good place to be for too long a period of time.
How can I be bored? I make cartoons for a living. I mean, come on, somebody, pinch me. Only other thing I would rather do is play second base for the Mets. But I could not figure out why lately my focus has waned. I filed through all the pop psychology I get from watching my local news. When the blonde anchorwoman with perfect teeth tells me that I may have post-traumatic stress disorder, "That’s it," I say … Or bad-air-quality disorder … "Maybe that’s it." Or disorderly disorder … "Yes! That’s it! That’s what I have, that one sounds good!" But deep down I know that it’s none of these.
The problem is that I have become disillusioned with television, the one thing I could always count on to get my mind off other disillusionments. Now, you might say, "What took you so long." But I am not naive, I know that television has always been the electronic carnival—a freak show filled with carnies, delivered straight to your living room, complete with assorted freaks and deformities. Even knowing this, somehow I feel like things have taken a turn for the worse. Lately, television is just plain meaner.
I guess it was that break right after 9/11, when certain programming was deemed unfit for television viewers. We were spared reality shows that pitched people against each other, to lie, cheat and/or steal just for laughs, or to mate, whichever came first. Commercials that depicted young girls at their graduation ceremony fighting over who is prettier, all for the sake of a Coke. Why are these images still not unfit? Have television executives decided that we are all healed, and at this point we can be served up our daily dose of violent, mean-spirited, screw you messages?
When I was a kid, I would come home from school and switch on Sesame Street, and delight to Muppets and neighbors in a world where people are civil to each other and not afraid to love one another. Wow! How Pollyanna is this all sounding? Or, better yet, how jaded have we all become? Shows like The Twilight Zone could create an escape porthole for just 30 minutes with pure mind-enhancing entertainment. No one gets hurt, no video surveillance footage of people shooting other people, no cops dragging shirtless "perps" to jail.
But there is hope.
The Osbournes—the new Ozzy Osbourne show on MTV—has been the talk of the studio lately. We have all been discussing why it’s so funny and why people like it so much. "I know why this show is funny," I said, "and different all at the same time: The characters (the Prince of Darkness himself!) really love each other." One of the younger 20-something animators was like, "What!" I said, "They love each other! Ozzy loves his kids and his wife, even though he thinks they are all mad! And that’s what makes the show unique." There was a silence; it was tough for him to comprehend that love would be the backbone of this MTV sitcom.
Well, maybe there is hope for television, after all. It has come in the form of an aging rock star on Prozac, who has been known to bite the heads off live bats. Can you say, "carnies"!
I have been lucky enough to make a career out of creating children’s television, so I can claim a certain level of ignorance—and, believe me, it is blissful. My job is to create characters that encourage kids and make them laugh with each other instead of at each other.
But I still find myself, lately, looking out the window and thinking I need a vacation. I hope that’s all it is.
