Situational Comedies
Nov 11th, 2009 by cobash27
“For the most part, on early television women are depicted primarily as women. Rarely (if ever) are early television women shown to be mature, independent individuals. Family women in particular are shown to be women whose existence is closely bound up with, and by, others in their family group, particularly their male partners.” (Press 29)
The major theme of situational/domestic comedies since the 1950s has been “the myth of female dominance and breakdown of male authority.” Women of the 1950s were dissatisfied with the female image after the war and these situation/domestic comedies took advantage of this dissatisfaction by drawing humor from the frustrations of housewives and making light of domestic and gender inequalities, “thus the humor in these shows function to replace female anger, if not rage, with pleasure.”
Three shows existed in the 1950s featuring housewives in America: The Honeymooners (1955), I Love Lucy (1951), and The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950).
Alice and Ralph Kramden
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Lucy and Ricky
Lucy and Ethel as the working class
Lucy Advertising Vitameatavegamin
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George Burns and Gracie Allen: The Contented Carnation Couple
Carnation on a Silver Platter
George Burns and Gracie Allen Show First Commercial:
