All In The Family Satire

Fifty Years in the Making A genre of entertainment programming was developed and became known as the situation comedy or 'sitcom '. Sitcoms have evolved in response to lifestyle trends and have changed drastically over the past fifty years. The sitcom format is based upon two main types: the element of family drama mixed with sibling rivalry and the element of sexual exploration. Family sitcoms specialized in family drama and focused on internal family roles of the parents, children and siblings. Sticking to the same basic formula, sitcoms show a problem solved and a lesson learned in a half -hour, usually with a strong foundation of laughable humor. Traditional family roles in 1950 's sitcoms held the father as the head of the household and
Gone were the days of the perfect family, which ignored important issues, such as racial equality and sexuality. "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," was the first carreercom to appeal to an audience, using a happy, single woman, with a dominating and influential role in the work force (Cayse). "All in the Family" was the first situation comedy to use current social issues as the basis of their plots. The show was also the first sitcom to display a toilet and characters using it (Aamidor). "All in the Family" also explored into such controversial issues, like racism, sex, religious bigotry, and homosexuality (Aamidor). The 1970s meant higher costs in sitcom production, being televised on-air became costly. The end of the 1970s also meant a decline for situation comedies and a strong interest in action/adventure shows. With several sitcoms being pulled from the air or not produced, and an increase in the production of adventure programs, sitcoms faced another low point
"The Cosby Show" aired in 1987, ensuring family values, with the light-hearted humor of Bill Cosby, himself (Christian). Then arrived, a new type of sitcom, the Slobcom, was introduced in "Married With Children." This show was exactly the opposite of the domcoms of the early days. "Married With Children" showed a dysfunctional family, consisting of a deadbeat dad, a frustrated and lazy housewife and "sexually charged delinquent children" (Aamidor). Sitcoms basically followed the mold of previous programs, in earlier decades. Up until 1989, when "The Simpsons" came into the living rooms of Americans. "The Simpsons" was an animated sitcom that targeted both adolescents and adults, and gave "The Cosby Show" a run for its Thursday night ratings. Using the slobcom antics, similar to "Married With Children," "The Simpsons" took situation comedies to a new level, using the classic "Doh!" humor of everyone 's favorite animated family