Honey, I'm Home! : Sitcoms: Selling The American Dream

Rating:
Summary: This book is well-written, witty, informative, provocative..
Review: ...and pretty thorough! The book examines American ideas of family & gender by examining television's portrayal of the American family through the decades. While the analysis is consistantly sharp, intelligent, and revealing, the writing is always clear, frequently funny, and occassionally evokes nostalgia.

You will be surprised at the degree to which-- and the manner in which-- changes in the TV's sitcom families reflect changes in American culture and values. Do you think Hollywood would have even conceived of 'The Brady Bunch'-- an instant family created by the marriage of two previously married individuals-- back in Ozzy & Harriet's 1950's? What can you say about a decade in which George Jefferson, Archie Bunker, and JJ from 'Good Times' were central characters in the weekly line-up?

The author does an excellent job of presenting the parallel changes taking place in society and on TV over the past few decades. This book is a fascinating piece of cultural commentary in which the author uses seemingly innocuous television shows to construct a picture of American values in much the same way that an archaeologist constructs an image of a society by making inferences from the artifacts it has left behind.