Reality TV

John Derbyshire pitches a sitcom in a post on mood music at The Corner on National Review Online:

Kindertotenlieder means "Songs on the Deaths of Children." The immortal Kathleen Ferrier gives the general idea here.

I'm sure I remember Die Kindertotenlieder featuring in an episode of (of all things!) Cheers. Can't find a clip on YouTube, though. Is my memory correct, anyone know?

I have likewise included a fragment of the Kindertotenlieder in the pilot episode of a sitcom I have written and am trying to pitch to the networks. Provisionally titled Groans, the show features a bar in North Dakota whose Norwegian American patrons converse in anguished tones about the vapid optimism that will soon bring civilization crashing down in ruins. Interested TV producers can contact me via National Review.

There's a lot of material to mine there. Just for fun, you could make a couple of the patrons Vikings fans. Could be comedy gold.

SAINT PAUL NOTES: Like most male Minnesotans in my age cohort, I've seen every episode of Cheers multiple times. Reruns were played every night at 10:30PM on Channel 11 during some of my prime TV watching years in the late-80's through mid-90s. And I do not recall "Die Kindertotenlieder" ever being referenced and certainly not playing a prominent part in any episode.

However, I do know that it was featured prominently in an episode of MASH. (A program I've seen every episode of multiple times because it preceeded Cheers in the 10:30PM slot on Channel 11 in some of my other prime TV watching years -- early through late-80's). Afficianado of the long-hair music Major Winchester received that album in the mail and proceeded to torment his tent mates by incessently playing it. At one point Hawkeye referred to it as the "Dead Children's Glee Club". That is all.