Uncomfortable TV

[Paul Mackin]

> Mr Craig Clark writes:
>  
>  I think the average TV viewer is comforted by the Bundys. Because 
> they are so awful, the average TV viewer can say "Hey, we're not that
> bad! We're MUCH closer to the Brady Bunch than the Beseiged Bundys."
> The Bundys serve to legitimise the smug morality of Toobland every 
> bit as much as every other sitcom family. I think _The Simpsons_ comes 
> closer to overturning Toobland morality, but even so I haven't seen 
> it do anything as subversive as the final frame of _Twin Peaks_  (the 
> heroic if wildly eccentric FBI agent turned totally evil...)

I loved "Twin Peaks" (four times over now I think) but might want to 
question any wide-range potential for subversion.

Wouldn't the "average TV viewer" attribute Agent Cooper's evil to
diabolic (as opposed to capitalistic) forces?

Perhaps more to the point, did the show even have much of a viewership? 
Even in reruns? Does Bravo (where we see it now) have that big an audience?

Just asking?

				P.