Evolution of the American Television Family
Television is not just a form of entertainment, but it is an excellent form of study of society's view concerning its families. This study focuses on the history of television beginning in the early 1950s and will run through present day. It examines the use of racial, ethnic and sexual stereotypes to characterize the players of these shows. The examples assist in tracing what has happened to the depiction of the American family on prime time television. It reveals the change of the standards employed by network television as disclosed to the American public. Finally, I will propose the question of which is the influential entity, television or the viewing audience.The Goldbergs, which was originally a radio show, became the first popular family series. It became a weekly TV series in 1949, revealing to Americans a working class Jewish family who resided in a small apartment in the Bronx. The show, while warm and humorous, confronted delicate social issues, such as sensitivity due to the Second World War. It is an excellent example of an ethnic family's status in society. A classic among classics, I Love Lucy appeared on television on October 15, 1951, (http://www.nick-at-nite.com/tvretro/shows/ilovelucy/index.tin).
The finest depiction of the American family living in the 1960s came twenty years later. The Wonder Years, which debuted on January 31, 1988, exhibited the best portraiture of a middle-class family in distinction to the 1960s. The Arnold family featured a struggling urban household. The parents were both conventional and, in the case of the father, emotionally distant. Kevin's, the teen-aged hero, growing pains mirrored those of America itself. Leave it to Beaver, the definitive 1950's household comedy, focused on life through the eyes of an adolescent boy, Beaver. Beaver was a typically disorderly youngster. His brother Wally, just entering his teens, was beginning to discover the opposite sex. The relationship that existed between the boys and their parents, Ward and June, was impeccable. A situation never developed that damaged the kinship beyond restoration. The parents exhibited perfect attributes that no real man and wife could attain. The children bestowed unnatural virtues. The program became popular with Americans but it did not realistically portray America's family status. In 1974, a series developed by Garry Marshal entitled Happy Days issued popularity to this era. The Cunningham family was the primary family featured on the program. Television's portrayal of the American family has undergone a significant transformation in the fifty years of its existence, as stated by this essay. The families seen on television today are the diametric opposite of those seen in the early 1950s. The relationship between the parents and the children has gone from perfect to dysfunctional. But, it is the dysfunctional relationships that are better examples of American families. Racial and ethnic lines have been crossed in the fifty years of television's
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1200
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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