Blockbuster TV: Must-See Sitcoms in the Network Era

237 Pages·2000·1.29 MB·English

by  Janet Staiger

Blockbuster TV

Blockbuster TV

Must-See Sitcoms in the Network Era
JANET STAIGER
a

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS

New York and London

Copyright © 2000 by New York University

All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Staiger, Janet.

Blockbuster TV : must-see sitcoms in the network era /

Janet Staiger.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-8147-9756-3 (cloth : acid-free paper) —
ISBN 0-8147-9757-1 (paper : acid-free paper)
1. Television comedies—United States—History and criticism.
I. Title.
PN1992.8.C66 S718 2000
791.45'617—dc21 00-009853
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To JoAnn, Don, and Diane,
in delighted memory of our childhood

Contents

Preface / ix

1. Introduction / 1

2. The Beverly Hillbillies / 54

3. All in the Family / 81

4. Laverne & Shirley / 112

5. The Cosby Show / 141

Epilogue: Some Final Observations / 160

Notes / 177

Select Bibliography / 205

Index / 215

About the Author / 221

vii

Preface

This little book isn’t meant to be anything like a full picture
of the television industry, American broadcasting audiences,
or the events around the four situation comedies studied.
Rather it is designed to be provocative—a gesture toward
thinking about and researching the public reception of TV
programs in relation to the institutional dynamics of network-
era television.
The process of writing this book has been somewhat eye-
opening. As I shall discuss in chapter 1, I am considering four
blockbuster sitcoms, defined as a series program that achieved
audience ratings markedly higher than those of any of its con-
tenders, week after week, after 1960 (usually the date selected
as the time by which almost every U.S. household had a tele­
vision set and enough stations operated to provide adequate
competition for audiences). The programs that meet these cri­
teria are The Beverly Hillbillies, All in the Family, Laverne &
Shirley (with Happy Days), and The Cosby Show.
While doing this research, I enjoyed presenting these cri­
teria to academic colleagues and asking them to guess
which programs fit this definition. Invariably, their first an­
swers included The Mary Tyler Moore Show, M*A*S*H,
Roseanne, and Seinfeld. Although very popular programs,
none of these sitcoms fits this definition of a blockbuster.
What these programs do coordinate with is, likely, acade­
mic taste preferences. I spend a great deal of effort (and
some charts) in chapter 1 exploring what exactly were the
ix