On Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 10:57 PM, PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > > This episode was also noteworthy for the guest starring of Christopher > Llloyd, whose Reverend Jim must be seen as some kind of second cousin to > Fringe's Walter Bishop. Seeing them together got me wondering how many shows > other than Fringe have featured such a main, and likable, character as a > fairly regular illegal drug user. Walter was depicted as being high in this > episode (and not in a particularly negative way), and is often shown as > being under the influence of MJ, and at least once LSD. As far as I remember > Rev Jim was depicted as a reformed drug user (and although his burned out > brain seemed to make him the sweet innocent we knew him to be, I think the > idea was that drugs had been a bad thing for him, and he was better off now > that he was off drugs). My memory could be failing though - did Jim actually > do drugs in the Taxi present?
In the '70s the networks still followed a socially conservative set of rules, one of which was that you couldn't show a character doing drugs without negative consequences. I don't know when the rule was abandoned, probably in the shadow of riskier cable TV shows. I can't even remember if drugs were explicitly mentioned regarding Reverend Jim. His stoner behavior was obvious and it might have been enough to indirectly refer to Jim's past and a savvy audience would make the connection. I don't have a recollection or have seen the seasons of shows like One Day at a Time or Roseanne when the teenage kids got old enough to have access to drugs be an issue. Even then the choices would be experimentation/rejection or addiction with no middle ground of continuing casual use. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
