Kids in sitcoms

[on:]

Am I the only one who notices how kids act like in sitcoms nowadays?  Even the animated ones?  They're either:

smart-allecky
dominant
precocious
wise beyond their years
Have a vocabulary of an Ivy League School graduate
Preoccupied with being cool and popular
Makes their parents look stupid at any chance they get
Has only two friends, one of which is an ethnic or something like that.
Has a crush on someone who's the opposite gender
Always in competition with a bully


Whatever happened to the good old days of sitcoms where kids just acted normal?  Whatever started this never-ending trend of kids acting like that?  If a kid acted like that in real life, they would've been smacked upside the head and sent to military school a long time ago! 

Why can't kids in sitcoms act their age, and just be normal?  Exmaples being Lynn and Brian from ALF.  Why do kids in sitcoms act like pint-sized teengers?  Or the teens act like adults?

[Reply #1 on:]

I think kids in sitcoms (and films) are alot less annoying than they used to be, at least in the good shows like Malcolm in the Middle and Arrested Developement. The kids in those shows are actually interesting characters instead of just being either cute or obnoxious.   

[Reply #2 on:]

Yup that's kids for ya.

*dusts off hands*
Another thread bites the dust.

[Reply #3 on:]

It's not just TV Kurt, it's life. Everyone's trying to act bigger and badder than they really are. I'm living proof.

[Reply #4 on:]

For both of you old enough to remember, annoying sitcom kids are nothing new, by any means.  The "Golden Age" was just as rife with snot-nosed punks as the tripe of today (let's face it--not even "Futurama" was exempt).

Sometime in the mid-80's, "Late Night with David Letterman" had a "TV Quiz" sketch, in which he asked:  "If Gary Coleman and Ricky Schroeder got into a fight with baseball bats on live TV, who would win?"

A) Gary Coleman
B) Ricky Schroeder
C) The television viewing audience

Annoying kids and sitcoms are about as simpatico as--well--wacky neighbors and sitcoms.  Gary Coleman and Ricky Schroeder on "Diff'rent Strokes" (1978-86) and "Silver Spoons" (1982-87)(respectively) were just two in a long line of brats we love to hate.

Among the TV sitcom kids I would like to have strangled are:

Vanessa and Rudy Huxtable from "The Cosby Show" (1984-92);
Jennifer Keaton from "Family Ties" (1982-89);
Jody and Buffy from "Family Affair" (1966-71);
pretty much the whole cast of "Eight is Enough" (1977-81), including Dick Van Patten;
Richie Petrie from "The Dick Van Dyke Show" (1961-66);
Dennis Mitchell from "Dennis the Menace" (1959-63);
Sam from "Diff'rent Strokes"(1978-86).  Sam, by the way, is the winner of the "all-time most annoying sitcom kid ever" award;
everyone from "The Facts of Life" (1979-1988);
Jonathan from "Who's the Boss" (1984-92)
Cousin Oliver from "The Brady Bunch" (1969-74).  For that matter, Bobby and Cindy too;
Larry Mondello from "Leave it to Beaver" (1957-63);
Ben Seaver from "Growing Pains" (1985-92);
Steve Urkel from "Family Matters" (1989-98);
and last but not least, the entire casts from "Blossom" (1991-95), "Full House" (1987-95) and "Saved by the Bell" (1989-93)  (with a special torture chamber reserved for Dustin "Screech" Diamond).

Here is an interesting page about sitcom cliches.

Another.

Anyone remember a show about sitcom cliches from a year or so ago?  It was pretty funny, as I recall.