I. TELEVISIONANDSOCIETY

II. A new medium

A. Starting having an effect in the 1950s

B. Effects on a par with printing

C. Combined the effects of radio and movies

1. The effects of movies

2. In the home instead of out of the home

III. Difference between movies and television

A. Movies took the myths and stories of what people thought society should be and stood them on their heads

B. TV

1. Took mainstream beliefs and didn’t stray from them

2. Reinforced beliefs instead of challenging them

IV. Comedy as a tool to understand mainstream society’s rules of society

A. Best indicators of what the rules are that a society believes

B. The rules of comedy

1. It must appeal to the intellect rather than the emotions

a) Requires thinking, not feeling

b) Feeling an emotion will kill a laugh

2. It must be mechanical in nature

a) The butt of the joke doesn’t adjust to the change in the situation created by the joke

(1) Pulling a chair out from under someone is funny because he continues to sit down – he didn’t adjust to the change

3. It must be inherently human, with the capability of reminding us of humanity

4. There must be a set of societal or human norms with which the observer is intimately familiar (the norms that make a society a society)

5. Te situation must violate those norms

a) Literalization

b) Exaggeration

c) Reversal

d) Minimalization

e) Incongruency

f) Etc.

6. It must be perceived by the audiences as harmless or painless to the participants

a) Physically

b) Mentally

c) Emotionally

d) Socially

e) To the participants and to society in general

7. All six criteria must be present for the attempt at humor to work

V. Early TV

A. Radio with pictures

1. Problems

a) Size and weight of the cameras

(1) Size and mobility of a refrigerator

b) Need for 1000s of watts of light

2. TV didn’t know what it was or what it could do

a) Broadcasters started with what they did know – radio

(1) Used formats common on radio

(a) Sitcoms

(b) Musical shows

(c) Interview shows

(d) Dramas

(e) Soap operas

3. Common shows

a) Musical-variety shows

(1) Singers

(2) Dancers

(3) Standup comics

(4) Acts that didn’t need a lot of room or action and could fit in the studio

(5) Examples

(a) Talent Scouts

(b) Arthur Godfrey and his Friends

(c) Fred Waring Show

(d) Frank Sinatra Show

(e) Ed Sullivan Show

b) Small-scale sports

(1) Boxing

(2) Wrestling

(3) Just point a camera at a ring

(a) No close-ups

(b) No multiple camera angles

c) Live drama

(1) Plays performed in front of a camera

(2) Entire set put up in the studio

(3) Considered the crowning glory of the golden age of television

(a) Brought culture into American homes

(i) Some of the finest drama

(ii) Plays that Americans had never and would probably never see were on the air

(4) Indicated how TV was going in the early 50s

(a) Few live scripted episodic series like sitcoms

(i) Required multiple sets

(ii) Required multiple cameras

(iii) Difficult to do live week after week

(b) Only alternative was filmed series

(i) Expensive to do

(ii) Very time consuming

(a) 2 to three weeks to film each episode

(b) Required a long lead time

d) Lots of social and political talk shows in prime time

(1) Totally absent outside of all-news channels in prime-time today

(a) Relegated to Sunday morning

(2) Easy to put on TV

(a) Two or more people sitting at a desk talking

(3) Says a lot about the TV business

(a) Political talk shows require thinking and concentration on the part of the audience

(i) Could interfere with the advertising

(ii) People would talk to each other instead of watch the ads

(b) Better for business to get rid of talk shows

(4) I LOVE LUCY changed the way TV worked

(a) Every show could be filmed easily in a day instead of weeks

(b) Most TV shows came out of Hollywood

(c) Only live dramas came out of New York

VI. The 1950s

A. Memories of WW II fresh

B. People wanted peace, stability, and conformity

1. Ideal situation for most people

a) Family with 2.5 kids

(1) Dad as breadwinner and a fount of wisdom

(2) Mom as source of comfort and love

(3) Kids

(a) Learn from their mistakes which weren’t all that bad

(b) Loving guided by mom and dad

(4) Everybody loves everybody else and all turns out right in the end

b) A house in a good neighborhood

c) No social or political problems

2. TV shows

a) Mirrored an unspoken ideal of white middle-class contentment

(1) Rather limited roles and expectations of family members and society

(2) Ethnicity, homosexuality, and the dysfunctional family didn’t exist

(3) No one was expected to question tradition

C. Everything seen in terms of black and white

1. Good vs. evil

2. Us vs. them

3. TV portrayed this idea

a) TV shows did something radio was bad at – show action

b) Crime dramas popular

(1) Good guys vs. bad guys

(2) Bad guys always lost

(3) Little ambiguity in characterization

(a) A hero is a hero

(b) A villain is a villain

(4) No wrestling with conscience

(a) Would subtract valuable minutes from the important chase and showdown sequences

(5) Stir in a touch of sex and a lot of violence

c) The western

(1) The most popular type of show during the 1950s

(2) Based on the greatest of American myths – the cowboy

(3) At first they were aimed more at kids than adults

(a) THE LONE RANGER

(b) THE ROY ROGERS SHOW

(c) HOPALONG CASSIDY

(4) Networks needed to appeal to adults – they had the money

(a) WYATT EARP

(b) BAT MASTERSON

(c) CHEYENNE

(d) GUNSMOKE

(i) Longest running western – 20 years

(5) By 1959 there were 32 different western series on the air

(a) So many each new western needed a gimmick

(i) HAVE GUN, WILL TRAVEL

(a) Paladin, a gun for hire

(i) Smoked expensive cigars

(ii) Dressed very smartly

(iii) Quoted Keats and Shelley

(iv) Collected chessmen

(v) Killed his adversaries with distaste

(ii) WANTED – DEAD OR ALIVE

(a) Weapon was a sawed-off Winchester rifle

(iii) THE RIFLEMAN

(a) Carried a rifle that he used like a pistol

(iv) HOTEL DE PAREE

(a) Weapon was a Stetson hat with mirrors on the hat-band to blind his opponents with reflected sunlight

(b) Adult westerns weren’t all gunplay

(i) Some purists thought

(a) There wasn’t enough action

(b) There was too much talk

(ii) Messages were creeping in

(a) Botherhood

(b) Nonviolence

(c) The “anti-western”

(i) The hero

(a) Seldom rode a horse

(b) Slow on the draw

(d) Intentions less than honorable

(e) Wasn’t above lying and cheating

(f) Like to run away from a fight unless cornered

(ii) This was MAVERICK

(a) Was intended as subversion

(i) Against the regular hero

(ii) Square-jawed

(iii) Square-headed

(iv) Square Code of the West

(b) Could be enjoyed as a western adventure

(6) Audience finally got tired of westerns

(a) On for hour after hour every night

(b) Shows got cancelled left and right

(c) Fell prey to the realization that everything wasn’t black and white

D. There were shades of gray

1. TV could expose hypocrisy and the evils of extremism

a) Put it on the air

b) Let it speak for itself

c) Joseph McCarthy vs. Edward R. Murrow

(1) McCarthy

(a) Led witch hunts against alleged communists in government

(b) Didn’t let facts get in the way of his extremism

(i) Made accusations without any evidence

(c) Spread fear across the country

(2) Murrow

(a) Went after McCarthy

(i) “This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy’s methods to keep silent.”

(b) CBS gave McCarthy time to reply to Murrow

(i) Not an interview

(ii) McCarthy give time to say whatever he wanted

(a) Didn’t justify his methods

(b) Made personal attacks on Murrow’s integrity

(3) McCarthy lost power, followers, and his Senate seat

d) Showed the power of sounds and images brought into people’s living rooms

VII. 1960s

VIII.Society began to change

A. People losing faith in the Great American Dream

B. People who never had a chance at that dream began to be heard

C. The rural comedy

1. THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW

a) A single parent family

b) Stereotype of the innocence of country life

(1) Rural life is cleaner

(2) Free of the ills of urban life

(a) Crime

(b) Rudeness

(c) Impersonality

(3) Small town values are the best values

(a) THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES

(b) PETTICOAT JUNCTION

(c) GREEN ACRES

2. People weren’t actually experiencing the LEAVE IT TO BEAVER urban and suburban life

3. Cancelled by 1970 due to the demographic attracted by rural comedies

a) Audience in their 50s and up

b) Audience too set in their ways for advertisers

D. Many social change movements took place

1. Civil rights

2. Women’s Liberation

3. Emphasis on questioning social institutions such as government, business and higher education

a) Led to a new sense of individualism instead of conformity to the old rules

(1) Family structure changes to be more diverse

(a) From hierarchical father-led to

(b) Everyone has their role in the decision-making process

E. TV shows reflected these social changes

1. BEWITCHED – 1964

a) Beginning of women’s lib on TV

b) Samantha is a witch marrying a mortal, Darrin, in the premiere

c) Darrin says, “So my wife’s a witch. Every married man has to make some adjustments.”

(1) Darrin makes no adjustments but insists Samantha give up who she is to marry him

(2) Darrin really gives up nothing

(3) Samantha uses her magic to help Darrin, but in such a way he feels he does it all

d) Brings on middle-class anxieties of the 60s

(1) Women’s place in the public and private spheres

(2) General mistrust between the sexes

(3) What is the appropriate women’s role?

(4) How should a woman exercise her own agency to the best of her abilities?

e) Required an examination of the social norms of marriage and family of the 50s and 60s and what they should be

2. I DREAM OF JEANNIE

a) Lip service only to the subservience of women to men

(1) Jeannie called Tony “master”, but she was actually in complete control of him and every situation

3. THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW

a) An intelligent comedy

(1) Not wacky like I LOVE LUCY

(2) Not warn and runny like FATHER KNOWS BEST

b) Presented real-life problems with real-life solutions

(1) Should the wife work outside the home?

(2) What if she opens his mail?

(3) What if the husband is shown up by his wife in a confrontation with a drunk?

c) Presented race as inconsequential

(1) The norm is unspoken acceptance of a black couple

(2) Pushed civil rights

(3) Socially advanced

4. Race in television shows

a) The 60s was the era of advancing civil rights

b) The 50’s had AMOS ‘N’ ANDY

c) JULIA – 1968

(1) First sitcom with a black leading character since A ‘N’ A

(2) A widowed nurse raising her son in a multi-racial apartment complex

(3) Very controversial

(a) Black critics thought the depiction was inaccurate

(i) Real blacks lived in ghettos

(ii) Julia lived in a integrated luxury apartment building

(iii) JULIA was a sellout

(a) Didn’t address any of the racial issues of the time

(b) Blacks were unhappy with the show

(i) They didn’t know anyone like her

(ii) Basically a white show in blackface

(iii) Offended that the show promoted a negative stereotype of the black female-headed household

(a) Negative stereotype of the black men

(c) Whites enjoyed the show

(i) Julia was nonthreatening and not the stereotype

(ii) Could have caused viewers to think about the stereotypes

F. News vs. TV shows

1. News filled with images of war and civil disturbances and protests

2. TV shows were often mind-numbingly inane and stupid

a) CAMP RUNAMUCK

b) THE FLYING NUN

c) GILLIGAN’S ISLAND

d) MY MOTHER, THE CAR

3. News showed how society was fighting over just what it wanted and wanted to be

4. Entertainment denied there were any changes happening

a) Sponsors didn’t the audience upset

(1) It would interfere with the commercials

b) Newton Minnow, Chair of the FCC

(1) “when television is good, nothing – not the theater, not the magazines or newspapers – nothing is better. But when television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite you to sit down in front of your television set when your station goes on the air and stay there without a book, magazine, newspaper, profit or loss sheet or rating book to distract you – and keep your eyes glues to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that you will observe a vast wasteland.”

IX. 1970s

A. Social battles really come to a head

1. What direction should society take

2. What should the social rules be

3. How should the social story be told

B. The Generation Gap

1. Baby Boomers vs. the Great Depression generation

a) GD generation thought the nuclear family should rule

(1) Dad as breadwinner and boss in the home

(2) Mom as stay-at-home and raise the kids

(3) Kids as polite little urchins

(4) Wanted society to be the way it was before WW II

b) Boomers though otherwise

(1) Women

(a) Entered the workplace to replace men during the war

(b) After the war wanted to keep working

(i) Liked the work

(ii) Liked the financial independence

(2) Kids felt hemmed in by outmoded and old-fashioned ideas

C. Boomers rebelled against the constraints of the old social story of the 1950s

D. THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW

1. Introduced two new concepts

a) A woman could be 30, unmarried, and happy

b) She could also not be celibate

(1) Mary Richards was the first truly liberated woman on TV

c) Disassociated adults could form a relationship strongly resembling a nuclear family

E. ALL IN THE FAMILY – 1971

1. Fictional TV could be provocative and stimulating

a) Really present social and political controversies

(1) Racism

(2) Sexism

(3) Religious bigotry

2. AITF regularly violated cultural taboos

a) Presented two extreme views about issues

(1) Neither view was truly acceptable

(2) Put the views into words

(3) Audiences were given the words to think about the issues, instead of only having knee-jerk, emotional reactions

b) Really changed the TV landscape

(1) Network beancounters thought audiences only wanted mindless entertainment

(2) AITF proved the audiences wanted thought-provoking material

c) A lot of people were still upset by the show

(1) They didn’t want the American social story to be examined

(2) They didn’t want to admit society had problems

F. MAS*H – 1972

1. One of the most popular sitcoms in history

2. First sitcom that didn’t feel that laugh-a-minute scripts was an inflexible rule

3. Dealt with serious issues

a) War

b) Death

c) Misery

d) Blind obedience to authority

4. Used humor with a sense of seriousness and compassion

5. Characters are very human, not just caricatures

a) Reacted to situations with honest intellect and emotion

6. Pointed up people’s differing ideas of the way society should view the world

G. WATERGATE

1. The Washington Post did an investigation of the burglary of the Democratic National Committee office in the Watergate Hotel

a) Discovered that it was a plot instigated and led by people in President Nixon’s White House

b) Led to the resignation of President Nixon

2. Post investigation given a big national boost by TV news

a) Walter Cronkite of CBS Evening News played a key role

(1) Cronkite was “the most trusted man in America”

(2) Did two extensive stories

(3) Changed the minds of people who thought the Post was wrong

(a) If Cronkite was with the Post, the Post must know what it’s talking about

3. Destroyed many people’s confidence in government – or at least politicians

a) Changed the social story

(1) Prior to Watergate people trusted politicians to work in the best interests of the country

(2) After Watergate there was a sense that politicians worked only in their own interests, not those of the country

b) The change is still in play today

c) Old rules of society seemed to be slipping away

(1) If we can’t trust our government, who can we trust”

(2) Society really starting searching for new rules, and TV went along

H. New rules started coming into play and shown on TV

1. The Sexual Revolution

a) T&A comedies

(1) Young beautiful women romping about in minimal clothing

(2) Lots of sexual innuendo

(3) Started with THREE’S COMPANY (1977)

(4) WE’VE GOT IT MADE

(5) BLANSKIE’S BEAUTIES

(6) ROLLERGIRLS

(7) CO-ED FEVER

b) Social consciousness

(1) BARNEY MILLER

(a) Showed interaction between ordinary people and the law

(b) Many young people distrusted police

(c) Show illustrated that the police have their own problems

(i) They’re doing their best

(ii) But things can go wrong on all sides

c) Divorce

(1) Not allowed on TV before the 1970s

(2) Reflected the reality

(a) People got divorced

(b) Marriages wasn’t always for life

(c) Families were being headed by single mothers

(i) Not because they were widows

(ii) Because they were divorced

(3) ONE DAY AT A TIME

(a) Divorced woman coping with raising her two daughters alone

(b) Reflected reality

X. 1980s

A. Not a lot to laugh about

1. Iran Hostage situation

a) Islamic fundamentalists attacked the US embassy in Teheran and took 54 hostages

2. Recession started

3. Many people said the sitcom was dead

a) By 1984 only 19 on the air

(1) Lowest number since the 1950s and the battle with westerns

(2) Most sitcoms were cancelled quickly

B. THE COSBY SHOW – 1984

1. Starred Bill Cosby

2. Lacked pretension and gimmickry

3. Revolved around day-to-day situations in the Huxtable family

a) Solidly upper-middle class

(1) Cliff a respected gynecologist

(2) Claire a successful attorney

(3) Lived in a fashionable neighborhood

(4) Five kids who steered clear of trouble under the loving guidance of their parents

(5) TV Guide’s said of the Huxtable’s lifestyle: the most “atypical black family in television history.”

4. Show designed to “recode blackness” in the minds of audience members (Alvin Poussaint, prominent black psychiatrist and consultant for the show)

a) Black sitcoms from the 70s reflected the stereotypes of “blackness”

(1) SANFORD AND SON

(2) GOOD TIMES

(3) THE JEFFERSONS

b) COSBY countered the stereotypes

(1) Strong father figure

(2) Strong nuclear family

(3) Parents who were professionals

(4) Affluence and fiscal responsibility

(5) Strong emphasis on education

(6) Multigenerational family

(7) Multiracial friends

(8) Low-key racial pride

5. Critics of the show

a) FATHER KNOWS BEST in blackface

b) Show’s qualities seemed to echo key Republican themes

(1) Labeled the show’s politics as “reformist conservatism”

c) Show obscured persistent inequalities in American society

d) Show validated the myth of the American Dream

e) Show struck a deal with white viewers

(1) Absolved them of responsibility for racial inequality in the US in exchange for watching the show

f) Failed to interact with less affluent blacks

6. Black viewers tended to embrace the show for it positive portrayals of blacks

C. THE COSBY SHOW put the sitcom back on the TV schedule as a staple of TV

D. ROSEANNE

1. The anti-LEAVE IT TO BEAVER

a) Contradicts the American Dream as epitomized in the 1950s

b) Roseanne is crass, loud, overbearing and overweight

(1) Constantly jokes about getting rid of her three kids because they get in the way of her happiness

(2) Uses tough love more than sympathy

(3) An inspiration for feminists

(4) Contradicts the 50s image of the woman as quiet and submissive

c) Retold the social story about the submissive role of the wife and mother

(1) Wife and mother as dominant force in the family instead of the husband and father

(2) Portrayed the husband and father as a bumbling boob who could only survive with the help of a good woman

E. The arrival of the Fox Network in 1987

1. Needed to compete with the Big Three: NBC, ABC, CBS

a) Big 3 were basically conservative in their programming

b) Fox decided to be outrageous

(1) Programmed against the norm

(2) If COSBY was the norm, Fox would put on the anti-COSBY, MARRIED…WITH CHILDREN

(a) Generated complaints

(i) Terry Rakolta tried to get a national boycott against MARRIED sponsors

(ii) Resulted in generating a lot of attention for the show and made it a hit

2. THE SIMPSONS

a) Dysfunctional family

(1) Homer

(a) A fat, lazy slob

(b) Heightened the trend of the idiot incompetent father and husband

(2) Marge

(a) Stands by her man

(b) A real homebody

(i) Maintains the house

(ii) Keeps the family together

(3) Lisa

(a) Oldest child

(b) Intelligent, talented, frequently embarrassed by being related to Homer

(4) Bart

(a) The second child

(b) Budding juvenile delinquent with utter disrespect for authority

(5) Maggie

(a) The baby

(b) Doesn’t speak

(c) Occasionally solves the plot problem

b) Generated complaints

(1) Bart a poor role model for kids

(2) Marge too much a homebody (anti-feminist)

(3) Homer too stupid

(4) Complaints increased viewership

c) Two most striking characteristics

(1) Social criticism

(a) John O’Connor, TV critic for the New York Times called it “the most radical show on prime time:

(b) Parodies the hypocrisy and contradictions found in social institutions

(i) The nuclear family

(ii) Nuclear power

(iii) Mass media

(iv) Religion

(v) Medicine

(vi) Etc.

(c) President George H.W. Bush and former Secretary of Education William Bennett criticized the show for its subversive and anti-authority nature

(2) References to other cultural forms

(a) One of the most culturally literate programs on TV

(b) References to

(i) Ayn Rand

(ii) Susan Sontag

(iii) Movies like PSYCHO

(iv) Watching football on Sunday instead of going to church (Homer’s conversations with God)

d) THE SIMPSONS was the making of Fox

(1) No other network would have taken it

(2) Fox needed a hit show that would appeal to a young audience

(3) Was put up head to head against COSBY and won

F. The arrival of cable

1. All networks played it safe because of the competition from cable and VCRs

2. Cable TV invented by John Walson in 1948

a) To provide TV to places that couldn’t pick up broadcast signals

b) Restricted by the FCC to prevent competition for local stations until 1972

3. HBO started in 1972

a) First TV network to use satellite delivery to cable companies

4. MTV in 1981

5. Cable Act of 1984

a) Made cable a viable option for a new network

6. Cable fragmented society

a) With only 3 networks, choice was very limited

(1) Everyone watched the same shows

b) With cable, choice expanded greatly

(1) By 1998 there were 171 networks scrambling for audiences

(a) 5 broadcast

(b) 166 cable

c) Each network had to concentrate on a different audience

(1) Audiences differ by the social stories they live

(a) WB concentrated on a black audience whose social story wasn’t the same as a white audience’s

(b) Tech TV went for the nerd crowd

(c) ESPN went for the sports fans

(d) CNN went for the news junkies

d) The social story shattered

(1) Each group could have something on TV that reflected their story

(a) WILL AND GRACE opened up the story to homosexuality as a norm

(b) SEX AND THE CITY opened the story to women who treated sex in the way that, stereotypically, men do

G. The effects of fragmenting on the money on TV

1. Before cable each of the Big 3 got about a third of the pot

2. After cable the money was divided between 100s of channels

3. Networks had to reduce costs

a) Programming

(1) Typical cost of a show could be a million or two (or three) per episode

(a) Cost of actors (Kelsey Grammer on FRASIER got 1.5 million per week)

(b) Cost of other actors and show production into the millions

(2) Shows get cancelled quickly if they don’t instantly get an audience

(a) The need for syndication

(i) Syndication is the selling of a package of episodes of a show to individual stations

(ii) Shows cost so much that the only way for them to make money is to go into syndication

(iii) Shows need at least 72 original episodes to be worth syndicating

(a) Allows a station to strip the show (show an episode every night M-F with repeating too often)

(b) Requires the show to air for at least three years, so it needs good ratings

(3) Differences between scripted and unscripted shows

(a) Scripted shows

(i) Expensive to do because they require:

(a) Writers

(b) Actors

(b) Unscripted shows

(i) Cheap to do

(a) No real scripts

(b) No real actors

(ii) Game shows

(a) No actors

(i) Host(s)

(ii) Unpaid contestants

(b) Cheap writers to write questions

(i) Single set

(ii) Little editing

(d) Prizes are way cheaper than producing a scripted show, a few thousand per episode

(iii) “Reality” shows

(a) Production

(i) Shoot thousands of hours of people who are not paid doing things

(ii) Select the most interesting clips

(iii) Write a script to tie the clips together

(iv) Edit the clips together to create each episode

(b) Reality of “reality” shows

(i) Producer is usually the writer

(ii) The people appearing are auditioned like actors to play “characters”, just not paid

(iii) They need to create stories, just cheaper

(d) THE DEADLIEST CATCH creates drama through the editing of events and how the crews respond to them

(e) Cheap to do

(4) Reality shows are crowding out scripted shows because they’re cheap