The screen of an apple laptop has been transformed into the screen of a television show episode. How could a producer ever think this idea would work to hold viewers for the entire 30 minute show? Yet strangely, I found myself captivated by how lifelike and entertaining this episode really was. Modern Family’s “Connection Lost” episode is hilariously funny and original. This episode creates one of the most realistic shows to be produced in our postmodern society. The episode was created to relate to the hectic daily lives of people living in the digital era. Modern Family is known for its comedic family genre but the “Connection Lost” episode, shows how the use of technology has influenced digital genre. The entire episode takes place on
Modern Family is an accumulation of genres, but it is rare in today’s society that we find a television show based on one genre. In order to discuss the aesthetics of a TV show, we can use semantic elements to distinguish what genre the show is displaying. According to Smith, “a film or television program’s genre does not guarantee that you will like the product, but genre can help you match the program’s overall tone with your current preference. When you feel like watching a sitcom, you can use that category to help you find an appropriate viewing choice” (53). It is easy for the audience to identify what the show is about. The title of the show gives the audience a little bit of the idea, and once the audience is introduced to the characters and different plots, the audience finds itself identifying with the show. Modern Family fits the description of a comedic family sitcom. “For audiences, genre acts as a label that allows them to recognize how this particular film/television program is likely to operate. In addition, genres are useful to critics for grouping media together in ways that provide insight” (Smith 59). The audience can identify the genre of Modern Family by the cast. The story line of the show, shows that the overbearing mother is trying to keep her kids young forever and the father who is pretty much careless and clueless who have two daughters, one dumb and pretty and one who is a brainiac, and the son
As our culture has become more dependent on digital media, the audience finds itself more interactive with technology. Throughout the episode, we see how our culture has evolved by the Modern Family cast and story line. Technology is an important factor in our lives in order to stay in touch with family and keep up with daily life. The “Connection Lost” episode, emulates the postmodern chaotic multi-tasking lives of family
Sitcoms like The Simpsons, are used to show that the traditional family is not what it is played out to be on other shows like Father Knows Best, The Jetsons and Leave it to Beaver. The Simpsons challenges and upholds the traditional sitcom while representing the American nuclear family as a unique and lovable family. Like most shows that come out of Hollywood, The Simpsons is pro-Democrat and against Republican views. This show suggests that not following the traditional family roles will you give you a happier life. Gender roles are often used in the show to demonstrate masculinity and femininity. Through satire and parody, The Simpsons addresses gender roles and the typical problems and behavior of an average American family.
In the last fifty years television has evolved tremendously, especially sitcoms. For example, in 1969 The Brady Bunch aired a show that featured two broken families coming together to form a seemingly ‘perfect’ blended one. The television show emphasized the importance of appreciating your loved ones, as well as surmounting challenges that teenagers face in everyday life. In 2009, the perhaps ‘modern’ Brady Bunch aired on ABC, Modern Family. This show focuses on three families, and highlights non-traditional families, illustrating that there is no ‘perfect’ family. In the forty nine year gap between the two programs, social and cultural issues such as gay marriage, adoption, and multicultural marriages have made
The differences in family values are shown in modern sitcoms. "Gilmore Girls" is a sitcom that demonstrates values of gender and children roles that are significantly different to those in 1950s. From Lorelei and Rory, they show that family organization is not always the father working, mother looking after children. Through the plot of each episode, financial, racial, other general problems such as Rory's school and relationship are actually shown and realistically too. Every family is different, different race and classes have different families. Today, we do not watch shows to copy their ways of living and we do often share the same values. Therefore this shows significant changes in family values from the 1950s sitcoms to today's sitcoms.
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
Though not immune to criticism, Modern Family and Full House still claim glimpses of societal pressure when showing aspects of the “American family.”
Americans love their television, and television loves the American family. Since the 1970’s, the depiction of the American family on television has gone through many changes. In the 70s, the Brady Bunch showed an all-white nuclear family. Today, Modern Family, shows a family of blended races, ages, and sexualities. For thirty years, the sitcom family has reflected the changing society of its time and there is no exception of this for the families in The Brady Bunch and Modern Family. The lifestyle, social aspects, and economics situations of the Bradys and the Pritchett-Dunphys are similar in their attempts to portray the lives of families of their time, but differ drastically in the types of families they represent. The characters in Modern
Since the beginning of time itself, Television has been one the most influential pieces of media that the world has ever encountered. The beginning days of television depicted stereotypical mothers cooking and cleaning their homes for their husbands and children. Yet, as the decades passed, television took a dramatic turn, leaving the days of drama free entertainment as a vast memory. Now a day, however, when one hits the power on button to Bravo, the screen lights expand to ritzy socialites dealing with their everyday lives as “housewives”. Bravo TV’s hit number one reality television show, The Real Housewives of Atlanta, deals with the everyday lives of modern-day housewives. When speaking of these women and their family life, the reality series shows its viewers that family life in modern times is dramatic, full of misrepresentations of how people are perceived, and that fame comes at the cost of family.
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.
Mr. Richtel, though, doesn’t seem content to let people go about their lives without realizing the potential ramifications overuse of technology might have on their lives. By shining a spotlight on an actual family, he seeks to show his readers how families in the modern age truly exist, and perhaps to have his readers recognize behaviors similar to those described in the article in themselves, and make a conscious effort to try to change their habits.
I will discuss a T.V show that began in 1987 and ran until 1995 and compare that to a T.V show of today Modern Family; which first aired in 2009. The two are both American family sitcoms and comedies that have had great success throughout the air. These two shows are both unique in their own way. Full House is based in the late 80’s and early 90’s in San Francisco. Now Modern Family is today and still on air going for the 7th season based in the suburbs of Los Angeles. That if you look at the family photo of the entire Modern Family cast and the complete Full House cast shows how the typical sitcom family has changed over the time. 80’s to present
In this project, we were told to analyze two pieces of pop culture and report back the ratio of men versus women, racial minorities versus whites, homosexual couples versus heterosexual couples, adults over 40 versus adults 18-40, and the number of whole women versus the number of parts of women’s bodies. The pieces of media that I chose to analyze were The Goldbergs and Modern Family. I believe that the target audience for The Goldbergs is people who grew up in the 1980s because this show is supposed to be set during that time and references many things that those people could relate to. In addition to this, they tend to feature older people as the main characters in order to draw in their obvious target audience. It seems as though the target audience for Modern Family is young adults to adults. They feature more minorities and things that the young generation tend to relate to more. Both of the target audiences are made quite clear if you really pay attention to the programs.
Originally published in Cinema Journal 40, No. 3, Spring 2001, Jason Mittell’s “A Cultural Approach to Television Genre Theory” conceives of television genre as a cultural category rather than merely a textual component. In the decade since the original publishing of the article, television has evolved out of the multi-channel era and into the post-network era. In this new television landscape, genres are no longer a fixed entity1, and there is great academic potential in the in the study of television genres. The text, Thinking Outside the Box: A Contemporary Television Genre Reader, aims to explore and analyze genre in the current television landscape, and the Mittell article, republished in the book, serves as an entry point to such scholarship.
Family Guy, an animated sitcom about a New England family and their everyday dilemmas, is a way for viewers to see the comedic side of a dysfunctional family. The Griffins consist of Peter and Lois, the patriarch and matriarch, and Meg, Chris, and Stewie are the children(Family Guy). Every character is different from the next character. They are also weird in their own way. The television show itself displays feminism, structuralism, and gay and lesbian criticism. Each character in the show also displays those criticisms in a certain fashion. Family Guy can be offensive to viewers with its satire, and the way the show delivers its message can make the family and the other characters in the show seem dysfunctional.
Modern Family is easy to relate to because the three families in the show are all “modern” families in today’s culture. The different themes shown throughout the show all contribute to the show being so influential. Each episode is very positive and has an underlying message in the end and shows that there is always a different purpose to each episode which is what makes the show so influential. The family has conflicts but is always functioning which is what makes the show special and relatable.
A mere twenty years ago, children played in their neighborhood all day, jumping ropes, riding bikes, and building forts. They were the masters of imaginary games. Children created their own play that didn't require any money or parental supervision. Children would play with sticks. It could become a slingshot, a pistol, a claw, or anything else that they could dream up (Sawyer 1). In the past, family time was often spent doing chores, crafts, and homework. The dining room table was where families came together to enjoy their meals and have conversations about their day. After dinner, the dining table became the center for baking and homework after dinner (Mendoza 1).Today's families are different. Technology's impact on the 21st century family is fracturing and altering its very foundation, and causing a disintegration of core values and breaking down the fabric that held families together long ago. Comparing to this current generation, children have been born into a digital world and grown up with the most advance and updated technology. Children are called “digital natives (Richtel 1).” They are contrasted with the digital immigrants, such as their parents and teachers, who have adapted technology much later in life (Richtel 1). Technology has advanced so rapidly that families have scarcely noticed the significant shifts and transformations to their family structure and lifestyles. According to 2010 Kaiser Foundation, the study showed that elementary aged children use on average 7.5 hours per day of entertainment technology, 75 percent of these children have TV's in their bedrooms, and 50 percent of them have the TV on all day (Mendoza 1). Laptops, phones, and televisions are considered as some of the most popular technologies...