Television Criticism

Writing Assignment 1

Due February 26

Sit Coms

This essay is an analysis of a sit com using the primary message systems of culture.  In this, you will select a sit com (any one will do, current or old) and analyze it in terms of two of the primary message systems.  Your job is the tell the reader something which was not obvious by watching the sit com naively.  Title your essay with the two primary message systems and the sit com title, like this:

"Time and Space in Seinfeld." Or "Association and Defense in Two and a Half Men." You can use sub systems if you prefer, like "Power and Religious Convection in Frasier." 

Expectations for all writing assignment

Here's an example:  A casual viewer might think that "I love Lucy" was about the wacky lives of Lucy and Ricky Riccardo, working class America in the 1950s or a "Friends" type group relationship show.  In my essay, "Association and Gender in I Love Lucy" I might argue that that this show was really about was a warning to America about the dangers of women attempting to take over the male domains outside the home. As evidence, I would cite three or so times that Lucy tried to get a job or make her way into Ricky's business at the Copacabana and how disastrous these things were to the proper order of things.  I would through Ethel in there too, as the problems that arise from not having children. I might add a historical argument that this was in response to World War II's admission of many women into the workforce, which was scaring the nation's conservative. In all, this argument would be that Lucy, far from a light comedy, was a politically reactionary show, exhibiting the unease the country felt that would ultimately come to be a major social upheaval in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Tip:  Outline your essay first to make sure your organization is good.