'Enlisted' And The Challenge Of Military TV Comedies

In the early years of my stand-up career I did a lot of MC work on open mike nights. I remember one fledgling comic who had hilarious material. But it was mostly about what it was like growing up in a rich and powerful family. The material was true enough and the lines were funny but the audience had trouble relating to the material. Comics don't have to perfectly reflect the lives of their audiences. But there has to be enough commonality between the two for there to be a comedic connection.

That's also the reason why military comedies on television have almost always only been successful when America was either engaged in or just coming out of a major armed conflict. A large war means that the television audience is going to be filled with people who either have first-hand knowledge of the military or know people who have served. The audience needs that connection for the TV show to resonate with audiences who are knowledgeable enough to appreciate the absurdity of the characters.

The success of a military comedy also hinges on the popularity of the conflict and the timing. In the early years of the Vietnam War, shows such as "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C." could take a broad-based non-political approach to the military without seeming to be out-of-touch with current public sentiment. But by the time "M*A*S*H" premiered, public sentiment had soured on Vietnam and that anger and bitterness was perfectly aligned with a show that at its core was about the absurdness of war.

It's not a coincidence that the only real TV hit comedy with a military connection in the years since was the 1989-1993 series "Major Dad." The late 1980s was far enough away from Vietnam to get past the bitterness and it could simply be a comedy that was about day-to-day military life. The show's comedy wasn't the broad humor of "Sgt Bilko" or "Gomer Pyle." It was really just a traditional comedy that happened to be set in the military.

There are a lot of reasons TV shows get cancelled and there are a few factors that play into today's official cancellation of he Fox comedy "Enlisted." But one part of that decision would seem to be whether this was a premise that had a broad enough potential to make it a hit show.

America is at a weird mental place right now when it comes to the military. For all of the talk about how much we respect the service these men and women have given the country, most of us don't have a real-life connection to it. We haven't served, and we likely don't know anyone who has done so either. We don't understand military life or the absurdities that are present even in the military. Respecting the military doesn't offer enough insight to laugh at the jokes and despite the show's best efforts to broaden the approach of the plotlines, if you don't connect with the premise, you're going to have trouble appreciating the show.

In a weird way, it's the same problem faced by the ABC drama "Nashville." That network has struggled to attract an audience to a show that is set in the heart of country music. They've done lots of research that shows that people who don't like country music will often enjoy the show once they're persuaded to tune in. But getting that initial tune-in has proved to be a challenge.

I'm sorry to see "Enlisted" go, especially since the show has improved steadily in season one. There are rumors that 20th Century Fox TV is shopping the show around to other networks and while I'm not optimistic about that, I'd be thrilled if the show did get a second chance.

But no matter what the future of the show, "Enlisted" is also a lesson in attracting an audience and the challenges of convincing viewers to tune into a show that they might not find comfortably familiar.