An entire generation grew up watching what could possibly be known as the most aired show in television history; Friends. Since the year of my birth, 1994, the audience has applauded this show and watched the first episode in joy, and shed tears of sadness during the last episode of its 10th season. The show not only gave the entertainment we demanded, but also alluded to as some of the most important cultural issues during the 1990s. However, does it really define who we are culturally or what social norms we tend to pose in our daily lives? The show had many groundbreaking aspects that attached the the masses to the show, which complemented the creation of the six relatable characters that we know as “Friends”. Friends reached its peak of …show more content…
popularity in the late 1990’s, and continued its’ rise throughout the 21st century. The creators of the show, Marta Kauffman and David Crane had the number one sitcom for a number of years, even with reruns achieving high ratings. The show consisted of 31-million views in September 2001 and was perceived as a visual comfort food for Americans. With the increasing growth of Friends, the live audience that came to watch the taping of the show created an atmosphere to rival Beatle-mania.
It became a difficult task to film with live audience, as the background noise was something that affected the actors' next dialogue. Through many edits and takes, the directors finalized on making each episode exactly 22-minutes which allowed them to emphasis their quality rather than quantity. Marta Kauffman, along with her production team and casts were insistent of labeling friends as a “Generation X” show that was made for the Baby Boomer generation. Kaufmann, being a baby boomer herself believed that what the characters are experiencing on the show is universal; it is easy to relate to. In a real-life setting, it may be perceived as stereotypical , but they prove to have a deeper meaning than that. It is very similar to what Stuart Hall mentions in his writing about encoding and decoding a message. A sender may have one notion while delivering the message, while the receiver may have a different background of what that message is suppose to decode. Similarly, Kaufmann and her producers focused on delivering realism rather than morals and lessons. Sitcoms were not always like this. TV shows focused on having friends or groups hang out at work or cafes, for leisure and the humour was based on wit and situational comedy. However, the change Friends provided was more meaningful about the differences of American friendships in …show more content…
today’s world. Young adults are now spending more time outside of their traditional families, often waiting until their thirties to marry and have children. It was not always like this. Many cultures were taught to be married in mid-twenties and have a life set by the time they are thirty. The show provided us with the opportunity to look outside our horizons of being culturally restricted and experience life with a different meaning. Another aspect that made the sitcom innovative was the linguistics of the show. Sali Tagliamonte and Chris Roberts analyzed eight seasons worth of scripts to find the similarity of terminology used today. According to them, viewers absorbed the lingo Rachel, Ross, Monica, Chandler, Joey and Phoebe, the young middle-class characters used. The language of the show is a huge part of the shows popularity as most of the terms used were perceived as cool and funky which many young viewers often use today. Friends’ used many intensifiers, words such as “really”, “very” or “so” that are used to get a listener’s attention. Friends’ lingo provides a tip for sitcom writers; give the best lines to women. It is a proven fact that women pick up slangs that are trending quicker than men. Women tend to be more superior communicators to men or may use advanced language for gender compensations purposes, thus when they pick up the slang that is trending, they pass it on their children. The show also encourages interracial relationships, which is a huge limitation for many cultures throughout the world. Ross initiates this change by dating women of different colour and ethnicity. With that being said, there is not a specific episode that could be individually picked out and culturally analyzed by what they showcased in the show and what happens in our daily lives’. With many similarities, there are a few unrealistic ideas that are also shown. The notion of being able to afford a 2-bedroom apartment in New York City without having a large income job is putting things in a very hypothetical approach. In today’s day and age, that is not financially possible. Critique of the shows predominant whiteness raised a valid point that the producers should have incorporated more racial diversity into the series.
However, this point cannot discredit the innovation and success of the show overall. A sitcom is not the right place to have conversations about race; it would not have fit in the light-heartedness of the show. The appeal of the characters on Friends stems from the viewers’’ ability to identify with them regardless of their race or gender. Friends could possible go down as the most entertaining sitcom to be aired on television that teaches us a lot about friendship and living through your twenties. It contains fights, arguments, breakups, love and most importantly the revolution it created for a young-adult transitioning into becoming an adult. At the end of the day, it will always be perceived as a TV show, but viewers will always have the connection of what it taught
us.
The media is a powerful tool and has the ability to influence and change one’s overall perspective of the world and the position they play in it. Although Television shows such as Friday Night Lights are seen as entertainment by consumers, its storyline contributes to the social construction of reality about class in the United States.
Roseanne was a hit sitcom that debuted in the late 80s and continued into the late 90s. It was one of the most watched shows of its time despite the controversy that surrounded it. The series still airs on popular television networks today but, because it functionally paved the way, it is not considered questionable in today’s society. Although the show had its share of controversial issues and what was then thought to be “inappropriate” dialogue, the America population continued to tune-in to Roseanne and empathized with the weekly problems the Conner’s would face. The show depicted life much like people actually experienced it (and still do) and therefore captured the hearts of America, which translated to a better acceptance of the material folks found inappropriate or unacceptable. Over time, as people were more often exposed to the matters that Roseanne felt were pertinent, the disputes became fewer and the issues surrounding them became irrelevant. Dealing with issues such as sex, homosexuality, and a not so functional family, Roseanne proved to be very functional to society as a whole.
In recent years there have been a number of studies regarding how children perceive friendship (Brownlow, 2012). Children may have different understandings of what friendship means to them depending on their age or where they live. Two methods used in this field are content analysis and ethnology. This essay will illustrate the similarities and differences between the two methods through the work of two groups of researchers. Content analysis was used by Brian Bigelow and John La Gaipa, and ethnographic research was carried out by William Corsaro. The essay will show that although the researchers worked in the same area of study with some similarity in their approach, they produced contrasting data that was therefore analysed differently.
Popular culture is the artistic and creative expression in entertainment and style that appeals to society as whole. It includes music, film, sports, painting, sculpture, and even photography. It can be diffused in many ways, but one of the most powerful and effective ways to address society is through film and television. Broadcasting, radio and television are the primary means by which information and entertainment are delivered to the public in virtually every nation around the world, and they have become a crucial instrument of modern social and political organization. Most of today’s television programming genres are derived from earlier media such as stage, cinema and radio. In the area of comedy, sitcoms have proven the most durable and popular of American broadcasting genres. The sitcom’s success depends on the audience’s familiarity with the habitual characters and the situations
Younger generations and the more vulnerable in society can be influenced in avoiding peer pressure, but for the individuals filled with wisdom, the shows can reflect based on American modern society. Everybody Loves Raymond and Full House are great shows who faces similar life obstacles a typical person living in the US has today. As a result, most modern family comedy sit-coms are reflecting our society’s generations and the more vulnerable. Based on the success of early family sit coms, American’s adapted to a fast pace lifestyle with the help of modern
The word sitcom is short for Situation Comedy. A good sitcom story idea places the star (or supporting character) into a situation in need of a resolution, which will cause the character to respond in unexpected, exaggerated, and hugely sidesplitting ways (Rannow, pg. 13). A comedy now days are different from how they were in the 1960's and 1970's though. Today directors use sexual content and foul language to make people laugh and do not usually have a purpose or point to get across to the audience with each show. In earlier comedy, such as The Brady Bunch, Director Jack Arnold tried have a lesson learned in each episode while still maintaining a sense of humor, minus the foul language and sexual content. Although the show is not extremely funny to most people it is still a classic show that deserves to be remembered.
Seinfeld was a sitcom from NBC that was very popular during the ’90s, and is often referred as “a show about nothing.” It consisted of the life of a fictitious Jerry Seinfeld and his friends in New York City (IMDb). Seinfeld reached a Nielsen rating of 21.7 percent and number one in the United States ranking during its ninth and final season (“Appendix 3: Top-Rated Programs by Season”). It was unique in the way that it portrayed social life during the ‘90s, and this inspired shows such as Friends, Ellen, and Mad About You (Pierson 49). In Seinfeld episodes, the viewer can observe social customs, fads, social standards, and family portrayals of ‘90s semi-young adults.
Since its start, the television industry has been criticized for perpetuating myths and stereotypes about African-Americans through characterizations, story lines, and plots. The situation comedy has been the area that has seemed to draw the most criticism, analysis, and disapproval for stereotyping. From Sanford and Son and The Jefferson’s in the 1970s to The Cosby Show (1984) and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in the 1990s, sitcoms featuring black casts and characters have always been controversial. However, their significance upon our American culture cannot be disregarded. During the 1950s and 1960s, 97% of the families were Caucasian. In the first five years of the 1990s, nearly 14% of the television families were African-American (Bryant 2001). These statistics obviously show the substantial impact our American culture has had on African-American television families.
Since television came into existence, it has evolved into a useful tool to spread ideas, both social and political, and has had a great effect on the generations growing up with these heavily influential shows. To these younger generations, television has taken the role of a teacher, with the task of creating a social construction by which many of us base our personal beliefs and judgments on. This power allows television shows take the opportunity to address problems in a manner that many audiences can take to heart. Many television shows present controversial topics in a comical matter, in some ways to soften the blow of hard-hitting reality at the same time bringing attention to the issue being addressed. In the television show, Everybody Hates Chris, season one, episode four entitled “Everybody Hates Sausage”, the stereotypes that continue to fuel racism are examined in a satirical motif, and class is presented in a comical way, but carries serious undertones which present a somewhat realistic view of the different social strata within the United States.
"Seinfeld" was always present in my home during its nine-year run on Thursday nights as "Must See TV," and the social commentary was welcome humor. However, not everyone was thrilled by Seinfeld's prominence in American society and the subject matter with which Seinfeld dealt. Many Christians, Jews and other minorities had problems with the show's portrayal of their respective groups. Despite criticism from ethnic and religious groups, Jerry Seinfeld and his show were possibly the best sources of social commentary that America's mainstream had to offer. The show is missed in today's current television line-up and no post-"Seinfeld" sitcom has come to the same level of cultural criticism.
Most people’s lives in the 21 century are in some way affected by media and it is affecting the way individuals preform daily tasks. Television shows are a great example of this; they show the development of characters over a period and display how greater social forces shape what they have become. C. Wright mills uses a term the sociological imagination, it is the theory that people’s lives are shaped essentially by greater social forces and society’s expectations rather than biology and genetics. The show Modern Family is a good example of the sociological imagination because it has a diverse cast and the characters have many personalities, wants, and desires. Modern Family is a television show that has stories of separate individual families who are related. Claire and Mitch are siblings and Jay is their father. The families are Claire, Phil, Alex, Hailey and Luke. Mitch, Cam and Lilly and Jay, Gloria and Mani.
There are many types of people in the world and many types of friends. Knowing that, it becomes all the more important to select the right people so that one might have the correct friends, but which types of friends are required? There are ten different types of friends that everybody should have, each fitting into one of three categories: the occasional friends, the benefactors and the greats.
Friendship is the most wonderful relationship that anyone can have. Ideally a friend is a person who offers love and respect and will never leave or betray us. Friends can tell harsh truths when they must be told. There are four different types of friends: True friends, Convenient friends, Special interest friends, and historical friends. To have friendship is to have comfort. In times of crisis and depression, a friend is there to calm us and to help lift up our spirits.
On an individual basis, popular culture helps establish and mold the subjective self. It influences the way individuals think, act and respond, and this becomes part of how people develop their personalities, preferences, beliefs, and their overall identity. For example, most people idolize certain fashion statements or fads which determines their preference of clothing. This process of self-formation coincides with both elements of personal choice and the responses and attitudes of others. Furthermore, the identity that an individual asserts is influenced by and helps determine the development of social relationships; it influences the communities and groups to which an individual will identify with and how that identification is processed. In the establishment of communal bonding, mass culture helps with, as Leavis describes, a “leveling down of society” (35). The lines of class distinction have been blurred which, to Leavis is not a good thing, but it unites us nonetheless. Popular culture also promotes unity in that it “blurs age lines” (29). As stated earlier, the products of popular culture are targeted towards a variety of audiences; adults read comic books, children watch adult films, etc. (Macdonald 29). Similarly, teenagers and young adults are brought together through night clubs, fashion, and music; college students come together to enjoy campus events; book fans wait in line hours for new releases, etc. Each of these instances produce feelings of belonging, acceptance and connection with members of society over a common
In life we come across many people. Some will hate us while others will adore us. The ones who hate us can be referred to as enemies and the ones who show us adoration are referred to as friends. There are three types of friends. They are the aquaintinces we make in school, the friends we loose as one grows, and best friends who may stray, but never too far away.