Past meets present: intergenerational perspectives and family dynamics

¶ … Parent

The past meets the parents (or another adult): the made for TV version

Because none of my immediate, older family likes (or will admit to liking) watching television, I decided to interview a friend of the family for this assignment instead. Mr. C is in his mid-forties and loved watching "Three's Company" in the 1970s, when this show was a nationwide hit. He told me that the show was considered very daring at the time. It depicted a man named Jack, played by John Ritter, who was living with two young women to save money in San Francisco. The man was straight, but he had to pretend that he was gay. This was to make sure that the landlord Mr. Roper wouldn't get offended by their arrangement. This presented a number of complications for the three individuals. First of all, it put a crimp in Jack's social life. He wanted to date women, but he couldn't 'blow his cover.' Also, he was attracted to one of the women, named Chrissy. Most of the episodes plots revolved around mistaken identity, mistaken intentions, and sexual confusion. According to Mr. C, he felt that many Americans were very confused about how to talk about sex openly during this time of history, so joking about sexual liberation was the easiest way to deal with these issues.

A watched an early episode in the history of "Three's Company," episode 4, called "No Children, No Dogs." This revolved around attempting to fool the landlord, Mr. Roper, from noticing that Jack had brought home a dog, because pets were not allowed in the building. Although this episode didn't revolve around the sexual tension in the house specifically, I couldn't help noticing the scanty outfits of the blonde Chrissy, and how unrealistically skimpy they seemed, for just lounging around the house on an ordinary day to be spent with one's friends. Janet, the other woman, was clearly supposed to be 'the smart brunette,' and seemed like the less desirable of the two women because the camera (and Jack's wandering eyes) spent very little time focused on the other woman. Although the show was supposed to be revolutionary, the message was clear -- you could be dumb and blonde, or oridinary looking and smart if you were a woman. These two qualities couldn't mix.