Liberal Talk Radio

Has anyone else noticed that cell phones don’t show up on TV with the same regularity that they do in the real world? It seems to be comedies, mostly. Dramas like The West Wing, Law and Order, and The Sopranos have fully integrated cell phones into their plots. But comedies lag way, way behind.

I haven’t been watching The Simpsons regularly these days, but I’ve yet to see Homer or Marge whip out a cell phone, even though they’ve started using the internet from time to time. Same for Family Guy, Will and Grace, Scrubs, etc. Now, granted I don’t watch a lot of TV comedy, but it does seem pretty apparent that the writers on these shows haven’t figured out how to integrate cell phones into their plot lines.

I’d venture to say that the reason is that they’re afraid. Cell phones pretty much destroy the fundamental “situation” of situation comedy: the crossed paths. You know, where one character leaves their apartment and another just misses her, and hijinks ensue. I think about 80 percent of the plotlines in Seinfeld involved such missed encounters. What would they have done? “Jerry, I think we’re at the wrong theater! Rachelle, Rachelle is playing at TWO downtown theaters!!” “Oh, no problem, I’ll just call Elaine on her cell.” Boom, end of episode!

Is there something to this? Have the rhythms of modern life changed so fundamentally in the post-cell-phone era, that our traditional sitcoms can no longer reflect us? Nah… probably just lazy writers.