“The Good Life” Begins Airing (1975)

All this sustainability stuff is deadly serious, but can we take a minute now and then to laugh at ourselves about it?

That’s just what the British comedy series, The Good Life, did.  In 39 episodes, starting on April 4, 1975, and running through 1978, the television show spoofed the desire to become self-sufficient and get back to nature.  The show is considered among the best British comedies of all time, ranking near Fawlty Towers (but no show will ever match that one).

The show depicts the struggles of Tom and Barbara Good (played by now famous actors Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal) to divorce themselves from the modern rat-race and become “eco-warriers,” living off the land.  Unfortunately, their land is a small plot in the suburbs (the village is named, appropriately, Surbiton).  And what follows is a hilarious look at the perils of growing your own food, from plants to animals, dealing with waste, keeping warm and satisfying innumerable other needs more easily served from the supermarket and dry-goods store.

The Good’s new lifestyle is the bane of their neighbors, the Leadbetters.  Particularly affected is Mrs. Margo Leadbetter, played by the inimitable Penelope Keith.  Hopelessly middle-class and trying to go higher, she rebels at the mess, sounds, smells and general chaos of her neighbors.

And so they do battle—sustainability versus consumerism.  The Leadbetters put up a windbreak on their fence, the Goods complain that it will shade their fruit trees.  The Good’s try to improve their vegetable yields by talking to their plants, disturbing their neighbors with all the chit-chat.  When the Good’s buy two pigs, Pinky and Perky, they inevitably escape to terrorize the Leadbetter’s yard.

But, along the way in each show and along the series as a whole, the neighbors grow together, managing to stay friends despite their differences.  In fact, the release of the show in the U.S. was re-titled “Good Neighbors.”

As funny as the shows were, they also highlight the real dilemma of trying to incorporate environmental sustainability into our everyday lives.  Sure, we recycle and take reusable bags to the grocery store.  But we drive to the grocery store and we recycle way too much excess packaging and other one-use materials.  The more serious our attempts get, the more difficult they become—and the more at odds with the rest of society.

But I think the real lesson, of both the television show and a proper outlook on modern living, is that it is okay to be less than perfect. Better be, because none of us is perfect, and so making friends of those who are a bit more or a bit less sustainable is the best strategy.  The bottom line is that improving is what matters—reducing our impacts a bit at a time when we can, and keeping society’s eyes on the prize of a more sustainable world, both locally and globally.  Remember, sustainability is a journey, not a destination.  And it’s good to laugh along the way!

References:

IMDB.com.  Good Neighbors.  Available at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075511/.  Accessed April 3, 2018.

This Month in Conservation

November 1
Ansel Adams Shoots “Moonrise” (1941)
November 2
National Bison Day
November 3
William Cullen Bryant Born (1794)
November 3
Rosalie Edge, Conservationist and Suffragette, born (1877)
November 4
UNESCO Created (1946)
November 5
Ethelwynn Trewavas Born (1900)
November 6
International Day to Protect the Environment during War
November 7
Costa Rica Constitution Enacted (1949)
November 8
World Town Planning Day
November 9
First Live Panda Leaves China (1936)
November 10
Guinness Book of World Records Born (1951)
November 11
Leonardo DiCaprio Born (1974)
November 12
Salim Ali Born (1896)
November 13
Amory Lovins Born (1947)
November 14
US Crushes Elephant Ivory (2013)
November 15
America Recycles Day
November 16
Global Climate Change Research Act Passed (1990)
November 17
David Livingstone Arrives at Victoria Falls (1855)
November 18
Asa Gray, Father of American Botany, Born (1810)
November 19
World Toilet Day
November 20
John Merle Coulter, Pioneering Botanist, Born (1851)
November 21
Lava Beds National Monument Created (1925)
November 22
Grofe’s “Grand Canyon Suite” Premiered (1931)
November 23
National Eat-A-Cranberry Day
November 24
“On the Origin of Species” Published (1859)
November 25
Nikolai Vavilov, Pioneering Russian Agronomist, Born (1887)
November 26
Anna Maurizio, Swiss Bee Expert, Born (1900)
November 27
Bill Nye, the Science Guy, Born (1955)
November 28
Elsie Quarterman, Plant Ecologist, Born (1910)
November 29
U.S. Rations Coffee (1942)
November 30
Mark Twain, American Humorist, Born (1835)
January February March April May June July August September October November December