Values of society Essay Example for Free

Values of society Essay This in itself is interesting and is perhaps representative of the modern day fear of corruption from foreign sources for example, Donna goes to That London for a job interview and returns a slightly deranged, career driven woman, so concerned with herself and her work that she fails to notice both that one best friend has gone into labour and the other has gone off with Gaz, Donnas boyfriend. This does however hark back to the values of the pre-90s sitcoms like Steptoe and Son and The Good Life that family (and in this context this refers to the close knit group of friends) comes first. A lot of the humour in the traditional British sitcoms is derived from class distinction and the contrasts between these two classes this is particularly evident in The Good Life, in which Tom and Barbara Good decide to give up working for a living and instead enjoy a self-sustained lifestyle. This is in great contrast to their neighbours and friends, the Leadbetters, who are very upper class and disparaging of Tom and Barbaras new lifestyle choice. The majority of disequilibrium (as relating to Todorovs theory) came from a problem the Goods faced in maintaining their self-sufficiency whether it be a lapse back into middle-class for Barbara or Toms pigheadedness causing a minor problem to develop. They are continually challenged by Margot Leadbetter, who is a stereotypical snob with no sense of humour, who tolerates but doesnt understand their choice at all. While The Good Life was being produced in the 1970s, a revival of sorts was taking place concerning self-sufficiency and the growing snobbery of the middle class. The show was hailed as a great support to the cause as it showed it in a very positive light Tom and Barbara face a great deal of adversity in turning their South London home into a small farm, however they always overcome these issues and equilibrium is restored. Margots complete misunderstanding when it comes to self-sufficiency is representative of the snobbery of the middle-class towards those beneath them why should you do the work by, for example, growing your own food, when you can just drive to the shops and buy it? However Tom and Barbara get a good deal of joy from producing their own goods with varying degrees of success, and despite Margots disapproval, they are happy its a very positive message, that you dont need material worth to have a good life. The character of Margot can be seen as a precursor to the character of Hyacinth Bucket on Keeping Up Appearances, a caricature of a middle class social climber. It again employed class distinction as the main source of comedy, that is between Hyacinth and her unemployed sister Daisy, her husband Onslow and younger sister Rose who are an exaggeration of the working class, in that they dont do any work at all and instead spend all day in front of the television. The driving point of Keeping Up Appearances is that Hyacinth, forever striving to be higher in the community, is never happy, while Daisy, Onslow, Rose and Daddy are quite literally happy as pigs in muck. This is further explored in Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, where the main cast (with the possible exception of Donna) have no ambition whatsoever and are completely happy to just continue with their working class lifestyle. British sitcoms tend to be very character driven a prime example of this is My Family, an exploration of the life of long-suffering dentist Ben Harper and his equally long-suffering family. Propps character theory can be applied thus Ben, the protagonist and hero, his wife Susan, the secondary hero, his son Nick, the idiot who provides comic relief, his daughter Janey the princess, and his son Michael, who acts as the donor, often providing Ben with the means to achieve his goals at a price. Each family member also periodically acts as the villain, the antagonist to Ben. The sitcom, then, is very formulaic the hero wants something (usually peace and quiet, in My Family), the antagonist has it or the ability to make it happen. This formula acts as something of a comfort blanket to the audience they are aware that whatever happens to the characters, it will be resolved and the status quo restored by the end of the episode these are the audience expectations of the sitcom genre regardless of the era it was produced in, therefore the basic structure of the sitcom has not been changed more than a slight amount to reflect society. The idea of a nuclear family in sitcoms is not a new one, in recent years however it has become more common to challenge this view Jam and Jerusalem is one such example. In the first episode the village doctor Mike Vine dies and leaves his wife Sal as a single parent. Sals children are grown up but her nature and role as village nurse, along with her inception into the village chapter of the Womens Institute, means she effectively acts as a parent to much of the community. Jam and Jerusalem also challenges social ideals by including a character afflicted by a mental illness Rosie Bales, a middle aged woman with the mentality of a child, has an angry and violent alter ego known as Margaret. This inclusion is an attempt to challenge the stigma of mental illness as a weakness and presents Rosie as a functioning member of society, even holding down a job at the local cheese factory and being a member of the WI. Jam and Jerusalem is considered a very down to earth sitcom, in that it doesnt utilise situations unusual to the surroundings it doesnt attempt to jump the shark, a phrase coined to describe the growing desperation of the producers of the sitcom Happy Days who created ever more bizarre plotlines in an attempt to eke out further profits. Set in the rural Cornish town of Clatterford, disequilibrium is caused by everyday situations such as the death of a family member or a bad harvest affecting the income of farmers. By doing so the producers have appealed to a wider audience, not merely interested in watching a programme which is, in effect, the same format every episode, but realistic situations and a life they can relate to. This is a reflection of the growing maturity of sitcom audiences and the need to approach the genre in a more sensitive manner. The strength of Sal Vine as a single mother is a response to the feministic values explored in AbFab however Eddie failed as a single mother, leaving her daughter to her own devices and even, in effect, becoming the child in the relationship herself. These views are challenged by My Family, in that My Family represents the nuclear family both parents are shown to be a part of the upbringing of the children, however with various degrees of success showing the strengths and weaknesses of both the mother and father. Class distinction is also explored in Jam and Jerusalem, with Sals daughter Tash being a hippy and living on a commune with her illegitimate son at the beginning of the programme. Tashs alternative lifestyle is a focal point in the second series with her impending wedding to Spike a traditional wedding proves too expensive and complicated so the whole village, including the other members of the WI, pull together to create a home-grown gypsy wedding, showing that the differences between classes can be overcome by a common goal. Each sitcom studied reflects some aspect of society the class distinction and its associated friction in Fawlty Towers, family life in My Family and lifestyle choices in The Good Life and Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps. Ultimately the sitcoms that we see today are echoes of the ones that have gone before. Whilst their setting and even content may have changed the underlying structure remains the same whilst the traditional family may have been replaced in such programmes as Two Pints, the essential format has remained the same. The reason for this development and renewal is that sitcoms need to change and evolve as society does a perfect family such as The Brady Bunch holds no real appeal to a modern audience as Two Pints or My Family because dysfunctional families are commonplace in modern life, and make plotlines about family life much easier to write. Sitcoms have a close link with the social and economic milieu from which they emerge, however, they are ultimately about people, and people do not change. Bibliography 1) http://www. mediaculture-online. e/fileadmin/bibliothek/stafford_sitcoms/stafford_sitcoms.pdf 2) Image and Representation Key Concepts in Media Studies Nick Lacey 1998 3) Narrative and Genre Key Concepts in Media Studies Nick Lacey 2000. 4) The Media Studies Reader Tim OSullivan and Yvonne Jewkes 1997 5) Exploring the Media Text, Industry, Audience Barbara Connell 2008 6) Media Studies AS and A2 Jacquie Bennett 2005 7) Media Studies Second Edition Stuart Price 1998 1 http://www. mediaculture-online. de/fileadmin/bibliothek/stafford_sitcoms/stafford_sitcoms. pdf 2 http://www. mediaculture-online. de/fileadmin/bibliothek/stafford_sitcoms/stafford_sitcoms. pdf.