Pop Culture Research Paper

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From the start of television to what is on TV now, television has been portraying families in any manner of dynamic. Anything from a WASP family living in the suburbs whose only dissatisfaction comes from not finding the right flavor of ice cream to a dysfunctional household where no one can be trusted has been shown in sitcoms. According to the Collins English Dictionary, a sitcom or situation comedy is “a comedy series involving the same characters in various day-to-day situations which are developed as separate stories for each episode”. Are television shows meant to be a reflection of our current society or are they meant to invite and inspire change to society? American sitcom families have changed a great deal between the 50’s and now. The pop culture of the 50’s tried to portray a perfect world filled with smiling white anglo-saxon protestant (WASP) families . Most entertainment and advertisements seemed determined to project this image. After the second world war people came back and got married and started…show more content…
Unlike Ozzie and Harriet however, they used to show not to portray an actual family of that time but to demonstrate proper family conduct and “teach social lessons in a contemporary mass culture setting”. “In their world, Father knows best. Daughters are princesses. Women are happy in the kitchen and men go unquestioningly to the office.” It was very obvious that Father Knows Best was scripted, even the youngest of the family, Princess, spoke perfect english and no slang terms were ever used. The world after World War Two feared communism and shows at the time made reference to that. One episode of Father Knows Best the father tries to teach his kids about “tyrant land” where there are no personal possessions and where you are assigned numbers and jobs to make them appreciate the freedom they had in

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