December 8, 2023

It’s our arts and culture week-in-review. First up, pioneering  producer Norman Lear.  He dismantled TV’s nuclear family, taking on radioactive topics instead  – bigotry, abortion, poverty, politics—all of it was up for grabs and it landed lots of laughs along the way.  We’ll look at how his slew of successful sitcoms revolutionized Television–and changed the way we see ourselves. Then it’s time for cognitive dissonance, and the opposite of Norman Lear- The Golden Bachelor. How is it that amid acute ageism– a 72-year-old man  rescued the flailing Bachelor franchise? From there, did Mattel make a misstep? Their new Barbie Doll honoring Cherokee leader Wilma Mankiller is getting mixed reviews and churning up mixed emotions in the Cherokee Nation.  And we’ll look at how this year’s Art Basel Miami is a flashback to the Reagan-era culture wars–when provocative art was considered obscene and arts funding was hard to come by. That’s next  on The Culture Show.