Television is there for you, now more than ever. It's a news source, it's a distraction, TV is an undeniable comfort for most. While most of the country practices social distancing measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus, TV has been there, especially TV comedies.
Parks and Recreation co-creator and creator of The Good Place Mike Schur explained why audiences are reveling in shows of the past during a recent call with reporters to promote the Parks and Recreation special.
"Part of it is that the past is available to people in a way it has never been before. The last five years have basically made it so that nothing ever goes away. You can watch whatever you want," Schur said. Noting The Office's wild popularity, a show Schur worked on, said it was "designed to sort of be timeless."
"It's a very boring cubicle farm set with florescent lighting. It looks like every office look in 2004 when we started shooting it. It's still looks like what a lot of offices look like today," he said. "I think part of it is the new world that we're in, shows make six or eight episodes or four episodes…The Office made 200 and Parks and Rec made 125 and Friends made 200 and Cheers made 300…TV has always functioned—especially comedy—as a sort of sustaining comfort food where you can visit the people in the world over and over and over and over again…So I think it's probably just a combination of availability and then familiarity during a time of extreme upheaval and anxiety. And then those old shows have more to offer. They literally have more individual episodes to offer."
"TV is extremely good at providing comfort for people in a very small and kind of distracting way. So, I would imagine it's all of these things and then probably about 15 others that only a doctorate in sociology can explain," Schur added.
At E!, we're doing our fair share of comfort TV viewing too. Check out which comedies we're finding some peace with below.