Appearances Might be Deceiving….

FACTS ABOUT TV IN THE 1950s: Average American family watched 4 – 5 hours of TV/day New homes were built without formal dining rooms, but with TV rooms within these rooms the TV was the central piece of furniture (mentally think about your TV/family room – how is all the furniture arranged?) TV changed the nature of children’s lives and family interactions

POPULAR GENRES Variety Shows Cartoons Westerns Family Sitcoms

TV promotes Conformity (especially family sitcoms): most women were shown as housewives and mothers shows focused on the American Dream – perfect home, perfect children, perfect father, mother, neighborhoods, neighbors, jobs, marriages plots focused on minor problems of life and showed easy solutions within the format of a comedy minorities were almost always represented in a negative way to further promote racist stereotypes Watch Episode

Did TV reflect reality? Most Americans viewed TV as a reproduction of reality – but who’s reality? APPEARANCES Men - clean cut, white, work to support family, make all decisions for family Women - marry young, cook, clean, raise kids, and support all of husband’s decisions Minorities – work to support or entertain white families, often shown as less intelligent/uneducated

REALITY: 25% - 30% of married women worked (over 39% with children worked) – more married women worked than single women – many women experienced high levels of depression (about 25% openly expressed dissatisfaction with staying at home) –Many men were unable to provide enough money to fund the American Dream –Divorce rates increased during the 1950s –And as the baby boom generations turns into teenagers they are not always willing to conform However, American pop culture refused to acknowledge reality & focused on promoting uniformity