1. TV - "The American Dream?"
Appearances Might be Deceiving….

2. 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

3. POPULAR GENRES
Variety Shows
Cartoons
Westerns
Family Sitcoms

4. FAMILY SITCOMS: A reflection or refraction of family life?
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
Most Americans viewed TV as a
reproduction of reality – but
Who’s reality?

5. APPEARANCES “Family sitcoms dramatized the
artifice of gender roles and
uniformity in postwar life”
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

6. REALITY:
25% - 30% of married women worked
more married women worked than single women
the pressure to achieve the American Dream was expensive – meant for many women HAD to work!
However, American pop culture refused to acknowledge women as anything but mothers & wives