THE SIMPSONS (Credit: Fox)
![](https://unherd.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Peter-F-100x100.jpg)
During UnHerd’s Flyover Culture series, Liam Halligan focused on Hollywood’s depiction of flyover country. But in this golden age of US TV, what happens on the small screen is at least as important as what happens on the big one.
To the rest of the world, American television once meant cowboys, cop shows and glitzy soaps such as Dallas and Dynasty. There wasn’t much room for subtlety. Today, thanks to satellite, digital and streaming services such as Netflix, America can represent itself to a global audience in greater detail and from more perspectives than ever before. When successful shows run over several seasons of 10 or more episodes per season, there ought to be plenty of room for subtlety and nuance.
However, like its film industry, America’s TV industry is dominated by the coastal elites – so how do they represent the rest of America to the rest of the world?
It’s a mixed picture. For reasons of cost, practicality and narrative context, many, if not most, shows are still set in and around the big coastal cities (even if they’re actually filmed in Canada). That said, flyover country is not entirely ignored.
Starting at the bottom, we have the reality TV shows, in which non-cosmopolitan America is served-up at its exaggerated best/worst. Examples from recent years include Duck Dynasty, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo and Jersey Shore. Though obviously intended as light entertainment – and subject to the manipulations of the reality TV maker’s art – these shows provide domestic and international audiences with a window on America beyond the big cities. Of course, there’s a question as to who, in the audience, is laughing with, and who is laughing at, the protagonists.
As for actual comedies, most American sitcoms are decidedly metropolitan in their settings and values. Think Friends, the Big Bang Theory, Seinfeld, 30 Rock, Cheers, Frasier, Community, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Arrested Development, etc etc. There is, however, an interesting exception – the big cartoon comedies, which typically feature small town settings in obscure parts of the country. Thus we have South Park somewhere in the Rockies, Family Guy in Rhode Island, King of the Hill in Texas and of course, the Simpsons in ‘Springfield’ – a place so obscure that no one really knows where it is (one of the show’s recurring jokes).
Join the discussion
Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber
To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.
Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.
Subscribe