Sitcoms and Their Effects

Sitcoms and Reality TV sitcoms have existed as long as television themselves. They first aired through radios and then continued to evolve as our means of technology and views as society progressed. Based on the sitcoms we have watched, it can be stated that all sitcoms share the overwhelming theme of comedy, but at the same time carry a moral issue to the viewers. They also feature characters that seldom go through personality changes and focused primarily on domestic family life and real-life experiences allowing the audiences to connect. For example, we watched lots of shows such as I Love Lucy, Leave it to Beaver, Everybody Loves Raymond, The Brady Bunch, The Simpsons, etc and all these shows shared these characteristics. They contained a father figure who was the single source of income and a stay at home mom who took care of the household. Not only that, but all these shows also shared a similar family structure; they contained an upper-middle class family living in a the suburbs in a single family home. Sitcoms have definitely evolved throughout the history. The early sitcoms usually only featured a nuclear family. They included a stay at home mom who took care of the household and a father who was the only source of income. This reflected the typical American society of the 50’s where men worked and the women stayed at home. However, that all began to change as sitcoms gradually started expanding away from just a nuclear family. For instance, The Brady Bunch focused on a blended family living in a two-story home. The roles of women also gradually began to change as sitcoms evolved. In the show I Love Lucy, Lucy was fully responsible for the wellbeing of the household, whereas in The Brady Bunch, the mother, Carol, is able to experience freedom and is not fully responsible for the household. The roles of women evolved even further as shows such as Everybody Loves Raymond and Malcolm in the Middle aired. These shows continued to feature a stay at home