If SMASH couldn't be realistic in 2012, do you really think that SITCOM of the 90's would be?
All the above reasons are correct....recognition, humor, it wasn't THAT wrong (RUG), they were both British and it was fiction.
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.