News flash: Patrick Duffy is 70 years old.O tempora, o mores.
In many cultures older people are respected as fonts of wisdom. In our culture we think of them as screaming bigots or doddering fools, irrelevant to the world and unwelcome in it. Dozens of tv programs, dating all the way back to December Bride in the 1950s, have had fun breaking our expectations by showing old people as active, competent, and...gasp.... sexual.
Remember the episode of Alice where Carrie (Martha Raye) and Alice (Linda Lavin) perform "If you think I'm sexy, and you want my body"?
Or the episode of Mama's Family where Thelma (Vicki Lawrence) starts dating her English professor?
Or the episode of The Golden Girls where ...well, every episode of The Golden Girls.
The Cool Kids (2018-) are three male residents of a retirement community:Hank (David Alan Grier of In Living Color)
Charlie (Martin Mull of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman)
Sid (Leslie Jordan)
Not a nursing home, a retirement community where evereyone has their own apartment and there is no trace of declining physical health or mental acuity.
It's a high school without parents or curfews, and the Cool Kids rule. Until new female resident Margaret (Vicki Lawrence of Mama's Family) starts to shake things up.
If these names bring back memories, just wait until you read the cast list: Jamie Farr, Max Gail, Julia Duffy, Ed Begley, Jr ,Stephen Tobolowski, Leslie Ann Warren, Jackee Harry, Charles Shaughnessy, Patrick Duffy, a full palette of 1970s and 1980s nostalgia casting.
But watching to see them again is a mixed blessing. They look really old. I don't know how or why, but apparently some years have passed since MASH, Barney Miller, Blossom, Newhart, and Dallas
Is this show good for anything other than reminding viewers that they are home on Friday night, when they used to be out gyrating and hooking up?
Let's hear the viewer comments:
I just happened to see this for the first time while at the hospital with a relative. It was the episode about online dating. I was in tears laughing so hard!
My husband and I recently suffered the tragic loss of our oldest son. I swore off TV and other things. The day I chose to turn it back on, I saw this, and. I thought WOW! "
Um...ok, first rule of the internet: never read the comments.
The first few episodes are about "you kids stay off my lawn!" crotchetyness. Their old hangout is now a milennial joint called Club Twerk. They visit anyway, face oldster-phobia, and agree that the millennial generation is the pits.
But then they go into Golden Girls territory: competitions for club president, competitions over new friends, visits from relatives, and dating. Lots of dating.
The veteran actors have spot-on comedic timing. It's nice to watch someone who doesn't struggle over lines, like some of the just-out-of-acting-school beefcake hunks who populate other sitcoms.
And it's nice to be able to understand what they are saying without asking a 20-year old to translate "Text me the deets of the next ish, lolz."
And another where he admits that he's never had a gay romance before. Margaret intervenes, and he starts dating John (Jere Burns of Dear John), who discovers that he hasn't actually divorced his wife (they are such good friends that a divorce might ruin things).
Searching way down the cast list, I found this photo of Travis Schuldt, who plays Sid's clueless son.
Turn to the other channel (um...I mean, stream something else), and you can see all the milennial chests and butts you want.
Keep watching The Cool Kids to visit some old friends.
My grade: B+