Despite their popularity, I cannot stand sitcoms. Ironically, my good friend (and roommate) loves sitcoms. She watches a pretty hefty amount of TV and sitcoms are literally all she watches. When I imagine what it is like to be at home, I always imagine Seinfeld or Friends blaring somewhere in the background. I love my friend dearly, however, I often find myself wearing earplugs around the house to avoid hearing the cacophonous sitcoms. But, there is one exception: I Love Lucy.
I truly love I Love Lucy. I love it so much that at one point I seriously questioned my relationship of nearly five years with my (now) fiance because he was not a fan of the show. Fortunately, the show has grown on him and he no longer cringes when I sit for an hour and a half watching episode after episode of I Love Lucy.
As with all sitcoms, each episode of I Love Lucy is a story – a narrative. The main character, Lucy, gets into some kind of hilariously unrealistic predicament and her friend, Ethel, acts as her accomplice. In the end, Lucy's husband, Ricky, (despite Lucy's best efforts) discovers the trouble Lucy's gotten herself into and becomes angry (which also tends to be very funny). After all the craziness and anger has passed, Lucy and Ricky make up and somehow the predicament gets resolved: the end.
I Love Lucy ran from 1951 to about 1960 and most of the shows are in black and white. It is a fabulous example of how much narratives on TV have changed dramatically over the past 50 years. In 1951, Lucy (who was actually married to "Ricky" in real life [his real name is Desi Arnaz]) became pregnant with her first child. Since pregnancy tends to end up being very obvious, it was crucial that the writers worked the pregnancy into the narrative of the show. However, CBS (the producer) would not allow the word "pregnant" to be used in the show. The word "pregnant" implies that the person who is pregnant was "impregnated" at some point. And "impregnation" implies sexual intercourse. At that time, the implicaton of sex from the word "pregnant" was considered to be completely inappropriate for narratives on TV. Therefore, the word "expecting" along with "having a baby" were the only terms permitted by CBS to be used to describe Lucy's pregnancy.
Another interesting fact regarding what I Love Lucy reveals about narratives of the past are Lucy and Ricky's sleeping habits. On the show, when they go to bed, they go to two separate twin-sized beds in their bedroom. During that time, many people would have seen it as highly inappropriate to show Lucy and Ricky going to bed and entering the same bed when doing so. This is astounding considering the following facts: Lucy and Ricky are married, most people during that time did sleep in the same bed as their spouse, and sleeping in the same bed does not gurantee a sexual encounter. But, even the most miniscule implication of sex was not seen as appropriate for a wholesome TV sitcom at that time.
The dominant view of sex in TV narratives has changed dramatically since the 1950s. Consider this advertisement for the show Gossip Girl as well as this advertisement for the same show. Gossip Girl (which I've never actually seen) is a teen drama that deals with sex, drugs, partying, cliques, and other teen themes. To be fair, these advertisements were actually meant to provoke and shock people a bit. But, the bottom line is that Warner Brothers Television, who produces the show, allowed these advertisements to be displayed. Warner Brothers Television produces narratives for television (like Gossip Girl) where one of the dominant themes is often sex. According to research done at UCSB, about 66% of today's prime time TV shows contain some sexual content and, the majority of the time, those shown to be engaging in the act are not even married! This is an absolutely enormous change since the days of CBS disallowing the word "pregnant" as well as husband and wife sleeping in the same bed to be shown in I Love Lucy.
With such a gigantic change in such a tiny amount of time, one naturally may find themselves asking what in the world caused such a change. Some people blame the change on the so-called "declining morals of society". I profusely disagree with this answer; it implies that sex, despite the fact that is a very real and very normal part of human life, is bad and inappropriate for TV narratives. The true cause of such a dramatic change in the prevalence of sex in narratives on TV is the sexual revolution of the 1960s.
What do you think of when you imagine the 1960s? Many of us automatically think of tie-dye t-shirts, protests, hallucinogenic drugs, and a little thing called "free love". During the 1960s, millions of young people embraced sex as a beautiful and natural act that was very worthy of being enjoyed (even outside of marriage). This was the sexual revolution.
However, not everyone agreed with the views that many of the hippies of the 1960s had regarding sex. A significant portion of people saw such views as scandolous and sexual liberation as immoral. Even today, there remains a large amount of people who especially look down on this (and all) aspects of the hippie ethos. Despite continuing backlash, it is clear that the sexual revolutionaries are the ones who won. They are the ones responsible for the dramatic (and entertaining) changes that have occurred in the prevalence of sex in TV narratives as well as the huge changes in America's willingness to openly accept sex as a normal part of life.
2 comments:
Very interesting critique of how narrative changes over the year; I did not know “pregnant” was that censored back then, black and why from today’s almost showing nudity on public television. I myself do not understand why the U.S is so conscience about what can or cannot go on TV. I have heard that in many European countries they show full nudity in commercials and they seem well off but here in America something like Janet Jackson breast slipping will cause national panic. However, comparing to what I was watching to what the younger generation are watching today there has been a sex on TV. My little girl cousins who are only in elementary school are talking on cell phones and singing songs about their “Humps” while watching shows like Gossip Girls that isn’t like Barney, or Sesames Street of which I grew up with.
I found it darkly humorous how you seriously considered your relationship with your fiancé over a show. I myself am not into many sitcoms, but my girlfriend loves Friends, to the point that she probably would consider our relation ship and the show also.
Just to add, I wish I could experience the 60’s. I had a teacher in High school who was brilliant and he would tell us amazing stories about his experience in the 60’s. Sometimes I wonder if we are the dull generation who just sit and watches TV and eat Burgers.
Lovely Post, keep up the good work.
-Hung
Crystal--this is a wonderful post. It is incredibly well written and organized. You develop your argument carefully and specifically. I really appreciate the ways you have taken up the issue of narrative in conjunction with other keywords like "culture" and "ideology," though you do not name these exactly. The great aspect of your post is that you do not have to; your points are clear in your well-articulated examples.
I am a big fan of I Love Lucy, actually. I went through a period in which I would not let myself watch it because I became convinced that it was too racist and sexist. I later realized the subtleties of the show and how smart it can be in moments. Additionally, it is an interesting window into specific 1950s and 60s ideologies, though of course not completely representative. I also abhor current sitcoms and, quite honestly, television in general but these too are interesting cultural narratives.
Finally, I appreciate your links throughout because they are carefully chosen and well contextualized. Excellent work!
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