The Search for American Values on Television

 Length: ½ hour  Setting: indoors, intimate, safe, personal, warm and cozy space  Characters: same people each week  Form a loving biological ‘family’ or friendships as family  Usually good looking and financially stable

Beginning Inciting incident Middle Climax End Resolution Equilibrium Disequilibrium Equilibrium

 Format adapted from radio to television  Broadcast live, no studio audience  Some featured immigrant families  Mother was dominant figure  “Mama”  “The Goldbergs”

 Familiar faces and traditional families  the Nelsons, the Andersons, and the Cleavers.  Father was the dominant figure.  Mother was the home maker.  The point of view of the show was generally through the eyes of the parents.

 Sitcoms of the 50’s contained moral messages such as:  obey your parents  tell the truth  develop self-esteem  have pride in your family  help others  accept responsibility for your actions

 Many included real-life family members.  Most cast members were white  Emphasized strong family values  No vulgarity  Laugh track  Teen culture

 Cleaver family – idealized American family  Ward, the father  June, the mother  Wally and Theodore (Beaver), the sons

What did you notice?  Men  Women  Family

Burns and Allen Mary Kay and Johnny

The Goldbergs The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriett

The Honeymooners Make Room for Daddy

I Love Lucy Father Knows Best

Following World War II, thousands of men return from the war and women who previously worked returned to their kitchens.  Korean War ( )  Racial segregation in schools ruled unconstitutional (1954)  Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a Montgomery AL bus (1955)  Construction of the Interstate highway system begins (1956)  First US satellite orbits the earth (1958)  First domestic jet-airline passenger service begins  Alaska and Hawaii become the 49 th and 50 th states (1959)

 Young families  Apartment dwellers  Focus on work and family  Supernatural/occult into “real life”

  Witch marries a mortal  Sam, Darrin, and Endora  Upper-middle class suburban household  Husband works in the city  Wife stays home  ‘mixed marriage’

What did you notice?  Women  Men  Family

Sixties was considered the decade of youth as the 70 million children from the postwar baby boom became teenagers and young adults. It was also a decade of war. President Kennedy sends observers to Vietnam (1961) Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his “I have a dream speech’) (1963) President Kennedy assassinated (1963) John Glenn becomes first man to circle the earth (1963) First Civil Rights bill passed (1964) Martin Luther King, Jr and Robert Kennedy (candidate for Presidential primary) assassinated (1967)

My Three Sons The Andy Griffith Show

That Addams FamilyThe Munsters

The Dick Van Dyke Show The Patty Duke Show

I Dream of Jeannie The Brady Bunch

 Comedy more about characters than situations  Programs pushed boundaries  Sex  Race  Abortion  Rape  Emphasized serious topics

  #1 Nielsen Ratings  Characters  Archie Bunker  Edith, his wife  Gloria, his daughter  Mike, his son-in- law

'"The program you are about to see is All in the Family. It seeks to throw a humorous spotlight on our frailties, prejudices, and concerns. By making them a source of laughter we hope to show, in a mature fashion, just how absurd they are."'

What did you notice?  Women  Men  Family  Race  Class

Radical ideas of the sixties gained wider acceptance during this decade. First “Earth Day” launches environmental movement (1970) First Gay Pride Parade in New York City begins the GLBT movement (1970) Large anti Vietnam War march protests US involvement (1971) Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wage legalizes abortion (1973) South Vietnam falls to Communist forces in North Vietnam (1975) US celebrates bicentennial of Declaration of Independence (1976) Radiation leaks from Three Mile Island nuclear reactor (1979)

The Jeffersons Maude Good Times

 The 80’s witnessed a burst of realism  Families, although traditional in form were also shown as dysfunctional situations.  Avoided controversy in favor of generally accepted societal ills  Child abuse  Drug abuse  Environment destruction  South African Apartheid

  Focused on an affluent African-American family  Credited with reviving the sitcom genre  Characters  Cliff Huxtable, husband (doctor)  Clair Huxtable, wife (attorney)  Five children

What did you notice?  Women  Men  Family  Race  Class

This decade spawned the ME! Generation of status seekers. Mega- mergers created billionaires seemingly overnight. First woman nominated to the Supreme Court (1981) MTV launched (1981) US government declares war on drugs with “Just Say No” campaign IBM released the first PC (1981), Mac came on the market (1984) Nintendo releases home game system bundled with Super Mario Bros. (1985) President Reagan challenges USSR to dismantle the Berlin Wall (1989)

Growing Pains Full House

Family TiesWho’s the Boss?

Roseanne Married with Children

 The 90s sitcoms examined a variety of topics including gay and lesbian relationships  Untraditional family – group of friends, single parent families, mixed race families, and singles  Lives were not unbelievable

  Featured six main characters, only two are related  Ranked #21 in list of 50 Greatest TV Shows (TV Guide)  Characters  Rachel  Monica  Phoebe  Chandler  Ross  Joey

What did you notice?  Women  Men  Family

Considered the electronic age. The Internet changed the way we communicate. US declares war on Iraq for its invasion of Kuwait (1991) World Wide Web born (1992) Bomb detonated under World Trade Center (1993) Timothy McVeigh bombs federal building Oklahoma City (1995), Columbine High School shooting (1999) 51% of American households have computers by 2000

Family Matters Everybody Loves Raymond

Home Improvement The Simpsons

3 rd Rock from the Sun My Wife and Kids

Malcolm in the Middle Modern Family

 Hulu  Amazon Instant Streaming  Netflix  Museum of Broadcast Communication ▪ ▪ archives.museum.tv archives.museum.tv

Dalton, Mary M. The Sitcom Reader: American Viewed and Skewed. Albany, NY: State University of New York, Jones, Gerard. Honey, I'm Home!: Sitcoms, Selling the American Dream. New York: St. Martin's, The Museum of Broadcast Communications. Web. 11 Oct Spiegel, Lynn. Make Room for TV: Television and the Family Ideal in Postwar America. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1992.