Woman walks into a bar. The regulars instantly size her up: "Uptown, East Side, college educated. Probably reuses her grocery bags. Charter subscriber to Working Woman magazine. Saw The Big Chill three times. Plays Trivial Pursuit on the weekends with friends. What's she doing here on a Monday? It's Murphy Brown night."
Man makes a lewd comment. Woman instantly sizes him up: "Is there a brain up there, or just one long episode of Studs?"
SCENES FROM BOTH SIDES OF TV's generational divide: the first, from Diane English's much anticipated new CBS sitcom Love and War, is hip, sophisticated, full of knowing media references (including one to English's own show -- and current cause celebre -- Murphy Brown). The second, from a less heralded new NBC sitcom called Out All Night, is brassy and in-your-face; its TV reference, appropriately, is to a salacious game show. Love and War is one of a potful of ( upscale, thirtysomething sitcoms served up by the networks this fall. Out All Night gives a good idea of what TV thinks of the younger generation.
Thirtysomething, ABC's trendsetting drama series, has been off the air for more than a year, but the show's angst-ridden spirit will be all over the dial this fall. In Love and War, a roughhewn Manhattan journalist (Jay Thomas) falls for a prickly, recently divorced restaurateur (Susan Dey). In Hearts Afire, two aides to a U.S. Senator (John Ritter and Markie Post) get together despite clashing political views. NBC's Mad About You focuses on neurotic newlyweds living in Manhattan, while ABC's Laurie Hill adds a five-year-old child to the trials of a busy two-career couple.
It's no surprise that thirtysomething shows are growing in popularity. They reflect, to a large degree, the experiences and life-styles of the people who create them. They attract the audience demographics that advertisers crave. They usually get applause from the critics -- or at least approving nods for trying to bring "quality" to a medium dominated by escapist drivel.
The escapist drivel, meanwhile, is going after a younger crowd. TV's hottest new genre is the twentysomething ensemble show. Melrose Place (a spinoff of Beverly Hills 90210), The Heights (about a group of blue-collar New Jersey youths trying to launch a rock band) and 2000 Malibu Road, a soap opera set in a California beach house, all drew strong ratings this summer. Coming this fall are NBC's The Round Table (young professionals in Washington), Fox's Class of '96 (students at a small Northeastern college) and a slew of youth- oriented sitcoms.
A generation gap could hardly be more clearly defined. TV's under-30s are, for the most part, shallow, fun loving, upbeat. They tend to live in communal groups and spend a lot of time in the sun. They are still young enough to be entranced with the idea of being on their own. One of the two bachelors who room together (while working at Patti LaBelle's nightclub) in Out All Night raves about their new apartment: "It's what we've always talked about. A place of our own, with no parents, no dorm directors -- just freedom!"