Post-War victory involved reaffirming the homefront cultures as "normal", and comedy like this was pretty standard in Britain, France and America, to remind everybody that not changing anything whatsoever was the right course of action.

Remember that this is directly aligned with "I Dream of Jeannie", which was the most titillating thing on American television clear through until MTV, 15 years later.

“Are you being served” is apparently STILL one of the most popular exports.

British sitcoms: 'Steptoe and son', 'Only fools and horses', etc.

American sitcoms: People living in fucking mansions.

That whole *aspirational* tv thing is super creepy to me.
I also think its part of the whole fucked up common US conception of, I will be rich one day so I'd better vote for no taxes or public services to sap my future hoard!

To smile too broadly is an embarrassing trait in British society.

To not smile broadly enough is an embarrassing trait in American society.

Just for the sake of historical nitpickery, that's not literally true about I Dream of Jeannie. A lot of 70s TV was pretty hot, but I can't think of anything regularly scheduled. There were edited R rated movies, braless back-up singers on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, and even occasional outright nudity on PBS, (try googling "Steambath" with Bill Bixby and Valerie Perrine.)

But the most titillating stuff on 70 was probably advertising. There was a moment in the late 70s when advertising on TV became ass-obsessed. Part of that was Disco, and the marketing genius who invented designer jeans, but the classic was an ad for Jamaican tourism. Goddamn.