Sitcom Stereotypes, Part 3 of Calling All Men
Tuesday, November 20th, 2007
To keep going with the sitcom stereotyping, if you go back a few years, women were actually portrayed as the weaker sex, and as needing the strong male role model. Look at I Love Lucy. She was always getting into scrapes and needing to be saved by Ricky. (”Lucy, you got some “splaining to do.” Insert your own fake Cuban accent.) Now, compare Lucy to Raymond (this has apparently become our standard sitcom, against which all others are judged), who plays the buffoon to his strong wife, Debra. Although, that might just be Patricia Heaton, cause she pretty much emasculates Kelsey Grammer in Back To You, as well.
How about looking at parents and children. There used to be shows like Father Knows Best, Leave It To Beaver and Happy Days where the parents were shown as actually being a little smarter than their children. As actual authoritative figures. Compare those shows to something like Married With Children or Aliens in America. I’ve already commented on how obnoxious and annoying the parents came across on that show. I suppose you could argue that the parents of today’s shows are part of the Me Generation (which as far as I’m concerned is a label for the Baby Boomers, and which should not be confused with Generation Me, a label now applied to people born in the 1970’s, 1980’s and 1990’s, but only cause they are even more selfish than we Boomers and want the title for themselves) and as a result, they are more self-involved than the parents of the 50s. That probably started with Michael and Elise Keaton. Clearly, Alex P. was much more evolved than his parents. (But then they were all Boomers, right?)
Obviously, it’s a new world and maybe kids are smarter than they used to be. So what examples can you think of that prove or disprove my point?
I Love Lucy, Everybody Loves Raymond, Ray Romano, Patricia Heaton, Kelsey Grammer, Father Know Best, Leave It To Beaver, Married with Children, Family Ties, Alex P. Keaton, Micahel J. Fox
