Something Ain't Kosher Here: The Rise of the 'Jewish' Sitcom

by Vincent Brook

From 1989 through 2002 there was an unprecedented surge in American sitcoms featuring explicitly Jewish lead characters, thirty-two compared to seven in the previous forty years.  Several of these— Mad About You , The Nanny , and Friends —were among the most popular and influential of all shows over this period; one program— Seinfeld —has been singled out as the “defining” series of the nineties.  In addition, scriptwriters have increasingly created “Jewish” characters, although they may not be perceived to be by the show’s audience, Rachel Green on Friends being only one example. In Something Ain’t Kosher Here, Vincent Brook asks two key Why has this trend appeared at this particular historical moment and what is the significance of this phenomenon for Jews and non-Jews alike?  He takes readers through three key phases of the Jewish sitcom The early years of television before and after the first Jewish sitcom, The Goldbergs’, appeared ; the second phase in which America found itself “Under the Sign of Seinfeld ”; and the current era of what Brook calls “Post- Jewishness.”

Interviews with key writers, producers, and “showrunners” such as David Kohan, ( Will and Grace ), Marta Kauffman ( Friends and Dream On ), Bill Prady ( Dharma and Greg ), Peter Mehlman and Carol Leifer ( Seinfeld ), and close readings of individual episodes and series provoke the inescapable conclusion that we have entered uncharted “post-Jewish” territory.  Brook reveals that the acceptance of Jews in mainstream white America at the very time when identity politics have put a premium on celebrating difference reinforces and threatens the historically unique insider/outsider status of Jews in American society. This paradox upsets a delicate balance that has been a defining component of American Jewish identity. The rise of the Jewish sitcom represents a broader struggle in which American Jews and the TV industry, if not American society as a whole, are increasingly operating at cross-purposes—  torn between the desire to celebrate unique ethnic identities, yet to to assert independence, yet also to build a consensus to appeal to the widest possible audience.   No reader of this book will ever be able to watch these television programs in quite the same way again.

240 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2003

Reviews

[Shant · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was way more informative than I thought it would be. I assumed the book would be mostly stuff that TV Tropes or Wikipedia would say but there were a lot of arguments or ideas I never thought of before. It was interesting to learn about the Goldbergs (the '50's sitcom, not the current one), Dream On, and Rude Awakening, and various community reactions towards shows like Bridget Loves Bernie. Sometimes I think Brook had to readjust his argument for comparing all minority representation to each other, but this book was short and by the conclusion he still clarified that the media has a lot to improve for every group, so there's that at least.

[Petty Lisbon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an okay book. I think he tried too hard sometimes to connect different ideas, and sometimes it felt like he was putting minority groups against each other, but it was interesting learning a lot about Jewish culture and shows I never heard of. I would love an updated version of this book, no matter how niche it was.