"What would life be like in a world where women have always held the key positions in business, in politics, in the home and in society?" asks the publicity for this syndicated Norman Lear serial [All That Glitters].

Apparently it would be like this: the women would be unscrupulous maneuverers, frauds, lechers and jerks of all description. The men would be dreary, simple-headed drudges or simpering sexpots. Nothing-much would happen, conversation would reach unprecedented abysses of dullness, and relations between men and women would be conducted at a level of callousness that would stun Germaine Greer.

Does Lear really think this cumbersome collection of reversed stereotypes represents the way we live now? He is coy about it. "Is it a reflection of life? It is whatever the audience thinks it is," he says. Well, this part of the audience thinks it is pretty obvious stuff, mostly out of...