when reality outstrips entertainment

      Can you imagine a television series like “All in the Family” today?

      Archie Bunker, of course, was a bigoted, loudmouthed, no-nothing bully and braggart from Queens who got his comeuppance at the end of every half hour. Today, Archie Bunker is president of the United States. And so far, there is no comeuppance.

      (And, for that matter, Melania is no Edith. But Jared Kushner, actually, could very well be Meathead.)

      Can you imagine a television series today like “The West Wing”?

      Only 20 or so years ago, “The West Wing” focused on the kind, judicious, deeply religious intellectual who was president of the United States and his committed, dedicated staff who carefully weighed each decision as they engaged in pithy conversation while walking the bustling halls of the White House. They were practical but idealistic, devoted but straightforward.

      None of them was a virulently racist deputy chief of staff with dead eyes and an angry snarl.

      It was a fantasy, of course, even back then during the W years, and was clearly meant to be aspirational, a counterpoint to Bush the Younger’s heedless anti-intellectualism. Today, the show—with its crackling dialogue and dedicated civil servants—would be utopian science fiction.

     Other recent television series focusing on the world of politics—"House of Cards,” “Veep,” “Scandal”—in retrospect no longer seem as shocking nor as funny. They have all been outstripped by everyday reality. No way they would have concocted a plotline featuring a convicted felon as president who sends out illiterate social media messages when he’s not hawking cologne, sneakers or bibles.

      There is no “Scandal” when everything is a scandal.  

      It wasn’t that long ago, just back in the 1990s, when a rush of films presented the president of the U.S. as upstanding, noble, even heroic. Not in “Air Force One,” “Dave” nor “The American President” did the American leader shout from the rooftop of the White House how he was going to build a gaudy ballroom extension to the president’s house.  

      My favorite political movie has always been “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” Yes, it’s incredibly naïve but it’s also inspiring in its optimism. It’s an optimism that particularly resonated at the end of the Great Depression, when the movie was released. And yes, it’s very, very dated—it probably was dated at the time—but up until recently its hopefulness had always, somehow, seemed possible.

      It no longer does.

      Can you imagine, in today’s Washington, a senator as committed and courageous as Jimmy Stewart’s Jeff Smith? Or a Congress as ultimately resolute as the one Mr. Smith wins over?

      What kind of TV series and films can we make today that reflect our current reality? Because reality keeps getting more and more unreal.