I don’t understand this anxiety about TV supplanting literature as the main cultural vessel for our stories. Why does it matter? To me, TV and literature are on the same team. It’s the stories themselves that matter: good stories are good stories, regardless of what medium they reach us through, and there are television shows on the air today that way down the line will be treated with the same level of legitimacy that the “classics” receive now. What’s really interesting is that I would bet that the few television shows that do endure will share the same basic themes as many of our most beloved and respected books. In fact, there have even been a couple of times that the most popular shows of our time have expressly borrowed or paid homage to  “great” works of literature, adapting them for a modern audience. Here are a few of my favorite examples:

Great Expectations, South Park: As weird as it sounds, in 2000 South Park ran an episode that re-enacted Charles Dickens’s novel Great Expectations. With Malcolm McDowell as a “British person” narrating, the episode relates the book surprisingly faithfully; the irrepressible Pip, the ice queen Estella, creepy old Ms. Havisham, everything is more or less in place. This took some serious gumption; one can only imagine the regular viewers of South Park tuning in and wondering what the hell was happening, and where Cartman was. And of course things don’t remain entirely faithful — the twist comes in the end of the episode, when Ms.Havisham reveals her sinister plan to use “the tears of  broken-hearted young men to power (her) genesis device.” It’s like the South Park creators only made it through two thirds of Great Expectations and decided to just make up everything else: there are robot monkeys, a massive fight sequence, a bag of dying bunnies, and an action-packed finale. I personally love it and think it is genius, although I know many people don’t. It’s certainly worth a watch, if for no other reason than to decide for yourself.

Lord of the Flies, The Simpsons: The Simpsons also tackled another venerated classic, doing their rendition of William  Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Fortunately this episode was made in 1998, right before the Simpsons started to suck. Bart and Lisa’s class are on a model UN trip that goes fatefully awry; their bus plunges into the  ocean and they kids end up alone on a remote island. Despite their initial excitement (it’ll be like the Swiss  Family Robinson… with more cursing!) their society soon breaks down. Again, like the South Park episode all the pieces from the novel are there: the mysterious island monster, the conch shell, Piggy’s glasses. The cast also assumes the roles of characters from the book: Milhouse is Piggy, Bart is Ralph and Nelson is hilarious as Jack. Even the famous dues ex machina of Lord of the Flies (when the naval ship shows up at the end) is present: a James Earl Jones voiceover ends the episode by saying, “and so they were saved by, oh, let’s say Moe.” The episode is funny and effective because, like all good Simpsons episodes, it uses the framework of the story to make a point without being sentimental or preachy.

The Great Gatsby, Californication: Animated sitcoms aren’t the only ones to feature classic  literary works; Californication, which chronicles the attempts of disaffected author Hank Moody to pull his life together, is  packed with literary allusions. One (masterfully directed, ahem) episode in particular, entitled the “Great Ashby,” is a re-imagining of the Great Gatsby. The episode begins with Hank Moody (who assumes the roll of Nick  Carraway) being bailed out of jail by a guy named Ashby, a wealthy and isolated party thrower who confides in Hank about the woman he loved when he was younger. Like the other two examples, all the  roles are fulfilled, and the show bonus points for 1) successfully paralleling a venerated piece of literature and 2) doing so in a way that resonates with other aspects of the show, namely Moody’s own estrangement from his ex-wife, and his loneliness without her, despite being surrounded by a constant stream of parties and hanger ons.

Can you think of any other examples? I’m sure there out there. Let me know below.