DJ, Farscape aired for several years on the Sci-Fi Channel. We don't have cable, so I've seen it the past few years when it got picked up by commercial independent channels 11 KTTV & 13 KCOP.

Star Trek was definitely a forerunner in this genre, but Sci-fi literature existed for decades before that, with both Utopian and Dystopian societies being recurring themes. In written or visual media, sci-fi takes more chances on ideology because that is who reads it and that's who watches it. Sitcoms are usually not written for people who want to think about larger issues, at least not at that moment.
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