Much Adieu About Nothing
Donald DeMarco on Television (Part I)
May 14, 1998 at 8:00 pm EST. That is the time my San Francisco caller had selected to do a book interview with me. “Don’t you realize,” I said to him, “that this is the exact time that an estimated 80 million Americans will be glued to their seats watching the long-awaited and much ballyhooed final episode of Seinfeld?” He exclaimed, without making any attempt to conceal his pride, that he had never watched even a single episode of America’s favorite TV sit-com, a revelation that moved me to envy his mind that had remained virginal and unprofaned by a show whose empty-headedness was exceeded only by its bad taste.
“I’d be happy to do the interview at another time,” I told him. I said this not because I felt any commitment to be on hand for the final episode, but because at that hour, ironically, I would be at a small college in New England presenting a lecture on virtue. Given the immense popularity of Seinfeld, in which vice is routinely given preferred status, the simple act of extolling virtue is enough to make one a cultural subversive. We agreed to play this role for his radio network at a later date.
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32.2—March/April 2019
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