Obama Will Make Adults 'Cool' on TV

Prez-elect's calmness reflects rising popularity of adulthood

By Drew Nelles, Newser Staff

Posted Nov 30, 2008 9:14 PM CST

(Newser) – 60 Minutes is killing the competition, Mad Men is grittier by the episode, and even Gossip Girl's bimbos are growing up—thanks mostly to the adult air of Barack Obama, Mary McNamara writes in the Los Angeles Times. After 8 years of President Bush, whose folksiness and privilege inspired reality TV's "clique-navigating competitions," McNamara believes Obama is making it "hip to be grown up again.”

Shows like All In The Family, Maude, and M*A*S*H once managed to reflect real life and political issues. Now, Obama represents a “shift away from the insulated individual toward the cooperative community, away from competitive consumerism toward political idealism." McNamara doesn't see “a new age of geezer TV,” but "there is always the possibility of change—that's the point of growing up."

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In this image released by AMC, Jon Hamm, left, and January Jones portray Don and Betty Draper in the AMC original series Mad Men. (AP Photo/AMC)

A print advertisement for Gossip Girl is shown. The character Serena is putting "down her party girl hat to impress her sober beau," McNamara writes. (AP Photo/The CW)

In this Nov. 14, 2008 photo released by CBS, President-elect Barack Obama and Michelle Obama speak with CBS 60 Minutes reporter Steve Kroft. (AP Photo/CBS)

In this Nov. 14, 2008 photo released by CBS, President-elect Barack Obama speaks with CBS 60 Minutes reporter Steve Kroft in Chicago. (AP Photo/CBS)

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Barack and Michelle Obama on 60 Minutes. (arianfilm)

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Now the cowboy has been replaced by the professor (though, for the moment anyway, the professor with the highest crush-factor in school) and being a grown-up is cool. - Mary McNamara, on George W. Bush and Barack Obama

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Obama Will Make Adults 'Cool' on TV