A study examined the interactions of siblings in television families in three popular sitcoms of the 1950s--"Father Knows Best,""Leave it To Beaver," and "Ozzie and Harriet." Nine episodes of each sitcom were videotaped, and the behaviors were coded using a system developed to code sibling behavior in 1980s sitcoms.…

The image and interactions of the black family depicted on television were investigated in order to determine whether changes occurred in the imagery and interactions of black television families between 1980 and 1985, and to compare the family structures and interactive behavior on situation comedies portraying nuclear black families during the…

This report describes the results of a study of family role structures and family role interaction patterns of U.S. television families appearing during prime time and Saturday morning programs for the 1976-1977 season. The content analysis constitutes a role-by-behavior description of verbal interaction among television families, the coding unit…

This special issue brings together an editorial, six articles, and three book reviews that focus on the relationship between television and the female audience. The articles are: (1) "Installing the Television Set: Popular Discourses on Television and Domestic Space, 1948-1955" (Lynn Spigel); (2) "The Spectacularization of Everyday Life: Recycling…

The image of the family as a secure refuge against a threatening outside world has persisted in the television sitcom since its inception in the early 1950s. Although some television programs have dealt with major problems directly, most, including the sitcom, have completely ignored them. Harnessing hysteria over the possibility of a nuclear…

Investigated television's role in disseminating the myth of the "happy poor," a device central in limiting social mobility to preserve the status quo. Found that television supports the myth in that working-class television families generally enjoy stronger interpersonal harmony, more agreeable personalities, greater felicity, and better problem…

Suburban middle class American situation comedies of the 1950s and 1960s idealized the postwar family ensemble with its unproblematic achievement of quality family life. The homemaker as portrayed in these sitcoms was positioned at the center of the postwar consumer economy by the consumer product industry, which built its economy on defining the…

The situation comedy (sitcom) as a televisual text specifically encourages one type of decoding through its own encoding. Through the reciprocity of encoding to decoding, feminist sitcoms accord a privileged position to the dominant code, while acknowledging deviance or opposition to it through a highly demarcated female subject position. Relying…