Let’s return to the glory days of television. Or at least back to when I was in college and had an awful lot of free time…
It’s strange to think of a time when Fox wasn’t a mainstream network. Right now it is strange to even think of just having the big three networks. With American Idol, 24 and The Simpsons it is hard to think of a network that has more tent pole shows on their lineup. But back in the early 90’s Fox was still trying to find its way and was throwing out any idea that seemed interesting. Some of this resulted in greatness like It’s Garry Shandling’s Show or In Living Color. Others were rather forgettable (Mantis anyone?). And then there was Herman’s Head.
This was a show built entirely on a concept. The main plot of the show was as completely typical as a sitcom could be. This guy (Herman) works in an office and struggles with romance while meeting marginally wacky characters. That wouldn’t even make it past the pitch meeting. Except that during the episode we peer inside Herman’s head and see what is going on with his psyche with four characters representing sensitivity, lust, anxiety and intellect. So instead of using clever dialogue and acting skill to display his inner turmoil they literally displayed his inner turmoil.
It wasn’t nearly as silly as you would think. In fact, you quickly preferred watching what was going on inside his head (which was funny because the aspects were so well defined and the interactions so enlightening) than what was happening to him in real life (which was standard sitcom fare other than the woman who voiced Lisa Simpson was one of the characters.) To see the different sides of his personality in conflict and influencing his actions was always interesting. I always cheered on the intellect of course and was always pleased to see how flustered he could be when the others got their way. It just seemed so natural.
I’ve been thinking about the show a lot recently because it dawned on me that is really how my brain works. In my instance I can sum it up more as having an emotional side and a rational side. Now typically the rational side runs the show. In fact, the emotional side tends to get shunted off into a corner and will occasionally meekly raise its voice only to have the rational side “We’ve been through this. You get no say in the matter.” This is due to those moments when my emotional side does run things because, well, if you would like to use a nautical analogy my emotional side tends to dash us against the rocks even when there are no rocks to be found.
But as I’ve thought about the past few weeks I can really see it as being the two sides of me working sometimes in tandem and sometimes separately. They were on the same page, which is rare. Then over the weekend the emotional side won out, resulting in much time on the couch in self-pity. I’m back being rational again. Things make sense. Maybe not in reality but I’ve gotten the equations to work out (given some assumptions, a couple of leaps of intuition and a few accidental sign errors). And it’s nice being back to normal. At least I now know that the emotional side can hold its own for a little bit.
For the upbeat song of the night I’m going with The Flaming Lips. Here is a line from a review: “The confetti, balloons and fanfare are all secondary to the message: Love hurts, everyone dies, simple things are usually the most amazing, life is tragic and magic all at once, and every day gives us a reason to be excited.” I think this song expresses it all and more and includes people in bunny suits.
It’s strange to think of a time when Fox wasn’t a mainstream network. Right now it is strange to even think of just having the big three networks. With American Idol, 24 and The Simpsons it is hard to think of a network that has more tent pole shows on their lineup. But back in the early 90’s Fox was still trying to find its way and was throwing out any idea that seemed interesting. Some of this resulted in greatness like It’s Garry Shandling’s Show or In Living Color. Others were rather forgettable (Mantis anyone?). And then there was Herman’s Head.
This was a show built entirely on a concept. The main plot of the show was as completely typical as a sitcom could be. This guy (Herman) works in an office and struggles with romance while meeting marginally wacky characters. That wouldn’t even make it past the pitch meeting. Except that during the episode we peer inside Herman’s head and see what is going on with his psyche with four characters representing sensitivity, lust, anxiety and intellect. So instead of using clever dialogue and acting skill to display his inner turmoil they literally displayed his inner turmoil.
It wasn’t nearly as silly as you would think. In fact, you quickly preferred watching what was going on inside his head (which was funny because the aspects were so well defined and the interactions so enlightening) than what was happening to him in real life (which was standard sitcom fare other than the woman who voiced Lisa Simpson was one of the characters.) To see the different sides of his personality in conflict and influencing his actions was always interesting. I always cheered on the intellect of course and was always pleased to see how flustered he could be when the others got their way. It just seemed so natural.
I’ve been thinking about the show a lot recently because it dawned on me that is really how my brain works. In my instance I can sum it up more as having an emotional side and a rational side. Now typically the rational side runs the show. In fact, the emotional side tends to get shunted off into a corner and will occasionally meekly raise its voice only to have the rational side “We’ve been through this. You get no say in the matter.” This is due to those moments when my emotional side does run things because, well, if you would like to use a nautical analogy my emotional side tends to dash us against the rocks even when there are no rocks to be found.
But as I’ve thought about the past few weeks I can really see it as being the two sides of me working sometimes in tandem and sometimes separately. They were on the same page, which is rare. Then over the weekend the emotional side won out, resulting in much time on the couch in self-pity. I’m back being rational again. Things make sense. Maybe not in reality but I’ve gotten the equations to work out (given some assumptions, a couple of leaps of intuition and a few accidental sign errors). And it’s nice being back to normal. At least I now know that the emotional side can hold its own for a little bit.
For the upbeat song of the night I’m going with The Flaming Lips. Here is a line from a review: “The confetti, balloons and fanfare are all secondary to the message: Love hurts, everyone dies, simple things are usually the most amazing, life is tragic and magic all at once, and every day gives us a reason to be excited.” I think this song expresses it all and more and includes people in bunny suits.
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