I don't know when this convention began, but in many TV shows, there is a wise-beyond-his/her-years child to balance the lunacy of their parents. This is also a device used in many movies. Witness the recent DEFINITELY, MAYBE. Or JUNO, who had more on the ball than most of the adults in her world.
On TV, ABSOLULTEY FABULOUS had Saffron to balance the antics of Edina and Patsy. On DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, Susan's daughter brings sanity to that household. The new show, COUGAR TOWN, has a teenager with gravitas to balance Courtney Cox's hysterical performance.
THE NEW ADVENTURES OF OLD CHRISTINE has a twelve year old who seems wiser than any of the adults he lives with. HITCH's son on the SHOWTIME series was a voice of reason. Even the therapist on IN TREATMENT needs the advice of his daughter in his personal life.
When did this trend begin and what other examples are there? I remember the wisdom of Cliff and Clair Huxtable-not their children. It was Ward Cleever who made sense of the world for his sons? Have kids gotten wiser or is this just a TV conceit? And why do they use it over and over?
24 comments:
I'm not exactly sure where it began but I'm with you that enough is enough. Absolutely annoying trait of many shows and films.
With the "wise adults" in charge look at what we've become. Recession, poverty, greed. The real life adults are as wacky as their TV counterparts so maybe in real life we need some wise kids to step up and say WTF.
It is a very common device, and so predictable. I find it irritating but then I find so much about TV that irritates me.
If I remember correctly, children are wise right before the hormones kick in. Maybe eleven year olds should run the world.
Think "appeal to the audience" and you have it. Kids want to see wise kids, adults want to see wise kids (they can hope perhaps their own will be wise). The broadest appeal for audience is what drives the advertisers, which drives the programming choices. Whenever you wonder WHY about television programming, remember that these days, advertiser money is driving all the decisions. ALL of them. The concept of worthy programming or artistic quality has nothing to do with the medium anymore. 'Tis sad.
I agree--too commonly used. Annoying. And I think Richard explains the why perfectly.
Still. I write for teens, teach them at my local high school. And they are SHARP. Uncorrupted by cubicle politics, perhaps? I don't know.
They don't volunteer their life lessons like kids do on TV, though...
Maybe the lack of "wisdom" is one of the reasons I like the way MAD MEN handles their child characters. Don Draper's daughter is clearly troubled and that keeps me watching to see what she does next.
Sally Draper is headed for a lifetime of sessions with a shrink. Both parents are too managed to focus on their kids.
If I remember teenagers correctly-they seldom share their insights with people outside of their peer group. It makes them vulnerable, I guess.
While I cannot speak to the notion of wise children in movies and television, let us not lose sight of the antecedents in literature. The canon is full of superb examples. I'll offer only a couple: Consider Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn; the latter was an especially good role model from which adults could learn a great deal, and the former helped many young readers realize that being shrewd and clever were good survival skills.
I guess my personal beef is the adult who needs a child to set him straight, who is silly or poor at parenting, more than the child who is wise.
The little sister in THE PHILADELPHIA STORY is like that. And that goes back a ways... one of J.D. Salinger's characters had appeared on the radio on a quiz show called "It's a Wise Child", I think, too!
Great memory, John. Then there Andy Hardy who talked a good game but was really a nitwit most of the time.
The plot device you describe Patti is used over and over again because it appeals to a demographic not old enough to know better.
Call me cynical but I believe all television drama and comedy is simply another way media moguls are turning the herd to benefit the corporate god.
This isn't quite on subject, but Roger Ebert once said that in European movies even the children act like adults whereas in American movies even the adults act like children.
HITCH? The Will Smith movie? Which series do you mean there?
Stupid daddy who needs the kids help was already enough of a cliche for Bob Newhart to want to avoid it on the second, long-running BOB NEWHART SHOW, the sitcom. Wise/wiseass children date back in sitcommery at least to THE GREAT GILDERSLEEVE.
It was a SHOWTIME series about a shrink with Hank Azaria. If it's me, I may have the name wrong.
Dick Van Dyke certainly can't be accused of this with his kid-Richie? Worst child actor ever.
Ah. The Azaria series was HUFF. I'd forgotten about that one. (Easy to do.)
My inexactitude is astounding.
Of course, the entire cast of characters in MAD MEN are children, or at best superannuated adolescents.
I'll suggest that the girl who was the star of SMALL WONDER was even worse than Larry Mathews, who almost played Richie. Of course, she had much worse scripts to work with...
Likewise, the kids (and adults) on the tv series LAND OF THE LOST...
Amazing Small Wonder on four years and I never heard of it. Oh, yes, mother of teenagers, hiding under my bed.
Teenagers at their most surly not scarier than the inanity that was SMALL WONDER. Strong contender for worst dramatic tv series of more than a few episodes' duration on US tv, at very least.
It seems to me that the 'Wise Child' is often living with adults that have failed or refused to grow up, and they have to fill that void. You see it in the real world often with kids of Alcoholic and Drug addicted parents, along with the kids of various 'Cool' or 'Non Authoritarian" mom's and dad's.
That said, I like my TV Characters nuanced: a little wisdom, a little foolishness, some self destruction and a whole lot of inner conflict.
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