Week 11!

-The structure and concept in American families has change a lot over the past century, a perfect example of this change is through the TV sitcoms we watched in class. Families now rarely come together and have wonderful family dinners together like they did in the show Leave it to Beaver. In the episode we watched in class, every night, Beaver and his family all gathered around the table and discussed their day and the problems they have been facing. I feel now, in this day in age, families seem to be too busy to all sit down and have a nice family dinner together. That is a main example of loss of structure in the basic American family. Loss of concept is another example of change. People have completely forgot the meaning of being a family and have dropped all sense of structure then. Structure and concept are connected to one another.

-The whole goal behind a sitcom is to make the show be relatable, so if someone can relate to the problem in the story, or the characters, people will be more likely to come back and watch the show again. Sitcoms are a perfect example of portraying real life situations but making them fictional because the fictional parts to the story are what makes the show funny. For example, in the episode "Six Degrees of Graduation" on the show Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Will is at the risk of not graduating. Tons of students can relate to that. But, to make the episode funny, Will has to perform with a bunch of little kids in order to pass, which would most likely never happen. So in order to get viewers to come back and watch more, the show needs to be relatable but funny.

-A half hour is not very long for any TV show. What with the ten minutes of commercials in a thirty minute show is not a very long time. So the TV shows have to conform to that short amount of time. With every episode they have the opening scenes to set up for the main plot. That usually only takes about 3-4 minutes so that way the rest of the story can be played out. For example, in the episode "The Hair-Braided Scheme" on the show The Brady Bunch, they happened to flow the opening scenes right into the plot so there was almost no time lost. Since the time is so short, the show finds easy anf quick ways to solve the characters problems or the show speeds us time and only shows us what is important too see.