Series that Irked Social Workers Coming Out on DVD
The entire sitcom series “The Norm Show” will be released September 7 on DVD for the first time. However, it is unlikely many social workers will buy it. Many protested against the program when it was first aired.
The 1999-2001 ABC series featured Saturday Night Live alum Norm Macdonald as “Norm Henderson,” a hockey player who is sentenced to become a social worker to make amends for gambling debts and tax evasion.
This premise upset a lot of social workers because it defied reality — social work is a specialized profession that requires much education and training.
Q: “The Norm Show” premiered more than a decade ago. In hindsight do you think social workers took the comedy too seriously? Or were they correct to call for its cancellation?
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I wrote a letter to NASW when I was getting my MSSW in 2000 ridiculing their call for the protest of “The Norm Show” and I still think it is patently ridiculous to boycott it now. So to answer your question, social workers were incorrect to call for its cancellation and they took it (and the profession and themselves) FAR too seriously.
Here’s hoping many who wasted precious energy complaining about The Norm Show recalled M.A.S.H and it’s satirical and usually hilarious portrayal of the medical profession and decided to rethink their protest over the last decade.
I’m with Kristin. I love Norm. He was totally hillarious. I have been a social worker for 15 years and was never irked by the show. Most of television has little basis in reality so the premise did not bother me and the laughs were appreciated.