HUMA 2740

Lecture 17

- Character types of melodrama and popular fiction get fleshed out by

the addition of unique motifs, habits, or behavioral tics
- Star system has as one of its functions the creation of a rough
character prototype which is then adjusted to the particular needs of
the role
- Most "specified" character is usually the protagonist, who becomes
the principal causal agent, the target of any narrational restriction,
and the chief object of audience identification
- Classical model conforms most closely to the "canonic story" which
story-comprehension researchers posit as normal for our culture
- At the level of the syuzhet [plot], the classical film respects the
canonic pattern of establishing an initial state of affairs which gets
violated and which must then be set right
- Plot consists of an undisturbed stage, the disturbance, the struggle,
and the elimination of the disturbance
- Such a syuzhet [plot] pattern is the inheritance not of some monolithic
construct called the "novelistic" but of specific historical forms: the
well-made play, the popular romance, and, crucially, the late
nineteenth-century short story
- In classical fabula [story] construction, causality is the prime unifying
principle
- Analogies between characters, settings, and situations are certainly
present, but at the denotative level any parallelism is subordinated to
the movement of cause and effect
- Spatial configurations are motivated by realism (a newspaper office
must contain desks, typewriters, phones) and, chiefly, by
compositional necessity (the desk and typewriter will be used to write
causally significant news stories, the phones form crucial links among
characters)

- Political lobby groups for audiences emerged in this time period as

part of a broader consumer advocacy movement; too on the
commercial networks and forced them to make changes to their
programming
- 1972 – report of the Surgeon General and the National Institute of
Mental Health claimed that exposure to TV violence encouraged
aggression in children
- Industry responded in 1975 by instituting family viewing time between
7 and 9 pm when the programs shown were suitable for all ages
- Public TV in form of PBS flourished at beginning of 70s, leading to a
boom in innovating children’s programming, documentaries, news
and opinion programs, talks and discussion, how-to and original
drama
- Jennifer Mandel argues that the show’s attempts to teach tolerance
and respect for diversity are a demonstration of what Martin Luther
King referred to as a beloved community; principal goal of the Civil
Rights Movement as he saw it
- Many of the segments take place in a working class inner city
neighbourhood with a multi-ethnic and multi-racial population
- Also widened the appeal of the show to include all kids regardless of
race and socio-economic status
- Made the show different from mostly white and segregated TV world
of 1960s America
- Also made extensive use of puppets or Muppets developed by Jim
Henson