The State of the Modern Day Sitcom...What Happened to the Good Ones?

Tonight,as I was flipping through the channels, I stumbled, as I always do, on Nick at Night. Tonight was different because I asked myself why I always could watch reruns of shows from the 80s-90s but never really wanted to watch reruns[or first runs at that] of the shows that are on the air today. Newton Minnow, former FCC Chair in 1961 said that television was becoming a "vast wasteland"...that was in 1961. In my opinion, from the programming they've shown us in my TV history classes, I would say that the programming was pretty good, at least compared to what we have today. When I look at shows like Hannah Montana, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, True Jackson: VP, and The Replacements and compare them to shows like Sister, Sister, Smart Guy, The Powerpuff Girls, Fresh Prince, Roseanne, The Nanny, and Home Improvement, I can see a dramatic shift in the quality of programming. I've always wondered what was missing from this new generation of programming. Then today it dawned on me: programming today has no substance. When you look at shows like Sister, Sister, Smart Guy, Roseanne, and Home Improvement, they all had some deeper social relevance that you could use in your every day life to survive. Shows now such as Hannah Montana don't have that same substance, just a lot of fluff. Sure they're entertaining, but what do they help us with once we turn off the tv? Sitcoms from the 80s-90s would cover EVERYTHING and ANYTHING. From social issues to confronting moral issues. These shows gave our nation a backbone. Now that television is concerned about "conserving our children" and designating what is appropiate, the shows don't do any of those things and we are left with programming that is meant to help a company's profit, creating materialistic children in the process, children who will grow up without knowing how to survive. Its time that we bring back the quality programming and influence our new generation the right way.