Christian Chapman

SYG-2000

Although the delivery mechanism for television hasnt changed much

in the last 50 years, the content delivered via cable is drastically different
today when compared to the 1960s. While the programs of the 1960s were all
about family-friendly light-hearted jokes with little-to-no explicit or graphic
material, todays network programming would be considered for adult eyes
only 50 years ago.

Perhaps one of the most popular shows of all time, evidenced by its
longevity in re-runs, The Andy Griffith Show is a program which can be
viewed by almost any group without offense. Unless, of course, that group is
women, of which there were none in the episode I watched. Although the
episode did consist of the two main characters, the town sheriff and deputy,
hunting a criminal, you would be hard-pressed to find a single episode of a
television show now that includes zero women in its 23 minute run-time. The

lack of a female presence in The Andy Griffith Show is a stark contrast to both
Cheers, and Modern Family, whose episodes main plot lines all focused on
the issues of the female main characters. The only significant scene in The
Andy Griffith Show that really demonstrates the gender roles of the time is
when both the sheriff and his deputy are conducting business in the
barbershop, a stereotypical male gathering place, devoid of any women. While
Cheers is certainly more progressive than The Andy Griffith Show in regards
to gender roles, they still play upon certain stereotypes, most notably one of
the main female characters being entranced by a shiny new engagement ring
and the other main female character falling head-over-heels for a man
moments after meeting him.

Surprisingly, none of the three shows had any particularly explicit

language, in the sense of curse words, although Modern Family and Cheers
both contained some graphic content, which would have never been allowed
to air on The Andy Griffith Show. Cheers contained some mild, by todays

standards, descriptions of what a female character would want a male guest

actor to do to her. Most of the graphic language on Cheers was much the
same, innuendo by the same female character, with the occasional explicit
mention of telling a man to call her at night and complimenting his posterior,
lines which would have been completely foreign in the 1960s. However,
Modern Family was filled with much more innuendo than Cheers, sometimes
segueing in to outright explicit mention of sexual acts.

As is to be expected in 2014, sexual innuendo was abundant in Modern

Family. One of the familys teenage daughters tells her mom she is having sex
in a move to end their uncomfortable conversation. Attempting to use an 18year old girls sexuality as a way to end an uncomfortable situation in 1960s
television would have been so out of place it wouldnt even have been
considered. For further evidence of the characters blas attitude toward
sexuality in Modern Family in comparison to The Andy Griffith Show and
Cheers would be the scene in which a mother of two is seen in a pool

wearing a two-piece bikini chatting flirtatiously with her sons 20-something

tutor. Scenes like this may be very commonplace today but you wouldnt even
be likely to see a woman in a two-piece on television even as recently as the
late 80s, when Cheers aired, much less a mother.

Perhaps the biggest shock in Modern Family to a viewer of 1960s

television would be the homosexual main characters. While their
homosexuality is certainly mentioned when it is necessary for a punch line or
to use the characters as a comical reflection of a typical heterosexual couples
everyday problems, their sexuality is never mentioned in a derogatory or
insulting manner. Everyone in the show just accepts that the characters are
homosexual, without ever needing to make a big hoopla about it. You could
never have an outright homosexual character on The Andy Griffith Show,
much less a married couple. Thats not to say that The Andy Griffith Show is a
homophobic program, its a show meant to offend no one, but the climate at
the time would not allow for promotion of homosexuals through the mass

media. Even in a show like Cheers, a sitcom for the everyman, youd be hardpressed to find where a homosexual character would fit in to the show with
its many blue-collar stereotypical males, a show where the outcast main male
character is an intellectual married man.

Without a doubt, the landscape of television has been transformed

over the last 50 years in to something that likely no one would have been
able to predict. If you were to tell your average viewer in 1960 that in 50
years two married men would bickering in a sitcom much like they do at
home with their spouse you would be laughed out of the room but here we
are. What is considered almost routine on television in 2014, a time when
teenage girls can tell their mother on a network sitcom that theyre having
sex in the basement, would have never been allowed to air in 1960.