Overview
IN BRIEF: Choose one of the episodes and prompts below; write a short essay (1250-1750 words) that uses a piece of scholarship from our class as critical framework through which to analyze it. Performing both formal and ideological analysis, make an argument about how the episode's form (mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, and sound), narrative, and dialogue do ideological work. Use the Writing Guide and the model essays assigned in weeks 2 to 5 as examples of what your work should do and look like.
(CHOOSE ONE) Prompts:
Use one of the following texts as critical framework through which to analyze the accompanying episode. Begin with an introduction that accomplishes the tasks explained in the introductions section of the Writing Guide. Include a full first supporting paragraph presenting and interpreting more relevant evidence from your critical framework so that it is clear how you are situating your inquiry into the episode in relation to this scholarship. Include supporting paragraphs on the episode that move chronologically through the episode presenting, interpreting, and analyzing formal evidence (cinematography, mise-en-scène, editing, and sound, especially including dialogue) for your reading of the episode. Include a conclusion that brings your argument to a close with a complete reading of final pieces of evidence.
Good Times, “Springtime in the Ghetto” // Christine Acham, “Reading the Roots of Resistance: Television of the Black Revolution” or Aniko Bodroghkozy, “Is This What You Mean by Color TV? Julia” // What does [Acham or Bodroghkozy] argue about conflicting interpretive perspectives surrounding 1970s television shows about Black life? How does this episode construct Blackness, the space of the Black family, and the relationships that constitute it? What ideological work does it do around Blackness, to naturalize specific ideas or beliefs about Blackness? How might we read this episode as dramatizing complicated cultural debate about Black identity during this period – or of television as a site of Black resistance? // Ella Taylor, “Trouble at Home: Television’s Changing Families” // What does Ella Taylor argue about the family as a site of conflict in 1970s domestic sitcoms? How does she position Good Times within this context? How does this episode construct the Black family as a site of contact with the conflicts and struggles of the outside world? What ideological work does it do around Blackness, specifically to naturalize specific ideas or beliefs about Black Americans’ joys and challenges?
All in the Family, “Archie and the Editorial” or “Archie is Worried About His Job” // Ella Taylor, “Trouble at Home: Television’s Changing Families” // What does Ella Taylor argue about the family as a site of conflict in 1970s domestic sitcoms? How does she position All in the Family, and Archie Bunker, within this context? How does this episode construct the family as a site of contact between intersectionally specific ideas and values (the values of a younger generation vs. an older generation and so on)? What ideological work does the episode do to naturalize specific beliefs about family, race, work/class, and gender?
The Jeffersons, “Rich Man’s Disease” or “Movin’ on Down” // Ella Taylor, “Trouble at Home: Television’s Changing Families” // What does Ella Taylor argue about the family as a site of conflict in 1970s domestic sitcoms? How does she position The Jeffersons, and George Jefferson, within this context? How does the episode construct the family as a site of contact between intersectionally specific ideas and values? What ideological work does the episode do to naturalize specific beliefs about family, race, work/class, and gender?
The Mary Tyler Moore Show, “A Girl’s Best Mother is Not Her Friend” // Serafina Bathrick, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show: Women at Home and at Work” // What does Serafina Bathrick argue about how this series dramatized women’s relationships as an extension of familial relationships? How does this episode dramatize a contrasting point of view: family relationships between blood kin that threaten to become friendships instead? What ideological work does the episode do to naturalize specific ideas about women, women’s relationships, and particularly the mother-daughter relationship?
Family Ties, “Be True to Your Preschool” or “Battle of the Sexes, Part 1” or “Battle of the Sexes, Part 2” // Alice Leppert, “Selling Mrs. Consumer” or “I Can’t Help Feeling Maternal – I’m a Father!” // What does Alice Leppert argue about the 1980s family setting of Family Ties? How does she situate it in a broader field of 1980s sitcoms about changing family arrangements? How does this episode dramatize those relations? What ideological work does it do to naturalize specific ideas about family, specifically relationships between parents or between parents and children? How does it construct home life and family space?
Growing Pains, “State of the Union” // Alice Leppert, “Selling Mrs. Consumer” or “I Can’t Help Feeling Maternal – I’m a Father!” // What does Alice Leppert argue about the 1980s family setting of Growing Pains? How does she situate it in a broader field of 1980s sitcoms about changing family arrangements? How does this episode dramatize those relations? What ideological work does it do to naturalize specific ideas about family, specifically relationships between parents or between parents and children? How does it construct home life and family space?
Designing Women, “Stranded” or “How Great Thou Art” // Jeremy Butler, “Redesigning Discourse: Feminism, the Sitcom, and Designing Women” // What does Jeremy Butler argue about how Designing Womenconstructs its female characters through discourses of pop feminism that occasionally challenge traditional ideas about what is appropriate for women, but usually contain that resistance? What does he argue about the function of unruliness in the series? How does this episode dramatize these problems? What ideological work does it do to naturalize specific beliefs about womanhood?
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, “Def Poet’s Society” // Kristal Brent Zook, “Blood is Thicker than Mud: C-Note Goes to Compton on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” // What does Zook argue about how The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air uses contrasts between young and old, rich and poor to construct and police the boundaries of Blackness, particularly young Black masculinity? How does this episode dramatize this process? What ideological work does it do to naturalize specific beliefs about Black masculinity?
Episodes:
Good Times: "Springtime in the Ghetto"
All in the Family: "Archie and the Editorial" or "Archie is Worried About His Job"
The Jeffersons: "Rich Man's Disease" or "Movin' on Down"
The Mary Tyler Moore Show: "A Girl's Best Mother is Not Her Friend"
Family Ties: "Be True to Your Preschool" or "Battle of the Sexes, Part 1" or "Battle of the Sexes, Part 2"
Growing Pains: "State of the Union"
Designing Women: "Stranded" or "How Great Thou Art"
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: "Def Poet's Society"