10. Eighties Romanticism versus Nineties disillusionment

 

Music references often took a prominent role in NewsRadio jokes. Reportedly, the biggest music fans amongst the cast were Stephen Root, Dave Foley, Maura Tierney and Phil Hartman. Stephen Root is well known to be a fan of ’60s rock music, even possessing a large collection of bootlegs. In "Look Who’s Talking" [4-10] they drop a "Papa Don’t Preach" reference without a discordant thud. In "Chock" [4-11] Bill gives Dave what he deems to be an eminently sophisticated piece of literature — Crazy from the Heat by David Lee Roth. Those who recall "Kids" [3-16] also probably remember the Van Halen gag Mr. James uses. In response to a question on an online chat, Paul Simms addressed the Van Halen fascination, "Many of the writers, myself included, are Van Halen fans. But not Van Hagar fans."

The ages of Hartman and Root determined that many of the references were to 1970s or 1960s rock music, with Dave Foley displaying enough cultural awareness to keep up with them on this count. (Who can forget the recording of Dave singing America’s "A Horse with No Name" in "Bill’s Autobiography" [2-7]?) There were other ’70s references as well, especially all those Shaft gags. Furthermore, in "Zoso" [2-16] Beth designs a hat from Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids and even declares, "This is a Seventies pop culture reference. It will sell by the truckload. People from my generation aren’t very smart." (It is also interesting that they chose to match this reference to the real age of Vicki Lewis the actress rather than Beth the character, who always seemed much younger than Lewis. This is perhaps an example of NewsRadio choosing artistic forms that are always natural and true to the real world, something that will be discussed in a later chapter.)

Nevertheless, the fact that pop culture references, and popular music in particular, were used so prominently is probably a reflection of the show’s artists having lived in a time when popular music defined cultural reference points. Strangely, I get the distinct impression that the true heart of NewsRadio’s music references had a 1980s vibe, even if many of those references antedated this period, and most of those came through Maura Tierney. While NewsRadio was filmed in the latter 1990s, at heart the show is essentially an ’80s show. The most extensive and pervasive cultural references date from the 1980s. For example, there are no ’70s equivalents to the show’s frequent mentions of video arcade games and Dungeons & Dragons, both of which were distinctly ’80s phenomena. The references to Star Wars (1977) and Logan’s Run (1976) straddle the ’70s and ‘80s generations. It seems that the show’s writers belong to a certain generation that had its most culturally formative years in the period that encompassed the early 1980s and perhaps the late 1970s. In addition, the majority of the cast (with the exception of Root, Hartman and perhaps Lewis) would fall within the same age cohort.

The 1980s, like the 1960s, formed an unusual decade when popular music expressed the spirit of a generation much more than other artistic media, including the cinema. (By contrast, in the 1990s so much fragmentation of popular music has occurred that it can no longer be said to be the unified voice of our youth — television, cinema, and even video games have surpassed it on this front.) Most of all there is a certain truth to Lisa Miller’s musical references. In "Retirement" [5-21] we hearken back to a younger and more innocent Lisa who did "a particularly devastating review of Devo’s third album." Moreover, in "Negotiation" [2-8] when Lisa becomes depressed about the way her life and career seem to be going nowhere, it seems somehow appropriate that Lisa should instinctively rush back to the womb of popular music in an attempt at reinvigoration — she takes up a job as an MTV veejay who interviews Anthrax.

Being the voice of this generation, 1980s popular music expressed a generation-wide Romanticism that resonates to this day. Romanticism in music is the same as in literature and cinema. It reflects a desire to view the world as we wish it to be. This is not the same as optimism, although optimism is in abundance. What it ultimately represents is a belief that art and life can indeed be one, that life can truly be reflected in a song and that a song can have profound influence over our lives. Listen to practically any ’80s song, and you will sense this vibe of Romanticism in both the style of its music and its lyrics. On the other hand, listen to a ’90s song and you will be hard-pressed to find any dominant theme, except that there is a lot more disillusionment.

Ultimately, NewsRadio is an ’80s show because at its heart its creators are ’80s people — but an ’80s show transposed a decade into the future. If, culturally speaking, American cinema and television of the 1980s were most memorable for its teenagers and college students, NewsRadio shows us those teenagers and college students fully grown up. They are now working professionals and still somewhat young adults who have not completely written their stories in terms of life and love. If the show were written to feature these same characters at least a decade earlier the show would be charged with the dreams of young people, with life and its possibilities stretching before them. In the NewsRadio of the 1990s, they are in the throes of a journey combining both success and failure. Some degree of disillusionment has occurred, for not everything has happened the way they planned (it never does). When the characters reflect back on their past, the predominant theme relates to the dreams they held, for example, Joe or Lisa talking about what careers they wanted to have while they were in college. Furthermore, if we trace the past histories of these characters as revealed on the show we find that we know a lot about them as teenagers and their lives now, but we know almost nothing about their lives as children or between their teenage years and the present. For example, we know that Jimmy James did not go to college, but after a failed relationship with his high school and college sweetheart Margie, he enlists and serves in Vietnam. Details of Jimmy’s life before and after this are very sketchy. Also, while Jimmy and Bill may be old enough to have midlife crises ("Towers" [5-13], "Bill’s Autobiography" [2-7]) these are not essential narrative premises for NewsRadio. In the context of the show, more absorbing questions would be: How are their careers going to progress, or even more pertinently, are any of the characters going to find a mate and settle down? The writers of NewsRadio and especially Paul Simms have admitted how much NewsRadio reflects the lives of their generation — people in their late twenties and early thirties in the midst of professional careers with the workplace being the central focus of their lives. Thus, NewsRadio really reflects a certain tension between the dreams these people had when they were younger and the way their lives are turning out.

It is probable that the creative forces of NewsRadio never purposely intended this socio-cultural tension as part of their artistic expression. However, by employing artistic forms that remain natural and true to who these people are, this tension between Romanticism and disillusionment is expressed on its own accord. By being intrinsic to who these people are, by being true, how could it be otherwise?

 

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