Here in the US, it is New Fall Television Season which, being honest, is better than most religious holidays for me. This year we are seeing a lot (like, three, which is sadly HUGE for US Network TV) of diversity in the new programs, but I still think we have room for improvement. I started daydreaming about shows I would like to see that feature the adoption community.
Family Comedy
When I was growing up, just about every network had some sort of hilarious (meaning the laugh track told us to laugh) comedy featuring adoption or foster care. Let’s bring back the glory days and make a show called My Two Dads and One Mom, about a kid navigating her life with her adoptive fathers and the mother who chose them to raise her child! If we want it to truly be retro, we will need to feature Kenny Loggins in some way, and the Charles in Charge set.
Family Drama
Speaking of retro television, do you remember Our House? Basically, Marlena from Days of Our Lives moved in with Wilford Brimley, pre-diabetes, and he helped raise her kids, one of whom was sweet, innocent Brenda from 90210. Let’s reboot that, but with Major Dad (Gerald McRaney) taking in a sibling group from foster care. It won’t be creepy like Diff’rent Strokes; it will tackle things like racism and ageism and it will have Very Special Episodes. I like it already.
Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Stranger Things has been blowing up the internet, so let’s steal a sort-of theme and combine it with one of the great sci-fi stories, Anna to the Infinite Power. Imagine it: Living among us are a group of kids, spread across the country, who have the same super abilities to save the world. It turns out that their adoptive parents didn’t know but we’re all part of some government conspiracy, and each birth mother or birth father had been injected with a secret agent that gave their babies powers. The kids have to work to find each other, and the adoptive parent’s band together to find their first families and protect them from the shadow government. Obviously, Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton will do something about this.
Crime Procedural
Let’s just have an adoption story on Law and Order that doesn’t involve birth parent fraud or desperate people stealing babies. How about that?
Adult Drama
We focus on an agency that serves special needs kids with parents. Every week there can be some sort of difficulty to overcome. Like, one week the adoptive parents are fighting zoning laws because they need super expensive power generators at their house to help with assisted living machinery. Each week they will bring awareness, smiles, tears, and sometimes sexytimes with young hot lobbyists and social workers. This will clearly run on Sundays and feature cameos from all surviving Touched By An Angel and Little House on the Prairie cast members.
What do you think? Would you watch any of these shows? Let me know in the comments, and if you are a network bigwig, send me some money.
