None of the characters on Friends or Will & Grace, for example, do much of anything with the bathroom beyond the odd punchline or two. Sure, characters take bubble baths or showers, or even make a poop or pee joke now and then, but to my knowledge TV stars are never shown downloading or tinkling outside of the animated kids on Comedy Central.
I think the idea of a true s(h)itcom is still a bit radical to programmers. It's my theory that network television is still influenced by such early poopless, pristine models as The Brady Bunch, Gilligan's Island, and Leave It To Beaver. Consider: the Brady's did not even have a bathroom despite having nine people in the house -- and Mr. Brady was supposed to be an architect! Pop culture sociologists have remarked that there was never even a reference in passing to anyone ever having to go to the loo -- not even to shave, shower or brush teeth; and no one was ever depicted even standing outside a door in the hallway, complaining that somebody else was hogging the facilities -- perhaps the most common occurrence in American households. This perfect family, which could solve any problem in twenty-two minutes, apparently ate and absorbed Alice's famous meatloaf without a hint of any waste disposal -- the Immaculate Digestion, if you will.
And Gilligan's Island was surely a grand opportunity missed. Imagine the comic possibilities in at least referencing the crude bathroom facilities the castaways might have constructed. In a show this cartoonish, some kind of his-and-hers bamboo pole and thatched-roof outhouses in the jungle would have carried the day -- Mrs. Howell and her umbrella on one crapper, while her bombastic millionaire husband Thurston blusters his way through numerous patrician farts on the adjoining hole. And further down, Gilligan and the Skipper having a cross-stall discussion about constructing a raft out of coconuts while filling up the yawning pit below that the Professor had designed for them.
It seems we have come a long way in depicting the realities of the human condition in most forms of popular entertainment -- notably the stage, cinema and in comedy and nightclubs. So isn't it way past time for a a real s(h)itcom? No, we don't have to see someone doing it from start to finish in graphic fashion. But is it such a stretch to have a popular character going in to actually do the doo? Couldn't we have Will seated discreetly on the john reading the paper while needy, neurotic Grace kibitzes at the door, regaling him with her latest emotional crisis? And now that Rachel has a baby (out of wedlock, no less -- that's less scandalous than poop?) on Friends, and poopy diapers are all the rage, couldn't one of her adult companions take a turn on the toilet at some logical point without stretching credulity and good taste?
Yes--to both questions. The s(h)itcom is flush with comic possibilities and more realistic character development, depicting life in the 21st Century as we really know and live it. After all, the perfectly poopless '50's have long outlived their relevance; and with all those giant cups of coffee on the sofa at Central Perk, we can be sure that the Friends' evening isn't over when the end credits roll.