Pushing the Envelope with “Swingtown”

I’ll bet you’re familiar with this little experience of human nature.  Just pick one – one or more tend to be daily occurrences in my household.

I say, “We don’t need to throw our toys.”
My preschooler says, “But, I’m just dropping it.”

I say, “Let’s don’t bang our toys around so much.  We need to take care of our toys.”
My preschooler says, “But, I’m just ‘working’ on it.”

I say, “Ooooo.  It’s too loud right now to hit the coffee table with that wooden spoon.  Let’s put the spoon down.”
My preschooler says, “But, I’m just playing my drum.”  And then, with a gleaming look over at Mommy he ever so slightly taps the wood with the spoon and then holds it just above the table in anticipation of another word of correction.

I’m told that these types of experiences are not unusual with 3-year-olds, and I’m proud of how much my sweet little guy is learning in this area when he tells me out of the blue, “We don’t need to throw.”  Despite our usual assumptions, not much escapes the 3-year-old mind.  But, that’s another post.

Yes, these little snapshots of human nature are sometimes cute at 3 years old when paired with the process of growing and learning our boundaries – not so pretty, however, at 38 when boundaries (or the lack of) are still blurred.  At our house, no matter how cute the phrasing or creative the excuse, we call it doing wrong, in this case disobeying Mommy.  When we get to be grownups, however, we and our culture tend to call it “testing the waters,” “pushing the envelope,” or even “groundbreaking.”

Enter “Swingtown.”
“I don’t understand why this show is so threatening, but I don’t understand why gay marriage is so threatening either. I understand there’s going to be a portion of the available audience that will just say, ‘I can’t do this, I can’t go there.’ Too bad, because there is so much to embrace in this show. I think people who reject it have a problem with fear in general in their lives.“

~ Mike Kelley, creator of “Swingtown,” a new television drama premiering this week on CBS.
As quoted in a LA Times article about the show 
(I’ll let you read the article to discover the premise of the show, if you haven’t seen the less than subtle ads.)

I recognize the philosophy.  As creative types, we tend to think that our work is so powerful, so profound, that it defies scrutiny.  Any criticism, any dislike of our work’s themes can only be attributed to a flaw in the person giving the critique – certainly not to any shortcoming, oversight or over-stepping of bounds in the work itself.  And, of course, it never enters into the creative mind that someone may just plain not care for our work.

My concern about “Swingtown,” however, doesn’t stem from some flaw in the creative process.  My concern is that our culture seems to thrive on pushing the boundaries, and this show puts all its weight into it.  Alan Poul, executive producer of the show is quoted in the article, saying “On cable, this show would have been a novel approach to an interesting subject matter and a fun look at the ’70s, but it wouldn’t have necessarily pushed any boundaries. Whereas on a network, you can say the show is groundbreaking.”

I’ll say it’s groundbreaking!  In fact, I find that the force with which this show seems to overtly test the limits turns a new corner for network television.  CBS, traditionally considered one of the more conservative networks, has chosen to introduce a summer series where even hints of sexual inuendo and content in the ads illicit an “ick.”  And, according to the article, the pilot finishes all the inuendo it started.

Quoting from the article:

Kelley and Poul immediately set about retrofitting the show to network standards, which meant toning down the original script’s cruder, cable-friendly language, eliminating the nudity and converting very explicit adult situations into merely semi-explicit ones. Even so, the show’s more sanitized version ran into immediate trouble securing a programming slot.

Is it now a groundbreaking day in network television when converting scenes into “merely semi-explicit ones” is ultimately all it takes to get a 9pm time slot?  Is it comforting to my cultural compass to know that apparently, summer audiences can tolerate a little more risque content because according to CBS President of Entertainment, Nina Tassler, in summer “it’s escapist” and “fun?”  Am I surprised to realize that I don’t even blink at reading the sanitized, made-for-general-audiences label “adult situations?”

I’m reminded again that in my 3-year-old’s learning curve, obeying – but not quite obeying Mommy, or just slightly bending the boundaries I’ve set can seem like a small hurdle to overcome.  But at 38… 

Where’s my Windex?  It’s getting blurry out there.