Is New Normal not so nice?

When I was growing up, one of the most popular sitcoms on television was All in the Family.  I couldn’t figure out why. 

In my youthful and earnest assessment, Archie Bunker was NOT a nice man.

Yet to viewers he was the “loveable bigot.”  They understood that his offensive ignorance and politically incorrect-verging-on-downright-inexcusable beliefs were just that – excusable based on his upbringing. 

But he learned and he grew – albeit a very little bit at a time.

Now, NBC is trying it again.

This time, Bunker’s not a blue-collar worker from Queens, but a blonde realtor in heels. And bless Ellen Barkin’s heart for taking on such an unlikeable role in today’s overly-PC society.

In The New Normal, a wealthy gay male couple decide to hire a surrogate to bear their child. 

Enter Goldie, a recently separated, financially strapped but socially-conscious single mom who wants to raise her daughter in a healthy environment and go to law school. She’s the Mary-freakin’-Poppins of surrogates.

Enter Jane Forrest (Barkin) – grandma – who doesn’t go by said title, calls her bespectacled great-granddaughter ­Gog­gles, and insults every race, religion, and political affiliation she meets. She’s almost unredeemable.

But soon, we learn that despite feeling trapped in her life, she always stepped up and fulfilled the roles that were expected: mother, grandmother and then mother again when her daughter ran out on the job.  She’s also followed her granddaughter to California instead of washing her hands of the mess.

I sense real family love in her corroded and somewhat-dented heart. 

Meanwhile, Goldie is developing a new family unit with the two dads-in-training.  Confrontations are inevitable.

Despite hot topics of the day such as racism, abortion and even the Vietnam War, Family had viewers laughing with its obvious punchlines at Archie’s expense.  Normal, however, just leaves us squirming uncomfortably in our seats. 

Is this the new direction of sitcoms?  The half-hour dramedy? That’s where Normal and NBC’s other new show, Go On, seem to be heading. And if viewers can let go of the traditional “Schlemiel! Schlimazel!” nonsense of the Laverne and Shirley-esque sitcoms, it could be a hit.

Unfortunately, Normal’s unrealistic foray into the gay life still feels like an after-school special. But oh, the controversy! 

Barkin’s Jane has been called “too offensive” by some critics, and the subject matter lacking “family values” by others.  Which, ironically, leaves Normal with something for everyone: leftists can exalt the new family structure and right-wingers can canonize Jane.

Because as Family-writer, Norman Lear, understood, the best way to attack an issue is to show both sides in their extreme.  Right or wrong, they have a viewpoint. 

I still don’t like Archie Bunker. Jane Forrest? She’s … growing on me.  In all, the show’s a fairy tale that’s not always easy to take. But as we all know, normal isn’t for everyone.