Rob Long

The Virtues of Whitebread Rob Long

Former Cheers executive producer Rob Long makes the case for preserving the traditions of "whitebread" America--uncomfortable formalities, awkward silences and all. In Los Angeles, you can buy a hot dog wrapped in a tortilla and topped with kimchi. "It's about as perfect a metaphor for twenty-first-century America as you can find," writes Rob Long. "It's also pretty tasty." But as wonderful as today's multicultural American kaleidoscope is--and it is wonderful--there's something to be said for America's waning WASP culture, or as Long calls it, being "whitebread." To be whitebread is to be unironically normcore: to assume a formality of dress and manners, to embrace awkward silences, and to carry seemingly obsolete traditions from generation to generation. Long, the Emmy-nominated executive producer of Cheers and creator of Sullivan & Son, lays out his argument for being "whitebread by choice" in this tongue-in-cheek paean to the tried, true, and very unhip ways of whitebread America.