Primetime Comedy

Television emerged as a popular and increasingly accessible form of entertainment at a time when women's roles in society were increasingly being contested. Since the beginning of television, the representations, or lack thereof, of women on television have been at the center of debate. While the media have contributed to myriad gender representations, television is a particularly important site for a number of reasons. The television is physically located in the home and is an activity in which families often participate together. In this sense, television can be seen as [Page 673]providing a means of gender socialization for children and adults alike, as well as a shared cultural text by which to relate to each other and discuss the world. Being located in the home also meant that television could be an important venue for momentary escape or fantasy for many women who mostly existed within the private sphere.

Primetime comedies, also known as “situation comedies” or “sitcoms,” started with a focus on the family and, while expanding their content, have continually revisited this area. Sitcoms are important sites for considering gender because although they often deal with politically and culturally sensitive issues, they can also be written off as merely humorous and value-free. In fact, this is what lends television programming much of its potency: The transparency and contemporaneity of the technology allows the content to appear as if it were a “slice of life” or a reflection of reality. Shows can be prescriptive, whether harkening back to an idealized past or presenting a vision of a more stable, understandable future. They often introduce representations of controversial or progressive social roles and situations, showing the leading edge of change relating to political and social movements in progress.

The majority of early sitcoms were set in the home and focused on a single nuclear family. In these shows, such as Father Knows Best and Leave it to Beaver, the father worked outside the home, provided a comfortable upper-middle-class lifestyle for his family, and managed the problems of the family inside the home. The wives/mothers were immaculately made-up homemakers who doted on their children and deferred to their husbands. The plots centered on the private, domestic problems and often avoided larger social contexts. These families represented the postwar ideal, if not the reality experienced by a majority of families, with suburban homes, new appliances, men gainfully employed, and women back in the house.

As the various social movements fought for change over the decades, television slowly, if unevenly, began to reflect these changes. Sitcoms in the 1970s introduced the workplace, outside the home, as a primary site of identity and community for both sexes; incorporated more social issues; and portrayed single mothers and stepfamilies. The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which first aired in 1970, marked a major departure by focusing on a young single woman who moves to the city on her own after deciding not to get married. Shows such as All in the Family and its spin-off, Maude, were known for incorporating controversial issues of the day, such as feminism and racism; a controversial episode of Maude addressed abortion.

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