The Brady Bunch During The Vietnam War

If people believed what is shown on television re-runs of classic shows from the 1950s, that would mean the conventional American family has two children, a stay at home mother, who cleans while wearing pearls, and a father who works hard and yet constantly has time for his kids. The big issue with the idea offered in those old television shows is that the classic family portrayed is actually nothing more than a miss myth. Stephanie Coontz claims that

In this week’s application project essay, I would like to compare an older television show that projected family life as it was in the 1930’s as compared to how family is viewed from a sociological viewpoint today. “The Walton’s” may not have been an idealistic portrait of family, but the series did portray family as it really was in that era, since it was based on the autobiographical writings of Earl Hamner, Jr.

During the time of the 80s, there were many television shows that portrayed traditional families. A traditional family, which is two married parents of the opposite gender and their child or children. Even though, Full house doesn’t necessary mirror the traditional family values that all society knows, it’s one of the shows that helped break gender stereotypes. For example, the whole family tradition “norm” was that women would be the caregivers and men would provide for their family. In Bittney Davis article, “Recognizing Gender Roles in Nostalgic TV Series Full House” she mentions, “The expectation of a male’s purpose in the household is to provide for and

American novelist, Barbara Kingsolver, in her excerpt, “Stone Soup”, taken from, High Tide in Tucson: Essays from Now or Never, recounts the outrageous view that society has on divorced families/homes. Kingsolver’s purpose is to impress upon readers that it is okay for families to stem away from the traditional, “Dad, Mom, Sis, Junior”, family. She creates a persuasive tone in order to get rid of stereotypes and judgments of marital issues held by her readers and society. Through the effective use of anecdotes, appeals, and passionate diction, Kingsolver establishes her claim that blended families can get through life happy and perfectly fine by themselves or with close friends and family.

During the time the United States was in a war, the American public was sharply divided creating another war among its people. The war had transformed America to a different place with its defeat. It had far-reaching consequences and impact on most aspects of American life from the economy, culture to domestic politics and foreign policy. The Vietnam war created a time of uncertainty because so many had lost their trust in the government. With the end of the Vietnam war, the United States left with a humiliating defeat and shockingly high casualties.

Suburban sitcoms coming out in the late 50’s early 60’s portrayed usually an average family with average problems it solves by the end of the episode, most sitcoms including “Leave It To Beaver” followed the same formula; two white parents, a mother, and father, and 2-3 children; every episode followed the same steps, there’s a problem, the problem is solved by the end of the episode, and a lesson is learned by the main character. This held up perfectly in the 50’s and 60’s society, but sitcoms needed to adapt to fit their society, as time progressed, more important issues showed up in the shows, and as the US became more diverse so did the sitcoms. Today suburban sitcoms couldn’t be more different. As society became more diverse, more sitcoms were made to cater to the new audience.

Families needed a role model and family sitcoms portrayed that myth so well that they gave families “little reassurance that they were headed in the right direction (38). This myth promoted values that every family should have and people strive to achieve those values, to transform their “abnormal” families into a harmonious one. When Americans would watch these shows, they would follow these traits and try to implement them into their own families. By living in this myth of the American family, creating a more secure home, and preparing for the future, the government rewarded people (42). The government also promoted the family values and secured the family union. Families were closer together and the goal of creating a perfect family was what created a bond between them. The myth of the perfect family formed other families and taught them the fundamentals of a family’s

Television sitcoms of the 1950’s through the 1990’s demonstrated the values and structure of the American family by portraying stereotypes. Since television sets became mainstream and entered almost every American home, the content of American sitcoms has reflected the culture of the times. Thus, as the popular American sitcoms of the 1950’s suggest, families living in the 1950’s were very tightly grouped and did everything together with roles of males and females clearly defined. In the 1950,’s women did the housecleaning and child care and men worked, providing for the family. In the sixties, women acquired more freedom in their lives. The 1963 Equal Pay Act and the 1964 Civil Rights Act came into effect. It was the end of the baby boomer

The Brady Bunch were the ideal families in the 1960's and 1970's, and in the 80's, it was Family Ties. When the 1990's approached us, television shows took on a whole new outlook on American Families. There were shows such as Full House, which was about a single father raising three daughters with the help of his brother-in-law and his best friend. Roseanne was also another show that showed the "dysfunctional" side of families. American Families keep changing, and they will continue to change in our future.

There is a shift towards a new contemporary marriage. This shift includes an increase in cohabiting. The film Our Family Wedding illustrates this trend; Marcus and Lucia have been living with each other prior to their marriage and having sex. The increase in cohabitation is very large and almost half of those who choose to cohabitate eventually marry (Amato et al., 2007). Another recent change towards contemporary marriage is interracial or intermarriage. This trend is blatantly illustrated in the film because the bride is Latina and the groom is African American. The book mentions that this shift toward intermarriage is especially high for newlyweds, which helps cement the ideas of the director. Also, younger and better-educated Americans are more likely to engage in interracial marriage (Lee and Edmonston, 2005:7; Wang 2012). The director, who wrote Lucia and Marcus’ characters as individuals who had finished their undergraduate degree and in the process of obtaining their

Times have changed; the nuclear family is no longer the American ideal because family needs have changed since the 1950's. This American convention of a mother and father and their two children, were a template of films and early television as a depiction of the American family life. Now seen as archaic and cliché by today’s standards, but the idea is common throughout many of the first world nations in the world. This ideal was a vast departure from the past agrarian and pre industrial families, and was modeled and structured as the ‘American dream’ father working, mother maintaining the household and children molded to be simulacra of the parents. This portrayal was not the standard; many communities throughout America had a different

A brief view of the 4 decades within the periods of 1950 to 1990 would show us a significant shift from the conventional nuclear family to the non-conventional modern family. Starting from the 1950s, the families were nuclear, where members worked together, understood their roles, and did what was expected of them; by the 1960s, there were a few sitcoms that began to undermine the television parent’s authority by privileging the independence of nearly adult or adult children; by the 1970s, the authoritative father began to disappear as they were no longer

On the first trip, the boys did not want the girls to go camping and the girls thought camping was something only boys did but Mike and Carol insisted and so they went. Despite a few mishaps on this trip everyone enjoyed themselves and it did indeed bring them closer as family and became an annual trip for them. As the show progressed the Brady family boundaries became more flexible to allow the children more independence and they were several episodes that showed their friendships with people from different races and colors although for the most part the television shows mostly centered on their interactions with each

Additionally, television shows on the late 80’s through the middle 90’s, present the same family concept but with a different topic. Comedy shows like “Married with Children” which illustrates a “white” family of four members living in a Chicago suburb area with an antisocial personality disorder, is a typical example of

Today society displays greater diversity within households. Most American households are now non-traditional or unconventional. Non-traditional or unconventional families include; single parenthood, singlehood and LGBT relationships. Modern family is a comedy exploring the different “modern” families. This show explores a huge unconventional family through a gay couple, made up of Mitchell and Cameron, and their adopted daughter Lily; a straight couple comprised of Phil and Clare, and their three children, Luke, Alex and Hayley; and a multicultural family which is comprised of Jay and his much younger wife Gloria and their son Manny. Modern family explores how the present day family is defined and , modern America means for family members. Despite Modern family’s groundbreaking success in representing non traditional families, the show continues to reinforce heteronormative values through stereotypes of queer identity in regards, gender roles within the relationship, gay adoptive parents and gay marriage.