Suburban sprawl, TV, radio, and america (planner, architect, subdivision, area)
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Well, I'll be dipped! All these years I've lived in the suburbs (most of my life, really), I've never heard of these parties.
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Originally Posted by eschaton
One could equally argue that exposure to mass media allows those in formerly isolated areas to realize there is a wider world, and gives them aspirations of moving somewhere else. People used to think about New York City as just "some big city on the East Coast," whereas now people by the time they are 18 have particular conceptions of it, largely from watching different television shows.
I'm sure, if nothing else, media has accelerated rural flight. I don't think there's any real difference between suburban and urban media consumption, so I don't think it matters much there. Certainly in the 1950s a suburban norm was shown on sitcoms, but this had already begun to wane by the 70s and 80s (e.g., All In The Family, The Cosby Show, etc).
Ya think? I grew up in a 1950s suburban family home, and it was nothing like "Leave it to Beaver", "Lassie", "Father Knows Best", "I Love Lucy" or any of those other 50s shows. If you think that was the suburban norm, as my mom used to say, you've got another think coming. Of course, my experience was certainly the exception, everyone else was living just like those shows!
Ya think? I grew up in a 1950s suburban family home, and it was nothing like "Leave it to Beaver", "Lassie", "Father Knows Best", "I Love Lucy" or any of those other 50s shows. If you think that was the suburban norm, as my mom used to say, you've got another think coming. Of course, my experience was certainly the exception, everyone else was living just like those shows!
I didn't say that the norm was true to people's lives, only that idealized suburbia was the norm showed on 1950s sitcoms. I Love Lucy started out in New York City, but they moved to Westport, Connecticut eventually. The Honeymooners was the only prominant show consistently showing urban working-class life during this era, and it only lasted until 1955.
I didn't say that the norm was true to people's lives, only that idealized suburbia was the norm showed on 1950s sitcoms. I Love Lucy started out in New York City, but they moved to Westport, Connecticut eventually. The Honeymooners was the only prominant show consistently showing urban working-class life during this era, and it only lasted until 1955.
I've never been a big TV watcher, not then and not now. However, when I do watch, it never ceases to amaze me how much TV emphasizes stereotypes, then and now. You can't make big pronouncements about suburban life in the 1950s or urban life in the 2010s on the basis of plots of TV sit-coms.
I grew up in a 1950s suburban family home, and it was nothing like "Leave it to Beaver", "Lassie", "Father Knows Best", "I Love Lucy" or any of those other 50s shows.
Our lives weren't that exciting. My parents would have sold us to the gypsies if we were as much trouble as Wally and the Beav.
And my mom didn't wear pearls to clean the house or cook dinner. She dressed more like Mary Tyler Moore in the Dick Van Dyke Show -- sweaters and capri pants.
Our lives weren't that exciting. My parents would have sold us to the gypsies if we were as much trouble as Wally and the Beav.
And my mom didn't wear pearls to clean the house or cook dinner. She dressed more like Mary Tyler Moore in the Dick Van Dyke Show -- sweaters and capri pants.
I don't think that Mary Tyler Moore ever cleaned her apartment in Minneapolis--she had numerous dinner parties, though, which seemed to clean themselves...
I don't think the poster was trying to argue that 1950s TV shows were accurate representations of suburban life, just that most family shows of that era were set in the suburbs ... and urban families were unrepresented.
Archie Bunker's neighborhood in "All in the Family" was an urban area, although not "inner-city". It represented the alternative to what many of Archie's age compatriots did in the fifties: escape to the suburbs..
Looking at it another way, perhaps the suburban movement was always a little exaggerated. There were always families that refused to join the post-war suburban wave---they just weren't well publicized..
I don't think that Mary Tyler Moore ever cleaned her apartment in Minneapolis--she had numerous dinner parties, though, which seemed to clean themselves...
There was an older show than that, which Ohiogirl81 was referring to. Mary Tyler Moore was married to Dick Van Dyke.
My mom dressed more like that, too, Ohiogirl, though for years she felt she should wear a dress to go to downtown Beaver Falls to shop!
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Originally Posted by HandsUpThumbsDown
I don't think the poster was trying to argue that 1950s TV shows were accurate representations of suburban life, just that most family shows of that era were set in the suburbs ... and urban families were unrepresented.
Oh? What does this phrase mean then?
Quote:
Originally Posted by eschaton
Certainly in the 1950s a suburban norm was shown on sitcoms, but this had already begun to wane by the 70s and 80s (e.g., All In The Family, The Cosby Show, etc).
What was this "suburban norm"? These shows were, if anything, suburban fantasy shows. My parents usually thought the kids should be punished more, and my mom laughed at the portrayal of housewives in heels and pearls, cleaning the house. She also used to say of the old commercials, "who would let their house get that dirty in the first place?" when "Mr. Clean" would get ride of layers of dirt.
What was this "suburban norm"? These shows were, if anything, suburban fantasy shows. My parents usually thought the kids should be punished more, and my mom laughed at the portrayal of housewives in heels and pearls, cleaning the house. She also used to say of the old commercials, "who would let their house get that dirty in the first place?" when "Mr. Clean" would get ride of layers of dirt.
You really do seem to like to look for disagreements where there are none, don't you?
I'm not sure if people consciously or unconsciously actually model their behavior based upon "peers" they see on television, rather than people they know in real life. I tend to think people in media theory often assume we are stupider than we really are, and other, unrelated but correlated, influences often win out. Nonetheless, the typical family as depicted in the media did have a particular cast during this era, and it seems quite silly to dispute it.
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