The Obama Effect: Being grown up is cool again

By GottaLaff

Even the entertainment section of the L.A. Times is all a-buzz about P.E. Obama:

The American public, as it showed by electing Obama, is ready again for TV shows that reflect real life. [...]

President-elect Barack Obama will no doubt put his imprint on many things in this country, politically and culturally, but the first evidence of change that matters may come on the flat screens that unite this great nation: In a world of sustained post-adolescence, where teenagers swill martinis ("Gossip Girl") and head neurosurgeons live with multiple roommates ( "Grey's Anatomy"), suddenly it's hip to be grown up again.

There are myriad reasons Obama won the presidential election, but watching him and his wife, Michelle, as they sat for their first post-election interview on "60 Minutes," it was difficult to avoid the aesthetics of the matter. The Obamas are the most telegenic First Couple in American history -- young, attractive, smart and utterly at ease in front of a camera. The Kennedys were posh and beautiful, George and Laura Bush projected Americana folksiness, but the Obamas combine glamour with a distinct air of social responsibility, something that isn't easy for anyone who wasn't the late, great Paul Newman.

More important, they seem, after two years on the campaign trail, to know their way around a high-def, YouTube world. The economic crisis may have given Obama an opportunity to shine, but it was Obama who chose instead to radiate: A commitment to change, yes, but also patience, steadiness and forbearance. Seriously, when was the last time a presidential candidate, much less one younger than 50, went with forbearance? During the debates, when pundits predicted rhetorical fireworks and all but demanded a little righteous anger, Obama fashioned instead an on-screen persona based on something that seemed alarmingly close to wisdom. [...] [T]he president-elect stays firmly, and naturally, in an almost Zen-like middle zone of emotions, offering calm assurance where others might choose more moment-of-glory proclamations.

[O]bama and his campaign was counting on a remarkable, if cyclical, shift away from the insulated individual toward the cooperative community, away from competitive consumerism toward political idealism.

And Obama, with his youthful three-pointer, his movie star smile and long, lanky frame, was the perfect man to sell it. [...]

Now the cowboy has been replaced by the professor (though, for the moment anyway, the professor with the highest crush-factor in school) and being a grown-up is cool. [...]

It seems that we have come to equate adulthood with corruption or, even worse, boredom. But Obama and his campaign have made clear, that doesn't need to be the case. Young voters may have put the relatively young Obama in the White House, but they were not voting for apathy or insularity or the technology-abbreviated thought, characteristics so often assigned to generation Z, or whatever we're up to now. If they will vote for a president who, when asked for fashion advice, told MTV, “brothers should pull up their pants,” they may be ready to watch people do more than solve crimes and medical mysteries and bed-hop on TV.

This isn't to suggest that the Obama administration will herald a new age of geezer TV, trading "Gossip Girl" back for " The Golden Girls." But remember "All in the Family"? Remember "Maude"? Remember "MASH" and "The Cosby Show"? Heck, remember "Family" and "thirtysomething"? These were television shows that prompted viewers to think about timely issues in a way that actually reflected their real-life experiences. [...]

There is always the possibility of change -- that's the point of growing up. "60 Minutes" is hot again; for goodness sake, with any luck, the rest of the television industry will get with the program.