Family Sitcom Genre Analysis

Full House Clip - demonstrates the social conflict, the laugh track and clean, city home. Everything is so perfect, their conflicts must be both arbitrary, far-fetched and easy to solve. Also, view the white, middle-class each character takes; family sitcoms tend to promote the idea of "color blindness."

Why does this genre appeal to me?

I grew up on this genre - I didn't have cable when I was growing up, so I had to watch sitcoms on ABC for my entertainment. I am apart of the TGIF generation where family sitcoms ruled. I was invited into the homes of the Tanners and Winslows. To me, as a kid raised on TV, this is what defined families for me. No matter what families look like, they still love each other and get into hilarious situations.

Prototypical Features

See Powerpoint. These include wacky neighbors, conflicts involving social status, themes about love, togetherness and caring. These families have all of their basics met; they can focus on superficial needs, such as status and identity. They may get into arguments, but they never suffer and everything is resolved at the end of the 30 minute episode. These families live in cities mostly, but never live with crime or poverty. Instead, the family unit is the biggest priority in their lives.

The Limitations

While these families may be inspirational for some, the families mostly fail to represent the truth of real families. There is never any real conflict amongst them - there are never threats of divorce, money problems or food shortages. They instead focus on their appearance to the outside world and their undeniable love within the home. In a way, they set up the ideal for the American family; however, this ideal leaves many individuals without agency or an identity. They are cardboard characters with cardboard problems; they have never had to struggle for anything, except the choice of who to take to prom or what to do with the wrecked car before their uncle finds out. The quick resolutions make most family's conflicts seem unsolvable. The real family gets ignored while this fictional ideal family is put on a pedestal.

Activity

To critique the sitcom family, students will be shown 4 five minute clips from four different family sitcoms. They will fold a piece of paper into five columns. In the first four columns, the students will observe the sitcom families in certain categories, such as how their family looks, what their house looks like, how they interact, their conflicts and the family's social status. In the last column, the student will put observations about his own family in those categories. The student will then write about how these families are different and similar to their own families. Then, the students will get together in groups to discuss their answers; they will then talk about what this mass media idea of family does for real families.

PowerPoint