Not Allowed to Grow Up: Difference between revisions

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|'''Lisa Simpson''', ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'', "Behind The Laughter"}}
|'''Lisa Simpson''', ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'', "Behind The Laughter"}}


AKA "perpetual childhood," '''{{subat:PAGENAME}}''' is a fortunately now-[[Forgotten Trope]] from and specific to the early days of live-action television, implicit in many [[sitcom|Situation Comedies]] that focused on the standard American [[Nuclear Family]] of father, mother and 2.4 children. In it, the Situation necessary for the Comedy to exist was ''so'' rigidly defined that (in an extreme case of [[Status Quo Is God]]) the children ''could not be allowed to grow up'', lest the program dynamic change unrecognizably.
AKA "perpetual childhood," '''Not Allowed to Grow Up''' is a fortunately now-[[Forgotten Trope]] from and specific to the early days of live-action television, implicit in many [[sitcom|Situation Comedies]] that focused on the standard American [[Nuclear Family]] of father, mother and 2.4 children. In it, the Situation necessary for the Comedy to exist was ''so'' rigidly defined that (in an extreme case of [[Status Quo Is God]]) the children ''could not be allowed to grow up'', lest the program dynamic change unrecognizably.


In most cases, this was relatively benign — the lifespan of the programs and the aging of their younger stars rarely impacted each other. (And in shows where [[Dawson Casting]] was already in play, it only meant that characters who had started out looking too old for their alleged ages just got even older.) But when actual children of the appropriate ages were cast in a show that became a [[Long Runner]], the best-case result would be a disturbing cognitive dissonance when a child character acted substantially younger than he or she appeared.
In most cases, this was relatively benign — the lifespan of the programs and the aging of their younger stars rarely impacted each other. (And in shows where [[Dawson Casting]] was already in play, it only meant that characters who had started out looking too old for their alleged ages just got even older.) But when actual children of the appropriate ages were cast in a show that became a [[Long Runner]], the best-case result would be a disturbing cognitive dissonance when a child character acted substantially younger than he or she appeared.
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