Assignment 1

1 ½ pages

1. Watch at least three episodes of any show with a main character from the LGTQIA+ community OR any show with a main character with a disability OR any show with the main character over 65. By definition, most of these will be newer than “classic” TV.

2. Find a scholarly article from library about this show
. (I have chosen and attached reference for the golden girls). Patterson. (2016). The Golden Girls Live: residual television texts, participatory culture, and queering TV heritage through drag. 
Feminist Media Studies, 
16(5), 838–851.
https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2016.1149087

3. Discuss the “cultural work” that this show is doing.

There are many choices but here are some good specific choices of shows that may say something important about sexuality, disability, or age:

·


Ellen

 (the hangout situation comedy from 1994 starring Ellen DeGeneres)

·

Will & Grace
 (hangout sitcom from 1998, revived in 2017 about two gay men and their straight female friends)

·

Transparent
 (2014-2019 drama about a family with a transgender father)

·

Pose
 (2018-2012 drama about trans characters of color in the “ballroom scene” of 1980s New York)

Disability

·


Life Goes On

 (1989-1993, family drama about a family that includes a child with Down syndrome. Check your local library.)

·

Reasonable Doubts
 (1991-1993, legal drama starring Mark Harmon and deaf actress Marlee Matlin)

·


House, MD

 (2004-2012, medical drama including a main character with a limp and chronic pain)

·


Switched at Birth


 (2011–2017 family drama including characters who are deaf)

·


The A Word

 (2016 family drama about a family that includes a child with autism)

·


The Good Doctor


 (2017 medical drama about a doctor with autism)

Older Age

·


The Golden Girls


 (1985-1992 hangout sitcom about older women) Patterson. (2016). The Golden Girls Live: residual television texts, participatory culture, and queering TV heritage through drag. 
Feminist Media Studies, 
16(5), 838–851.
https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2016.1149087

·

Men of a Certain Age
 (2019-2011 dramedy about a group of men getting older)

·


The Cool Kids

 (2018 hangout sitcom about friends in a retirement home)

Explain which episodes of which shows you watched, and briefly outline the plot.

· Find a critical online essay from the ESC Library on gender, race, or class and a specific show or genre–and incorporate that into one of your posts.

· You should be examining the various ways American culture is represented and reflected on television. Refer back to classic shows to discuss contrasts.

Please use this reference also:

Bianculli, D. (2016). The Platinum Age of Television: From I Love Lucy to The Walking Dead, How TV Became Terrific. Knopf Doubleday

Assignment 2

1 page

Find an article from within the past month from one of the acceptable outlets (see list below) and post it. It may be about a show you watch, a genre, a TV technology, a personality, a controversy or something else. Explain why you think it is interesting, correctly cite it (including a link that opens in a new window), and ask the rest of the class an open-ended question about it (not yes/no but something that will prompt discussion). Answer at least two other students’ questions and try to keep the discussion going.

Acceptable outlets for non-scholarly articles include:

a.
The New York Times

b.
The Washington Post

c.
The New Yorker

d.
Entertainment Weekly

e.
The Hollywood Reporter

f.
Variety

g.
The AV Club’s TV Club (The Onion’s media discussion board)

h.
Slate

Personal blogs, fansites, or Wikis are probably not appropriate. There are other acceptable sources. Ask your instructor before posting from them.

Assignment 3

7 pages

Assignment Choice 1 Cultural arguments about television

Choose a subgenre:

1. Family situation comedies

2. Workplace situation comedies

3. Variety shows

4. Cop or detective dramas

5. Medical dramas

6. Talk shows

7. Animated shows

8. News programs

Choose one issue

1. Gender or Sexuality

2. Race or Ethnicity

3. Social class

4. Disability

5. Age

Choose your episodes:

· Watch at least 3 episodes of a single TV show in your subgenre from before 1970

· Watch at least 3 episodes of a single TV show in your subgenre from 1971-1985

· Watch at least 3 episodes of a single TV show in your subgenre from 1985-2015

· Watch at least 3 episodes of a single TV show in your subgenre that is still on the air

Develop a thesis statement that argues something about how your genre has changed in terms of your issue over time. Argue this in at least three important ways.

For each show, discuss (in chronological order):

· What time and day of the week was this show offered?

· What network or service was this show on?

· How many episodes of this show were there, over what period of time?

· Who were the stars? What other influence did they have on the media landscape (other TV, movies, magazines, etc.)

· Who might have watched this show? Who might they have watched with?

· Through what mechanism might they have watched this show?

· Were there other ways to watch this show than on TV at a specific time?

· How were people likely to get or share information about this show?

· What did the networks or show producers get from viewers of the show? How did they take their feelings into account?

· What can you say about gender or sexuality, race and ethnicity and/or social class and this show?

Make three arguments about how the changes in technology changed the way people watched and perceived what they watched.

Another way to think of this:

1. Think of something you have watched recently on TV that has made you say ‘hmmm’. What was unusual about it? What kind of lesson might it be teaching viewers? How is it speaking to a need in our culture? You might notice what the program says about race or about class or about gender or sexuality. You might notice something about the technology used in the show and how it changes the way we think about what we see on screen.

2. What are other incidences of this phenomenon? They might be a few shows that are on now, or similar shows that were on in earlier TV decades. Students in this course generally look at a single subgenre of shows—so just workplace sitcoms or just family sitcoms or just space-set science fiction dramas or just cop dramas or just competitive reality shows—so they aren’t trying to compare things that really aren’t much alike, and if possible, choose one from the 50s/60s, one from the 70s/80s, one from the 90s/early 2000s, and one that is still on today. Obviously that won’t work for every subgenre or paper idea, but it will for most. Students must speak to the instructor if they have a different idea. 
Plan to actually watch every episode you discuss. The point is not to use only descriptions of these shows, but to experience them and use your reaction as part of your search for that “aha” moment.