OUR MISSION!

The goal of this blog is to make aware the differences in television from then and now and how they are the same as life as we know it. Our culture is an ever changing thing new styles come in and out and more and more things that in the past we found to be unacceptable are now acceptable. We will be looking at shows such as I Love Lucy, Gilmore Girls, Jersey Shore, Happy Days, Father Knows Best, Hogan Knows Best, My Three Sons, and Full House, and how they are somewhat the same but yet very different culturally.

Happy Days Vs. Jersey Shore

The 1984 show Happy Days let us into the lives of American Teenagers, even though it was a show cast into the 50's but shown in the 80's. the reason for this is because the 80's were a time when african american gained their rights, when riots and bombs were going off in the streets, and the 50's were thought to be the "happy days" of America, so why not air a television show in the worst time about the times when it was the best? This television show was about a group of friends and how they interacted with each other. In this clip we will see how parties were held and how they acted, notice how they dress and how they interact with one another

 Notice that the friends are just relaxing and hanging out, notice how Fonz reacts when people mess with his girlfried and how he gets definsive when people mess with her. They are very low key and not crazy with their parting.


In 2009 MTV released a television reality series called Jeresy Shore, which is about a group of young adults and how they live in a summer house together. Most of the show is centered around their drama and their partying.

 This clip shows you how young adults in today's times have changed and feel the need to go out and make themselves look crazy when they party. Due to this show more parties at houses and other places are now like these parties.



The differences between young people then and now are enormous! Young adults now find it acceptable to get drunk, have sex, and just do whatever they want as we also see in the Hogan Knows Best comparison. They live in the now and not for the future and they'll do what they want.

My Three Sons Vs. Full House

The 1960's sitcom , My Three Sons, is about a family that lives in the midwest until they decided to move out to California. The father is the only parent and is expected to be the "bread winner" and the "homemaker", with help from his father-in-law and great-uncle they make it through life as a family. IT is brought up on occassion and thought of as odd that there is not a woman in the household. 

This reiterates the way life was idealized in that time, where the husband was at work all day while the wife was at home cooking and cleaning.



In 1987 the sitcom, Full House, The father of three girls is left to take care of them after the death of his wife, so he has his brother-in-law and best friend come to help him out with the house and raising a family. The show begins with a lot of uncertainty about whether the decision was wise but over time they all bond and become a family. The brother-in-law marries and has children of his own but they all stay in the same house and help one another out even when things get confusing. 

Even though they changed the father character the others stay the same. 



The differences between these two episodes may be very small but they are still there. In My Three Sons the family is fully functional, and the father and others know how to take care of the family, in Full House it seems as though they all are learning as they go. In Full House they added a bit of sexuality into the mix with single men and their women.

Father Knows Best Vs. Hogan Knows Best

In the 1954 sitcom, Father Knows Best, Jim, the father, is the head of the household and is who the family goes to for advice.  He is sympathetic and has the ideal family and life. Margaret, his wife, is a stay at home housewife who raises the children and cares for the home. The Anderson's were the ideal image at the time and portrayed the "American Dream" that all were trying to achieve.

In this clip the family is celebrating Thanksgiving. Right off the bat in the first few seconds of this scene we can tell that the family fully respects Jim. His daughter sits on his lap and listens intently to everything he has to say. Later when the children come in it shows that they truely are the ideal family, the kids feel bad about not being home for family time, when most kids today barely even get family time. Also when the kids get home they get along with each other, which is something that all parents dream of achieving. Even though in the end the family has an unusual Thanksgiving with eating hamburgers instead of turkey they still achieve that "perfect family" and "American Dream" status.

In the 2005 reality sitcom, Hogan Knows Best, WWE superstar Hulk Hogan allows cameras to come into his home to view his life. In the show he is portrayed as a loving father who is protective and strict especially with his kids, Brooke and Nick. Hulk and his wife Linda want to protect their kids from the "evil" in todays world but end up getting in the midst of it anyways.

Even though this video is not the best it was the only one I was able to find on Youtube that gives you a glimpse into the show. In this episode Brooke finds a small dog and the Hulk is angry. When the dogs owner shows up he and his sidekick let the woman know how much of a nusance the dog had been in their home. This shows you how he doens't let things out of the norm in his home.

In this clip Linda speaks to Matt Lauer about her divorce with the Hulk shortly after the show stopped airing. She speaks about her book and how she had to deal with Hulk's abusive drug addiction, relationship, and other addictions that he suffered from. This shows us that families these days are now broken due to drugs and other factors.

This clip shows how the Hulk's son, Nick, was a part of a high speed car chase and was in a horrific car accident in which caused his friend to have permenant brain damage. This shows us that kids these days will do what they want no matter what their parents tell them. In the link below shows us how Nick reacted after he was released from jail due to the accident. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6PlBnMeyJI&feature=related


Between these two television shows the differences are many but most of all it shows us that the "American Dream" is no longer a vision for families and that the influence of alcohol, sex, and drugs has broken up families and destroy lives. It shows us that over the years kids no longer respect their head figures and no longer respect each other.

I Love Lucy Vs. Gilmore Girls

The 1951 sitcom, I Love Lucy, is about Lucy, who is a devoted housewife, and later in the series, a mother who values her child and her husband. Lucy a loony wife who always kept the crowd laughing Ricky, her husband, who was actually her husband in reality, and their son Little Ricky, who in reality was not her real son. Even though Lucy was not the first pregnant woman on tv, they still never mentioned her first pregnancy even when she showed and when she ahd her second pregnancy they were not allowed to use the word "pregnant" they used the word "expecting" instead.  

This clip shows how they do indeed not say pregnant but they do say that they are having a baby.  Even though Lucy is a married housewife she still wants to live her dream of being a star. She is always working toward stardom but gets lost on her way becasue she is so scatter brained and always thinking up some crazy idea. This television show lets us see how they were starting to break away from old traditions of not sleeping in different beds, and how some things that came up were thought to be unheard of.

They first started off not sleeping in the same bed as shown in this clip, 

And in this next episode it shows how they have broken away from that seperated partner ship and became the first television show to view two people sleeping in the same bed. 

it shows how scandelous the fact that the woman was going to run away with the milk man and her husband didnt know was to Lucy. 
 Another way this television show lets us see differences in time would be the fact that Ricky does portray a man who is against his wife doing much and thinks that she should stay home and not work.  they compare americans and spaniards to husbands and wives.


In the 2000 television sitcom Gilmore Girls Lorelai is a loving mother but is always working and putting up with her teenage daughter who is just like her. They both fall in and out of relationships and troubles. Both the mother and daughter have various relationships that are changing all the time and there is no discretion about hopping around although the mother does have multiple boyfriends throught the series, she always has something with one man in town. Her daughter tends to have longer relationships but they are all tangled together and never concrete.

Lorelai got pregnant with Rory, her daughter when she was 16 and chose not to marry the father, which shows you teen pregnancy which was unheard of in the times of Lucille Ball, she works full time as a manager at an inn and is a single mother.
       
The differences between these two television shows lets us see that over time women strived for independence and just wanted to do their own thing, in Lucy's case she wanted to keep Ricky, but in Lorelai she wanted to do it all on her own. it shows how women have transformed themselves to depend on a man to doing things independently and being successful at it.

The Brady Bunch VS. Modern Family

In the 1967 television show, The Brady Bunch, was a story about a family of eight and a maid who lived all under one roof and how they bond as a family. Everyone in the family is close to each other but they still set themselves as the typical family with their many differences.
The The differences between  The Brady Bruch  and Modern Family are small and saddler but have a big sanifenst . The way they dress is one it is something that you may not nosiest but it shows how difent  the dress from each other. The way they talk show the deifenmt in how the   expense them to talk now. The sowadens show that it is how they are expensed to be like. The biggest one being the divorces in the show that it is aseted action to take now