I agree with you. Then there's also the mistaken idea that shows like Friends are ground-breaking. They want to be known as the first to do something. Well, this is Friends claim to fame. Twenty years from now we'll see them sitting around a table talking about the wonderful things they brought to the American public.
Friends is the most brain-dead programme in the history of television. You can get record audiences even these days, with stories of courage and decency - "Band of Brothers" for example, based on the Stephen Ambrose book. It was so good, I had to pick it up on DVD before leaving America.
But have the TV people woken up to this? Not really, no.
Regards, Ivan