Popular Culture American Family in Television Entertainment

American Family in Television Entertainment

Popular Culture: The American Family in Television Entertainment

In the 1950s and 1960s, television entertainment depicted a "traditional" American family, which generally equaled a man and woman who were married, homeowners, had at least one car (sometimes two), and had two to three children (Taylor, 1989). There were exceptions, of course, but television indicated to the American people that the "norm" was to have this particular type of lifestyle. These television programs catered to a demographic (individuals grouped together based on specific characteristics) that was interested in seeing shows about a lifestyle that was nearly expected of the American people but that was not really what was seen in society (Coontz, 1993). The episodic series that were seen at that time portrayed people with struggles, but those struggles were generally very mild compared to what society was really experiencing. These television programs showed something that was completely unrealistic for the majority of the people in the United States, and did so for a variety of reasons - most notably to show society how things "should" be in a family unit and to give society an escape from the way families actually interacted during that time period.

That is not a question that is easily answered, because there were multiple reasons why television programming was created and offered to the American people. One of the main reasons people watched television during the 1950s and 1960s - and one of the main reasons people still watch it - is to escape from their problems (Spigel, 2001; Taylor, 1989). They want to see things that are funny and uplifting, and they want to get involved in the lives of other people and families so they can feel more "normal' in comparison. Seeing a show about a family that struggles with all kinds of problems can help a real American family feel better about themselves. However, in the 1950s and 1960s most of the shows were about families that seemed to be very functional and have very few problems of their own. The real problems with society were being seen in the actual society where single-parent homes, a loss of jobs and income, and poverty were taking place at a high rate, instead of being portrayed on the television screen. It may have been helpful for society as a whole to see some of these problems they were facing demonstrated on television, but they were not offered that as an option when it came to television programming.

In the 1950s, poverty was common and there were more single mothers because divorce was becoming more accepted and frequent. There were many things in society that were not discussed in polite company or were not talked about. People looked the other way more often and did not say anything when a person was divorced or otherwise had struggles with family, money, and other issues. It was understood that these things happened, but many families pretended that these things did not happen, as the 1950s and 1960s were more about keeping up with appearances of propriety than what is seen in modern day life. Television, however, did not really portray these kinds of problems during that time period. The television shows in the 1950s were about strong families and happy couples. Shows like I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners, and Father Knows Best showed the alleged best of society. They offered strong morals and values, along with family members who "knew their place" and situations that always brought the family closer together by the end of the episode (Jenkins, McPherson, & Shattuc, n.d.; Lipsitz, 1990). While this was shown as the ideal of society and what people should be striving for, it was also an escape for families that did not have this kind of life.

In the 1960s, the television shows changed to popular favorites like Bewitched, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Green Acres. While these shows still portrayed families, they also acknowledged the fact that what made up a "family" was changing to some degree, and that the stereotypical family may not be the "norm" anymore (Taylor, 1989). There were families where paranormal was the new normal (Bewitched), and there were families where the woman had much more say, the man did not always know best, and the makeup of the family was odd, awkward, or just plain unconventional for the area. In The Beverly Hillbillies, for example, a backwoods, low-income family ended up striking it rich on oil and moving to a posh mansion in an expensive part of the country. They did not fit in with the culture, of course, and that was the main premise of the show. Green Acres took a citified, high class woman and moved her to a farm in the country because she had fallen in love with and married a middle class working man who farmed for a living.

All of the television shows in the 1950s and 1960s were designed to be entertainment, first and foremost, but by looking at what was offered in the 1950s and what was offered in the 1960s, and how those two decades of television were different, one can see that what society wanted to watch and how society was portrayed changed dramatically. Television went from a family that had a mother and father, two young children, and very definite boundaries and roles to families that were made up differently and that had boundaries and roles that were more relaxed and not as defined (Taylor, 1989). Society, at the same time, was changing in this way. Poverty levels were very high in the 1950s and started to drop in the 1960s, so shows about people who had more wealth became more acceptable. However, one of the most significant issues with television families in the 1950s and 1960s was that they were portrayed in a way that was not actually accurate.

For the majority of families in society, television shows in the 1950s and 1960s were a form of entertainment and were not designed to be "real" in the way that day-to-day life was real (Lipsitz, 1990). When families were together they were not always watching TV programs, but there was no argument that the programs of that time period were significantly more wholesome than the programs that came after them in the following decades. The American family during that time for portrayed with this wholesomeness, perhaps as a way to keep families "in line" and not encourage them to make changes that could lead to impropriety and negative consequences. Keeping families wholesome and having strong family values on television programs encouraged families in "real life" to emulate those values and that happy, cheerful family structure. Naturally, not every show on television was designed to teach a family how to act, but the shows that were most popular were a reflection of the values that were important at the time in society. Had those values not been important to families at that time, the television shows would likely have not provided families with quality entertainment that they would return to each week.