Saturday, February 1, 2014

"THE FIRST FAMILY"




The enforced incarceration at my sister's home (due to my foot surgery) meant that I was sometimes forced to watch my nephew's preferred shows, mostly "bratcoms" (my term, you can use it) on Nick Jr., Disney, and the like.  Plus there were the shows I never would have seen if I was not limited to just the few TV stations they had there.

One of those was 'The First Family'.

It's the story of American President William Johnson and his family.  They're black, but they're not stand-ins for the Obamas - for one thing, they have four children - two girls and two boys.  Also living with them are the First Lady's older sister and the President's father.

I want to toss this sitcom into the TV dimension of sitcom presidents.  The preceding shows in this dimension are:
  • 'Nancy'
  • 'Hail To The Chief'
  • 'Mr. President'
  • 'Yes, Minister' and 'Yes, Prime Minister' (both British based)
  • 'Cory In The House'
'Cory In The House' ended in 2008 and "The First Family' began in September of 2012.  In a 2010 episode of 'That's So Raven', there was a new President, so Richard Martinez left office in January of 2009.  Whether it was his second term or if he was only a one-term wonder, I don't know.

But here's the thing: Wikipedia claims that William Johnson is the 45th POTUS and the second one who was African-American.

I don't know if this is a reference to Obama.  If he has been mentioned on the series, I'm not aware of it yet.  (Unfortunately for me, more research will be needed.)

But because of the timeline established by 'That's So Raven' and 'Cory In The House', Obama would have served only one term.  And since there were no other real Presidents in this TV dimension, why should he be included?  

If he was not mentioned yet (The show has an order for 100 episodes, so it may still happen), I'd prefer to leave him out of the mix, just to make sure we can accommodate the President seen in 'That's So Raven'.

But still, there is the matter of Johnson being the 2nd black president.  It must be that at some point between 'Mr. President' and 'Cory In The House' there was a fictional black Commander-in-Chief.  It could very well be that a sitcom-infused TV dimension had a black man in the White House well before the real world did!

BCnU!

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