JTS: The Sitcom
The Forward reports,
The “Seinfeld” coffee shop has long reigned as the symbol New York Jews on television. But soon a classroom at The Jewish Theological Seminary may replace it. The NBC television network is developing a new half-hour situation comedy about seminarians in New York, written by the husband of a Los Angeles rabbi.
The show is titled “Morningside Heights,” after the New York neighborhood where The Jewish Theological Seminary and Union Theological Seminary have their campuses across the street from each other.
As a JTS student, I cannot possibly imagine what is funny about that place. I mean, at least in a way that the American public will appreciate. Because I certainly don’t want them laughing at that fine institution for the same reasons that I find myself doing so. Maybe the UTS students are funnier than we are…..who knows?
Mazel Tov to David Light from the IKAR Community! I hope the show is on the air as long as Seinfeld.
Because airing our dirty laundry on blogs didn’t take it far enough…
As someone who used to work not just at JTS but at various Jewish organizations, I have to say that there’s much comedy to draw on it, even if lots of it is unintentional. It wouldn’t be a question of dirty laundry, even, just the conflicts and issues that arise when you’re talking about students in a religious environment…
Shabbat shalom, all…
I am also a JTS student and I fully agree that it is in no way intentionally funny.
It’s a sitcom, people, not a documentary. It ain’t real life…
I too attended JTS & agree with those who say there’s nothing intenionally funny about it. But my reason for saying so is that I found it to be a place devoid of comedy, humor or mirth. Mostly it was depressing. I tried to spend as much time as I could on my studies at Columbia & as little time as I could at JTS.
Perhaps it’s changed since I attended in the mid-70s, but how funny is it when a roomful of male rabbinic students in a library reading room all look up in unison at every female who walks down the aisle? I’m not blaming them for that–it was the nature of the institution that kept them so isolated.
I made a few good friends at JTS but we tried to enjoy our friendships outside its hallowed halls.